When people ask me what I do for a living, I usually say, "website publishing". But yet, they always misunderstand that.

Instead, they take that to mean I build websites for clients.

I don't do that at all. Website publishing means publishing content on a website. I tell people it's similar to a magazine publisher, where they publish several different magazines, each focusing on different topics, and they make money selling advertising space. I do the same thing, but on websites instead of paper.

Website design is when you build sites for clients.

But it's not like I've never built sites for clients. I built a site for a local charitable group, who've since disbanded. And I built a site for a local biker bar, which I still maintain. But I built them for free, and hosted them for free. I told them I'd build a simple website, and that I wouldn't be able to provide much support. They were fine with that. The traffic was light enough that it didn't cost my server any significant bandwidth.

Just today, I got a phone call from a gal wanting a website built for her business. She was referred to me by a mutual friend. This friend thought I did website design. In these times, I don't like turning down potential money, so I kept the door open. I explained to this person that my primary business is in publishing, not design. But, I'm still capable of designing sites and hosting them.

She went on to say that she talked to another website design person who quoted her a price of $70.00 an hour. I took that to mean website design time only, and did not include hosting. But she felt that was a very high price.

Since I don't make website design my primary business, I don't have a rate card. I didn't know what to tell her on that. But she said she would send me details on what she wanted, and would wait to hear back from me. I in turn referred her to one of my websites, and said she could look at it and get an idea of what she could expect from me.

If you're an affiliate marketer, blogger, or publisher like me, who never pursued the website design business, perhaps we ought to prepare ourselves in case someone asks about it. How much should you charge? How much support will come bundled into that fee? How much hosting is bundled into that, or do you charge separately for hosting? How much to charge for additional support? What is your expertise in HTML, CSS, PHP, MySQL, or platforms like Blogger, WordPress, Drupal, etc.?

I always knew I could fall back on website design should my publishing business fall apart. But I know other people who do website design, and the thing that overwhelms them is support. They have so many clients, and all throughout the day they get calls from them wanting something changed or added. It's always a bunch of nickel & dime stuff. I didn't want to have client calls coming in at all hours of the day. That's one reason why I liked publishing instead, you get very few client calls.

But again, in these hard times, I don't like turning down money.  ✓