https://idiallo.com/blog/18000-dollars-static-web-page Ibrahim Diallo Main Menu * [?] [ ] * Home * Blog * Book * Byte-Size * JavaScript * Video * Photography * About I charged $18,000 for a Static HTML Page I charged $18,000 for a Static HTML Page ... and got away with it. By Ibrahim Diallo Published May 5 2019 ~ 9 minutes read Fund this Blog Listen to this article. 0:00 0:00 Not too long ago, I made a living working as a contractor where I would hop from project to project. Some were short term where I would work for a week and quickly deliver my service. Others lasted a couple months where I would make enough money to take some time off. I preferred the short ones because they allowed me to charge a much higher rate for a quick job. Not only I felt like my own boss, but I also felt like I didn't have to work too hard to make a decent living. My highest rates were still reasonable, and I always delivered high quality service. That was until I landed a gig with a large company. Translated in French, Chinese and Russian This company contacted me in urgency and the manager told me they needed someone right away. Someone who required minimum training for maximum performance. For better or worse, that was my motto. This project was exactly the type of work I liked. It was short, fast, and it paid well. After negotiating a decent rate, I received an email with the instructions. They gave me more context for the urgency. Their developer left without prior warning and never updated anyone on the status of his project. We need your full undivided attention to complete this project. For the duration of the contract, you will work exclusively with us to deliver result in a timely manner. We plan to compensate you for the trouble. The instructions were simple: Read the requirements then come up with an estimate of how long it would take to complete the project. This was one of the easier projects I have encountered in my career. It was an HTML page with some minor animations and a few embedded videos. I spent the evening studying the requirements and simulating the implementation in my head. Over the years, I've learned not to write any code for a client until I have a guarantee of pay. I determined that this project would be a day's worth of work. But to be cautious, I quoted 20 hours with a rough total of $1500. It was a single HTML page after all, and I can only charge them so much. They asked me to come on site to their satellite office 25 miles away. I would have to drive there for the 3 days I would be working for them. The next day, I arrived at the satellite office. It was in a shopping center where a secret door led to a secret world where a few workers where churning quietly in their cubicles. The receptionist presented me with a brand new MacBook Pro that I had to set up from scratch. I do prefer using a company's laptop because they often require contractors to install suspicious software. I spent the day downloading my toolkit, setting up email, ssh keys, and requesting invites to services. In other words, I got nothing done. This is why I quoted 20 hours, I lost 8 hours of my estimated time doing busy work. The next day, I was ready to get down to business. Armed with the MacBook Pro, I sent an email to the manager. I told him that I was ready to work and that I was waiting for the aforementioned assets. That day, I stayed in my cubicle under a softly buzzing light, twiddling my fingers until the sun went down. I did the math again. According to my estimate, I had 4 hours left to do the job, which was not so unrealistic for a single HTML page. But needless to say, the next day, I spent those remaining 4 hours in a company sponsored lunch where I ate very well and mingled with other employees. When the time expired, I made sure to send the manager another email, to let him know that I had been present in the company only I had not received the assets I needed to do the job. That email, of course, was ignored. The following Monday, I hesitantly drove the 25 miles. To my surprise, the manager had come down to the satellite office where he enthusiastically greeted me. He was a nice easy-going guy in his mid thirties. I was confused. He didn't have the urgency tone he had on the phone when he hired me. We had a friendly conversation where no work was mentioned. Later, we went down to lunch where he paid for my meal. It was a good day. No work was done. Call me a creature of habit, but if you feed me and pamper me everyday, I get used to it. It turned into a routine. I'd come to work, spend some time online reading and watching videos. I'd send one email a day, so they know I am around. Then I'd go get lunch and hangout with whomever had an interesting story to share. At the end of the day, I'd stand up, stretch, let out a well deserved yawn, then drive home. I got used to it. In fact, I was expecting it. It was a little disappointing when I finally got an email with a link that pointed to the assets I needed for the job. I came back down to earth, and put on my working face. Only, after spending a few minutes looking through the zip file, I noticed that it was missing the bulk of what I needed. The designer had sent me some Adobe Illustrator files, and I couldn't open it on the MacBook. I replied to the email explaining my concerns and bundled a few other questions to save time. At that point, my quoted 20 hours time had long expired. I wanted to get this job