What to charge for WordPress site maintenance/updates?

[Roasted]

Hello friends. I'm kind of throwing a hail mary here and trying to get a grasp for what people in this field might charge. I'm an IT guy (proud to work in a K-12 school district with ~4,000 Ubuntu systems, btw ), so most of my side work has entailed fixing computers, settings up routers, etc. Small time stuff, but things that are easy for me to blast through, do a good job at, and draw in enough extra change to assist with diapers and gas money.

A church has approached me to maintain their web site. It's a WordPress site, already built, but nobody is available to update it with new events, calendar dates, etc. They say it will average 5-7 hours a week, and I am to name my hourly price.

This is where I start to get totally lost. When I do side work, I do flat rate side work, i.e. 75 dollars per job, no matter how long it takes. I hate seeing people get ripped off by the Best Buy's of the world, so I like to do what I can to assist people in a way that makes financial sense to them while still being able to draw in some side income, cause ya know, things aren't getting cheaper. At the same token, I have a wife and daughter. I'm a busy guy, and I'm beginning to value my time with them that much more. If it makes financial sense for the family to venture into a side job, I'll do it, but I hate to miss out on precious moments for a few bucks. That being said, WordPress (and web related stuff in general) is a thing of beauty, as I can do that from home, making this whole setup more attractive.

But I'm still at a bit of a loss for that magic number. 20? 50? 90? I know WordPress very well (we use it at work, and my side job web site is based on it), but I've just never done *this* as part of a side job.

I know it's kind of a loaded question with a ton of variables that may sway the magic number around, but with the above info in mind, anybody have any insight on what you feel is a sensible price?

[Habitual]

They say it will average 5-7 hours a week, and I am to name my hourly price.

You and I know that this is what it may take "them" or someone with lesser experience to do the same task(s).

What takes them 5-7 hours may only take you or I one hour.

I'd say let your conscious be your guide but don't cut yourself short either.

[tgalati4]

Compute your hourly rate at your current job. Then use a multiplier like 1.1 to 2.0 depending on the Agony Units. If you belong to the church, then you may charge less, but does it make sense to charge less than your current 9-5 job? If you have to work weekends, then you might want to charge more, because weekend time is precious for most people.

Use gnotime or similar to track the hours that you spend. You can then generate a log report and use that as an attachment to your invoice. After a while, the church will find someone inside to maintain the site because it will be cheaper than paying an outside service. The length of time that this happens will depend on your rate structure. If you are too cheap, then you will get stuck doing a lot of work at all hours. If you are too expensive, then you will get a few weeks of work and a "Thank you very much."

Congratulations on getting 4K linux computers in a school system. You should write a white paper on how that was accomplished.

[Roasted]

Compute your hourly rate at your current job. Then use a multiplier like 1.1 to 2.0 depending on the Agony Units. If you belong to the church, then you may charge less, but does it make sense to charge less than your current 9-5 job? If you have to work weekends, then you might want to charge more, because weekend time is precious for most people.

Use gnotime or similar to track the hours that you spend. You can then generate a log report and use that as an attachment to your invoice. After a while, the church will find someone inside to maintain the site because it will be cheaper than paying an outside service. The length of time that this happens will depend on your rate structure. If you are too cheap, then you will get stuck doing a lot of work at all hours. If you are too expensive, then you will get a few weeks of work and a "Thank you very much."

Congratulations on getting 4K linux computers in a school system. You should write a white paper on how that was accomplished.

I don't belong to the church (as in I'm not an official member), however I do attend on a semi regular fashion. They caught wind of me because my mother in law is a member and is an employee on the staff there. Likewise, my name is somewhat familiar to a lot of these members, as I used to do IT support for the school district in the area a few years ago. A lot of the members are teachers I used to work with, so you can see how that fits. They had previously asked if I would assist with the audio/video system, but the time required when coupled with the commute from where I currently live was a bit too demanding. That's where this WordPress thing shines, as I can do that after the kiddo is in bed late at night, right from my home office.

I think they've already exhausted trying to do as much internal work as possible. It may come up where somebody internally wants to do it, but at the moment I think they're a little stuck. The church is growing in size and technology, incorporating a nicer audio/video system, live service streaming, etc. They're growing faster than what they can handle. Given my relationship to the church based on some members being former co-workers and a close family member being on the staff, I think that sense of "internal-ism" feels like a safer bet than employing a total stranger to do this job.

I like your idea of using my current hourly rate and applying a ratio to it to come up with a round number. I think I'm going to use that idea and run with it.

About our district (not to derail the thread, but it's my thread, sooo...) - I'm not sure if a white paper exists, however my boss has done an exhaustive amount of work with presentations regarding the project. Canonical has a spread of our district on their Insights page, along with an excellent video of a presentation my boss conducted earlier this year. I like where I'm at. It's a pretty good gig.

