Good point G... you do customization and you do it well.
I charge local firms $600 for websites. The $300 at this point only goes to getbiggers and referrals from online. Just can't find the time to do them for $300 in person.
And a lot of what I sell is TIME and PEACE OF MIND. For instance, a client can spend ten minutes picking out colors, fonts, pages, and emailing me pics. Five days later, I will have the website built. They tell me what they like/dislike, and 4 days later I have a revised site. We continue until it's perfect and they launch. Updates are dirt cheap.
So essentially, they are buying your time back, my experience and creativity, and a website. Some of my clients have a live site and they have spent maybe 45 minutes TOTAL on the whole project. I take liberties based upon my experience and understanding of the industry and their goals. I give them what I would do (the mba who knows the sport and wants to turn a profit for them quickly with a forum or store) and let them change it. Every site is different (unless they choose a flash template - and they know it's a package they're buying there).
So anyway, I sure as heck don't want in on any contests. I never claimed to be a graphic artist. I never claimed to be a programmer. I'm probably more of a promotions/sales guy, who uses a wesite as a tool to help people reach their goals (whether is be exposure, a small profit quickly and steady rev) or something else.
