Pricey pricey!
Earlier today when I was talking to nando, he linked me to http://chrisgarretmedia.com. So I went to take a look. My first thoughts were “Hey this is a pretty sweet design.”
Then I looked to see what the site was about. It’s a design company, that wants to charge $834USD (according to dashboard conversion widget). I had to do a double take on that one. I think this is a tad bit too expensive. Ok not a tad, this is insane. I would really like to know if he receives business, or if he is just trying to deter people to go download free templates for wordpress, or something like that.
I’m sure there are people out there who are thinking, “Oh well I want to have something that no one else has” and then someone offers them this “bargain” of $834. In a way I guess it’s the perfect way to make a large amount of cash, for doing nothing. I design through HyperboleDesign and I’m currently charging around $20/hour. It would take me around 40 hours to match the price. Unless you’re the pickiest person on the planet, I don’t think it’s possible to spend 40 hours working on a blog. I mean, blogs all have a similar structure, once you get it down, you can finish pretty quickly. I finished jakedahn.com, from start to finish in like 6 hours.
I’m also sure there are people out there who think that expensive is best. It’s a common misconception. It’s really a misconception that comes around in all markets in the world. “Do I buy this bran named aspirin, or the cheapo stuff that does the exact same thing?” It’s kind of sad that the small guy can have a job turned down because he offers to do things a little cheaper. It’s a concept that I doubt I’ll ever be willing to understand completely. Sure it’s good for the business owners, but it’s not too great for the people who are paying for these overpriced products.
If you were a small, or even large business owner, would you risk being marked as “rip off” and overcharge, or would you price your products at a fair price? It really comes down to the question of: Are you the kind of person who would take advantage of someone’s stupidity, or inability to search for a better deal?
Anonymous
Posted 22 Jul 2006 at 10:49 am | Permalink
If we assume it takes roughly 8 hours for the design, that’s $100 / hr. which is quite reasonable for an independent firm. They have accounting costs, marketing costs, etc, etc, etc. which that rate has to cover.
Fernando
Posted 22 Jul 2006 at 12:24 pm | Permalink
No way Anonymous. My dad is an accountant and the most these guys would spend doing all of that would be an extra 150 bucks. And I really don’t know what “Marketing” fees you’re talking about there. Marketing what? The picture of the blog they built on their site? Please… 900 bucks on a blog design is suicide. At least one like the ones they made.
Anonymous
Posted 22 Jul 2006 at 3:38 pm | Permalink
By accounting I also am including the book keeping required to run a business. This is a big job if you have any kind of sales at all. No one is going to pay you to do it.
Marketing and sales keeps the work coming in, which is again something that is very time consuming and expensive that no one will pay you to do.
Then there is expenses of buying software, hardware, and other items to be able to do the work. No one is going to give that to you.
The company itself has to turn a profit, and the person who is doing the work probably wants to be paid for his or her time as well.
When you add all that up $100 / hr. doesn’t go very far.