Because it’s worth it. I was reading a [very old] post on Chris Pearsons blog, Pearsonified.com and started to comment on it. After two paragraphs I realized this would make a better post for today than a comment on a 3 year old blog post.

It may just be me, but I think those prices are too low coming from Chris Pearson. He bases @ $1500 for a blog design (granted it’s without the bells and whistles). Maybe an out of school design student or something can base like that, or an individual freelancer, but professional companies cannot. I know people who charge 1500+ just for ONE LAYOUT IN PSD, NOT EVEN CODED IN XHTML/CSS (and they are not hurting for work what so ever).

You get what you pay for. If you think of your website as a sales tool, and you want a professional image that sells- is $4,000 really too much?

What if that great usable design captures 20 new clients a year that your old design wouldn’t have?

Let’s say those 20 new clients are worth $600 each to you…basic math 600×20 = $12,000….

So, your $4,000 investment brings you $12,000 and you complain about the price? ROI people. Google it.

I hate when clients come in and want something for nothing. I don’t go to their store and ask them to sell me everything for an 80% discount or give it to me for free. Why should they take our service for granted? Think about everything that truly goes into your design. Here are a couple things (of many) that a designer/developer has to do:

• Learn how to code at the very least XHTML & CSS (many of whom had to go to school to do it, or sacrifice their free time to learn it while working something else)
• Be naturally creative (see talent) or learn color theory, usability basics, etc etc etc
• Deal with the concept, design, revisions, talking on the phone, emails, coding, deployment, corrections, bugs, fixes, the list goes on and on.

That’s the low end of what goes into a design, now bring in a professional company that has employees, tax issues to deal with, etc this stuff stacks up. Just like most products, the cost is passed to the customer. If we worked for scraps we wouldn’t make any money and we would be out of business before we knew it.

One more note, the most successful clients we come across are the ones that are willing to INVEST in their business. They understand what it takes and are willing to do it.

They want to win.

PS: If you are wondering why I am writing this post and sitting on a free theme from WooThemes, it is because I really like this design and it is my personal blog that has no intentions of being monetized.