[person4659]

So, I haven't been on here for a while now, but I have been very busy.

I received an inquiry from someone today about making a website for them.
They were setting up a new business which allows people to store web based property such as email accounts, online shopping accounts, paypal detail; etc...So that if you were to die or become ill, a family member or friend would be able to easily manage there online accounts.
Sounds like an interesting idea but isn't straight forward. They gave me this example to explain further http://legacylocker.com/

So, im intrigued as to what the folks over here would charge for such a site, as when i gave him my quote for around £400-500, he said that it was too high and that another freelancer had agreed to do it for £129.

Thats Gumtree for ya *facepalm*

This post has been edited by person4659: 07 January 2012 - 03:35 PM

[MikeChipshop]

Tell him to contact you again when he is taking his own business more seriously.

[brightonmike]

He wants to emulate that site above for £129?

Lol, what planet are these people on. Beyond stupid.

But to be honest I don't see how you can quote him anyway. A site like that would take months to build and would require a team of people with in-depth knowledge of security systems. You couldn't just make that in Wordpress or whatever.

Add probably another two (maybe even three...) 0s onto your quote and I'll assemble you a team of expert professionals able to create such a system and I'll deliver the final product November....

This post has been edited by brightonmike: 07 January 2012 - 04:04 PM

[brightonmike]

Quote

We use multiple 512-bit hash keys, based off different points, in combination with 256-bit encryption on the dataset. To increase the level of security the dataset is then encrypted over 1000 times. Hash keys are not stored in the database, so even in the event of a compromised database, your encrypted data is both secure and redundant.

Data from the client computer is passed over 256-bit encrypted SSL into our own custom hashing system where it is immediately encrypted and then stored in our database.

Yeah, stuff like that doesn't happen for £200.

[person4659]

haha i know, i told him that it would be a complex project and that he should contact an agency. I recommended a good one too him as well :/ But to be honest the people that regularly advertise on gumtree with things like £99 for a CMS 5 page website are just idiots that are depriving a specialist field of work. I have looked at some of their websites and they are stock sites with the default images in the slideshows with lots of smiling and false promises.

makes me LOL!

[brightonmike]

Well to be honest you can just smile to yourself, knowing that this guys business was a complete and utter failure the very second he thought of it

[person4659]

brightonmike, on 07 January 2012 - 04:10 PM, said:

Well to be honest you can just smile to yourself, knowing that this guys business was a complete and utter failure the very second he thought of it

Amen!

[BlueDreamer]

For £129 I could do a couple of hours consultation over the phone

[MikeChipshop]

I guess this guys also not to bothered about security either.

[person4659]

Clearly not as an SSL is going to cost you 1k upwards....good luck fella is what i say

[oakleaves]

person4659, on 07 January 2012 - 07:53 PM, said:

an SSL is going to cost you 1k upwards....

Really?! That's news to me

[person4659]

oakleaves, on 07 January 2012 - 07:59 PM, said:

Really?! That's news to me

VeriSign 256bit ones would...woudln't they?

http://www.verisign.....html?tid=a_box

[brightonmike]

You can get them cheaper, but I would imagine with something like this you would want a decent security setup so £1kish sounds realistic to me.

If you were just a basic ecommerce or whatever though you might get a cheaper one, I've seen them for £100ish a year.

[MikeChipshop]

Just to answer the original question which i think i didn't actually do... I wouldn't quote for this as it wouldn't be financially viable for me to take this project on myself.
What i would do however is liaise with the client on behalf of an agency i work with and have the agency take it on with me as both front end developer and contract manager.

[oakleaves]

SSL - http://www.globalsig...-ssl/index.html

Project - I refuse to deal with customers with unrealistic budgets. It is a good indication as to the type of client behind the project, ie one that you probably would not enjoy working for.

Web design is a two-way street, and having the right type of client is more important to me than anything else.

