What is your process for giving a quote on a web-design project?

This an excellent question which probably comes up 1000 times a minute all over the world. There are so many different approaches to this that it explains why software metrics never deliver. However, a good rule of thumb is, estimate how long you think it will take and double it. Why? Well designing is never free, layout is not free, deploying is not free, meetings are not free, but you have to do all of those as well as code. Not to mention document the code (if you're smart).

So no matter how you break it down, in the end you still need to leave room for much of this. Don't forget phone calls, email, faxes, and mail aren't free either. Neither is gas or travel time. And don't forget Fed and State taxes, and overhead. Damn, by the time you make this quote you're at $250 an hour!!! But seriously, you need to think well ahead and give yourself some room. If you price it too cheap, it will show up somewhere. Either you'll lose money on it, or they will get a poor product or worse both.

Also, the greatest evil I know of in any software project is scope creep. Set your design in stone. Any changes will need to be discussed. Make mock ups, pencil and paper work great. Get the scope of your work as well described and understood as possible. After you speak with your customer, write up the proposal based on what you understand the project to be. Have the customer sign on off on it. Make sure you both understand that any new features have to wait until after the first go round is mostly finished. Otherwise, the old, can you fix this, can you change that, can you move this, can you redo that, will cost you dearly in time and money.

Software projects fail daily. Some for huge sums for the exact reason I give above. If the project is huge, break it down into small parts and finish them in order. Build on successes not on future possibilities. Always compare yourself to an actual contractor or architect. Those people won't change plans for any reason unless there is money involved, and for good reason. You don't expect another bathroom to just be drawn on the blue prints and hope it all goes well. You need to plan the plumbing, the walls, the zoning, the cost, the changes, the materials, etc. Just because software is a physical manifestation of a mental exercise, doesn't mean its free, its very very expensive.

Also, share your progress with your customer. Have them weigh in on your ideas and implementation. Also, think like a contractor, don't put marble floors in a rental apartment. Put tile, or carpet. Spend your time and money on what will get the most bang for the buck. If they need an order entry system, write it plane but with good functionality. You can always pretty it up later with CSS.

One last thing. If you are just starting out, if you can, barter for the job. Tell them, hey, I'll do this for you at a discount if I can have my next ten clients test drive your site, or talk to you about how we worked together. Don't price it cheap for no reason, get something for it. They feel they got a bargain and you get the word of mouth you can't buy with 1000 pages of advertising. Good luck. HTH

Until you get some experience, the estimate is going to be very subjective. Just figure out what you want your gross pay to be and estimate how long it'll take you. Use $40/hour as a starting point - if you're not worth at least that much you should be in another line of work. (Maybe $35, if you've never done a web site for money before.)

I base my quotes on the amount of work that will need to be done in three main categories:

1) Layout/Design

2) Graphics

2) Scripting

Time spent writing simple html/css gets charged less than time spent creating custom graphics and animations, which both get charged less than time spent doing PHP development or javascipt/AJAX work.

Ususally I base mine on the type...its functions and if theres going to be ecommerce and then go to design...