Thanks Amych, I think I capitalize it differently every time I write it.

I use PHP a lot, but i don't use any of the Microsoft products, which has hampered me somewhat, and I do build a lot of WordPress websites.

A novice, maybe not with the dynamic content, but if they can teach advanced Dreamweaver, and the course ends in a certification of some sort, they could at least teach enough to be dangerous--even if it's just which one to learn or where to go next. There are a lot of options out there.

I have a related question, actually. I've offered to design a website for the critics group DH belongs to, and they have offered to pay me. It's not going to be a terribly complicated site, but I'm also not a professional web designer.

I was thinking $250 to create the site, plus $50/year for registration/hosting/maintenance. (Right now they don't even have a domain name, so I'm going to just add it to my Dreamhost account.) Am I totally off-base with that amount, or does that sound reasonable?

Jessica, that's a terrible question.

How much do you value your time? I'd start from there, and then start estimating how long it will take you.

How much do you value your time?

Oh like that's got a quick and easy answer.

Ugh. This is why I was a terrible freelancer.

I would probably charge more than that, especially for the ongoing bits. I would also probably have them buy their own domain & hosting; down the road you may wish legal separation for their site and yours.

I would also put in writing what sort of ongoing maintenance they'll expect from you. Will they be putting up regular updates? How often? Will there be software that needs maintained, like blogging or calendaring?

I won't give any specific feedback on amounts -- that depends not only on how you value your time, but what the site specs are -- but my one hard-earned bit of friends-and-family freelance pricing wisdom is not to do the ongoing maintenance thing. They don't need to pay you to renew their domain every year -- set it up so they have the keys and it auto-renews. Make an agreement for a specific package (a certain number of pages, or setting up a customized look-and-feel with xyz required features in wordpress, or whatever), and then promise them good terms if they want to make a separate deal to redesign in the future.

Make an agreement for a specific package (a certain number of pages, or setting up a customized look-and-feel with xyz required features in wordpress, or whatever), and then promise them good terms if they want to make a separate deal to redesign in the future.

This is good advice.

Thanks guys!

... and (one last thing!) obviously, the kind of specific package I'm thinking of can certainly include an agreed testing/troubleshooting/signoff period, or certain documentation, or a meeting to train someone in the group (oh, Fone!) on maintaining the site, or whatever you want -- as long as it's part of the package. I'm the last to advocate "here's your site, now go away".

But you want to avoid the kind of situation (which I've been in too many times) where you end up making every little change, or a million design tweaks, forever after. That's not freelance, it's employee.

Thanks for the school advice, everyone! I've bookmarked them and will be following your suggestions when signing up for my first class next month. I'm really starting from the bottom here--the only HTML I know is what I use for posting here and other blogs/boards, and that's it for "web design knowledge"!

Amych is absolutely right. I give them 30 days to break it and then anything beyond that is more money and a new agreement. Otherwise it just gets screwy.