over with already. Shortly after I clicked on send, I received an email. All it said was: "Adding Alex to the thread," and Alex was CC'd to the email. Then Alex replied where he added Steve to the thread. Steve replied saying that Michelle was a designer and she would know more about this. Michelle auto responded saying that she was on vacation and that all inquiries should be directed to her manager. Her manager replied asking "Who is Ibrahim?" My manager replied excusing himself for not introducing me. As a contractor, I am usually in and out of a company before people notice that I work there. Here, I received a flood of emails welcoming me aboard. The chain of emails continued for a while and I was forced to answer to those awfully nice messages. Some people were eager to meet me in person. They got a little disappointed when I said that I was all the way down in California. And jealous, they said they were jealous of the beautiful weather. They used courtesy to ignore my emails. They used CC to deflect my questions. They used spam to dismiss anything I asked. I spent my days like an archaeologist digging through the deep trenches of emails, hoping to find answers to my questions. You can imagine the level of impostor syndrome I felt every time I remembered that my only task was to build a single static HTML page. The overestimated 20 hours project turned into a 7 weeks adventure where I enjoyed free lunches, drove 50 miles everyday, and dug through emails. When I finally completed the project, I sent it to the team on github. All great adventures must come to an end. But shortly after, I received an invitation to have my code reviewed by the whole team on Google Hangout. I had spent more than a month building a single static HTML page and now the entire team would have to critique my work? In my defense, there was also some JavaScript interactions, and it was responsive, and it also had CSS animations... Impostor. Of course, the video meeting was rescheduled a few times. When it finally happened, my work and I were not the subject of the meeting. They were all sitting in the same room somewhere in New York and talked for a while like a tight knit group. In fact, all they ever said about the project was: Person 1: Hey is anyone working on that sponsored page? Person 2: Yeah, I think it's done. Person 1: Great, I'll merge it tonight. When I went home that night, I realized that I was facing another challenge. I had been working at this company for 7 weeks, and my original quote was for $1,500. That's roughly the equivalent of $11,100 a year or $214 a week. Or even better, it was $5.35 an hour. This barely covered my transportation. So, I sent them an invoice where I quoted them for 7 weeks of work at the original hourly rate. The total amounted to $18,000. I was ashamed of course, but what else was I supposed to do? Just like I expected, I got no reply. If there is something that all large companies have in common, it's that they are not very eager to pay their bills on time. I felt like a cheat charging so much for such a simple job, but this was not a charity. I had been driving 50 miles everyday to do the job, if the job was not getting done it was not for my lack of trying. It was for their slow responses. I got an answer the following week. It was a cold email from the manager where he broke down every day I worked into hourly blocks. Then he highlighted those I worked on and marked a one hour lunch break each day. At the end he made some calculations with our agreed upon hourly rate. Apparently, I was wrong. I had miscalculated the total. After adjustment, the total amount they owed me was $21,000. Please confirm the readjusted hours so accounting can write you a check. I quickly confirmed these hours. --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Machine Fired me - The Book I am writing a book! Join me in my journey. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Did you like this article? You can buy me a coffee. Share your insightful comments here. Join my newsletter [ ] [ ] Subscribe JavaScript is required to combat spammers. Follow me on Twitter, Spotify, or RSS Feed Next: Casually spying on users Previous: Celebrating 6 years of life On a related note, here are some interesting articles. Time to get to work, you sonofabitch Time to get to work, you sonofabitch There is something romantic about the tech world. A world where we still believe in pure beings born once every decade. The true programmers. The real programmers. I can name a few if I must. Bret Victor, John Skeet, Jeff Atwood, Steve Yegge, Douglas Crockford, John Resig, John Carmack. These are people I truly admire and think highly of. They are in my true programmers bucket. A virtual box I created because I have no real understanding of what truly makes then great, but I chose this label for the sake of keeping up with conversation. When isolated, the odds are always 50 percent When isolated, the odds are always 50 percent Years ago, I read this question on the web: Programming rite of passage Programming rite of passage There is a moment in programming where you have to make the transition. From incompetent to competent, from worst to better, from junior to, well, less junior. Unfortunately there is no specific time when it occurs. For some it comes very early on, for others it comes very late. Some never even experience it. But the realization comes suddenly and often