
Ask HN: How to convince my client to pay more? - 2bor-2n
I started working on landing page last week on fiverr. The task was to covert landing page design in html css with animation (mostly custom animation), and he told me if everything went well he would have more pages for me. He was a new client, so I charged $85 for this page with unlimited revisions. During the development there were a lot of things which weren&#x27;t final from his side and I ended up working a lot with a lot of revisions&#x2F;experiments for a single page. I even done some UX stuff which weren&#x27;t in the scope of this gig, just to please him and gain his trust.<p>Fortunately, he likes my work and is very please with me. This page is completed now, and we are moving to other pages. But the problem is, I put a lot of effort in the page and now feel like I am being underpaid for the amount of work which I did.<p>How should I handle this situation and convince him to pay me more for the upcoming pages?<p>PS: I am from Pakistan and link to the landing page can be found http:&#x2F;&#x2F;bit.ly&#x2F;2QrYKqE.
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gus_massa
> _unlimited revisions_

Unlimited is too much. Charge more and put some restrictions on the number of
revisions.

Try to read whatever patio11 wrote about this. For example
[https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consultin...](https://training.kalzumeus.com/newsletters/archive/consulting_1)

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DoreenMichele
Figure out a per project price. Define it in a way that protects against scope
creep.

Try to separate price from hours worked. If you get better and faster, the
same price per project gradually becomes a better hourly wage for you.

Clients don't necessarily know nor care how long it takes you. They care did
the task get done.

You need to have some idea how long things take and some tolerance for things
taking different amounts of time. Keep your pricing structure focused on tasks
or projects.

Charging by the hour when you aren't their employee is always all kinds of
headache and neither side is happy. The client ends up feeling overcharged
because they can't track your hours and you end up feeling underpaid.

Charge per task. Get good at defining tasks in a way that makes you happy with
the pay.

Expect to not always get it right. Be kind to yourself when you don't. View it
as a learning opportunity. Do some analysis of what went wrong and what you
need to do different.

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chrisbennet
If you can get new work (another client), charge more for it. If you have a
cheap client, get rid of them as soon as possible,

Cheap clients are bad clients. If you charge more, you will be more respected.
You will have more and better clients. And you'll make more money. :-) Price
acts as a signal. Think about how you would buy something that you didn't know
about, say wine; in the absence of other info, you would equate the higher
price with a better product.

If you charge less initially ("until you get your funding, etc") when you
charge full price the customer will not feel grateful at the deal you gave
them. Instead, they will feel ripped off by your full price. Charge full price
or work for free.

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2bor-2n
Thank you, guys, for all these useful comments. I feel like I have to give you
more perspective on why I bid too low i.e. $85.

First of all, I have only completed 20 low budget tasks on my Fiverr profile.
This client is from Netherlands and he is a developer himself. When he first
approached me, my gig was priced at $40 for a single page. He gave me all the
requirements and asked about the offer, after reviewing the requirements I bid
$80 and explained to him why I was doubling the price.

I am guessing he was looking for a low budget freelancer already, and if I
pitch too much for new tasks he might run away.

PS: I have 5 years’ experience in frontend. Previously working for a company
and recently switched to full time freelancing.

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mkbkn
Read the book - "Win Without Pitching Manifesto" by Blair Enns

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marketgod
The market is crazy right now. Take what you can and save it. Seriously on
Friday we lost some really important supports and we can see a horrible market
going forward. Take what you can make. You have to put food on your table.
With the number of EI claims in North America the contracts will likely dry
up. For now, make the money and increase your clients then you can charge more
once we get over this economic activity issues.

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eb0la
I _guess_ what you need is to know _in advance_ how much time, effort, and
earnings will involve a gig. Not just from Fiverr, but for anything.

Maybe whay helps is to _timebox_ the assignment: I will be available for
fixes/etc for... a week, maybe two weeks ? Also, having a ticketing system
might help you: it is very __too __easy to send an email from the phone to ask
for new stuff and you need to track time anyway.

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codegeek
You can tell the existing client that now the intro. offer has expired and for
new pages, you will charge $x/Hour with limited revisions. If he really liked
your work, he would still pay. If not, you need to find a new client and this
time, don't promise them unlimited revisions.

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wprapido
Charge more for future work

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2bor-2n
Yes, but how should I tell him in a convincible manner

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brudgers
If a potential client doesn't value your work, you can't convince them to
value it. No matter how good your work is, the client values it based on what
it is worth to them. A worse website might be good enough for their needs.

The only thing that you can convince a potential client of is that you won't
work for less than your proposed fee. It's hard to walk away from potential
work, but more volume of money losing projects doesn't make up for the fact
that they are money losing. And a client promising lots of money losing work
isn't worth keeping as an active client.

That's not to say never take a money losing project. Big established
organizations with ample budgets often have orbital rings of larger and larger
projects. The minimum overhead of working with them makes small projects in
the outer orbit produce small losses. But small projects are the route to the
orbits with bigger projects with obvious profits.

~~~
hkiely
Often times the only thing you can do is walk away. When individuals have no
understanding / concept of time or they simply don’t care a choice has to be
made.

~~~
brudgers
I think about it as business to consumer versus business to business. B2C is
about status. B2B is about lasting relationships. By default, anyone searching
for services on freelance aggregators is using a B2C model. Status can be
about spending lots of money, but it defaults to being a saavy shopper or hard
negotiator and such. Basically people with a B2B view of web design and lots
of projects already have a relationship with a design provider.

~~~
hkiely
People on the freelancing aggregators are businesses. It really often comes
down to being able to do what you can afford to do. When a client doesn’t
understand the time it takes to put together what looks good, often there can
be an ultimatum. It’s extremely hard when the individual doesn’t have concept
of time or design.

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bdcravens
Asking for more after the fact kind of messes up the Fiverr value prop for
buyers, and I think you run the risk of them reporting you to Fiverr if you
ask for more after the fact.

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mkbkn
I'd avoid Fiverr & Upwork as a worker. That's the race to the bottom.

