Putting A Value On Web Work

20 Dec 2011

Now it's the end of 2011, it is a good time to reflect on the year in business online. There have been great developments with companies like Facebook looking towards having a $5 billion income this year, and several Irish companies including Tweak.com looking to cash in on the next wave of social interaction with the internet, by offering something more to people.

Life for smaller web enterprises though has been varied. While all web developers, including ourselves at Smith and Wise have been very busy, a new threat has emerged. Devaluation.

For the first time ever, service devaluation has started to hit the web industry. Margins in the web industry were never huge after costs, staff wages and third party suppliers were considered, and now many sole trader web developers and those who employ others, who are fully qualified in their career are forced to work below the minimum wage.

 

Devaluation, The Problem

You may argue this is a sign of the times, but in fact it has much deeper roots than that. The industry has been "going for broke" for years with pricing, so much so that now many web developers find it near impossible to charge more than they are used to. This can be affected by referrals, which often arrive in the form of, Y said you charged X amount, I want the same thing. What there isn't a common understanding, admittedly by Web Developers, is that when this occurs, it is our own fault. We have devalued our professional offering to something which is simple, and lowered standards in the process. It is time for a rethink.

I recently heard of a web developer in New York who offered clients two options, either pay the amount something costs, even if it seems high, it is realistic and fair, or pay based on returns, e.g. for 1,000 website hits a month, this developer billed $100, for 10,000 hits a month, this developer billed $300 a month. This isn't actually a bad idea, because it is returning to a service based model.

 

At Your Service

Web Development is a Service, as web developers, we need to start treating it that way. It is often noted how companies must offer something different to demand the prices they charge. I agree with this.

You see, if you offer a website, and yearly hosting and a domain name, you are really just supplying a product. If you scale this up to offer hints and tips, additional addons, free advice when needed and always technical support, within reason, when needed it is difficult to go wrong.

Giving that extra mile is what defines a web developer, a web agency or even a multinational software vendor. In the days of prepackaged and build your own websites (which often get the blame for devaluation), it is important that as an industry we continue to define ourselves as different, as something that is needed to perform well in business.

Byron Smith, Agency Director (& Web Developer) - Smith and Wise

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