Hello everyone. I need little help here...

Vermont State Colleges

This is the site I just created by using DNN. The site is Vermont State Colleges System website.

This was not part of my job description so the college system gave me extra budget for this project.  I set up the DNN, did some configuration on MSSQL database & IIS, modified all images (except the location map - i made it before for some other project..), customized template, PHP application for the online contact form, copied all contents to new site from old site. 

This was done by "Hourly Wage".  From scratch, I spent 28 hours to complete this project and total cost was $384 for all (you can calculate my hourly wage if you wish lol).  Basically, I get less if I do it quicker. I didn't want to lie so I just reported as it is. The contact person in college system said I am undercharging but they don't know the average quote. well.. me neither...

I am here to ask what would be reasonable charge for this kind of work. Any idea would be appriciate.

Thank you!

I normally don't ask this kind of question and... this could be inappropriate for this thread.  In that case,,please delete this post.  

My quotes for any website start at a minimum of $750 no matter how much time it's going to take - this is because I need to protect myself against unexpected issues.  My standard rates for offsite development is $85 and onsite development is $120.  I will sometimes discount jobs that are over 20 hours of time by 30% provided that I'm paid within thirty days of billing for the job. 

I like to keep a reputation of providing more quality than expected.  For example - any time I make a skin for a website I will provide 4-5 versions of that skin to be used in different situations, and at least 10 decent containers.  I will also not provide a website without also training a users first hand in the basics of DotNetNuke; and I have created my own "getting started" documentation packet that I always print out - depending on the customer I will also give out a copy of one of the available DotNetNuke books.  I am not after monthly update fees; just one time projects with satisfied customers that will come back for other projects and recommend my work.  I often don't mention many of these extra things when I make the initial quote because I get the business anyway and the customer ends up more than satisfied - and if for some reason I become streched for time I can leave a few of these extra things out of the final project.  I will also not bill time that it takes me beyond my initial quote...  Even if it takes me an extra week or two to finish the job.

After reviewing the site you listed above; I would have quoted around 30 hours at $85/hr for a total of $2,550, this would include skin creation, training for small to moderate content changes, configuration of the portal, and importing of content.  Depending on how busy I was at the time I may or may not have offered a 30% discount bringing the price down to $1,785.  I would have reported that the project would take three weeks to completion - however I would have delivered the project in a week.  It is my experience that it is better to over estimate delivery dates than to under estimate.

$384 for that site is extremely cheap - however you also need to consider what other value it brought you.  If this was your first DotNetNuke job; and you're new to this kind of work - then by offering your services so cheap you were able to gain new experience; you have to consider that this company may not have even wanted a website if it was going to cost them over $1,000.  I will sometimes do projects with unfamiliar technologies for *free* just for the experience.  I've done 80 hours projects before and not charged a penny - because when I started it I did not know what kind of quality I was going to be able to provide or whether or not it was something that I would be able to deliver at all.  Working in this manner has given me a very wide range of experience.

I hope that this helps - I took the time to give details because I remember when I was getting started on my own, I often wish that someone would have typed something like this up so that I had a better idea of what my value was.

Hello Matt. Thx for the advice!

The unexpected issues often happen... lol.  That's good idea to have minum fee. I'll think about that.

Nice IDEA! I'll definately do that for the future projects.

Yes. I believe the same thing. It would be big disappointment for the customer to get higher bill than the initial estimate.

Thanks you for putting the high quote on the site.  I was thinking more like,,, $750,, or $800.  If I charge them $2,550, they would be like "HAHAHA. That was funny.  No. really. what's the quote?".  Just kiddin..  but.. now I know the range of the cost i should be charging them. 

This is my 2nd DNN project. The first one is this http://www.lyndonstate.edu. I am the webmaster of this college.  The college is financially very tied so I did it for almost free. It was fun & totally experiental project. There were over 1,200 pages to transfer to this new site...that was the only part I didn't like lol

Yes. the experience is much important to me than the cost too - big insentive.

This was BIG help! Thank you so much, Matt.  Then I'll just help other people in the future just like you did it for me