Originally Posted by Josh.UK Very good post, and for people who dont think someone would pay $12k+ for a site. $12k is nothing to a medium size company.

While I agree, I would say that $12k for a 5 page site (once again depending on the site) I definately pushing the boundries.

I did a project in school with an awesome team that went on to win national awards and received a fair amount of recognition. It took about 700 hours to build.

I learned a valuable lesson a long time ago at an interactive interview using this project as a showpiece. The employer (whom I went on to work for for 3 years) asked how long the project took. I said about 600 hours in total between the rest of the team. The employer told me, get it down to 150 hours and you would actually have a client willing to pay for it.

80/20 rule was learned very quickly that day.

That said, really good post!