My Fees

I charge by the hour.  As each website is different, the amount of work involved varies from client to client.

My hourly rate is AU $50 per hour.

I can give you an estimate of the website cost after determining your requirements.  Clarifying your exact requirements allows me to determine how much work is involved in completing your project.

Clients can save a great deal of money by providing me with their business-branded logos and content that they would like on the site.

Getting it all together before I start the project is the only way to complete it in a timely manner.  If I have everything at my fingertips I can have your site built and operational very quickly.

The factors that influence cost are things like:

• Amount of content, i.e. pages, text, images and videos
• Amount of website features, e.g. subscribe forms, email list integration, payment gateways, marketing features, etc.
• The amount of testing required to make sure everything works
• The number of email accounts that need to be setup and configured at your end
• The number of interactions I need to have with a client to complete the work

Therefore, the only way to accurately predict the cost of a website is to spec it out and estimate the cost.

Ongoing Work

Once the site is live, I am happy to keep the site evolving for you by adding new content or updating the site’s content as things change in your business.

I am also happy to add extra features to the website after the site goes live.

My hourly rate of AU $50 per hour applies for all ongoing work that you may require.

I can also provide clients with an estimate for any extra work before proceeding.

Maintenance Costs

WordPress sites need a lot of updating.  This is because the core platform and all it’s components need updating just about every other day.

To make things simpler for clients I wrap the cost of hosting and maintaining your site into one easy monthly fee of AU $100 per month.

For that I provide:

Web Hosting:

Your site will be hosted on my master hosting account with a major US host.  I prefer to host your website because it’s not practical to deal with a range of web hosts for different clients.  Also, it makes it difficult if I need to contact hosting support and the client owns the hosting.

The type of Hosting is cPanel and can be later transferred to another web host if required, e.g. the business is sold and the owners have their own web people.

Backups:

As WordPress sites need constant updating, they also need to be regularly backed up.  I back up your site when I work on it.

It is also automatically backed up every week with the backup files stored on a remote secure server.  I also download each month’s backups so there are two copies available.

I keep 12 months of backups for your site, not just 30 days worth like most other providers.

Backups are performed via a professional software program that I pay for.

Site Security

I keep an eye on site security and where possible work to deflect hackers and other people who try to intrude on your site.

I also keep myself up to date on all security matters concerning WordPress and take preventative steps to protect your site.

WordPress Updates

WordPress is continually evolving so the software and all of its various components need constant updating.  There are software updates available for it just about every other day and two to three major WordPress Updates rolled out each year.

I take care of all the site updates, so your site stays up to the minute and you don’t have to deal with any technical headaches.

Premium Licenses

I pay for three premium licenses that your site needs.  If purchased by each client the cost of these would add up significantly.

Therefore, I purchase Developer Licenses to add premium features to your website.  This cost is included in your monthly fee of $100 per month.    These premium features are used by most of the websites that I build.

I renew these Licences every twelve months.

Additional Costs:

There are some additional costs that are passed onto clients.

Premium Plugins:

If I need to purchase a Premium Plugin to give your site extra features I will pass this cost onto you.  Plugin costs vary in price from US$40 – $200 depending on what they do.  I will discuss these costs with you before proceeding or include them in your estimate if I feel they are necessary for the proper functioning of your website.

SSL Certificate:

Even if your site doesn’t directly sell anything, it should still have an SSL Certificate.

Having an SSL certificate encrypts all the data on your website, such as logins, and the information that site visitors complete when filling in things like contact forms and subscribe forms.

The current cost of an SSL Certificate is AU$60.00 or US$39.99

This cost is passed on to clients each year when the SSL Certificate is due for renewal.

Higher Level Security

If your site experiences unprecedented security issues, where hackers are unrelentingly trying to break into it, we can increase security by purchasing a premium version of the security plugin I use to protect your site.