what to charge for freelance work

[grimm]

i've been getting a lot of freelance web/flash/and graphic desing work lately and with all this new found work, I'm trying to set more of a standard fee. In the past most of the work i've done was for my company, but as a freelance consultant and they would usually just buy something for me, instead of actually paying me. But i've been doing more work for clients other then my company, and I'm un-sure what a good hourly rate is. I've been tossing around anything between $65 - $95 an hour. I don't have any real overhead to worry about. I also don't want it to be too steep that i don't get anymore work, but not so low that i feel like i'm being manipulated or used. I know there are some other freelancer's on this forum, and would like to know what others charge for their work. Am i under selling myself?

[Rey The Great]

am a graphic designer also..but i charge 22 and hr...i dont do the flash and web stuff..i stick to advertising,logos, flyers, ect..

[Gorilla Unit 33]

I am a graphic designer and i just so happened to be going over this today with a principal of a newly found designer company. Normal per hr rate for decent work is $80 and hour. Although it is not uncommon to find design work being done for $65 an hour. id say anything within $20 + or - of $80 is reasonable.

[Broken5hift]

i think it depends on the work.

generally i charge $40 an hour for anything over 4 hours, $60 an hour for anything less.

at $95 an hour you would most likely be at the mercy of the clients every wish 24/7. i do my freelancing at night but every so often i get called at my day job to do some emergency work.

[grimm]

thanks, keep them coming

[MPowerKai]

My friend did it not by hour but by page and complexity of the work.

[grimm]

Originally Posted by MPowerKai

My friend did it not by hour but by page and complexity of the work.

i used to do it by project, but then i learned that was a horrible idea. Clients change their minds a lot, and when they do, that requires more man hours by me to re-do what was already done. I feel they should pay for those hours. I'm going to talk it over with one of my clients that I have a good relationship with and see what his thoughts were, he's not the type of person that owuld under sell my work. but i'm thinking $75 is pretty darn fair.

[Scapegoat]

the general going rate for web development is between 20 and 60 an hour. I charge $40 an hour, and give quotes on projects based off an estimate of time and complexity. The hourly rate is applied to changes and future updates.

Finding someone that can do web work isn't as hard as it was 5-6 years ago when you could charge $100/hour.

[TROLL]

i dont know anything about web design but i do know photo...

a lot of times there is a day rate or hourly rate, plus setup and editing fees which are decided depending on what the client wants, and then a useage fee which could range from one time on some little crap poster that 100 people will see up to unlimited useage in a major publication or ad campaign.
i know its not the same as web, but figured that might give you a few new ideas on how you can quote rates.
a huge factor though is how confident are you in your work, and what do you feel it is worth? an hours time from a college student web designer in training is not going to be the same as a master in the field, so their rates should not be the same.
at the same time, when you undercharge and practically give your work away, you are hurting the entire field by taking work away from someone who does thsi as a living, and you're shortchanging yourself too.

[ge0]

You got a portfolio I could look at? I can tell you what your work is worth.