[ProblemFactory]

> That said you will have to find the type of customers who will fall for something like this.

I don't think customers that who accept (and find value in) this proposal are necessarily fools. Writing code is a cheap commodity. Making business decisions is not, and development cost is inversely proportional to how precisely you know what you want.

A business owner who has made all the business and technical decisions, and approaches developers with extremely detailed photoshop mockups and specs can probably successfully get an app or website made for $10/hour on elance.com, and keep all the extra value.

A client who has made all the business decisions and knows what development they want on an approximate "outline" level needs to hire a 10x more expensive local developer who is willing to meet and push back on any technical assumptions. They are paying 90% for the decision-making expertise on understanding what they want, and writing code is a tiny part of the service.

A client who may see value in a $40000 website offer is one who has not or cannot make the business decisions themselves. They are paying primarily for the business or marketing strategy consulting, and the entire development side is a tiny part of the service. Perhaps the client should make these themselves to be able to use a cheaper developer, and keep more of the value - but if they can't, then an expensive offer may still be profitable.

[badclient]

What business or marketing strategy am I providing to a client when it's pretty clear he just needs a simple Wordpress set up with a template he's already found? I didn't get the feeling from the post that I was being paid for strategy as much as to wrap my work and call it strategy because it might pay much more.

[ProblemFactory]

I do freelance work for people who want apps built according to their vague vision, and don't have experience with the strategy-level consulting myself. But I assume the step up would be similar to the step up at not needing precise specifications and asking the client about each ambiguity.

An important point not directly mentioned in the article is: as you start doing more expensive consulting, you should also find new clients. Clients who do require the services and are willing to pay a premium for them.

While it's sometimes possible to charge a premium for a simple job, I find more honest to carefully explain the cheaper options (other freelancers, elance) to them first.

Setting up Wordpress could be "strategy" or 2 hours of sysadmin work depending on the involvement of the client. If they know that they just want a Wordpress setup, they could get the service for cheap elsewhere, and it would be appropriate to inform them of this before accepting. If they want a "website that my assistant can update", then choosing a platform for their requirements may be the experience in technical decision-making they are paying for, and actually setting it up Wordpress is a small part of the service.