What is a fair price to rebuild my site

[Ralphiej]

I have a site/blog that I started as a hobby a few years back. I knew just enough to build it but thats about it Now the site gets nearly 30,000 visits a month and is bringing in money. I think I can maximize this opportunity by redoing the site in wordpress.

I talked to a guy who is wants to do the job for me. It would be a downloaded theme with a static page, about page, a hard sell page, etc. Total of 5 pages plus the blog posts.

I really just want the site created and to be taught how to navigate through it. Once I learn how to do that I can upload the old posts myself.

He wants to charge me 100 a page which would be 500 bucks. That seems to high so I want to know if that is what it costs to get a wordpress site done these. Thanks for your help.

[Vasco]

You can try posting the job on Elance and see what kind of offers you can get.

[Lil Chris]

Ralphie,
If he is just going to download a theme, install it, and set up a wordpress site on the server, 500 is fairly reasonable. Yes, you can probably find other folks to do it for less but as with anything you get what you pay for. You're paying for knowledge and convenience. Will it save you hours of learning to do it your self and will it be accomplished in a very reasonable amount of time, saving you the effort.

That said, you can do all those things yourself and save you the money.

It also depends on how much customization to the theme you are wanting done, and how much training you need. But regardless you need to be clear and concise on exactly what you want and need with whom ever you choose. You also need to know exactly what you're getting for the money you are spending. Is he buying the theme or are you, is he using a free theme (purchased themes tend to be better coded than free ones).

[Sandstone]

I just recently went through Odesk and paid $200. It was a good experience.

[glow]

500 bucks isn't much for this job. But you can get people to do it for much less, as Chris already said. But a good designer can make all the difference in the world.

You'll know your designer is a good one if he focuses on user-processes, accesibility, usuability, your site's prupose, your user's purpose, etc.

If he only focuses on making pretty designs or that's what he considers the primary part of designing a website, he's not really a web designer. He is a decorator. I'd suggest you don't give him the job.

Your designer should be a problem solver. Your blog has goals. A good designer tries to clarify & accomplish them.

I'm a web & UI designer. But I'm not looking for any work right now!

[Lil Chris]

Originally Posted by glow

If he only focuses on making pretty designs or that's what he considers the primary part of designing a website, he's not really a web designer. He is a decorator.

He, He, this made me chuckle. (maybe just the way you said it or I read it).

There's nothing wrong with things looking just Fab-u-lous Dar-ling. ,

[glow]

He, He, this made me chuckle. (maybe just the way you said it or I read it).

There's nothing wrong with things looking just Fab-u-lous Dar-ling. ,

A well-designed website will always look good. But when a designer's focus is pretty, he becomes more of a decorator!

Because a user almost never notices a website's design. If he does, the design has failed. A page design's job is to facilitate the communication & solve problems. It always overlooked. If it works right, it won't be noticed. And a design that's pretty, for pretty's sake, will alway say "Hey look at me!" and take attention away from website's main purpose & content.

Websites are like tools that serve function. A tool, say hammmer, serves a funtion. It's not something for hanging on your wall. Just making it pretty serves no purpose, and distracts from the purpose it is made to serve.

That doesn't imply boring, white pages & blue links. A website's purpose may be to express what the blog is about. You can design it to give you a feel of the website's content & what's it about. Or it may be to express the company's unqiue brand. Which sometimes makes for very interesting looking websites. But in each case, the design is serving a purpose & solving a problem.

This turned out be a rather long-ish reply. But I'm very interested in stuff like this!

[glow]

I didn't realise you were a web designer Chris! I just saw your website. I thought I was talking to a non-web designer guy.

[Lil Chris]

Originally Posted by glow

I didn't realise you were a web designer Chris! I just saw your website. I thought I was talking to a non-web designer guy.

I may even lean towards the decorator side myself, probably cuz of all the flash work I did for a few years (when it was the hot thing to do). But yes, you are correct, people typically don't notice design, but some do. My opinion is like in anything really, in car audio, the hot rod designs of chip foose, simple and clean is the way to go, but you got to have attention to detail. It's still an art form as well. People will instinctively know what pleases them, what's easy on the eyes, what's professional and what's not (to an extent on this last one).

But, then throw in a client's opinions and sometimes you just need to deliver what they want to please them. So, sometimes the cheapest price is not always the best route to take, sometimes it is, ya know?

I guess that's the point I was trying to make earlier, is that your paying for the designer/developers knowledge, time, experience and a whole host of little nuances that aren't typically discussed. Then again, in this field everyone's got an opinion and it's just that, an opinion...

