Doing someone else's website for them

cally6008

Someone wants me to set up their shop website for them so they can sell online. I just want to check I've got everything covered, I've done information websites for people before but not a selling/ecommerce one.

Website domain name - not sorted yet
Website hosting - sorted (I'll use the same company I use if I dont pick Rentacart or Zencart)

Shopping cart software - have looked at Prestashop (possible), MrSite (not using), Romancart (need to look at) and Oscommerce (possible), Rentacart, Zencart

Payment gateway - Paypal would be obvious one, I think Prestashop allow Google checkout as well (cant remember), not sure what to do bout accepting credit/debit cards

Is a SSL needed ?
Is a secure server needed ?

OH says to charge £20 per hour and work on it for 3-4hours a day for (x) amount of days (until job done).
I think this is bit too much myself and am thinking more like £10 per hour.

bingo_bango

Don't underprice it. Assume an average of £20-25 per hour and work from there. Good idea to give the client an idea of estimated costs before you start as part of the project report too.

Don't forget to factor in the cost of tweaking at a later date when they decide they want to change the layout, and populating with new items (unless of course you are giving them a CMS solution). Also any hosting costs and other ancillary ongoing costs. If these aren't going to be ongoing billable items, it's important to build that into your current price, and I'd suggest giving them a period of 'free' support. After that, it's back to billing per hour again.

No point in you selling yourself short. You have a skill, and are therefore a commodity the client needs. You wouldn't expect a plumber to charge you £80 for a full days work, would you?

pendulum

The problem here is overpricing, not underpricing. As you have not done an ecommerce website before, you should not charge by the hour. This is because it will take a lot longer for you as you will have new skills to learn, and it's not fair your client pays for your inexperience. You should issue a competitive quote, a "going rate" quote, for the work you have been asked to do and then spend as much time as it takes to do the work (a lot of the time will be spend learning or fixing newbie mistakes).

pendulum

In addition I am sorry to say that if you are thinking of taking on this ecommerce project, which involves handling private data and possibly credit card details, you shouldn't have to ask questions like "is SSL necessary" - that just shows you're not ready.

Not many people do their first ecommerce website for a client, they usually make or part-make a dummy one to learn the skills first.

faevilangel

cally6008 if you pm me I can give you a hand (free advice) to what to do.

but as a poster above said, you obviously have very little knowledge about web shops, security, payments etc

send me a pm, and I will run through your options with you

jaydeeuk1

I'm setting up a website for the mother in law to sell crafts cards etc, easiest (and cheapest) to have either paypal or google checkout handle transaction side of things, but ability to accept credit card payment with your own merchant would look more professional (and gain more customers who despise paypal).

If you are creating a site that allows users to register, store order details etc then security should be high on your list. As for comments about not knowing what you're doing, well we all start somewhere. I would create a very basic site just to test out code / security / linking with payment gateways.

Ivrytwr3

don't forget to put in a backdoor, so if the client doesn't pay you can pull the plug until he does.

faevilangel

jaydeeuk1 wrote: »

I'm setting up a website for the mother in law to sell crafts cards etc, easiest (and cheapest) to have either paypal or google checkout handle transaction side of things, but ability to accept credit card payment with your own merchant would look more professional (and gain more customers who despise paypal).

If you are creating a site that allows users to register, store order details etc then security should be high on your list. As for comments about not knowing what you're doing, well we all start somewhere. I would create a very basic site just to test out code / security / linking with payment gateways.

It's fine for an inexperienced person to create a basic site, but to create an online shop. Leave it to the pro's. They will make sure your site is secure.

If you don't want to build it yourself, you can use a hosted shopping cart such as EKMpowershop, for about £20 a month. It's not overly amazing but it's good enough for smaller shops. They handle the security etc so you don't have too.

faevilangel

Ivrytwr3 wrote: »

don't forget to put in a backdoor, so if the client doesn't pay you can pull the plug until he does.

You don't give them the root admin controls You give them restricted access until payment