Is it okay $5 task?
By o_o
@oIoIoIo (63)
Indonesia
November 5, 2016 1:06am CST
Hi there. I want to know what you think about it, is it too cheap or okay? Here lets me tell you the story. I am a website designer working alone, currently handle several clients. As a part time job and also because the clients are my friends, the prices of my service are below the average range of professional web developers.
In this year, my career of web design seems to have good prospect. So I'm thinking to outsource some of the tasks. I posted the task on WordPress job posting forum, I received a lot of responses. Many of them were asking for hundreds of dollars for the simple task.
I will set up the demo site and provide the logo, photos and contents. What need to be done is to customize the appearance to make it looks good. Basic WordPress and graphics skills are needed. He/she will need to login to the site and upload the contents, change the font model, color, size and position the object.
It may sound difficult, but actually it can be finished in less than an hour. Because the website will be created using WordPress, which is very easy to use, and the site is less than 5 pages. I can do it easily, the reason I want to outsource the task because I want have new websites that look differently form what I ever created. All of my websites look basically the same, because I am the only designer.
So, what do you think about it?
6 people like this
6 responses
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
5 Nov 16
You have to remember that an hourly rate is not really applicable to jobs like web design and writing. Many other things are involved such as training, reputation, demonstrable skill and the going market rate, not to mention the fact that, in accepting your task, someone might have to reject other, simpler, tasks for which people are willing to pay more. The time involved in a particular task is a relatively small consideration but $5 for an hour's work is an absurdly low figure, anyway, for most people who have the skills you need. $20 or $30 an hour would probably not be unreasonable for anyone who has the requisite training and knowledge.
Even though you may estimate that the work would take you about an hour, what you are asking people to do is not minor. Anyone else would first have to familiarise themselves with the site, then spend some considerable time, which would include submitting at least one draft which you would doubtless want to make changes to before you considered the work completed to your customer's satisfaction. Four or five hours work might well be involved in the end, so you can't consider 'several hundred dollars' to be unreasonable.
3 people like this
@oIoIoIo (63)
• Indonesia
5 Nov 16
You have some points, I was and still a freelancer too. I do not want to pay cheap for freelancers. I'm a fair person. The problem is I do not earn a lot. Usually a website prices about $20 - $400 here in my country. I guess you may be surprised $20 for a website, but its true here especially for a newbie who just learned how to build websites. My price for a complete site usually is around $100.
For each changes of the appearance I'm okay to pay extra $5 for the freelancer. I pay upfront. Customers here aren't picky, they just want it affordable. Because I do not know the rate of others, I didn't mentioned the price in job posting, but I did mention I'm not looking for professionals. But the lowest price I received from them is not okay to me.
I checked Fiverr, some are willing to build a website just for $5. That's inhuman I think.
Now, maybe I will keep working alone.
2 people like this
@Letranknight2015 (51523)
• Philippines
5 Nov 16
I don't know. too good to be true, but then again, good for you to be earning that amount of income.
1 person likes this
@asfarasiknow (3341)
• Bournemouth, England
5 Nov 16
In the UK the mimimum hourly wage (compulsory) for a 21 year-old is £6.70 and £7.20 for a 25 year-old. These equate to $8.39 and $9.00. It is very hard to manage here on that sort of money and it is generally only paid for unskilled work.
1 person likes this
@asfarasiknow (3341)
• Bournemouth, England
5 Nov 16
@oIoIoIo The mimimum wage in the UK is a compulsory minimum for staff working for an employer, and is usually paid in jobs requiring fewer skills/qualifications. However, skilled, self-employed freelancers (who are outside mimimum wage law) sometimes set an hourly rate rather than a fixed fee for a task, especially when it is not certain how long the job will take, or where parts of it may have to be re-done at the client's request. When setting rates or fees, skilled freelancers here might look at how favourably or unfavourably the amount compares with what they might be paid by an employer in an unskilled job and try and get a decent amount in excess of that to reflect their expertise and experience. In the case of $5, as far as the UK is concerned, it's an extremely unfavourable comparison, even with our lowest-paid jobs. In fact, it would actually be illegal for an employer of non-self employed workers here to offer that little.
1 person likes this
@oIoIoIo (63)
• Indonesia
5 Nov 16
I ever heard but don't know much about hourly wage. How can it be fair using hour rate? For example if the freelancer say his rate is $10 per hour. He requests the payment of 4 hours but actually he just finishes the task in 2 hours. Also for unskilled freelancer, he may finished the task in 5 hours, but the skilled one only needs 2 hours. Is it mean the unskilled one usually received more money?
Hourly wage/rate is not common in my country.
1 person likes this
@oIoIoIo (63)
• Indonesia
5 Nov 16
I think so too. But perhaps because I posted it on web designer forum, the responses I received were from professionals. Many of them asked for $60 - $300, wow that's the price for a complete website service, not for the simple task I mentioned.
Do you know Fiverr? I ever thought to post on there but freelancers there usually are too busy with the jobs they've already have, while I'm looking for someone who have time and willing to learn and earn some dollars.
1 person likes this
@YrNemo (20261)
•
5 Dec 19
It would be fair for people who live in certain countries I guess. Different countries, different pay rates. (Your job sounds fun!)
