I'm working on something:

Please send me your website project briefs via tweets and I'll roughly quote a range of what you could charge/what you can expect w/budget.

Rough format:
• Static page count
• Template page count
• Desired purpose & features
• Time-frame
• Budget

Example:
• 5 pages (home, about, features, blog, contact)
• Blog post and product template
• Lead generation, marketing, info, unique and original design, responsive
• 10 weeks
• No budget

Rough quote range (assuming logo, assets, content and branding is provided)
• Design: $2.5k-$10k+
• Development: $2.5k-$10k+

Roughly: $5k-$20k depending upon feature range, experience level and what's expected in the timeline delivery.

Can you get it at a lower/higher cost?
Yes.

I'm happy to respond with what you could expect as well at each range.

I'm doing this because I've seen far too many creatives under value their skill set.

I also learned a lot over the past ~7 years doing freelance dev/SEO work.

Why am I doing this?

Selfishly, because I'm tired of answering the same questions over and over. I'd rather build an engine that can create quotes (yes I bought a domain while drafting this tweet thread ).

Primarily, I think there's a lot we can do to improve our industry.

In my humble opinion, building a web presence should be treated as an ecosystem that delivers value and helps businesses succeed.

I've personally had the opportunity to build and work as a visual developer for over 5 years now.

I built my first website for a local skare park for free as I was learning.

Then for a restaurant for $600.

Then I built free reusable pages in Webflow and made them clonable to build my skills out more.

I registered on UpWork and took on all the work I could.

Within a few months, an agency contacted me to build sites for them for $30/hr. Mostly NDA work.

I was hyped!!!

At the time, I was making $10/hr at an agency, fresh out of college.

My hourly cost on the worksheets was anywhere from $150-$300 for the agency.

I've had the immense privilege and luck to work on projects ranging from $2500-$20k+ as a freelancer.

All projects were worked on in my evenings or weekends as I've prioritized seeking a stable income with healthcare, first.

I've shared my story before and feel incredibly lucky, and fortunate to be where I am today.

Here's a short story from 2018 with a few more details than this thread: https://youfoundwaldo.com/post/waldos-webflow-weblog

I had to learn how to "fire" clients a few years ago, usually framing it as a disservice to their company to work with someone (me) that couldn't commit the time they needed to keep moving their business forward.

I've had multiple instances over the years where I couldn't meet a commitment I'd made. These are painful moments that I wouldn't wish upon anyone, usually leading into cycles of depression for me personally.

I often sacrificed family time and my health to meet deadlines. This is unhealthy behavior.

Hustle culture is unhealthy.

I wanted to do everything myself, design, development, marketing, strategy, SEO, email development, content development, animations and much more.

It forced me to learn a lot about myself, the skills I have and what I enjoyed doing.

I found that my skills are much better complimented working with designers, content writers and clients who know who they are and what they want.

Please learn from my failures, I hope that any of my success can help others along the path.

This industry needs to learn that we operate better as a community than as a bunch of independent people that compete, mock or taunt each other.

We should encourage one another.

Send tweet?

A trend I've noticed:

Many designers WAAYY under value their skills. It's not your fault.

Y'all have so much skill!

• Many people critique before finding value/expressing gratitude

• Agencies underpay designers

• Ability to work quickly/iterate goes unappreciated

General trend I've noticed:

Creatives provide "the highest ROI" for institutions, companies, projects.

Facilitators of creatives:
Usually paid more as they're organizing creators

Facilitators of Facilitators:
Paid even more for organizational work.

ALL of these skills are valuable.

We're each capable of bringing equal amounts of value in each step within each role.

Be mindful of each person's skills, work together, and encourage one another.

As @chaseadamsio often says:
"The rising tide raises all ships."