Thanks for sharing your reasoning on this, Charles. I think our approaches to the business in general are similar, so it's interesting that we arrive at different conclusions re whether to post prices.
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But reality being what it is, it inevitably takes longer to do a site than I usually bargain for.
I have the same disease.
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Clients don't like to give up the goods and you usually end up writing half their content anyway based on what you think it is that they do. Ever see a room go quiet? As a client, "What is it, exactly that you do? Describe your process."
Same here, all the way.
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And, you'll spend many an extra hour or two or three setting up emails for people, creating forwards, not to mention the hours on the phone talking about design strategy or content updates, etc.
Yeah, like you I offer a free initial consult, but I sometimes get the impression that clients think phone consults are free without limits. They call at all hours, want advice about business stuff unrelated to the Web, etc. Very strange.
Oddly, we've just decided to throw all that extra stuff in. We're doing "administration" work (setting up emails, managing domains, etc, etc, for small businesses/nonprofits that don't have their own tech staff). We're also doing copy editing, consultation, etc -- and we're charging hourly for it all (or selling administration packages, like up to 4 hours/month for $100 -- most clients only use 1 or 2...)
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I don't want bargain hunters, but companies who really want a site to work and the excellent support to go along with it.
Yeah, we (2-person outfit) don't want bargain hunters, either, so I guess that's a risk we're taking. I guess I just don't want to lose the potential client who thinks we're too expensive (or else why wouldn't we just post our prices?).
Let's definitely keep in touch and share experiences/strategies. I'll let you know when our site is up (I really do think it might be next week ;-)
If you go the prices way, we'll have to stay in touch to compare notes.
Charmon[/quote]