[glow]

Originally Posted by Lil Chris

I may even lean towards the decorator side myself, probably cuz of all the flash work I did for a few years (when it was the hot thing to do). But yes, you are correct, people typically don't notice design, but some do. My opinion is like in anything really, in car audio, the hot rod designs of chip foose, simple and clean is the way to go, but you got to have attention to detail. It's still an art form as well. People will instinctively know what pleases them, what's easy on the eyes, what's professional and what's not (to an extent on this last one).

But, then throw in a client's opinions and sometimes you just need to deliver what they want to please them. So, sometimes the cheapest price is not always the best route to take, sometimes it is, ya know?

I guess that's the point I was trying to make earlier, is that your paying for the designer/developers knowledge, time, experience and a whole host of little nuances that aren't typically discussed. Then again, in this field everyone's got an opinion and it's just that, an opinion...

Yes, you are right. There are opinions & views about design that are absolutely contrary to each other. Everybody does what works for them. I think the important thing is to keep growing as a designer. And keep trying new ideas & perspectives.

And yeah, some people do notice the design. Especially, if it's a web design portfolio. Clients sometimes tend to judge a webdesigner from his own website.

And yeah, sometimes a client wants to do horrible things to a design, & you can't do anything more then explain him the consequences of his choices, & then just go forward and implement them.

I couldn't agree more about the clean & simple part. Simplest designs seem to work best!

I like the array of services you offer.

[Lil Chris]

Hey thanks glow, I found repairing peoples PC problems generates some extra income with several repeat customers and it's very relaxed. It's straight forward, fix the problem. Far less drama than website services, which is nice.

I want to get into blogging and using amazon and new egg affiliates to generate a little extra cash as well, by reviewing and recommending products (when I get some spare time that is).

[Brutha]

Price depends on the quality of the work. 500$ seems reasonable for high quality work.
If you just want someone to get the job done you might however also find a developer that does it for 200$ like Sandstone did.

[Ralphiej]

Thanks for the feedback guys. The job includes a purchased theme that I choose but he is going to customize it and set it up. I've seen some of his work and its pretty impressive so I'm hoping he isn't just a decorator.

[glow]

Originally Posted by Ralphiej

Thanks for the feedback guys. The job includes a purchased theme that I choose but he is going to customize it and set it up. I've seen some of his work and its pretty impressive so I'm hoping he isn't just a decorator.

Good luck with your website Ralph! I loved some of the articles I read on your site.

I've got a couple of suggestions for you.
Don't loose the clean & minmalistic look of your website in the redesign.
The book cover for your confidence guide looks more like a banner then a book. Ask your designer to render an image of a real looking book using the cover image. It will look more tangible & feel like a real product. People tend to trust products that appear to be tangible.

[glow]

Originally Posted by Lil Chris

Hey thanks glow, I found repairing peoples PC problems generates some extra income with several repeat customers and it's very relaxed. It's straight forward, fix the problem. Far less drama than website services, which is nice.

I want to get into blogging and using amazon and new egg affiliates to generate a little extra cash as well, by reviewing and recommending products (when I get some spare time that is).

That will be an exciting direction to take! What kind of blog do you have in mind? A PD blog like Steve's?

[Lil Chris]

Originally Posted by glow

That will be an exciting direction to take! What kind of blog do you have in mind? A PD blog like Steve's?

No, I was thinking computer related topics mainly, mostly designed for the elderly to educate them on computers with out using geek speak. I also might do some articles on hobbies and interests too (gardening, car audio, etc...). I would also love to develop a plug-in that could be sold as well (not really sure of what though), I'd like to bring in some extra "play" money though.

[glow]

Originally Posted by Lil Chris

No, I was thinking computer related topics mainly, mostly designed for the elderly to educate them on computers with out using geek speak. I also might do some articles on hobbies and interests too (gardening, car audio, etc...). I would also love to develop a plug-in that could be sold as well (not really sure of what though), I'd like to bring in some extra "play" money though.

Nice! I think there is a place for dumbed down tech stuff especially for elderly. They could really use easy to follow instructions for simple things like sending an email, sharing a photo, surfing the web, writing a blog, rss feeds, Twitter, etc.

It sounds like a great idea Chris! Go for it!

[danthony]

Try Odesk, but seems like a fair price, your traffic count is really high so work on conversions and you could make it back in no time. Get it on WP and look for possibly some CPA offers e.t.c. You could make a good income if you tweak it right.