Client Charge..... wot would you do

[TXAlba]

Hi, i have a couple of wordpress sites that i manage and about 7 or so blogs integrated into xara web designer sites.
I wondered if someone who manages wordpress could give me a pointer on what to charge for the addition of a new wordpress user (editor) to a blog/site.

The client in this case has not opted to take out a maintenance contract but instead opted for a contract where they pay for developments on a when needed basis.

This particular development is fairly minor but it is still interaction with their site so it is fair they pay. I have a modest £25 per hour or part thereof payment but wondered if others would charge for this and if £25 sounds about right or if i am selling myself short. A friend (another designer) said he charges £40 for such a thing.

thanks in advance for any opinions or advice you can offer.

[Cloud]

I cannot believe that you charge just £25 per hour, the typical rate per hour for maintenance should be a minimum of £75 per hour or part thereof. The price you are quoting is typical of someone working out of east europe or India/Asia. The £40 mark is what a freelancer would charge a web design agency. We never charge per specific change such as adding a new editor, if it takes an hour or half an hour then we charge the full hour, if it takes two hours we charge two hours and so on. A lot of clients will go for the ad-hoc method of maintenance but a monthly maintenance package will always work out better for them. We offer discounts for quarterly and yearly maintenance plans of upto 20%.

[jon404]

I'm with Cloud on this. Here in San Diego, I charge US $45 per half-hour, $90/hr. But -- and very important -- I try to never bill by the hour... prefer instead to charge a flat fee per job wherever possible, as much as I can get, given the client's level of affluence and my marketplace competition... always planning though to come out well ahead of $90/hr. I get 1/3 of the job up fromt, 1/3 in the middle, 1/3 on completion.

At one point, I thought about charging 45-70, which was the caliber of an old 1873 Springfield rifle I had once... but it wasn't quite enough. The 1886 Winchester 45-90 is a better symbolic fit!

[TXAlba]

so selling myself short then.......

[mwenz]

On the other hand, adding an editor takes how long? Minutes? If I valued the client (and some I do not) and had modest work for them now and again that I would bill x hours through a year, I would do this for no charge.

[TXAlba]

mwenz......... this was my initial thoughts also but in this case the client is a pain in the backside, a 'free loader' who i would be only too glad to see the back of. Though i would say that any development should be chargeable regardless of how good the client is. I would, as most would, discount just about anything as part of a project but this is quite specific. It may take only moments to do, but to the client there are big benefits to gain.

[Albacore]

The Joomla/Wordpres/Drupal sites that I have done locally I have charged a monthly contract to maintain and update. It's a simple contract where I do all the obvious maintenance, backup, technical telephone support, protect sites from offensive comments, backtrack spam, web stats,,,, I could go on but that is just for the clients. I don't charge much it depends on the client but it ranges from £10 to £275/month. The high one is for a real estate biz with a lot of updating and of course free hosting. As for adding new editor that would be included in monthly charge so adding new one is free and as Mike rightly states only takes a few minutes. I find all of these duties easy to do and I am not adverse to use my web hosting company's templates as a starting point for sites in this area.