I am a small time web dev freelancer during my time off at university and I have some horror stories when it comes to designing sites for people (not that the sites are bad - just the clients DO NOT KNOW WHAT THEY WANT) this really grinds my gears.To set the context this is what I want to avoid:I had a client last year that I built  a site for  ANON.  We agreed upon a price (200 - I am a  student so their mentality is Oh you  are a student that makes you cheap  right?) I had the site done to the  original specification within about 3  days (nothing was ever written down be  it original specification costs etc it  was all done over phone/Skype) The  client then decided that his  original idea wasn't that good looking  in practise so I was told to scrap it  and start again, fine, Im'm a  professional I can take that.I then redid the site to the new spec  that he gave me, took another 3-4 days  and the same thing again, don't like  it, start again. By this time I'm  getting rather annoyed with the lack  of constructive criticism, So I redo  the site to basically how it is now  (see URL above) he says yeah looks  okay ship it so it gets put on the  web THEN he decides Oh by the way I  want and e-commerce solution AND a  members only section or you aren't  getting paid anything. being in the  position I was in I couldn't very well  just say no due to the 12 or so days  of my life he had waisted so I  proceeded to add the e-commerce and  members only sections, this then led  to a plethora of other changes.For example there is a page with a variety of  packages the user can choose from, I  had these done in glorious CSS3 I  mean it looked amazing, really chuffed  with my work I put it online and  linked him to it... It's crap get rid  of it do it in photoshop and put  .jpg's up instead. Baffled as to how  it could look crap I asked what  browser he was using... IE6, I could  have killed him, but restrained myself  and told him to upgrade to Chrome or  FF3.6, So he upgrades to FF, Wow that  looks great!... But still redo it in  photoshop so people with IE6 will see  it fine I tried to tell him that the  site demographics showed he was the  ONLY one using IE6 but he wasn't  having any of it, so I spend a while  doing it in PS put them up, all was  fine.Then, he says oh by the way I want to change the package prices I say  well if you had left them in CSS3 and  HTML you could have done it yourself,  He didn't want to hear it and made me  redo the jpg's - This occurs every  time he has a new package that needs  put up as you would imagine this gets  very annoying after a while and I was  beginning to get fed up, but he  decided that with how it was done now  looked great and kept him happy, I  then asked about payment Oh I only  have 50 that I can give you but I can  give you 2x 12 week training  packages. I think okay, I'll make the  best of a bad situation and take it,  so I agree, I get 50 for 2-3weeks  work and 1x12 week training package, I  finish that then ask about the other  one Oh that was only if I could  afford to give it to you, right now I  can't so you'll have to pay 120 for  that.. Not only that but he keeps  pestering me to do little remedial  changes on the site that I taught him  how to use, but he doesn't want to  know, so not only am I not getting  paid for any changes I make for him he  threatens me that if I don't change  them he's going to spread bad rep about me to any of his clients and everyone he knows.As you can imagine this got me very edgy about clients and I would now like to develop a contract that:No compromises are made for IE6.25% up front 25% half-way and 50% upon completion.I have a minimum standard that I will work to so jobs under 500 are not viable.Remedial and quarterly changes are payable on a per-hour rate.I can reserve the right to take down any site if the 50% upon completion is not paid within 30 days.There are no cash-substitutes - no cash - no site.If anyone could suggest what to add above as clauses in my contract and if the above are suitable, as in would they scare clients off?Any suggestions on any part of the contract would be appreciated as well as where to get them written up.Thanks all!
Writing a client contract for Web development?
web development;freelancing;html;css
The clauses you mention sound fairly reasonable to me. Just make sure the tone of the contract is calm and professional; don't let your edginess show through. Remember that it's not new clients' fault that you've had negative experiences in the past. The last point (about cash substitutes) is so obvious that it doesn't need to be explicitly mentioned IMO. Nobody can make you accept their services instead of a cash payment.