I am a freelance web and graphic designer. I have just been asked to
do freelance work for a company maintaining webpages (updating them
with new or changed info, etc.), however I am unsure what hourly rate
I should charge them. I currently update websites for a non-profit for
a very low fee, however the amount of work I do is minimal and I am
imagining that this for-profit-company will provide me with much more
work. I will be working with Dreamweaver, and I have been doing design
work for approximately a year but I am very qualified when it comes to
this sort of thing (I am organized and detail-oriented, plus I am
currently being trained in web and graphic design). What is the
appropriate amount I should charge?

Hi! Thanks for the question.

According to your skill level, Dice.com through its surveys shows that
at your work experience with Dreamweaver, the hourly rate would be:

Experience          Salary
                    Mean            Highest          Lowest

Under 1 year         $43             $110              $12
1 year               $51             $200               $1

I got the data through putting choices within this form. You could not
go directly to the page but must put your choice in this form page
first. The elements I entered to get the data are the following:

Choose Employment Type: All types of consultants
Job Function: Designer
Web/Multimedia: Dreamweaver
Geographic Area: No restrictions

You may adjust the settings to suit your needs accordingly.

DICE: Survey results
http://marketing.dice.com/rateresults/conhr.asp 

I also found this article about freelancing in San Francisco. It’s not
a survey and not as scientifically drawn as Dice but you can see that
it’s in the range as the one above.

“Freelancing in the Web World”
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,1282,16201-6,00.html 

In another article, hourly rates were compared for US web designers
and they differ on the type of editor they use. Again these are within
the specified ranges as well.

“Average prices for Web page layout software services.  “  
“Dreamweaver  $75.00” 
“FrontPage $57.83” 
“HomePage $60.00” 
“PageMill $41.33”

“Selling Your Software Skills”
http://www.brennerbooks.com/sellsoftware.html 

Search terms used:  
freelance Dreamweaver "hourly rate" survey
 
I hope these links would help you in your research. Before rating this
answer, please ask for a clarification if you have a question or if
you would need further information.
 
Thanks for visiting us. 
 
Regards, 
Easterangel-ga
Google Answers Researcher

I've been doing freelance web design non-stop for 5 years... Even
during the dotcom craze, I never saw a Dreamweaver/graphics *only*
developer making 75.00/hour.  It may have happened, but it's
definitely not the norm.

I just did the same search on Dice (Graphic Designer/Dreamweaver/No
location) and came up with $60 mean for 1 year exp, and $38 mean for 2
years.  It's clearly not accurate - most likely because it doesn't
seem to be able to filter out high-end developers (e.g. .NET, Java). 
That $200/hour high is most likely a *highly* experienced programmer
who also has 1 year of Dreamweaver.

Most freelance web designers in my area (Dallas) charge about $25/hour
with one year of experience.  In my experience, if you tell them much
more than that they'll quickly find someone cheaper.

Also, reviewing this link
http://www.brennerbooks.com/sellsoftware.html
The first prices claim that someone skilled in Microsoft Word can
expect an average of $40/hour, up to $100/hour!  I have been showing
this to coworkers  (I currently do the website for Verizon) and we've
all been having a good laugh.

It seems clear to me that neither of the searches listed are filtering
*only* by that skill, but are instead returning all results which
include the skill.  For instance, John Doe making $100/hour with 20
years C++, 6 years Visual Basic, 6 years Java, 6 years SQL, and
experience with Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint is probably
showing up on the search because he has Microsoft Word listed.

That's the only reasonable explanation I can come up with.

I agree with you. I did the dice.com survey as well and although
helpful, it showed that someone with one year's experience charged
$45/hr and someone with 5 years experience ALSO charged $45/hr.
Considering how badly some people design within their first year I
would hate to pay them $45/hr when I know I can get better work for
the same amount from someone with more experience.

Here's what I am currently charging. I have designed from start to
finish 2 websites for a non-profit (one is their main website) and I
have been charging them $25/hr. I am doing a lot of HTML work for
another non-profit and have been charging them $20/hr. And for yet
another non-profit I update their websites with new information about
once a week depending on how much stuff they send me, and they pay me
$150/month. I am not highly experienced, however I would go as far to
say that my work reflects a lot more experience and design education
than is actually there.

The company that I may be doing freelance work for is located in New
York City, and it is fairly large (although I believe it is only
located in NYC and not anywhere else). So, as you can see, the market
here is very competitive. Based on what the researcher told me, and
what I have seen on the Internet myself I am thinking that I will
charge $35/hr for what they are asking me to do. The person who is
referring me to this job says that I am actually overqualified for
this work. Do you think $35/hr is fair or that I should continue with
my $25/hr rate? I am just concerned that they will (a) think it is too
high or (b) think it is too low based upon the work I will be doing
(updating various pages of their site with new or changed info
including text and graphics through Dreamweaver). BTW thanks for your
added comments! :)

Hello
I started web design (in a creative rather than programming capacity)
in 1996 and in 1998/9 could command $75 in the UK. Now in 2003 with an
oversupply of web designers this has pushed prices right down.
Witness the cheap prices that people are quoting (on a global basis)
at
http://www.scriptlance.com
http://www.freelancewebprojects.com
some are prepared to work for almost nothing!
UK market rate is now very roughly $23 - $30 the same for other
graphics professionals.
kind regards
lot-ga

Just to follow up, (I didn't see your response until now), I think
35/hour would be a great starting point for negotiations.

Have you already got in touch with them?  How did it go?

Thanks for your response! :)

They got in touch with me this last week, and I told them $30/hour.
The person I talked to is supposed to ask her boss and verify if that
is okay. She told me that she thought it was a fair price (apparently
her husband does a lot of freelance work, so I am sure that she has a
decent idea from him of what freelancers charge). I am still waiting
to hear back from her to find out if her bosses approve of that price.
Then hopefully after that I will start!

I have been doing freelance for about 6 months now and have been
making only 10$/hour! Maybe its becuase its a non-profit site and i am
only 14 years old!

I would have to agree with you. Non-profits are less likely to pay
that well because a lot of their money is made through donations and
fundraising. For example the three non-profit websites that I oversee
for $150 for ONE non-profit organization is constantly fundraising and
probably even has a hard time some months paying me $150.

Your age also probably has a lot to do with it. When I was your age
(actually more like when I was 15) I made minimum wage doing whatever
work I could and that was about $4.25/hour (can't remember exactly).
$10/hour for a 14-year-old is a lot of money. The positive thing about
web design is that eventually you will have other people/organizations
knocking on your door for your services. So even if you charge each
org. $10/hour, you'll still be making more money than you are now
depending on how many hours a day you are actually working. You will
also get better with time at web design so in one or two years you
will definitely be able to charge more.

Sounds like you have a good start! :)