What I would like to do, is build small business websites and make a living doing it. I am not yet what I would call a 'good web designer' but I'm getting there.
Since I am fresh on the East Coast, I have yet to make a good supporting group of business contacts, so I've been advertising on Kijiji.
I get approximately one inquiry per day from these ads I keep on there, and so far, 3 potential leads have got me zero jobs.
The inquiries are already classic and stereotypical;
"How much for a website?"
"Well," I tell them, "it depends on the project, but $300 for the home page and design, and $200 per additional page." Completely reasonable rates; I need to feed my family, but I am hardly a professional.
I don't charge a lot, do decent design work and know my way around CSS and HTML environments. Most importantly, I keep up on modern web & design trends and best practices.
There are so many ads on there for "Custom Website, only $300!"
Side Note: So many of the portfolio sites affiliated with these ads are 'copyright 2001', and some of them are those horrifying pieces of work that you occasionally come across and think, "Was this ever a thing?" Well it was...
There was a time when people who made websites were people who only knew the Hypertext Markup Language (or more recently Flash) that built them. They weren't designers, and it shows.
These "Custom Websites" are static and HTML based, and apparently have little place in the web today. Everything is going Dynamic for more reasons than one, and so, the web designers and developers of today must follow suit.
I suppose I could code you a website - pure static HTML, like a business card - for as little as $200, but you're going to have to get a new one built next year, when you realize Google wants nothing to do with the static web and blacklists the website.
In summary, I need to feed my family, and $300-$500 is not a lot for a nice site, when a good website and some good advice can provide a great return on investment.
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