Regarding Website Maintenance Prices
Someone asked: Hello … I am in the process of starting a new business selling X. I don’t have a website yet, and know I can hire anyone for that, but I am most concerned about maintenance. Can you please tell me about what you offer.
We sent back the regular reply, and the person replied that we were more expensive than she’d hoped–she was hoping to stay in the 20-25 an hour range. My response to her:
What you’ll find is that the professional services in the 20-25 range are all off shore. Updates tend to take a bit longer and require a few more interations to get right. That’s not necessarily a bad thing–just something to keep your eyes open on. On shore professional operators are typically in the 40-80 range.
What you might want to find is a freelancer or student. If you go that route, you usually end up with a lower rate per hour but you run into a few risks there, too. Turnaround time is the usual culprit but you also run the risk of not having access to the original working files.
Even if you never buy time from us, please consider our site a resource. I talk to people about website maintenance a lot — pretty much all day, every day in fact — and I like to share what I learn on the blog.
What are our prices? Pretty much smack dab in the middle, but we also have a way for people to get on the low side. Hit prices up top for details.
Risks of freelancers continued: First, if you hire an individual, make sure you know who their backup is so you still have help when they’re on vacation. Second, make sure they’re using the latest and greatest of all the standard website development tools and not old or obscure stuff. Stick with Photoshop, DreamWeaver and Flash, and you’re fine. Anything else and you’re increasing your costs down the road.