OK, this has been covered before by other much more expensive web designers, but I wanted to really focus on why web design costs what it does.

I charge what I think is fair for my customer service, programing skill level, design capabilities and overall business experience.

Not all web designers have owned and sold an e-commerce website, to me that is worth something to my clients. Not many will offer any help above and beyond what is written in the contract without charging for it – I often do. Very few will answer emails within hours of receipt – I do.

These are just a few reasons I charge a little more!

Here are some other things that make web design costly which many clients are not aware of:

1) Consultation Time – I know my clients will vouch for me in saying I spent MANY hours on the phone consulting on everything from design layout to marketing to SEO. Not all web designers will do this – but the good ones will help a bit.

2) Education – I am useless to you if I do not keep up on the latest trends in web design and online resources. Think Facebook Integration – Social Marketing etc. These things change DAILY. A good web designer will spend many hours a week reading and absorbing the latest trends in design and technology. When I keep up with these new trends I can better create a site with features that are relevant to your industry.

3) Research – With every client I will research their industry – evaluate the top competition and find the best of the best in terms of industry related websites. This will give me a competitive edge in creating a standout design.

4) Design – Have you tried to design a website lately? It is not easy! On average to create 2-3 design mockups I average 10-15 hours of work – this does not include the edits after the client chooses their favorite design!

5) Programming – OK, to me this is the easiest part for a typical site, but can still take about 20-25 hours. This includes the complete design integration, setting up all ecommerce components such as shipping and merchant, setting up the extra pages – basically everything EXCEPT product input!

6) Testing – A GOOD web developer will do full browser testing as well as make sure CSS and HTML are valid. This can take many hours as well. I test on a MAC and on a PC in all browsers as well as place several test orders using a variety of situations such as logged in, as a guest, pay by paypal, pay by check etc. The more features you offer the longer this takes. Testing is the step that many web developers skip in order to save time.

I have closely tracked my last 4 full web design projects from the writing up of the contract to receipt of final payment and sign off on project. You know what I realized? On average I invest 110 hours in EVERY web design project I do.  Yes, that is almost 3 FULL weeks.

And these were pretty basic sites. No fancy javascript or custom coding, which of course brings the cost and hours up.

Think about how much you would want to make for 3 full weeks worth of work.

With that said – please remember web design is NOT easy. And if you require a web designer who really cares and will be glad to help you, it may cost a little more.

Yes, there are designers that can do an e-commerce site for under $1,000. But if quality is an issue I would not go that route and I will give you examples of why in another post!

So what are your thoughts? Is charging $2500 for an e-commerce design just insane? (Yes, I have been told that it is!) – should I be charging more?