Recently I was asked to explain my logistical planning and how I determine my charges for setting up an ecommerce site using WordPress.

The key is to start by breaking up the project into 4 parts, something like this.

Part One: The Setup

The first considerations you must take into account are, how many hours will it take to:

• setup WordPress,
• install the normally used plugins,
• install the customer's choice of WordPress theme,
• and customize everything to meet the customer's requirements.

One must be aware that the "per customer requirements" can vary widely. Some customers are picky, some are not. Some might make 30 changes to the color of red they want to use. This is one reason that I tend to work by the hour on these kinds of projects.

Part Two: The Images

The time and effort that Images require can also vary considerably depending on whether you can use existing images or if you need to make new ones. Sometime you'll need to modify a manufacturer's images in order to create uniqueness. That's because images that are unique have a better chance of ranking well in image search.

But you must be aware that Images can eat up a lot of hours, especially on a big site. So, getting a good handle on the time and effort it'll take to get your images in place is crucial to providing a somewhat accurate estimate of what the overall project will cost.

Part Three: The Content Quantity

Content quantity is a huge determiner. You'll need to know how many products / SKUs (stock-keeping unit, inventory management identifi...