Designers......
 

Why do you give your work away?

I read all over this board about how cheap some of you work. Do you not have any pride? Are you too new to the field you have chosen? Do you still live at home with mom and dad paying your bills?

Why?

Christ... I remember when freelancers charges 75.00 and up per hour.... Hell... I was undercutting with 65.00 per hour.... but NEVER anything this low.... How do you pay your bills with pennies?

Just surious.

I guess some designers think the only way they can bring in a good bunch of new customers is by dropping their prices to rock bottom. Are there any particular designers you are talking about here? The best ones i've seen don't charge pennies.

No... no one in particular... Just an observation from seeing all thee poss from people looking for designers.

I stoped responding... I cannot compete with them.... and I will not (cannot, have too many bills) work for free (or that cheap).

Personally... to me... if a person is too cheap.. that means they either do shitty work... or they are scamming you.

Weren't you one of these low ball designers at one time?
I could be wrong, but I could swear it was you:-)

The way I see it is there will always be a market for low ball/low quality designers

As a designer who's been in the biz for over 5 years... I've realized this much about clients.

Serious ones, with serious businesses will pay a fair price and sometimes will even offer you top dollar for your work.

The people who just accept the rock bottom prices, or set out to get the cheapest design are usually new business people, or simply can't afford a real design firm or experienced designer.

The only thing I can say is, some of the designers on the board SHOULD be charing next to nothing for their designs because they lack quality... but those of you designers who know what you're doing and have quality work you should consider raising your prices because people WILL pay for value.

one word for ya:

outsourcing

what kind of bullshit is that? What if the person charging those low prices live in a country where 1k/month is enough to live a luxury life?

No... not me... I may have tried t under bid someone once or twice... but it was a real... real slow week. Other than that... I am a flat 45.00 per hour billed at 15 min. increments down from 65.00 due to the economy.

No, you're right... keep forgetting there are people from all over here. sorry. But I think that statement would hold true for those that live int he states.

Read this about the subject: http://www.graphicpush.com/articles/wormhole.shtml