The question you need to ask yourself is this:- why are you attracting the type of clients that want the earth for peanuts? Perhaps you need to have another look at your marketing and business strategy (although to be fair, we all get them from time to time).

This post has been edited by oakleaves: 08 January 2012 - 12:33 PM

[person4659]

Believe me, i don't aim for people like this. But when i get an inquiry i do like to reply to them...Its because i sometimes post ads on gumtree (which is free) so the people you typically get are time wasters who want to give you the stale cheese sandwich they have been sitting on all week for a website. But every now and again you do get soemone who is serious, which is why i post there from time to time.

[MMMedia]

person4659, on 07 January 2012 - 03:23 PM, said:

So, I haven't been on here for a while now, but I have been very busy.

I received an inquiry from someone today about making a website for them.
They were setting up a new business which allows people to store web based property such as email accounts, online shopping accounts, paypal detail; etc...So that if you were to die or become ill, a family member or friend would be able to easily manage there online accounts.
Sounds like an interesting idea but isn't straight forward. They gave me this example to explain further http://legacylocker.com/

So, im intrigued as to what the folks over here would charge for such a site, as when i gave him my quote for around £400-500, he said that it was too high and that another freelancer had agreed to do it for £129.

Thats Gumtree for ya *facepalm*

I wouldn't waste your energy replying to them.

[batgranny]

I wouldn't do *any* job for under £400. If the guy has examples of Mr Gumtree's work and he's happy enough then there's not a lot you can do, but it sounds like he's trying to haggle with you or else he would have just gone with Gumtree Guy.

Stick to your guns, provide examples of your work, provide him with a short brief, a timeframe etc etc. The more professional and reassuring you can be that you will provide top quality work and a professional service the more likely he will be to hire you.

Of course if cost is his main concern you're out of the running. Don't devalue yourself by accepting work for peanuts or you'll always be working for peanuts because he'll say to his friends "Hire this bloke, he's really cheap!".

[MrBucket]

"You shouldn't waste your time on clients that can’t afford you. Instead, target companies that would see your costs as inconsequential to their bottom line. They’re not only going to be able to pay you on time but they’re usually a much easier sell and the clients get your more legitimacy in your industry." - quoted from this article

[Gibson]

person4659, on 07 January 2012 - 03:23 PM, said:

£400-500, he said that it was too high and that another freelancer had agreed to do it for £129.

£400 - £500 is in itself way too low a quote. That might just get the front end design and coding done. Let alone the back end stuff and the security stuff etc. as has been mentioned.

£129 is a strange amount - that sounds suspiciously like a quote from our cricket playing associates of who's native cuisine we enjoy daaahhhhn the ol' Ruby to me. Perhaps that amount came out in the currency conversion?

I wouldn't touch this with a bargepole, sounds like a Bermuda Triangle project to me.

[rallport]

person4659, on 07 January 2012 - 03:23 PM, said:

So, I haven't been on here for a while now, but I have been very busy.

I received an inquiry from someone today about making a website for them.
They were setting up a new business which allows people to store web based property such as email accounts, online shopping accounts, paypal detail; etc...So that if you were to die or become ill, a family member or friend would be able to easily manage there online accounts.
Sounds like an interesting idea but isn't straight forward. They gave me this example to explain further http://legacylocker.com/

So, im intrigued as to what the folks over here would charge for such a site, as when i gave him my quote for around £400-500, he said that it was too high and that another freelancer had agreed to do it for £129.

Thats Gumtree for ya *facepalm*

Your client sounds like an idiot, the developer who will do it £129.00, even more of an idiot (not an idiot, a total fool to be honest).

Just think about the type of information you're storing - people personal digital data, which has a lot of value. You're entering a total minefield in storing such information. Just look at http://legacylocker....e-keep-you-safe - that's the level of background security you;d expect from such a site. They have even been audited by 3rd parties like mcafee. What does this say - storing and processing the information is not as simple as quick form to enter your passwords in - there's a bloody lot of checking and processing going on behind the scenes.

