14 Invaluable Tools To Check The Real Worth of Your Design Work | Minervity
How to Create an Illustrated Cartoon Character
81,308 Views | 40 Comments

So, I decided to attempt to create a tutorial on how to create a unique illustrated cartoon character in Photoshop. It’s pretty straight forward and the skills you need for this is very limited as …

Read the full story »
Creative Corner

A series of in depth and heavily inspiring Graphic, Web and Logo Designer and Developer interviews.

Designer Apps

A resource vault of applications that would serve any Designer or Developer well to have in their arsenal.

Freelance Hub

A storage full of tips and tricks for every freelance Designer or Developer that wants to progress their business.

Geek Things

Every once in a while we’ll post a new geeky thing that might inspire you to go through the day with a laugh or a second thought.

Website Filter

A collection of websites that is sure to bring you creative inspiration and keep you on the edge of design.

Home » Freelance Hub

14 Invaluable Tools To Check The Real Worth of Your Design Work

Submitted by Richard Darell49,883 Views | 68 Comments

Article Title ImageThe value of a designers work is probably the hardest thing to estimate for any freelancer. Overestimate and you will probably lose the project. Underestimate and you can be sure that in time clients will ask you for free things later down the road.

In an attempt to get you as close to your real value as a designer as possible we have put together some invaluable tools to get get you in the ballpark of what you could charge for your work.

Used in the right way and collectively you can extract some really useful information that you can use to increase the value of your work and also see where your flaws are located. Gives you an opportunity to touch up on your skills in the areas where your design/implementation doesn’t match the recommended results.

Enjoy!

1. Stimator

Stimator
One of the most interesting online tool I have come across. It’s simplicity is truly impressive and it’s value is huge for any web/graphic/logo designer or developer. You can evaluate all your previously designed websites and therefor have a clear view of what kind of “buzz” your work has created. It measures linkins, traffic, search engine inclusion etc to evaluate the “REAL” value of your websites.

It’s simple user interface makes it a fun and ongoing evaluation of your work several times a day. The value of your websites can change considerably in just one day which makes it a really useful tool. You can create estimate charts yourself off of the values it presents.

2. Hourly Rate Calculator

Hourly Rate Calculator

Another way to somehow correctly estimate your hourly rate is to use Freelance Switch’s handy freelance tool. Its invaluable result can work as a guideline when you set the price for your next project. Once again the user interface is real easy and the different inputs required from you are straight forward. However, when using this tool you should be aware that it includes a lot of variables that needs to be estimated by you. This makes the result very dependent on yourself. But then again these variables are few and the rest is really just straight forward inputs.

It’s truly a great tool and its usability will keep you on track for what you can charge for your projects. However remember that when using it you risk the possibility to overestimate your rate and therefor lose the project to someone that offers the same services for a more competitive price.

3. Web Development Project Estimator

Web Development Project Estimator

When creating a full plan for your upcoming projects it’s important to be able to estimate its several design stages as well. This can sometimes be a tedious and complicated work. A great tool to accomplish that and to accommodate the previous two tools is “Web Development Project Estimator”. This tool estimates thoroughly the time and material required to successfully finish up a web development project. When the estimation is finished you will be able to save your estimation as a PDF document for your records.

This tool will for sure save you some time and also provide you with some nice and detailed documentation for your records. Again, using it extensively and solely can provide you with the unwanted loss of a project. Always make sure you have a good idea about what the client is willing to pay for your services and what kind of budget they have.

4. Website Design Price Estimate

Website Design Price Estimate

The previous tools listed here are the heavier artillery when trying to estimate your rates. There are some, more simpler, and easier tools to use when you want to get a good estimate. This tool will give you a good estimate rate using the most common elements of web sites. If used in unison with the other tools mentioned here you can create a solid and somewhat accurate estimation of where to put yourself rate wise.

There are several other factors that has to be incorporated in order to get YOUR rate. There are for example originality which is amongst the hardest things to estimate a worth to. If your “style” is typical for your way of designing a new website and totally original and speaks to a massive crowd you have a great advantage. Therefor you have to be able to somehow estimate the value of your “style”. These tools won’t cover that so always keep in mind to be modest about your way of setting your rates.

5. U2/WS Estimation Tool

U2/WS Website Estimation Tool

The very best  way to estimate the real value of your website is to use several estimate tools and then put it all together and get the average value. Some of these tools heavily deviates from one another and it’s sometimes hard to really know the exact value. But then again the real value down to the single cent can only be estimated by the buyer of the site. The amount the buyer is ready to pay for the site is the only real value you can honestly commit to.

How ever, there are some really useful estimation tools that you can use to check the progress and popularity of your site. U2/WS Estimation Tool is one of those tools. Use it to check daily visitor estimate, daily page views and also daily ad revenue estimates. Great if you want to know if your ads are making you the money you really could make from your ads.

