10 Steps to Charging for Web Design

The 14 Point Web Design Checklist by Matt Coddington actually describes how he charges for his web design projects. It is a quick, fast and dirty way to come up with a price. It is quite funny. But I guess the main moral for the article will be to get a few quotations and avoid being fleeced. Web design does not have to be expensive. You can learn Dreamweaver yourself in about 24 hours. It is almost as easy as using Microsoft Word. The book I read was Sams Teach Yourself Dreamweaver MX 2004 in 24 Hours . I can now design websites, normal static ones with CSS included. For dynamic pages, it is much harder and coding is mostly necessary so I wouldn't bored you with the details.

I have added my comments to the basic steps. Many steps in web design are already actually free online. You can find the links below each step.
14 Point Web Design Checklist by Matt Coddington with comments by Ybother

1) Start with a base value of $30 - Here's an example of a $30 design.
Alternatively: Use a template!

2) Add $10 if it's for a clan - Making clan templates is the first step to going pro.

3) Add $20 if it's for a blog - Blogs are in.
Alternatively: Use Wordpress or blogger.com

4) Add $30 if it's for a forum - Forums are inner.
Alternatively: vbullentin www.vbulletin.com

5) Add $50 if it's for an eCommerce site - eCommerce sites are innest.
Osocommerce Open Source based online shop e-commerce solution that is available for free

6) Add $10 for every random vector you include - You can steal them from deviantArt if you can't make your own.

7) Add $5 for every gradient in the design - Gradients are cool now.
You just need photoshop to do this. Or try office 2007

8) Add $5 for everytime you use outer glow - Check out Windows Vista for outer glows in action!

9) Add $5 for everytime you use drop shadow - Check out Windows Vista for drop shadows in action!

10) Add $15 if they need a custom logo - You can use this totally not made for Adsense site to learn more about making custom logos.

11) Add $5 if they need a mascot - Just Google image search pandas or something and charge them for it.

12) Add $25 if they need it coded - Then hire a teenager to do it for you.
www.rentacoder.com

13) Add $1,000 to make it "Web 2.0 - Just add a lot of white space and use pink as the main color.

14) Add $5,000 if the client asks you what "Photoshop" is - The ignorant pay more.
See! This is what happens when you don't know photoshop. To learn photoshop on your own, see the link in my Ten Old Ways To Learn Something New

Oh, there is also a Web Design Podcast(www.boagworld.com) I recommended in Top 10 Geek Business Podcast.