What should be site updating cost?

[Ammatunnur]

I am a new free-lancer. Can someone here give me an idea how much I should charge to updating/adding new contents/posts
to a site [contents will be added weekly]
Something like this: thehijabigirl.com

[Ted_S]

You haven’t provided much scope in terms of volume or what you’d be doing in an update or even what the going salary is where you live [someone in SF is going to charge more than someone in Romania]. But as the example you posed is a blog on the wordpress platform I’d suggest the answer is $0.

Unless you are being tasked with actually creating the content you should be training your client on how to access their platform directly, and should charge them for that. If they don’t have time to do this they probably don’t need a blog format in the first place and certainly won’t get any marketing win just because they post to one once a week.

Of course you’d charge them for other sorts of updates but that really involves scoping each one.

[Ammatunnur]

@Ted_S

You haven’t provided much scope in terms of volume or what you’d be doing in an update or even what the going salary is where you live [someone in SF is going to charge more than someone in Romania]. But as the example you posed is a blog on the wordpress platform I’d suggest the answer is $0.

Unless you are being tasked with actually creating the content you should be training your client on how to access their platform directly, and should charge them for that. If they don’t have time to do this they probably don’t need a blog format in the first place and certainly won’t get any marketing win just because they post to one once a week.

Of course you’d charge them for other sorts of updates but that really involves scoping each one.

I am from Pakistan and yes, here designing cost is comparatively less.

They don’t want to update themselves. They want me to add contents[given by then] twice or thrice a month. Contents include articles on different topic and some pictures.
It is not a personal blog. The above link I mentioned is a personal blog.

[Ted_S]

@Ammatunnur

I am from Pakistan and yes, here designing cost is comparatively less.

They don’t want to update themselves. They want me to add contents[given by then] twice or thrice a month. Contents include articles on different topic and some pictures.
It is not a personal blog. The above link I mentioned is a personal blog.

I can’t speak to Pakistani rates in the least but if you are simply adding the post on their behalf, uploading an image and insuring it formats well I’d quote something between 30 minutes and an hour per post depending on the format you get the data in and the amount of cleaning needed.

That said, my point was made towards business blogs. One of the great mistakes businesses make [which is really our fault for not educating them] is thinking that blogging success comes from posting. This is simply not true and frankly if they’re not going to put the time into building the site up, or hire you to do so [assuming you’re qualified], they’re better off putting their money into a static site with occasional information updates.

[Ammatunnur]

@Ted_S

I can’t speak to Pakistani rates in the least but if you are simply adding the post on their behalf, uploading an image and insuring it formats well I’d quote something between 30 minutes and an hour per post depending on the format you get the data in and the amount of cleaning needed.

That said, my point was made towards business blogs. One of the great mistakes businesses make [which is really our fault for not educating them] is thinking that blogging success comes from posting. This is simply not true and frankly if they’re not going to put the time into building the site up, or hire you to do so [assuming you’re qualified], they’re better off putting their money into a static site with occasional information updates.

Thanks.
I am not talking business blog.

[Ted_S]

@Ammatunnur

Thanks.
I am not talking business blog.

Well I have to say you’ve confused the heck out of me… You showed an example of a blog. When I responded about it you stated your client wasn’t a personal blog. Now you’re stating they’re not a business blog yet you’ve talked about posts about different topics, articles and photos as your updates. What exactly are you being asked to update?

[Ammatunnur]

It will be this kind of blog. igotitcovered.org

[Ted_S]

@Ammatunnur

It will be this kind of blog. igotitcovered.org

You may not agree with my points but my remarks are exactly as applicable for this “kind” of blog as the other kind of blog, whatever that is.

[Ammatunnur]

@Ted_S

You may not agree with my points but my remarks are exactly as applicable for this “kind” of blog as the other kind of blog, whatever that is.

You mean I should not charge ANYTHING for updating their blog? Even though it consume some time and owner can’t do it themselves?

[Ted_S]

@Ammatunnur

You mean I should not charge ANYTHING for updating their blog? Even though it consume some time and owner can’t do it themselves?

That’s not what I said although it is a great example of what I’m talking about. You read the first few words and think it’s my advice just as people start a blog and think it’s just about writing a few posts.

My comment was that if they’re not going to find the time to invest their blog it’s the wrong tool for them to be using. The term blog sounds new, exciting, an easy way to get visibility but if they can’t upload a post themselves they certainly aren’t going to find the time to engage in discussions in the comments, venture into other blogs, build a reputation or even know what’s hitting the mark to keep writing. These things are all critical to a blog actually bringing in value… Otherwise a traditional website is just fine.

The exception would be if they’re going to hire you in a marketing / expertise capacity to build up their blog overall but that’s far more than copying & pasting posts.