Ask HN: Web development business workflow?

[botterra]

Hi,

I am student/beginner in web development (PHP, JS, HTML, CSS, WordPress), and I want to ask here some experienced developers (freelance and agency guys) about 'business workflow' in web development; primary about web site development.

How do you price projects? How do you get clients? Do you buy WordPress templates from marketplaces (like Themeforest) and use them on projects? How do you price SEO and maintenance?

Pardon me for ignorance and bad English.

[jamesdelaneyie]

1. Take who the client is, think about how much I like the job, how technically hard it is, how long I'd be at it and the deadline they want and a few other variables then pick a figure from the air that seems good.

2. Word of mouth or chatting to people in person.

3. Fuck no. Faster for me to build a custom site than to wrangle with someone's theme that's been built for the lowest common denominator.

4. A good SEO setup is included in the cost, but I don't write the headlines, meta desc, etc. If I am, that's extra.

Agency for 2 years, Freelance for about 5 in total.

[botterra]

Thank you for comment. 3. Fuck no. Faster for me to build a custom site than to wrangle with someone's theme that's been built for the lowest common denominator. // I understand what are you saying, but sometimes for me it's faster to just buy a theme and set up everything (for example I had one friend who needed small webshop for hand made stuff) then to code everything from ground. What worries me is when making portfolio is it ok to put website that use bought theme?

[jamesdelaneyie]

I invoice that as 'tech management' and charge an hourly rate for it. I would not put it in my portfolio but if the jobs goes well I would get a testimonial from the client.

[davemac8]

My process is very similar. With 4) I charge a yearly maintenance/managed service fee.

[hanniabu]

How do you figure how much to charge? Do you give them x amount of hours a year, use it or lose it? Or structure it some other way?

[botterra]

Thank you for answer; Do you charge clients upfront or?

[marcofloriano]

Hi, i´m a freelance web developer, small agency owner and instructor for six years now. Here´s my experience:

How do you get clients? (Comes before How do you price projects) - Usually from connections from previous work. Any kind of work. I´m a instructor, for example. Some student's ask for my work if they can´t do it. Or old clients recommends my work. Friends usually indicates my work too. - Internet Marketing myself and my business on Google Adwords and SEO.

How do you price projects? - That´s hard. Too many ways. None is the RIGHT way, i think. Usually i charge R$75,00 to R$100,00 hour (like US$35.00/hour). It´s even harder to predict how much time will be spent in a project. Experience helps a lot here.

Do you buy WordPress template? - Yes, for small projects or projects that don´t demands much customization. - No, for bigger projects (because i can spend money with my team (i have a frontend designer, a backend coder and a marketing assistant). For projects that´s demand too much customization (startups, business ideas and like) it´s better to code your theme from scratch.

How do you price SEO and maintenance? - The client indicates his monthly budget for the task (site maintenance, for example). My team works X hours according to their budget and our hour rate.

[botterra]

Thank you for answer; Do you charge clients upfront or?

[brudgers]

Your English is fine and learning is an important part of Hacker News.

[hanniabu]

I agree, I would have never guess English wasn't your first language if you didn't mention it.

[nilmonibasak]

1. For projects pricing time and your hourly rate. 2. Getting projects try elance.com/freelancer.com/guru.com 3. Depending on your clients.