Hi! I'm new in freelancing. I've created a program that scrapes data from a website, parses it, runs DB queries, and emails the prepared data to the customer for whom I've created this program. The whole program is written in PHP and uses a MySQL table. There's almost no front-end, it's just like an automated background process that runs with a cron job. I've bought and set up a domain and hosting for them (my cutomer paid it all). I got the core part of the program running after ~2 days, and it took me ~a week to complete the project including adding features and the testing phase. Now, I'd like to know, how much does this kind of project cost? The business operates in Silicon Valley.

If you already gave it too then -$0
Otherwise what’s 2 days of work worth to you?

Depending on which web site being scraped.
I know of a similar outfit here that charges businesses upward of US$25k a month for this service.

@C0D4 No, it's not like if I've already given it, I won't get paid or anything like that. I'm 99% sure that I'll get paid.

I don't really know the worth of those 2 days. Like I said, I'm new in this biz. And this is my first time that I'm doing this kind of project. Usually, as most developers I create websites from scratch that have regular features like signup, login, posts etc. You know, basic CRUD. But this time it's different. That is why I'm asking.

@bkwilliams it's a popular free advertising website. I'm sorry, I can't disclose the website name as per the agreement, but I think you know what I'm talking about.

If you don't know how to price your work, you shouldn't do business.

@heyheni ...perhaps you can share with him your experience to help :-)

He's right, though. If you've already done work without agreeing on terms (including cost) you've made a huge mistake. Don't work like that or you won't last long.

@sychedelix

i've done that many times on devRant it's getting tiresome but ok in short.

The "daily cost of doing business" + your salery + 15% contingency + profit margin for a year divided by 2016 hours = your hourly rate you have to bill your clients at least 60% of your time. The other 40% is used for for paper work, sales and customer acquirement, marketing, self improvement.

Knowing and earning the daily cost of doing business is key part to be a viable business. The daily cost of doing business consists of every expense you need to do business for a year divided by 300 work days. E.g Rent, electricity, computers, furniture, cleaning, subscriptions, software licences and so on calcuated for a year.

If you're successful after some time and can sell constantly more than 80% of your time, you should consider hiring a parttime employee.

@heyheni <== Gets it