19 December 2009
A helpful article for those looking to save money when contracting a web designer to design their web page and/or website

If you have never dealt with a Freelance Graphic Designer (or Freelance Web Designer in the case of this article) before, you may not realize that you may be paying for more than just the finished design! Do you really know what your latest design project costs? If not, perhaps this article will help clarify all the costly expenses hidden away in your design project.

Part Two: Web Design

Before you kick off any project with a Freelance Web Designer be sure to go over all the expenses you may encounter during the project term INCLUDING any hidden expenses that may arise BEFORE beginning the project and more importantly: get it all in writing! Many designers offer some sort of initial contract and/or production schedule that contains much of this information – be sure to read and sign off on any contracts or documents the designer provides before work begins – it will save you time, stress, aggravation and money in the end.

THE DESIGN

It’s a given that you (the client of the designer) will be paying the designer for the “design” of the website; but there are many tiny factors that could be included in that final price the designer may have quoted you for such as:

Hourly Rate vs Flat Rate by Page

Some designers charge an hourly rate (many being around the $80/hour mark) to design your site from start to finish; while some may charge a flat rate based on each individual page created (ranging from $20/page to over $200/page) AND some will use a combination of hourly and page rates. Knowing in advanced how the designer charges will not only help you decide whether or not that designer is right for you, but will give you a rough idea of how much the overall design cost of the project is going to be.

Concepts

Some designers may charge you for “X” number of concept designs at the start of the project – basically samples of what your site COULD look like before any real work is done on the site itself.

You can save yourself a lot of money during this phase of design if you plan out and prepare a bulk of the required materials in advanced of contacting the designer. Having a rough idea in your head will help limit the number of concept ideas (if any) needed; which means less design time equals more money in your pocket!

Some items that you can have on hand before beginning work with a designer are:

Rough Sketches – a rough sketch of the layout of your site including where you want your logo, text, videos, graphics, navigation system, applications and other elements placed will give the designer a better idea of how you want your site to not only look, but operate as well.

Fonts & Colors – if you already have in your mind a rough idea of what type of fonts you want to use (such as serif, sans-serif, cursive or a specialty font) or even better yet, have the fonts on hand to give the designer it’ll help speed up the initial design process. Some designers may charge you extra if they have to 1) search for the font 2) obtain and/or purchase a font including their respective licensing and other associated fees themselves (see stock items in the Third Party section below). Same goes with colors, having in your mind a basic idea of what colors (color palette) you want to use for your site, will help the designer create the right look and feel for your site. Some designers may charge you extra if they have to create the color from scratch.

Number of Pages – having a rough idea of how many pages your site will be comprised of will help the designer give you a more accurate quote for your site. Generally most designers offer “x” number of pages for a set price and then charge for each additional page created after that point. For example, you initially wanted 5 pages designed. The designer quotes you for $500 for those 5 pages, but later on you need 2 more pages added on. The designer may charge you $80 per each additional page extra (so that’s $500 + $160 = $660). The price may be higher or lower depending on what stage of the project you requested the additional pages in as well. Some designers might consider those additional pages as being “outside the scope of the original project” and therefore charge you a much higher price for the creation of them (some may even go as far as considering them to be a project on their own).

Logos – this includes your own logo as well as any other logo marks such as Twitter, Facebook, etc. that you want to use on your site. If you don’t have your own logo and the web designer needs to create it from scratch he/she may charge a separate price (outside of the website design price) for the logo itself. Depending on the scope of the logo needed, some designers may just include it as part of the overall site design.

Graphics & Multi-media – if you want your site to have a lot of graphics and multi-media content, it may be a good idea to either obtain all the graphics/media that you want ahead of time to give to the designer and/or at the very least find samples of the type of graphics/media you want the designer to create and/or use for your site. This will save the designer a lot of time fiddling around with ideas, concepts and samples to send you and will ultimately save you money.

Text & Copy – if anything, the most important element to have on hand before getting in touch with a designer is all the copy you want on your site; especially the main body content. In most cases, designers aren’t inept at writing lavish copy for websites; they’re energies are more focused on the internal workings along with the overall visual appearance/layout of the site. You may have to hire someone other than the designer to create the copy for your site; if you don’t plan on doing it yourself, and/or pay the designer extra to provide those services to you.

