Hey guys,

My hosting company is starting to expand out of just hosting. Local companies now need web sites designed, maintained and hosted. I don't have a problem with the design, nor the hosting.

But I need help on setting prices for maintaining a website. One company wants 2 databases, password protected directories, etc. How much should I charge them? Any ideas or personal experience?

Any responses will help. Thanks guys!

do you have any idea how much maintanence they require, weekly, monthly , quarterly etc?

No, not yet. Have a meeting on Tuesday morning with them.

Can you give me basic information? Like this much a month for this much work, this much for that much, etc?

you are gonna hate this reply, but it all depends on the work........you could do a yearly maintenance plan say $150 for a monthly upgrade and increase it from ther.
A good way would be to have a look at other design sites and see what they are charging, you dont want to be overpriced but then if your competitors are charging loads you dont want to be charging peanuts.

Exactly what I was thinking. Know of any sites that post prices? I've only seen "contact us for a quote" on sites.

Have a look here: http://dmoz.org/Computers/Internet/Web_Design_and_Development/Designers/
someone must post prices out of that lot LOL

This is what we quote our clients.

Our monthly basic management program is $20.00 it consists of monitoring your website for broken links, making sure your forms, databases and e-mail accounts are functioning correctly, monitoring your traffic and reporting the results to you on a monthly basis. We also give you up to ten free website changes a month, this is useful if you would like to change news on your homepage, update your contact information, add new links etc.. any changes after your free 10 will be billed at three dollars each.

If you don't require a ongoing management program simple changes can be done per request for $20.00 per ten changes... any changes after your initial 10 will be billed at three dollars per change.

Note that a request to move one item on a single page could result in updating several items on that page and any corrisponding pages that share the design layout, this can add up quick so be sure to plan wisely!

Data base additions and upgrades beyond the basic services are billed at an hourly or per item rate. If you feel that your maintenance needs would be such that you'd require more than our basic services, please feel free to contact us to discuss which options would work best for you.

I charge clients at an hourly rate normally. This is set @ $25/hour. If I were to have a client that needed continuous maintenance, I might estimate the total amount of hours and put together a maintenance contract. Let's say it was going to be 5 hours a week maximum. that would be $125/week, or $500/month. In this case I might offer it to them for $350 a month based on the amount fo hours. I find my clients like when you give them a deal like this. I tend to over estimate a bit just to be safe. So, it might really only be 10 hours of work a month, but i quote for 20. If the site requires more than the alotted time, I would charge $25/hour beyond that.

Good Luck!

-Matt

www.cloud9media.com

Thanks for the help guys.

I think I got what I need. :)

set a hourly charge, then estimate how many hours its going to take... then when you're done that, multiply the two numbers, then multiply the result by 4. Always works (believe it or not) and is usually about on par (as everyone underestimates).