Why? Demand more! Don't settle! Accepting pay that is sub-standard pulls the industry down.
Unless the supply of programmers is low, demanding more money isn't
going to get you anywhere as there is a good chance there will be
someone willing to do the job for less.
There will always be those that will do it for less, but why should you? I was not suggesting that you "demand more" to get more than you are worth. My comment was that you demand exactly what you are worth. If you think that you are worth a few hundred dollars, go ahead and work for peanuts. There will always be multiple categories developers: sweat shops and professional studios. There will also always be multiple categories of clients: those that do not care about quality and those that do. My comment was only to suggest that you charge what the market will bear; the industry standard. Undercutting the competition is good business, but dropping significantly below the standard hurts everyone and indeed pulls the value of the industry down.
For example, developing an entire e-commerce package for a client for a few hundred dollars once will make it extremely difficult to charge them more in the future! Once you have established your price point, you must be consistent. What if another client hears that you did it for only a few hundred dollars. Do you think that they will accept anything but the same? You can sell a billion hamburgers and make a living or you can selling a hundred automobiles and make a living.
They key is determining the worth of your product or service and communicating that to your customers. Give them a reason to pay you more than "someone willing to do the job for less." Business is about perception of value and educating the customer. You can build a logo online, but it looks like crap. Many consumers don't have an eye for good design though and don't know any better. Thus, companies such as this (which I equate to "web design for a few hundred dollars") take advantage of this and deliver a sub-standard product for a significantly less price. This hurts the industry and makes hamburgers out of the beautiful artwork of professional designers and is very selfish. If these businessmen would value quality over quantity then we could both benefit "selling cars".
smime.p7s
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