Creating Your Website: Posting Rates and Prices (or Not)

I want to start by saying there is no right or wrong way to do this part of things. There are many arguments for and against posting your rates publicly on your website. At the end of the day, you have to decide for yourself what is best for you and your clients.

It’s enough of a debate in the service provider world that I thought we should talk about it separate from everything else on your website. Let’s go over some of the different options and why each one might be good for you (or not) …

The first option is to post your rates plainly on your site for everyone to see.

Having your rates displayed clearly saves you time when it comes to answering quote requests and emails asking how much a project will be. That’s a huge plus because no one wants to spend all their work time answering emails about prices.

Another big benefit of having your rates displayed on your site is you can add order buttons right on the page for quick conversions. Whether you’re taking retainer reservations or selling service packages, having that button right there on the page can often be the difference between closing the deal and having a bunch of fence-sitters.

Speaking of fence-sitters, having your rates on your site also helps people self-select based on their project budget. If your rates are out of their budget, they’ll simply move on.

The second option is to not display your rates, just list your services.

This option gives you some more flexibility when a potential client contacts you for a quote or project proposal. You might have different rates for different clients or for different types of projects and you can customize each price quote to the project needs.

No two projects are ever the same, so no two price quotes will be exactly the same. The downside to that is of course that it can be time consuming to answer all those emails.

If you’re not posting your rates, you can still add things like frequently asked questions about payment types and turnaround time, you can note your business hours and how you accept payment, and you can also note the things that you might charge extra for. This will give potential customers the answers they might be looking for without you putting out there exactly what you charge for everything right down to the exact dollar and penny.

There is an often overlooked third option; post your “starting at” or base rate and then everything else is dependent on conversation with the client for a custom quote.

Personally, this is my favorite option and it’s the best of both worlds. The rates are on the site so no one is surprised when you quote a dollar amount, you still have flexibility based on the project, folks can still self-select based on budget, and you don’t have a million emails a day asking “how much?”

If you’re offering retainers and general services you can post something along the lines of 10 hours virtual assistant services per month at $XXX with a quick bullet point list of what would fit into that package and what extras might be, and you can have a reservation button right there for people to click and pay.

If you’re offering a specific niche service you could have a base price package and then have add-ons to create custom package. Or maybe you charge a base rate for a package plus an hourly charge for the time it takes to implement.

You still have to field emails and provide quotes for projects, but the potential client will be coming to you with that base price in mind and the conversation will go much more smoothly and won’t be as time consuming.

Where should the rates be posted on the site?

I know you’re probably tired of hearing me say it, but there is no right or wrong way to post your rates. You can post them on the service description page next to each service, maybe with an order button, you can post a separate rate sheet page, or you can even post them right on your homepage.

Homework and Action Steps:

• Create pricing if you haven’t already.
• Additional reading over at New VA Advice: What to Charge as a Virtual Assistant
• Decide whether or not to post your rates and add those to your site where appropriate.

Recommended Resources:

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