Text updates (how much to charge?)

unknowndomain · 30 Jul 2008 at 16:20

The guy who runs modernmodels.com is looking for some help maintaining a list of products which he stocks, he keeps them in an accounting application and simply needs me to update the product lists on his site, he doesn't have internet access to do it him self.

As its simply data entry, how much do you think I should ask for, he is not sure, and I said to him how about I consult some people and come back to you.

http://www.modernmodels.com/Hstml.htm

Thats an example list, the site is very out of date, so he wants to bring the lists up to speed so initially there is a fair bit to do but after that it should be a few updates a month which he will just text me, he mentioned a flat fee per month to do the updates, I was thinking, of saying up to 25 updates this much before we up it to this much...

Its not a lot for me to do especially if he can send me a CSV file.

What should I charge?

GravyMonster · 30 Jul 2008 at 17:00

I'd charge the updates on an hourly basis. For simple text changes between £25-30ph is reasonable.

TBH if he's not technical it's begging to be CMS'd. You could build a simple system to allow him to just type in new products in a few days.

Obviously the cost would be higher, but it'd save him a lot of money in the long run. However, you could offer to do it at a knock down rate if you're looking to get some work behind you for a portfolio.

fini · 30 Jul 2008 at 17:05

Data entry people normally get paid £7ish an hour. By the sounds of it you'll be doing slightly more than data entry, but not a huge amount more. For that kind of (essentially unskilled) job I'd think anything over £15 an hour is taking the michael.

Do you know quite how many updates you're talking about. For example will this end up taking up a full day of work a week, an hour a month or a once year job? This will have the biggest effect on how you should charge.

unknowndomain · 30 Jul 2008 at 17:34

Well I get the impression from him and from the site that he is thinking of a handful of updates a month some thing in the order of 20 changes to the site, hardly any thing, I mean all it involves is adding and removing lines from a table, I would look at the CMS system, but I do not want to over complicate it and as he has no internet access he would still need me to add to the database.

I may consider a small application to do it if nessiary.

davetherave2 · 30 Jul 2008 at 17:48

this could very easily be done using xml with an xslt file. I have done something similar for a site at work and the users can then easily update the xml file with the required information via a hidden edit page. Again probably requires about a day of coding and updates can be done when the user has access to the internet.