Ask HN: Do you charge your webdesign clients for ongoing hosting and support?

Re:Ask HN: Do you charge your webdesign clients for ongoing ... by nfriedly on Saturday July 29, 2017 @09:11AM (#14881042)

Yes, I charge for hosting and support, especially for smaller clients who don't want to know or care about hosting. It means I can do quick fixes and answer questions without either if us having to worry about billing.

I don't make a lot from it, but enough to be worth the trouble. For example, there's a couple of local businesses that I set up single-page sites on github pages. They pay me $25/month, mostly to answer their questions. (Most recent question: "How do I embed a YouTube video into a PowerPoint?")

A lot of my larger clients use AWS or similar and pay their own hosting bills. Support is more if a mixed bag there, but I do try to get a support contract set up.

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Re:Ask HN: Do you charge your webdesign clients for ongoing ... by bdcravens on Saturday July 29, 2017 @01:10PM (#14882092)

What's your hourly rate? $25/month doesn't give you much room for it to be profitable.

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Re:Ask HN: Do you charge your webdesign clients for ongoing ... by nfriedly on Saturday July 29, 2017 @01:47PM (#14882240)

Well, yea, I charge $165/hr for random folks on the internet, but for locals I charge more like $60/hr. 20-30 mins/month tweaking or answering questions is a fairly realistic average for the local single-page sites.

I look at the local sites as a bit of local pride/civic duty - if I didn't do it then they'd either have crappier, more expensive sites or else no websites at all.

(I also have a full-time salaried position now that effectively pays about $60/hr. So I don't really have to worry about income at this point.)

My town is only about 2000 people, and most of them dont need a website. I figure I'd be getting the same questions either way, so I might as well get paid a bit ;)

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Re:Ask HN: Do you charge your webdesign clients for ongoing ... by heythere124 on Saturday July 29, 2017 @09:21AM (#14881087)

What would you do with smaller businesses when you decide to quit/retire and they need to take control of their own websites?

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Re:Ask HN: Do you charge your webdesign clients for ongoing ... by nfriedly on Saturday July 29, 2017 @09:27AM (#14881115)

I'd help them find someone else to transfer responsibility to.

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