RE: FN-FORUM: What a shame !

date posted 9th August 2003 13:09


> Most of you will have seen the project post which I put up mistakenly
> the other day. Having reposted my project on the project forum, I have
> had approximately 50 quotes including some from counties as far as
> Vietnam, China, Canada and Russia. These quotes vary in price
> from ?100
> to ?25,000.
> I have had emails from some designers saying that I have to pay huge
> fees to get a decent website because other freelance designers don't
> know what they are doing ! (no way to do business !) Personally I will
> only deal with people in the UK due to the fact that I might need to
> have a meeting with them (possibly I should have made this
> clear in the
> brief).
>
> The most disappointing part of this whole experience is that the
> majority of people have not even read the brief ! I will not even
> consider those who did not answer the question of what a
> ballpark figure
> would be, because not reading the brief does not fill me with
> confidence
> to give a designer the work. I have also had some sarcastic comments
> that it is not worth the effort and that the business will
> fail. Nothing
> ventured, nothing gained ?
>
> Work is work, particularly in the current economic climate.
> Thanks to all of you who sent quotes, and I hope that one of you gets
> the business.
>
> J.Bolton

I was curious enough to look back at the post you referred to.

It's hardly a clearly defined brief so it's little wonder that you have
such a range of quotes.

Here's what I gleaned from it:

You wanted a ballpark quote.
for a project that might not happen.
if it did it was 2-3 months away
there'd be other projects too (teaser)

The project was for hosting user created web sites (maybe brochures but
not clear - how would the sites be created?)
A database was required for 10s of thousands of users (hardly an
accurate size estimate - 10,000 to 99,000 users is a big range to hold
what? - the minisites? or just sign up details?)
Users would have to pay subscription - so secure hosting/e-commerce
required
secure payment system required
system to upload unspecified files - (started to sound like a dodgy
porno/p2p site)
webspace could be private (why? - even more dodgy sounding - private
how? - by invitation? how would invitees be allowed access?)
User validation/secure login required (for minisites as well?)
A forum for users (would an open source one do?)
A help database (who writes the content?)


and then the cruncher:

"the site will be 11 pages plus control panel" (no it won't it'll be
templates and a database with all sorts of technical goodies)

And another cruncher - unlimited webspace and unlimited transfers
(hardly! - there are always limits!)

And then another tall order - translation into at least ten languages -
what the minisites? or just the sign up?

So my ball park figure for all that work would be in the region of (plus
or minus 50%) 15,000 GBP plus hosting, plus commission depending on
final spec.

Perhaps if you had seriously considered the project, what it's scope
was, defined the tasks, looked at the skill sets required, broken it
down into sections and asked for specific pricing for specific work then
you might have had a better response.

I'm sorry, but you can't come wingeing that we didn't understand the
project when it seems as if you don't understand it either.

A good idea for selling web sites to 10's of thousands of users has got
to be worth planning properly.

BTW if you sell 99,000 web sites at ?10.00 per site you can afford to
pay me 25% of your profits as commission as well.

HTH

Tony
Hot and feisty today...