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RE: Question about price quotes and time estimates
Subject:RE: Question about price quotes and time estimates From:"Connie Giordano" <connie -at- therightwordz -dot- com> To:<dvora -at- tech-challenged -dot- com> Date:Mon, 11 May 2009 17:05:38 -0400
Deborah,
One alternate way to do this is to quote a per page rate, rather than an
hourly rate. I will do this when I don't have a good feel for how much
written content they really need, if they're expecting visuals, or if they
need well-researched and tested links. This allows a little more leeway in
trying to figure out a timeframe for the research, testing, rewrite work you
probably do on your own, in addition to the 10 minutes it might take to
actually write the copy.
I'll quote an even higher per-page rate when they don't know how much or
exactly what they need, but are working under the assumption that you'll do
good work for those crazy, low-balled seo-optimized article rates. I'll
also give them either one or two revisions, and then anything else is billed
at the hourly rate.
Regards,
Connie P. Giordano
The Right Words, LLC
Communications & Information Design
"It's kind of fun to do the impossible." - Walt Disney
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+connie=therightwordz -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+connie=therightwordz -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Deborah Hemstreet
Sent: Monday, May 11, 2009 2:28 PM
To: dvora -at- tech-challenged -dot- com
Cc: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: Question about price quotes and time estimates
Deborah Hemstreet wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> For technical writing time estimates: I've been taught that the
> standard for a new page of writing is approximately 5 hours of work
> per page.
>
> How does this estimate change when dealing with web-page writing, say
> 300 words, 15 pages, and I would need to research much of the
> information before doing the writing? It seems to me that maybe 5
> hours is a bit much, but I don't know.
>
> I was advised that the person wants 15 web pages, no more than 300
> words per page, written within 15-20 hours. Does this seem reasonable
> to you? What if I am only marginally familiar with the subject matter?
> That is, I know what it's about, but I would have to invest time to
> write something better. I've always been told that less is more - in
> quality and in time.
>
> I ask because I was asked to provide a quote for a website. The person
> wants me to base everything on existing material, but to avoid
> plagiarism, I would, essentially need to rewrite everything. I would
> need to spend time researching the subject matter. It is a topic I've
> always been interested in, so I don't mind. But I couldn't do my own
> website content in 15-20 hours...
>
> What do you think? Am I out to lunch? Do you have any suggestions?
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Deborah
>http://www.tech-challenged.com
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solution. Author in Doc-To-Help's XML-based editor, Microsoft Word or
HTML and publish to the Web, Help systems or printed manuals. http://www.doctohelp.com
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
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