Hey Jackie I agree with you and think maybe I just didn't explain myself properly.
A guy in high school who has made a site for his uncle and one for his soccer team is not going to be able to charge the same rate as someone who has been developing site professionally for a number of years. I completely agree with that point: rate should be based on "quality of workmanship". This covers any service industry; architects, doctors, tilers, masseurs and web developers. But a developer's rate should be based on a broad range of factors, from the ability to guide the client through the process of designing a solution that fits their requirements through to the ability to implement the design effectively using whatever technologies are suitable. Web standards are a small but significant aspect of this and web standards are not always the right fit for every client. The idea that you can charge more for a site because it validates is missing the point entirely. Your site might be better than the one created by "export to web" from photoshop, but standards probably have very little to do with this difference. I'm sitting here now after work has officially finished and I'll be here for a while yet. Its not an exceptional day, I spend a lot of time outside of work hours learning. Tonight I might learn something that I don't know now and I might end up using that in a site I build tomorrow, but should I charge more for it? No way. The site might be of a slightly higher quality and all of these incremental changes in quality may add up to more happy clients and better sites in a portfolio. One day this might all add up to the point where I (or my accountant) realise that I can safely increase my rate. Or it might result in me winning a job because of my "standards" experience that I wouldn't have otherwise got. There's my reward. But until then I'll keep it where it is and keep learning how to build better sites. Knowledge of standards is very important but if you go to Bob's Pizza shop and think you can explain why you are 20% more expensive than that guy down the street by telling him the site you make will validate you're in for a rude surprise. Cheers Mark ***************************************************** The discussion list for http://webstandardsgroup.org/ See http://webstandardsgroup.org/mail/guidelines.cfm for some hints on posting to the list & getting help *****************************************************
