Guidelines to Writing a Web Design Contract
If you are a freelance writer one of the most important things that you need to know how to do is create a fool proof web design contract. You want your web design contract to binding enough to protect your rights but not so intimidating as to scare off your clients. It can be fine line to walk but there are a few things that you must have in your web design contract.
Things That You Need In Your Web Design Contract
The first thing you need is a section at the top to put in your clients name. It is best to have a standard web design contract that you can use for multiple clients and modify as needed rather than try to reinvent the wheel and write up a new contract for each customer. Most professional web designers will have a single contract that they will use and they will not deviate from it as for the most part it will outline what their requirements are to complete projects.
The next thing is to be sure to include the full name of your business or business name that you are using including address. This is important as this will be a legally binding document and in order to be so it needs to have something they can tie legally to any action that might need to happen.
After establishing who the two parties that are moving into agreement are you need to then set out what are the terms of the agreement are. This should include a length of time that the contact will be in force for as well as what your charges and rates for services during that time period will be.
Include fees for any communications between you and your client if you wish to charge for this service. It is best to be completely up front about this right away as this can be a serious point of contention between you and your client. My suggestion is to stipulate that communication will only happen through email than charge a certain amount per email. This way you have a clear understanding and method to document your communications.
Next you are going to want to include how much you are going to charge for text, pictures and any other content that your client may include in your web page.
The last thing to include is how much you will charge for hosting and how it will be handled.
That should just about do it. Just make sure to document everything you can and be as forthcoming with your fees as you can.