Modifications

Almost all designers will charge you modification fees; but read the fine print! Some designers will charge by every little modification you make while others will only focus on the more major changes made – such as redesigning the whole site after they’ve spent hours and/or days working on it. If you somehow manage to cause the designer to basically start from scratch on a new design – expect to pay for it on top of what the designer has already created!

Many designers will put a cap on the number of modifications they’ll allow you to make before they start charging mega bucks for additional changes - mostly they do this in an attempt to get you to focus on what you really want changed and to stop making changes on every little speck of un-importance you see.

Make sure you know how many changes you’re allowed to make and during what stage of design you’re allowed to make them in including what type of changes the designer will allow and/or consider as a change (such as changing a little item over something major – will they waive the little item or not? – find out ahead of time!), and more importantly how much they charge for any extra changes needing to be made, during and after the project term. Yes, many designers also charge you extra for anything they have to change after the site is finalized and published to the World Wide Web!

Coding

Otherwise considered as the “behind the scenes” factors that the designer must contend (and more or less troubleshoot) with in order to make all the elements of your page/site appear in the right location, at the right time, the right way for a variety of browsers, screen sizes and so on. If anything, this is the most time consuming part of designing a web page/site and may even require a separate designer who specializes specifically in scripting/coding of websites.

This aspect could include the time it takes to code the site AND the time it takes to test that code – some designers charge separately for the coding and testing; so know in advanced what aspects of coding the designer deals with and to what extent.

You might want to note, if the designer codes by hand and/or provides their own script/coding (instead of stealing from someone else, adapting from someone else, or otherwise obtaining some form of script they didn’t create themselves) you may end up paying more money in the end (not skilled coder = more time = more money out of your pocket; skilled coder = less time = more money in your pocket).

Graphics / Photographs

If your site uses custom graphics or photographs, you may also have to pay the designer on top of your website design for these special features and services. Depending on the designer, they may have the ability to create their own graphics and/or take their own photographs; but in some cases they will either obtain (at your expense of course) stock items or pre-made templates and graphics to customize and use (see Third Party section below for more on the hidden expenses within this topic)

Visual Enhancements / Multi-Media

You may want all the latest gizmos and gadgets for your site, but expect to pay for most of it on top of the design costs. If your site uses additional visual enhancements and special features such as a flash based splash intros to your website, or embedded content such as videos, news feeds, etc. the designer may charge extra to either create, install, equip, code and/or obtain these features OR you may find yourself hiring a designer/coder that specializes in just such an area. Either way, these fees will be on top of your website design fees, so keep it in mind before you go crazy with over-enhancing your page with irrelevant applications and non-sense glitter.

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

If you want your site to be compatible for easier indexing in search engines (such as Google, Yahoo, and so on) your site will need to be optimized to very specific search engine guidelines. In many cases you will need to hire on an SEO specialist (but not always) to help the designer and/or you in this area. Many designers opt out of having to perform such tasks and leave it up to the specialists to do (or client’s to deal with), while others include very basic or limited SEO services in their design costs and/or as a separate fee. Find out ahead of time what your designer’s limitations and skills are when it comes to SEO for your website.

THIRD PARTY EXPENSES

In almost all cases you are required to either pay and/or compensate the designer for the use of any third party items, materials, services, etc. – that is: services or skills the designer doesn’t possess or offer themselves.

Some third party expenses include:

Domain & Hosting

Almost any way you look at it, you’ll more than likely end up paying for your own hosting and domain (on top of the design costs); but beware, you may also have to pay hidden expenses such as registration fees, membership fees, processing & administration fees or other fees the designer tags into the mix if he/she is the one doing the registering and/or setting up of your hosting and domain.

Some designers have their own servers and may force you into using their services whether you want to or not; and they may not exactly offer such services for a reasonable price! To save money, shop around before contacting a designer to set up the hosting/domain for you; you may not save a ton of money, but at the prices more designer’s charge, every penny saved counts in the end!

