[TelephoneGal]

Hey all,

I need some info.

What is the going pay rate per hour for a freelance designer and the rate for an in-house designer.

degisner knows PHP,HTML,Adobe Illustrator,Adobe Photoshop,Word,Java,& Outlook.


Thanks in advance for all replies.

Jess

[Trevor]

Hi Jess

I play both sides of the coin. I have roughly the same skillset, sans Java. My day-to-day job is that of a web developer specializing in dynamic websites and community portals. 9+ years in the business.

Work pay : About $21/hour in Colorado

Please note : I would love to make more, but the opportunities to move on are few and far between. My company is very laid back and I get to direct my own work. The only stipulation is that I finish my projects under budget in whatever way I see as the most efficient.

Freelance : My boss will not touch projects under the $7k mark. Instead he hands them off to me. I, in turn, develop them on my own time, away from work. This is how he compensates me for the low at/work pay.

For freelance, I usually bid projects in between $20 and $50 per hour depending upon the work. I'll charge more per hour on smaller projects. Especially when they involve enhancing (or fixing) an existing web site.

On rare occassion I have made upwards of $150-$200 per hour when a corporate client proposes a budget that is auto-inflated. Yeah, I'll take on a 5 hour project that pays me $1000.00. My empty fridge is often my conscious, if that makes sense.

Hope that helps.

[cshark]

Depends on your skill set.
Designer is a very broad term.

What do you mean by designer? You mean graphically? Or do you mean someone who designs and deploys web sites?

Static site/graphics guys never make as much as guys with web application experience in addition to an artistic eye. Having these skills also makes you twice as employable as you would be otherwise.

If you want to make yourself indespensible, learn ORACLE.
A web guy with ORACLE under his belt never makes less than 30. I'm doing upper 30's myself. But I've been in the field for awhile.

Expect between 13 and 20 if you're just starting out.
Freelance projects from home...don't know. I avoid them like the plague.
The big problem I have with projects like that is getting idiot clients to pay up. I hate doing that. Luckily, my wife doesn't mind.

Short term office contracts usually pay in the mid 20's to low 30's, but those almost always turn into something longer term (unless you're really bad at it). Which may not always be good. Really depends on where you see yourself, and what side of the country you're on.

[Trevor]

I've been stung a few times by freelance clients. Because of that, I have put all my projects on hold and am in the process of finalizing my service contract. I will be more than happy to pass it to the board so that others may be protected. Give me a few more days.

[cshark]

Man, that would be great.
I can imagine there would be a ton of users on a board like this that could use such a document.

[TelephoneGal]

Yes, I agree I am working with a lawyer to draw one up.

Even though I'm new to this I have heard many horror stories about slacking compaines not paying up.


Thanks for all the info




Jess

[cshark]

Yep.
It's the nature of the beast. In the time I've been in the industry, I've noticed that there's usually something wrong with a project if someone needs to get you to do it from your house. That usually means they're trying to get someone to do it for free. People don't seem to understand that coding is real work. They take it for granted, and assume you're not really working. That bugs me.