Before you've even wrote a single line of code, you'd need to note the type of hosting required - shared hosting would not be suitable for this imo at all. YOu;d need at least a VPS (can range up to roughly £200 per month) or better, decicated hosting - £200 plus per month.

It's thern essential to encrypt in transit information using SSL. Again for the type of project and data this is, you'd most likely need an EV SSL which as said above, is a good £1000 plus per year.

All that is before any code, meeting, testing, reworking, phone calls etc have even been taken into account.

Ignoring the actual web design, (which of course os more cost in time and rehashing) you'd then move onto the coding. At a bare minimum you;d need to be encrypting information at literally every stage and only storing that encrypted information in your database.

Thinking about it even more scares me to think some idiot in their bedroom is going to be a project like this based upon £129.00 - 3 or 4 hours work at the most.

If anything, you've quoted too low aswell.

As said above, tell your client to stop taking you for a fool and come back when they are ready to take their idea seriously.

[rallport]

Gibson, on 14 March 2012 - 03:45 AM, said:

£400 - £500 is in itself way too low a quote. That might just get the front end design and coding done. Let alone the back end stuff and the security stuff etc. as has been mentioned.

£129 is a strange amount - that sounds suspiciously like a quote from our cricket playing associates of who's native cuisine we enjoy daaahhhhn the ol' Ruby to me. Perhaps that amount came out in the currency conversion?

I wouldn't touch this with a bargepole, sounds like a Bermuda Triangle project to me.

£129.

• No doubt some random quote from an offshore location
• Template used for design
• Quick form with a few fields to enter passwords - coupled with a naff login that is created some a beginner php tutorial
• No attention to security at all resulting in the client entering a total legal minefield if anything was to ever go wrong

Very scary.

Would loive to give the client a piece of my mind, as £129 is frankly insulting.

[Gibson]

rallport, on 15 March 2012 - 09:09 PM, said:

£129.

• No doubt some random quote from an offshore location
• Template used for design
• Quick form with a few fields to enter passwords - coupled with a naff login that is created some a beginner php tutorial
• No attention to security at all resulting in the client entering a total legal minefield if anything was to ever go wrong

Very scary.

Would loive to give the client a piece of my mind, as £129 is frankly insulting.

He could end up with plain text passwords too if he was lucky. He'd be getting it cheaper then Sony, right?

[MMMedia]

MMMedia, on 11 February 2012 - 03:03 PM, said:

I wouldn't waste your energy replying to them.

And I refer to my earlier point.

[Glowbridge]

I'm constantly amazed at how people's minds work. Are they completely incapable of prioritising anything but money? The type of people who will buy the same pair of cheap shoes over and over whilst complaining they fall apart / their feet hurt / the state of craftsmanship these days.

Boggles me noggin.

[BohnStudios]

I sure wouldn't store my passwords on some site that costs 129 to build. As a developer, I wouldn't touch that project with a 10 meter pole.

[brightonmike]

I'd imagine too a service like this needs its own facility. Or at least, you'd need a hosting company to set up your own hardware, and you'd need access to it, simply because I imagine a lot of the security tech is on a hardware level.

And that would cost, oh man, probably tens of thousands alone.

[rallport]

BohnStudios, on 18 March 2012 - 07:41 PM, said:

I sure wouldn't store my passwords on some site that costs 129 to build. As a developer, I wouldn't touch that project with a 10 meter pole.

I would do the project, but for the right price E.g. more than a couple of hundred squids

[nadlabs]

I remember a client a few years ago wanted a site/web service that was to store medical data, have VoIP and all sorts. He wanted me to do it ALL (security included).

I told him I was busy and that was a bit much (I didn't want to be responsible for medical data getting lost). I had previously set up his online store for a discount, so he asked me how much it would cost, thinking it'll be in the same region.

I told him if he hired just a network security guy the minimum he's looking at £30,000/year. He was like 'whaa?' - I was like "yes, IT isn't cheap".