Stock Items

In many cases the designer will go over in their initial contract the ways in which they handle the use of third party stock items in a design project. Some stock items include: photography, illustrations, fonts, coding, templates, web graphics (including buttons, banners, etc.) and other items you may want such as applications or videos.

Some designers may require that you handle all stock items including the registration/membership of such services, the licensing of the stock items and other fees including legal fees that may arise out of the use of those stock items; while other designers may provide stock items based on a reimbursement system. That is, the designer registers to the stock service, finds the stock items needed, purchases the stock items and then bills you for it in the end (on top of any changes they may have made to that stock item).

You may, depending on the designer, also be expected to pay for the effort the designer put into finding and obtaining stock items such as: administration, processing and search times, which the designer may or may not include as part of their design fees.

Templates

You may find yourself rushed for time in getting your site online and may opt for a template driven website. These templates could come from the designer themselves or from a third party service; either way, you’ll be paying for the template including any licensing or hidden costs associated with obtaining the template and then paying the designer to alter, build upon or otherwise change that template.

Codes & Scripts

If the designer doesn’t have the ability, patience or time to create their own scripts or coding for the back-end of your website, you may have to pay the designer extra to find, obtain and alter coding/scripts from a third party services. This may also include licensing the rights to be able to change the script/code to suit your website.

Fonts & Colors

Most designers have a catalog of fonts and colors they can easily use from, but if you want a specialty font and/or color, the designer may charge you either for creating the font/color and/or finding the font/color through a third party. You may end up paying the designer for search, registration, membership, licensing and other fees associated with the use of obtaining these elements from a third party.
Support & Maintenance

Many designers will charge separate fees and rates for both support (to you as well as support services for your website) and maintenance if they offer those services at all. Many designers choose to leave the support aspect up to the client to contend with, so you may find yourself outsourcing to a third party service to provide the support you need for your website. Most designers provide some form of maintenance services at cost of course! Make sure you know how much your designer charges for support and maintenance before you enter into an agreement with them at the start of the project.

COMMUNICATIONS & TRANSPORTATION

Most designers require compensation for such things as communication and transportation expenses. This includes things like: telephone charges, fax charges, postal mail (including rush deliveries, priority mail, etc.); compensation for fuel, accommodations, airfare, taxis and so on. All of which is generally billed at the end of the project term at your expense.

LICENSING OF RIGHTS

At some point during the project, you will come across the need to license the rights to some or all of the work created by the designer including third party elements within the work such as stock photography, fonts, etc. (mentioned in the Third Party section above).

Some designers may include licensing as part of their design costs and some may charge separate prices for each element needing to be licensed. Generally this information is provided in the initial contract and/or at the very least negotiated before work begins on the project.

By rights, any thing created by the designer remains the property of the designer, and the designer can choose to either lease you the work (license) and/or sell you all (or some of) the rights to the work (buyout).

Make sure you understand the difference between licensing and a buyout (especially in the designer’s eyes as every designer is different) and know which type of licensing you want for your project – either way the expense will be coming out of your pocket, so make sure you’re getting the most out of your money!

RESOURCES & MATERIALS

Any resources and/or materials the designer uses and/or needs will more than likely be figured into the final cost of the project, either directly or indirectly. Make sure you are aware of these costs before starting a project, as you may be able to negotiate a better method and/or cheaper materials that could be used.

DESIGNER’S FEES

Some designers figure the following into their hourly wage and/or rates but may or may not present them upfront or in writing: administration fees, processing fees, archival fees (and/or the process in which they store your project, materials, etc. for future use), search and/or research fees (browsing the web for fonts, stock items, etc.), file session fees (the opening and closing of a file being worked on) and many others fees based on the designer.

To sum it up, anything the designer is required to pay during the project term out of his/her own pocket is generally sent your way in the final bill! Anything the designer doesn’t want to pay for or doesn’t provide a service for you can expect to pay out of your pocket on your own time outside the scope of the project. Everything in between, will probably come out of your pocket as well; so before you start a project with a Freelance Web Designer be aware of all the hidden expenses you may incur and plan your project accordingly; it may just save you a few hundred dollars in the end!