it is followed by shame. That moment is when you realize that you are the problem. View all articles Comments(72) grammar May 15 2019: I had spent more than a month building a single static HTML page and now the entire team would have to critic my work? critique Ibrahim author May 15 2019: Thanks Grammar. Fixed. Someone May 15 2019: This post made my day! (I feel you lol) Anonix May 15 2019: Ibrahim, thanks for a great story. I believe it requires a lot of courage to talk about this aloud. P.S. I loved the audio version of the article, it's like an actual audiobook :) pi piper May 15 2019: fuck you, that is unreal, : ) Jeff May 15 2019: You must have Allah on your side or something. Ibrahim author May 15 2019: Thanks @Anonix. I always wanted to try audio but was too lazy. So I'm glad you enjoyed it. Michael May 15 2019: ... and got away with it. I suggest avoiding the "... and got away with it" lingo if this site is your professional presence. It makes sense after hearing the story, I have similar stories of charging more for reasons beyond my control, but the tone sounds a bit unprofessional to me. I love the story itself! OmegaMan May 15 2019: They paid you to warm a chair.... Happens all the time in the tech industry. Next time put in your contract that it is for a set project amount of $XX,XXX or Time and Materials at $XX(X?) per hour for being onsite/worked past the project estimated hours of initial project estimate; whichever is more. Ibrahim author May 15 2019: @OmegaMan and I warmed that chair pretty well. For good measures I threw in a free HTML page with it ;) elif May 16 2019: Someone who required minimum training for maximum performance. The designer had sent me some Adobe Illustrator files, and I couldn't open it on the MacBook. one of these does not belong :) Alex May 16 2019: Are these the same people running the government? "Let us charge you 1 billion to build a window in this wooden shed." Contractor4Life May 16 2019: I'm surprised you went from contractor to working for a company. I went the opposite direction, there's no way I'd ever go back. Aadil May 16 2019: This is hilarious! Great story man I really enjoyed it! Donald Nguyen May 16 2019: I'd like to know which company this is. I have some services I'd like to offer them. Jack Cox May 16 2019: This was unethical. You should not be spending that kind of "nothing" time and extra contract time without a written approval from management for the overage. Kris May 16 2019: This was not unethical. He did exactly what was requested and was agreed on. "We need your full undivided attention to complete this project. For the duration of the contract, you will work exclusively with us to deliver result in a timely manner. We plan to compensate you for the trouble." Jodie May 16 2019: I'm with Donald....love to know what company this was and see if they need anything! Anonymouse May 16 2019: Okay, I have to come out clean. I've been doing something rather similar for 2.5 years, at a US$1,200 day rate... At a large consumer goods company... global presence, global brands... And I do all my work remotely, from home. I've travelled only once to meet them, and all the rest, conference calls, emails and thats really it. Tim May 16 2019: For starters, good for you. I did all sorts of freelance jobs and the occasional super-creampuff gig was always welcome. You ALMOST feel guilty about the work-pay ratio, but get over it quickly. It walks a fine line of ethics. In defense of the author, he did what the cpmpany asked him to do. However, when this project went longer than 1 week, then 2 weeks, and so on, did he make any considerable effort beyond his occasional email to remind the company he was there? And if at that time he said "and the bill is adding up" the company may have acted more quickly? Do you feel the author would have had any recourse if the company refused to pay beyond the $1500 agreed amount since the scope of the time was never re-negotiated as the weeks dragged on? Yes, the company did the "right" thing by paying the full amount (and beyond!), but did they have to? It certainly would have completely crossed the line in the ethics debate if the author worked on other side projects while on company time. The misleading (though truthful) aspect to the article is the "gotcha" headline. Yes, the author was paid a large amount of money for a very small project. But also took up a great deal of the author's exclusive time and travel. The final rate worked out to $75 per hour ($21k for 280 hrs, not counting mileage, etc.) And that is before taxes, as the IRS still needs their cut. And it's not like the company reported you as an employee and offered a benefits package, etc. It was a relative deal for the company. The pay rate is fair and reasonable for the TIME, but not so much for the WORK. Another IT contractor May 16 2019: I once got brought on for a project that the organization wasn't ready to start yet. Still, they had me send an invoice for $20K "so we have something to bill against." Time passed. Six months, to be precise. Then I got a check for $20K, having done no work. I called to report that there'd been a mistake. "Oh, no mistake, we'll be starting the work shortly. Go ahead and cash the check." Well, you don't need to tell me THAT twice. It was three months before they started giving me work. The work took about $5K worth of time. Somewhere, someone probably got some grief for