Donald hired me to create a simple, informative site from the ground up. He had a clear vision and all the content I needed to get started. He had a color scheme in mind, his logo ready to go and the basic layout of the site was worked out in a one hour session the first time we met. After that I checked in with him as things progressed, created images for the homepage slider, added some design touches and in no time he was up and running with a new, beautiful site.
If you’re looking to keep your budget low, having as much of your content organized, copyedited, and ready to go is your best defense against high prices. Keep in mind, the more customization you want, the higher your cost… but the better your clients. If you have a site that looks like a cookie cutter WordPress theme with little customization other than your own graphics and color scheme, it’ll look stale. Small updates/touches can really give you that extra umph that clients notice (or just react to subconsciously). There’s definitely a balance between budget and beauty.
