Certainly the author isn’t that naive. I could flip a coin a billion times and over the course of those flips, at some point, the outcome could be ‘heads’ a thousand times in a row. Looking at that small sample doesn’t mean that heads comes up 100% of the time. It also doesn’t mean that Starbucks will make a gazillion trillion.6 dollars.

Let me try to explain. I’m a graphic designer here in Brazil, and very often I’m asked to price the development of a very simple website, with maximum of 5 pages. Even though not knowing, this clients often want something else, but can’t verbalize it. Maybe he needs an easy way to update the content of website, or hire someone to update it for him, among other things.

With that in mind, I would offer the following packages:

Basic: 5 pages design + CSS&HTML coding
Pro: Basic + CMS implementation
Advanced: Pro + copywriting contract

But when the client knows what he wants, it is though to offer different packages.

Maybe this is a better solution for web development people that don’t claim to “design.” Because in design there are often many answers to the problem, but the right answer is never anything but the most thoughtful, considered one.

Then I make 3 “packages”, one with all they would need to survive, middle ground where I point out extra pieces that would greatly help them, and the highest one where I add in any “cool” things they mentioned, etc.

That way, if they don’t have much to throw around, they can get what the NEED. Or they can take the bigger packages that will benefit them, and me, cause I can always do with more work

This would also work well for extras such as hosting, monthly maintenance, etc.