that... Billal BEGUERADJ May 16 2019: So you are proud of this and you sleep well at night ? I wonder what you would be capable to do as a banker or a politician ? Billal BEGUERADJ MassiveAttack May 16 2019: I can assure you that this type of thing happens CONSTANTLY at large companies. Perhaps not to this extent. The current very large company I work at never has employee/contractor computer on their first day. Once you get your computer, it is not fully loaded with the necessary software for developers. This process typically accounts for 3+ days. People frequently hide behind emails and don't respond for project artifacts and questions. Then you follow-up with them face-to-face and they want you to repeat the email content to them. That often leads to them requesting a meeting, for which everyone invited are not available for multiple days. Meanwhile people just sit around warming a seat and eating free food. I could go on and on about how much money is wasted. Kendrick Von Ledet May 16 2019: Nice, now get some stock options, BTC and ETH!!! Freelance Web Designer May 17 2019: I hate reading and I get bored very easily, but somehow you got me hooked till the end! I am only starting and one of the things I'm not looking forward is working anywhere else other than the comfort of my home, I mean, that's why I left my 9-5 after all. I don't even drive FFS! But wow, that experience sounds like the kind of thing I would get used to! Large companies (especially those not struggling financially) don't really need to control what their employees are doing most of the time, money is there so they must be doing something right even if their employees are delaying a process that should be completed in one day by 7 weeks! Do you have many projects where you have to work from their offices? Or do you work most of the time from home? MC May 17 2019: And yet I keep hearing that the business world is more efficient than the government. Weird. Shivbhadrasinh Gohil May 17 2019: Very interesting read. I wonder how much they have charged the client ? for that single page HTML website! Vlad May 17 2019: When you received those .ai files, using the "I have a MacBook" excuse isn't "high performance" behavior. With a $75 per hour fee, I would expect you to make everything possible to get the task done as soon as you can. At that point, you could have found someone to export those files for you by any means, even if that could've meant that you would have had to contact one of your designer friends. But, oh well, you chose to enjoy your free meal while doing nothing. It's not that you don't deserve that money. You certainly worked for them. They hired you per hour and they haven't used you at your capacity. It's their problem. You were there ready to solve any given task. What I'm saying is that you could have saved them some money at that point. My 2 cents. Ibrahim author May 17 2019: @ShivbhadrasinhGohil the final client paid over 100k for this sponsored page. I only know because I was in the chain of email :) marcia wilbur May 17 2019: That was an awesome story. As a consultant, I feel ya. This ftw: "spent my days like an archaeologist digging through the deep trenches of emails, hoping to find answers to my questions." Albert F May 19 2019: Your story left me speechless. Initially I assumed you lacked the integrity to do the right thing but reading through, it was clear that you were more than fair. ShivbhadrasinhGohil left a comment that was chilling--the ending of a film noir where the bad guys walk off and the good guys are left with just the clothes on their back, albeit a nice $18000 shirt. Thank you for sharing. Ibrahim author May 19 2019: @Albert F. Thank you. Mathias Arlund May 21 2019: Great story! And thanks for putting it to audio. Medium should have that too! i get much more out out of the story when i hear the author read it out loud Ibrahim author May 21 2019: @Mathias glad you enjoyed it. I'm gonna try to make more of those. Niraj Shakya May 21 2019: felt good after reading your story Stefan Smiljkovic May 21 2019: That's cool. If the client paid overall $100k for the whole project, why not getting peace of cake as well? I had something like $8k charged for a static landing page in the past, and that was a good amount as well IMO. Daio May 21 2019: Back in the early to mid naughties most freelance "web designers" were paid large amounts to create shitty banners. Was not uncommon for an agency to have a 20k budget for a banner campaign. Reasoning being, this was left over in the massive budget for that campaign and had to be spent as it was part of the quote. So they just used it on hiring a banner designer. Fun times, easy money. Ian Thurston May 22 2019: Two lessons I learned from a professional gambler that are useful to consultants: Have a "stop-loss" point beyond which you down tools, and Have a "stop-gain" point, also beyond which you down tools. The first prevents you from letting your good nature run away with your life. The second marks you as a wise predator, willing to leave some breeding stop on the table. The ethics of this situation are actually pretty clear, and it doesn't look as if anybody in your client's company was paying attention to them. Whether you were is a moot point only you can decide. FrenchSam May 23 2019: Very interesting article ! I'm French, working for a local authority (French administration) in Normandy, and before reading your testimony, i