I was wondering what people thought on this. I have a client who wants a site done which is a simple resource site with a bunch links. Simple enough. The thing is, they want monthly updates that will require about a hours worth of work. Should I charge them for the design and the updates seperatly or give them a package deal for x amount of time?

Any thoughts?

I would quote the project up to the point where it launches, and then quote maintenance packages of designated time the customer can purchase, basically hire a Web master for ongoing work at a fraction of the cost to actually employ someone. We've been doing this with great success. Clients will pay a reduced rate for us to set aside X# of hours just for them. So instead of us billing them $65/r. for work done on an as-needed basis, they pay anywhere from $50-150/mo. for us to set aside time just to handle their updates, and those updates get priority.

This type of system works exceptionally well for customers who know they will need regular updating and want to concentrate on their own businesses rather than learning to do what you do best :)

This might sound like a silly question, but how could I assure my customer that I am using the hours that he bought, on updating his website. I'm sure he would need some kind of proof to show that the time is actually being spent on his site.

Thanks for the quick reply!

This might sound like a silly question, but how could I assure my customer that I am using the hours that he bought, on updating his website. I'm sure he would need some kind of proof to show that the time is actually being spent on his site.

Thanks for the quick reply!First of all, you may not use all of that time, and there are ways you can mitigate this for the customer. Maybe the time they purchase in advance is discounted from your regular hourly rate. So some months, they will use only a little and will lose a little money. Other months, they'll use all of the time, and they'll end up saving. It's a wash.

Another idea is to offer rollover time, where unused time can accumulate up to a reasonable amount. So if a customer has nothing for you to do for three months, in the fourth month they could give you a chunk of work to do, and it would be paid for in advance, no big bill at the end.

A third idea is to use something like PHProjekt (http://www.phprojekt.com/) to "clock-in" and "clock-out" as you get work done for a client. Always keep a browser tab open with a timestamp application open, and when your about to start working on a request, quickly clock in. Then clock out when you're done. I only suggest PHProjekt because we've started using it ourselves.

Or, you can do a combination of any of these methods together, discount from normal rate if bought in advance, allow for rollover time, and track with clocking :)

Once you have a good system in place, it really does work pretty smoothly. I can attest to this from firsthand experience!

Purchasing maintenance packages is insurance in some respect. There's nothing wrong with a customer not using every minute of time bought. Remember, you're not just selling your technical expertise. You're selling peace of mind :)

Wow, thanks for the input. Now off to check out PhProjekt....

If you have to make prices for web update, you do not need per hour price.
Try with /per page, /per picture, /per update or some other way.

That's what I think I am going to do. Flat fee for the website, and a fee for every update. You get what you pay for.......