Need advice from you experts...

[xingxang]

I need the help of the elite programming/webdev crowd. Upon request of a client, I've taken the following actions with their website that was sitting dead in the water after the Windows host got hit by an SQL injection exploit.

• Had the worm cleaned out of the code. The guy hosting it before backed the SQL database and home directory up and provided me with the backup.
• Transferred the domain name ownership from the hosting company to the business owners.
• The site was written in ASP. I moved the site over on to a ASP-compatible Linux server. After reworking the code, I got the site successfully migrated over and online.
• Backed up and transferred e-mail business contacts from the old email store to the new one. Remapped fields as necessary, what wasn't imported I had to manually edit.
• Removed Charon Cart shopping cart, set up PayPal for secure cart and checkout process.
• Registered the site with DMOZ, Google, Yahoo Search, and MSN Ad Center.
• Registered the product items to be readily indexable in Google Shopping(i.e. Google base)
• SEO'd the site, now the site's on the first page of Google and AOL using 4 keyphrases.

I'm at a complete loss as to what to charge them for the work. It took 35 days to complete, a lot of which was waiting on them to make decisions. I'd estimate it took 20 days to complete. I'm just starting into web development. What would you experts do?

[Rootstonian]

Bill them 160 hours at $20/hour

[pullmyfoot]

I'd say tell them $20 an hour and then give them a discount. Makes you seem nicer. You know, oh according to what I usually charge, you would have to pay $600. But, well just pay me $300. Makes them come back to ya

[xingxang]

Wow, huge difference between $300 and $3200. I want to be fair, and of course I want repeat business from them. I already take care of their computer/network issues, this was something else they needed. Rootstonian's reply is actually closer to the prices I've pulled up from various other companies online who do just this sort of thing. It seems like the common website that involves database, ecommerce, and no real cosmetic design work starts around $2K. I was thinking about showing them the quotes around $3K and discounting the work to $2200. Am I off base in any way here?

[pullmyfoot]

No as in, $300 was an example price. Lol

[xingxang]

Oh ok, lol! Gotcha. Thank you guys for your input!

[Rootstonian]

This probably should have been worked-out in advance as either hour by hour billable or as a lump sum contract.

I just hope this place you did the work for is good enough to pay you!!

[xingxang]

Just out of curiosity, other than legal means, how would you as a developer protect yourself if a client failed to pay, or failed to pay on the agreed terms?

[Rootstonian]

There isn't really any way but legally. You would sign a contract up front that listed exactly what you where doing or needed to accomplish and a payment price. Signed by both parties I would have another document that the customer signs and which states all duties have been fufilled.

They don't pay, you sue.

[exally]

or you take there site hostage and send them little bits of codes in the email