Designers - What would you charge for this?

toby_bird · #1 (**permalink**) 05-24-2006, 01:58 PM

I've been asked to create something like the Flash on this index page. No problem in doing so but I have have no idea how much I should charge. Any ideas?

Thanks!

rms7design · #2 (**permalink**) 05-24-2006, 05:45 PM

perhaps I don't understand your info but what flash on which page??? and as for the link you have in your signature... using safari/mac... the banner does not look good (design is great but layout has problems)... just to let you know

SnerdeyWebs · #3 (**permalink**) 05-24-2006, 05:49 PM

Hey little bird =)

More than happy to advise but, what site or what is the scope of the project?

toby_bird · #4 (**permalink**) 05-24-2006, 05:55 PM

Guess you guys would need the link, huh?

http://www.usxl.com

lol Sorry...

toby_bird · #5 (**permalink**) 05-24-2006, 06:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rms7design

perhaps I don't understand your info but what flash on which page??? and as for the link you have in your signature... using safari/mac... the banner does not look good (design is great but layout has problems)... just to let you know

Thanks for that! Yet another reason I need to buy a mac. What sucks though is I asked someone to check out the site and was told all's good... hmmm...

RegDCP · #6 (**permalink**) 05-24-2006, 06:08 PM

I hope they are not going to depend on that page to get search engine listings.

Reg

SnerdeyWebs · #7 (**permalink**) 05-24-2006, 06:11 PM

Hey no problem =)

OPPS! I looked at the site in IE and it had no flash.

EDITED

SnerdeyWebs · #8 (**permalink**) 05-24-2006, 06:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RegDCP

I hope they are not going to depend on that page to get search engine listings.

Reg

Oh there are ways to have a flash site get noticed by search engines =)

TexasXpress · #9 (**permalink**) 05-24-2006, 06:17 PM

I'm a designer, on a Mac...the elease homepage come up fine here.

gowilkes · #10 (**permalink**) 05-24-2006, 06:26 PM

I've built about 50 sites of this size, and it's rare that I've ended up building it in Flash. It's just too expensive, and there's very little that the owner wants done that couldn't be done with Javascript for a lot cheaper, and be a lot more user (and search engine) friendly.

The only thing I see on this site that really warrants Flash is the logo, and I would always tell my clients that this is just too slow (which translates to annoying) to be worthwhile. If they expect customers to return on a regular basis, even with a T1 it's going to become an annoyance to wait for that logo to load before they can click on something.

When I do quote Flash-work, I price it at $50 per scene (I guesstimate that each scene takes about 30 minutes, and I generally charge $100/hour). This logo has 4 scenes, so I would charge $200. That's pretty competitive for my area, but you might be able to get away with more if no one else in your region does it.

SnerdeyWebs · #11 (**permalink**) 05-24-2006, 06:36 PM

Speed up flash sites by making each page it's own swf file =)

No music as that is a load killer for sure!

We have created 1,000's of web sites with both flash and html for choice of surfers and complaints are extreamly low cause they can choose connection.

Also, with the future of the net being even faster even modems will connect quicker.. at least it's par from 10 years ago or so when we were all on modems.. LOL

I remember when I was a little kid watching StarTrek and wanting a communicator that flipped open.. hmm, got on on my desk now.

The future of flash is brighter than ever and your right about the logo but really it's all about what the client wants and educating them to allow the choice to be made.

Good call!

SnerdeyWebs · #12 (**permalink**) 05-24-2006, 06:40 PM

Ok - that's what I get for going too fast!

Yes, $200 is perfect price for that.

I read your post that they wanted to flash the whole site.. LOL ( Sorry )

jannmirch · #13 (**permalink**) 05-24-2006, 06:47 PM

I am on a PC and didn't have any problems with your elease site either. Very nice logo BTW.

As far as what to charge for the Flash animation, I know this has come up in other threads, but I usually try to estimate how much time a given project would take then multiply that number times my hourly rate. Get as accurate an estimate as possible, and figure there will be the inevitable snafu which will take extra time. Then you can go from there.

I hope this helps.

DrTandem1 · #14 (**permalink**) 05-24-2006, 08:53 PM

IE6 had no problems viewing your page. For something like that, I would charge $175 to $200. However, I would try to talk them out of it. It's pointless.

texxs · #15 (**permalink**) 05-28-2006, 04:43 PM

Quote:

The only thing I see on this site that really warrants Flash is the logo, and I would always tell my clients that this is just too slow (which translates to annoying) to be worthwhile. If they expect customers to return on a regular basis, even with a T1 it's going to become an annoyance to wait for that logo to load before they can click on something.

Dude, flash usually loads just fine. The flash on that page is only 34K, that's a tiny bit more than the image beside it.

Quote:

I would try to talk them out of it. It's pointless.

Imagine opening the yellow pages. The larger ads with more colors catch your eye don't they? Well imagine one of those adverts was actually animated . . .
Still think Flash is pointless?

BTW I had no prob viewing either site w/ firefox (and getting a Mac will make your probs worse not better)

texxs · #16 (**permalink**) 05-28-2006, 04:47 PM

I don't quess everyone here relaizes it or cares (not that I do either)but people in the same feild aren't suppose to discuss publicly or privately what they charge. It's called price fixing even if there no agreement to charge any particular rate.

Silly but true.

hawkwind dave · #17 (**permalink**) 06-21-2006, 07:51 PM

Hi Guys and Gals,

Can I stick my oar in here?

there's bin a few mentions regarding that flash site and is potentential failure to rank well. I started out doing seo long before i entered webdesign. A company approached me with a flash website for an SEO job and my main concern was getting a flash site to end up on page 1 of GG for its keywords. I figured I'd more than likely have to build him an entire new site in good old readable html, which i began doing, however, i also put every single bit of text from his flash site into the "no script" tag, along with a few paragraphs of keyword dense text scrolling along the bottom of the page. Within a couple of weeks he was on page one of GG for a lot of his keywords. The site has one page (plus a links page), the content has not been updated in the last year and he's still ranking really well for his keywords.

don't fear the flash.

dave