6. Website Worth Calculator

Website Worth Calculator

To proceed with the website value estimation tools this one will use Compete.com and Alexa to estimate the true value of your website. Use this one as a guideline and not as a sole source for evaluation of your sites. As always the numbers are estimates and should not be used to estimate the company behind the website or it’s content.

When you estimate your site using this too its value is based upon the traffic and the rank your site presents. It’s probably more accurate to say the estimate is for your domain name and it’s popularity.

7. Ninja Website Appraiser

Ninja Website Appraiser

Another evaluation tool to check the value of your websites. This one uses Alexa and the number of backlinks from search engines to actually check how much your website is worth. It will present you with some really interesting numbers including Text Link Advertising estimates, Product Placement estimates, Affiliate Marketing estimates and Independent Advertising estimates.

The numbers you will be presented with can be used to evaluate the success of the advertising you have on your website. How successful you are in placing them and how much you “could” make with the kind of traffic you have.

8. CubeStat

Cubestat

CubeStat is a tool to give you an estimated value of your site using Alexa, Compete.com, Quantcast some other factors. It will give you, in a sense, the most accurate estimated value if you wanted to go with the average estimate. It will give you the websites rankings, number of google indexed pages, Dmoz listings and tons of site information.

It’s simple algorithm seems to do the job right and get you an average estimate as said but it could be really useful in plenty of ways if you know what you want to evaluate.

9. dnScoop

dnScoop

Tons of information can be extracted about any given site using this tool. The estimated value of your site when using this tool is somewhat low compared to the rest. All though the information you will be presented with is invaluable when trying to determine the success and value of your website.

You’ll get Alexa rankings, Inbound Links and Link Value Report and tons of other stuff. You will also be presented with an estimated value of your website which also describes what factors are used when estimating it. A great tool to page up your website success. Using it with all the other tools will truly give you a great estimate and documentation for your ongoing progress.

10. Website Outlook

Website Outlook

Estimates the net worth of your website. However its estimates are slightly above the average of the others. But if your out for a positive value to make you happy this one is for sure a really nice tool to use. But, don’t dismiss its invaluable information as it will present you with some nice information such as Alexa rank and backlinks. You will also be give a daily page view estimate along with the daily ad revenue estimate for your site.

A great tool for some essential information. Using it in collaboration with the other tools will present you with a full coverage of information that will tell you how your website success is progressing.

11. Site Value Check

Site Value Check

One of our favorite tools when estimating the value of our work. It uses several different factors to estimate the value of your website which is always what you want. Too few factors and it easily becomes an unimportant value used by itself. In collaboration with some other tools the lesser factored evaluation tools is great. However using separately it’s highly insufficient.

Site Value Check will present you with the numbers of Google PageRank, Alexa Ranking, Backlink Depth, Average Popularity of Related Websites, Age of Search Engine Presence, Basic Information and other factors. A truly great tool for website evaluation and value estimation.

12. Welcomia Website Value

Welcomia Website Value

A different kind of website estimation tool in our opinion. As it won’t give you the collective value of your website but a categorized worth of different aspects of your site it’s not useful to exactly estimate the worth of your work collectively. However, it’s a great tool for designers to check the value of their work in different means. This can be used to point out the different areas you could touch up your skills in or just the sections of your site you need to have a closer look at.

Put this tool to good use for all of your sites. New or old doesn’t matter. You should really check on your past work every now and then. This could make for a good referral when talking to new clients.

13. Website Valued

Website Valued

A nifty little online tool which will give you a rough estimate of both the highest and the lowest estimated worth of your website. A unique look at evaluation and a really nice presentation of the numbers makes it easy to see how your site is doing.

The tool will present you with information like Visitor Upper Estimation in dollars, Visitors Lower Estimation in dollars, Average Unique Visitors per day, Estimated Advertising Revenue per year, Estimated Sales Revenue per year, Estimated Number of Subscribing Visitors and Operating Costs.

We really enjoy this tool and what additional information it can provide when you want to create a full profile of your website success.

14. Site Value Calculator

Site Value CalculatorAnother one of those simple estimation tools. However this one has a nice feature showing you the results of both “www.minervity.com” or “minervity.com”. Unfortunately the results may usually vary depending on what you use to type when checking the value of a website.

Site Value Calculator also uses the Alexa ranking to determine the value of your site. Great tool if used it collaboration with the other tools here.

Popularity: 30% [?]

68 Comments »

Leave a comment!

Add your comment below, or trackback from your own site. You can also subscribe to these comments via RSS.

Be nice. Keep it clean. Stay on topic. No spam.

You can use these tags:
<a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

This is a Gravatar-enabled weblog. To get your own globally-recognized-avatar, please register at Gravatar.

Anti-Spam Protection by WP-SpamFree

Spam protection by WP Captcha-Free