Not so much what we charge, but how we calculate our fees and why we do it the way we do, so moving into 2021 we are making some changes. These will benefit many, others not so much, but we believe will be fairer all round.
For the longest time we have priced products as packages, for example “independent escort website” or “escort agency/parlour site” and published a price for that “product”. However while this seems to have become the norm in the escort industry it is intrinsically unfair for many, and leads to a race to the bottom in prices, which do not benefit anyone, designer or client. Let me try and explain.
A fixed price has to be set at a level to cater for most eventualities, websites, like escorts come in many different sizes, and can often differ widely in the services they offer. This means that some pay less than they should, some pay more than they should and very few pay the “right” price. The developer needs to guess the percentage of clients who will want more or less than the average features, then factor in the time wasters and bargain hunters who expect the world for virtually nothing and finally set a price. Get it right the developer make money, get it wrong the developer looses money, get it wrong too many times and the developer will not be around to support the site and the clients business going forward, which is no good for anyone.
For example we often receive enquiries along these lines..
- Q. How much for a {insert site type here}?
- A. It’s difficult to give an exact price without knowing specific needs, number of pages content, features etc We do have rough prices here https://69design.co.uk/{page} but it could be more or less depending on need.
That tends to be it, now I appreciate this is probably just an offhand enquiry, or possibly we were too expensive or maybe not expensive enough (that can happen), but to provide a fair price we need as much detail as possible and the “package” solution may just not be suitable.
We have posted many times about banner advertising and how when it comes to spammy banners the escort industry is still stuck in the 90’s well when it comes to pricing, again this seems to an area outside of the norm for other design markets, which have moved on.
69Design has always tried to treat its clients as people and businesses first, the niche people work in should not be relevant, something we wrote about here, so we intend to now apply this to how we charge starting from today and be fully implemented by the start of 2021.
So if you have an enquiry, talk to us, we will always try and help, explain and provide a fair price based on an agreed and documented schedule of work, we will also give you our costs should that agreed work be exceeded so you know exactly what your site will cost, and you will not be subsidising other peoples who may be taking advantage by adding extra features or time consuming work on top of the “package”.
Does this sound like we are putting our prices up? Well we are not, in many cases we have built up workflows and code libraries to allow us to create certain site elements quickly and quite cheaply and incorporate those into our clients unique designs, just one advantage of working in a niche market for over 20 years. In many cases prices will come down, those requiring features we have already built the code for, think agency or parlour listing pages or image galleries, will now experience a lower price than previously. Those requiring more advanced features, extra SEO work, custom coding etc. will possibly pay more, but only for what those actual features cost to code up and provide.
We will also break down our charges, for example work we will undertake, prior to any agreement, ensuring you know exactly what you are paying for, and what work genuinely costs to do. Sound fair? We think so! If you agree and want to update or create a site please do at least get in touch. We promise a transparent, friendly and fair service for everyone.