Hi all,

This is my first post here and I am hoping to benefit from your wisdom.

I am entering into a project where I will be bartering my time as a webmaster (among other things such as research, marketing and promotion) in return for goods and services.

The other party understandably wishes to quantify the value of my services to arrive at a comparable value in said goods and services.

What I will be doing is fixing existing website problems such as broken links, updating "About Us" information into a more compelling form which will involve copywriting and updating images and design elements. This will eventually involve a site rebuild. Also I will be doing research in regard to the clients name being mentioned on web boards, what prospective clients are interested in and industry trends. I will also develop new site functionality such as multimedia, video, opt in newsletter and possibly a board like this one. Also daily maintenance will be conducted by ckecking the site's functionality, checking for dead links and performing administrative functions with regard to any mailing lists and boards that are added. There will also be a marketing and promotion aspect to this such as doing research on competitors, tracking industry trends and enhancing search engine results. I will approach my efforts in this project as though this site were my own which means I will spend more time with it than many contractors might.

I am certain the client will receive more in value than he will have to give to me and that's ok, it's an area of interest, something I would be spending some of my time with in any event.

But before he will move forward, I must be able to in some way attach a dollar amount to my efforts.

I know that often rates are arrived at on a case by case basis depending upon location, complexity of the work done etc., but since no money is going to change hands in this case the dollar value is theoretical.

Are there any guidelines that might help?

I would greatly appreciate any input that would allow me to do this, it is extremely important.

Thank you for your time,

Ken

This is a tough one because the rates vary by so many factors. You have to create a perceived value. You have to try and figure out what you are saving them in terms of time, increased traffic etc. What is that worth to them if they either had to do it themselves or if they didn't do it at all. You can find rates anywhere from $15/hour to $75 per hour. YOu also have to take into consideration all these tools available now that allow your client or your clients staff to be able to update the sites themselves for a low one time fee for the software or a low monthly fee. I hope I haven't confused you to much.