I wanted to see what other people thought about this. My experience is that in web dev, it's better to keep your hourly rate lower, just bill more hours. People will LOVE a 100 hour contract at $30/hr, but would freak out if an estimate was 25 hours @ $120/hr. Clients just can't seem to get past the hourly rate, even if the total project cost is the same.
As you become more skilled and significantly more productive, you'll find you can't capture this value because the client can not get past the hourly rate. And in their mind they can hire someone vastly cheaper who's 'almost as good'. The reality, as we all know is that the dropoff from a skilled dev is quite large.
I've found that overbilling hours at a lower rate results in happy, happy customers who get a quality product at a lower perceived cost. In the end their project is successful and they feel like they paid a fair price and I get paid what I'm worth.
As you become more skilled and significantly more productive, you'll find you can't capture this value because the client can not get past the hourly rate. And in their mind they can hire someone vastly cheaper who's 'almost as good'. The reality, as we all know is that the dropoff from a skilled dev is quite large.
I've found that overbilling hours at a lower rate results in happy, happy customers who get a quality product at a lower perceived cost. In the end their project is successful and they feel like they paid a fair price and I get paid what I'm worth.
Dishonest? Immoral? Curious on other's thoughts..