[tgalati4]

Thanks for the link.

Churches tend to have a lot of politics involved in contracting out services. And they tend to grind you when you are a member and so you end up donating A LOT of your time to their cause--to the dismay of other family members. So, charge a fair rate and if the job becomes tedious, either charge more for it, or take one of their members and train them how to do it. Even a smart monkey can manage a WordPress site. You just have to find the right monkey.

It's important for you or a knowledgable church person to write out a Requirements Document (RD):

Call out the Explicit Requirements (ERs): What does the system have to do? Get input from several stakeholders. The church front office may have different ideas than the congregation that has to use the site.

For each Explicit Requirement, list out the Implicit Requirements (IRs). These are things that are not specifically called out (explicit) but are needed to satisfy the ER's. Frameworks that need to be in place; people from the church that are needed to provide content; approval of changes from the church leadership board, etc.

The RD could be several pages long. And this is from a simple request: "We are looking for someone to update our WordPress pages."

I got a request from a County Fairground that they needed sound at the gates. I installed a quickie sound system at the gates. "Oh, but it has to do this and this and this." I wrote a 6-page requirements document after interviewing the stakeholders involved. That is what they really wanted, not the system that I installed. So now I am proposing a much bigger and more complicated system to address their Explicit and Implicit requirements. And I am using open source tools as much as possible.

The purpose of a requirements flowdown is to then help specify the system that will satisfy the ER's. WordPress may not be the best system for a growing church.

A big issue is security: What happens when the site gets defaced? Backups and restore? Migrating the service to Drupal on an internal server or in the Cloud. Integrating more audio and video content into the website. Live event multicasting. There are a lot of growth opportunities. How does the church handle their current IT infrastructure? Because you are touching their Web pressence, you will get the finger pointed at if anything goes wrong. And churches are quite good at finger-pointing.

So when you are working in a contract support capacity, make it clear what your contractual boundaries are. Since Web pressence touches all parts of the organization, there are a lot of stakeholders and they often don't agree on the right approach.

Wow, I got religion and politics worked into a support thread.

A Haiku:

"Update our WordPress."
"Hey, the site is down. What's up?"
The finger's at you.

[Roasted]

Thanks for the link. Churches tend to have a lot of politics involved in contracting out services. And they tend to grind you when you are a member and so you end up donating A LOT of your time to their cause--to the dismay of other family members. So, charge a fair rate and if the job becomes tedious, either charge more for it, or take one of their members and train them how to do it. Even a smart monkey can manage a Wordpress site. You just have to find the right monkey.

It's important for you or a knowledgable church person to write out a Requirements Document (RD):

Call out the Explicit Requirements (ERs): What does the system have to do? Get input from several stakeholders. The church front office may have different ideas than the congregation that has to use the site.

For each Explicit Requirement, list out the Implicit Requirements (IRs). These are things that are not specifically called out (explicit) but are needed to fulfil the ER's. Frameworks that need to be in place; people from the church that are needed to provide content; approval of changes from the church leadership board, etc.

The RD could be several pages long. And this is from a simple request: "We are looking for someone to update our WordPress pages."

The purpose of a requirements flowdown is to then help specify the system that will satisfy the ER's. WordPress may not be the best system for a growing church.



A big issue is security: What happens when the site gets defaced? Backups and restore? Migrating the service to Drupal on an internal server or in the Cloud. Integrating more audio and video content into the website. There are a lot of growth opportunities. How does the church handle their current IT infrastructure? Because you are touching their Web pressence, you will get the finger pointed at if anything goes wrong. And churches are quite good at finger-pointing.

Wow, I got religion and politics worked into a support thread.

A Haiku:

"Update our WordPress."
"Hey, the site is down. What's up?"
The finger's at you.

I like your style, my friend. You've given me a lot of information and realistic insight. Appreciate it!

[bashiergui]

You might talk to a few consultants in your area to see what they charge. You could pose as a potential customer or job seeker, or you could approach them as a new consultant lookig for a professional mentor. This isn't unethical or shady, this is how business works.

A reasonable hourly rate in new York City might be absurd in Wichita. Make sure whatever you charge is within the norm in your area.

Huge +1 to detailing the scope of work before you begin. A gentleman's unwritten agreement will probably lead to a lot of heartburn and blame game pain in the future.

[QIII]

Just my two cents: never do business with an organization you belong to, no matter how tenuous the connection.

There is just too much opportunity for hurt feelings and gouging (both ways).

I'd help them find an independent consultant.

[Roasted]

Just my two cents: never do business with an organization you belong to, no matter how tenuous the connection.

There is just too much opportunity for hurt feelings and gouging (both ways).

I'd help them find an independent consultant.

I think that's an area where I can be comfortable with. I personally don't have ties to the organization, just associations via family members and whatnot. There's a reason I'm not an actual member.

[tgalati4]

The Dude abides. See you down the trail.