thought this sort of problem was exclusevely french, but now, i'm "happy" to see that other countries, what is more USA, have same inconsistancies... In France, we have en expression : "Brasser de l'air" which can be translated (thx Google) by "Stir up the Air". We use this expression when someone seems to be overbooked, but produce near nothing at the end of his workday. nice May 24 2019: He He Daniel May 24 2019: If his work brings in $100k, then the value he brought was 5 times the price he charged. It is not unethical, immoral, illegal, or even questionable to charge for the value you are providing, and that value is only really known by the client. If your project takes you 300 hours of intense work to complete but only gives your client $2000 worth of value, do they care how much work you put into it? Will they pay for your time? They don't care how much effort you put into it, only how much value it brings them. The biggest trap we fall into is failing to charge what our product is worth. Does not matter how much time it took to produce, only how much value it brings to our client. Any other basis for charging would be unethical. Samia May 24 2019: This made my day. I'm so glad it was a positive story. Ibrahim author May 24 2019: @Daniel You are definitely right. Plus, in this case, they were glad to readjust my invoice to a higher value. Ibrahim author May 24 2019: @Samia I'm glad you enjoyed it :) Ben May 24 2019: For those who find this unethical: this is sometimes what you have to go through when freelancing for big corporations. I had a 6 month contract once at a famous computer brand. Took them 6 weeks to get my security access and computer set up. The other contractors and perm staff had similar experiences. Everyone knew this and the costs involved. A year later they got me working within 4 weeks though. Ibrahim author May 24 2019: @Ben It's one of those things the general public doesn't hear much about. The larger a company gets, the more complex some of it's part becomes, and as a result lots of inefficiencies are created. Bill May 25 2019: Has been published on the Chinese website http://www.sohu.com/a/... Ibrahim author May 25 2019: Thanks for the chinese link @Bill CZ Jun 5 2019: What an O.Henry's ending! By the way, may I reprint this article on my blog site and translate it? Ibrahim author Jun 5 2019: Thanks @CZ I linked translations to French, Russian and Chinese. If you have any other translations feel free to share and I'll update the links. Tom Jaycocks Jun 5 2019: Amazing read!! Saw this linked from a social platform and I loved it all! You have so much talent when it comes to telling a story. Ibrahim author Jun 5 2019: Thanks @Tom. I appreciate it and am glad you enjoyed it. Anon Jun 27 2019: I've had this happen as a contractor except the company tried to stiff me every time. Gaurav Jain Jul 11 2019: I'm surprised Dennis Walters Jan 3 2020: Quite interesting however these days things are quite easy with the CMS. Michelle Gerber Feb 10 2020: OMG! It is a speechless Story. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Ibrahim author Feb 10 2020: @michelle glad you enjoyed it :) Zoya Scoot Oct 8 2020: Me Too @GauravJain caesar Mar 29 2021: This post made my day,too.hah,thank you so much Web Developer Jun 8 2021: Its very interesting to read your blog !! Sam Jones Jun 21 2021: OMG! It is a speechless Story. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Ahmet Kara Web Designer Dec 23 2021: Hello, it is very interesting blog. ziffity Feb 11 2022: I am not sure how much they are charging for the website, but I would not be surprised if it is around $1k. The client must have been charged a fortune for a single-page HTML website. Freelance Web Design Apr 5 2022: Seems you reaped the rewards of bad project management! Ryan Gittings - Freelance Web Designer Jul 11 2022: What a story. Amazing read, even these few years on. Time will always equal money, have to remember that as a freelancer. Andrew Mar 13 2023: That's a crazy story, glad you got paid properly for your time and travel though. nouar Jul 9 2023: congratulations .... enjoyyyyy... hope it ll happen to me one day... dreaaaaaam cardddle - Digital Business Card Jul 27 2023: Very interesting read. I wonder how much they have charged the client ? for that single page HTML website! it hunter May 31 2024: Unfortunately, in 2024 this is no longer possible ! Anna Achen Apr 10 2025: Great Content. Thanks for sharing. Jim Morgan Nov 21 2025: This was really interesting to read. It's crazy how such a small project turned into something so big. I like the honesty in this story. It reminds me that simple ideas can grow in unexpected ways. Thanks for sharing. Alex Morgan Dec 26 2025: This is a bold example of how design value can vary by client and context. Interesting to see how much effort and planning went into a static page. Let's hear your thoughts Comment [ ] Your Name (Required) [ ] Your Email (Required) [ ] For my eyes only Your Website [ ] Would you like to sign up to the news letter? [ ] - Click here [Post Comment] About Me First of all, Wow! You scrolled all the way down. That means you want to know more about me. Well, here is a summary of who I am and what I do. I started this blog because ... wait I have a link for that too. Hey! Have you heard about humans.txt? Well I kinda liked the idea and did my own version. 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