Quick hypothetical

[danaeris]

Imagine a journalist has just installed wordpress for their new mini-publication. They want you to design a custom template so that their wordpress site doesn't look generic. They are on a tight budget, so they want just the basics. Currently the install looks a lot like a basic blog.

How much would this cost (an approximate range)?

Comments

[gothicat]

This is mine: www.pigtailsandjoysticks.co.cc didnt cost me anything

[iclysdale]

It really tends to depend on how much customization is required - while lots of people will give a rough quote, most will charge by an hourly rate, which will run anywhere from $30-$90 or so an hour, depending on experience. As a general rule, you can hope that someone at the upper end of that scale will take less time to do the same work, and it's often true.

You can make it typically a lot quicker - and cheaper - if you have a strong idea what you're looking for. If you can point towards a theme that's close to what you want, especially in shape and layout, but you want different colours and a specific logo, that can easily be only an hour or two of work. If you're looking for design proofs to be passed back and forth, and the site set up implemented according to very specific parameters, it's easy to spend several thousand dollars.

For Wordpress, I often start when I'm working with people by going over the various recommended free templates at Smashing Magazine, among other places, to get a sense of what they're looking for,

[danaeris]

Thanks!

Yeah, I'm arguing in a paper that even if you have to hire a professional to do the custom theme, launcing a basic WordPress publication would be cheap.

I found one designer online who had a flat rate of $600, and another that had a flat rate of $250. Based on what you said, it sounds like the first guy is either God's Gift to WordPress templates, or he's ripping people off. :)

BTW, long time no chat. I had a dream about you a couple of weeks ago! I think because I was at an event and there was a guy dancing there who reminded me of you.

[awfief]

Well, I've played with wordpress, and some things are trickier to do than others. I'd say the $250 flat rate was underselling perhaps. For example, let's say you want $50 per hour, that's 5 hours. For $600 flat rate, that's 12 hours. Sounds like the $600 person is averaging for the 1-2 painful clients that are complex and use 20 hours

[acegreco]

My thoughts are very much along the lines of the following:

- There are a butt-load of free Wordpress templates.
- There is an even bigger butt-load of inexpensive Wordpress templates ($30-60 a pop).
- Custom templates, from what I can tell, are wild expensive, but then again you're paying for something that will only be yours. I don't personally feel it's necessary for my purposes, but I don't discount people wanting them. :) I don't have any prices I can quote, unfortunately.

It's all a question of how far you want to stray from generic to unique. Being one in a million costs an appropriate figure. lol