It happens very often to receive job requests where the client has no idea how much work is involved to achieve the required task… unfortunately it is the “norm” for people to think that a job they want is so damn easy that can be made in matter of minutes. My only question usually is if it’s so damn easy why on earth would you spend hours to review the applications, to choose the right freelancer and wait to be done, when basically… you could do it in matter of minutes without the hassle of choosing somebody to do it for you????
How many times have you heard a potential client say, “This will be really easy, so it shouldn’t cost more than $[fraction of the real cost]”, or claim that “I could probably do this myself, I just don’t have time to learn how”? You see, there’s a fundamental problem in the way many people view contracted web developers. For all they know, we’re nothing more than monkeys trained to type a mysterious “code”, and they’re convinced if they only took the time to learn the secret “code”, they too could become instant masters of this simple skill.
Better yet, imagine I went up to a car mechanic and said, “Hey, can you fix my car for three bucks? It should be really easy. Besides, my cousin told me he could do it for three bucks.” They’d laugh in my face and tell me to leave. I mean, if your cousin can supposedly do an equally good job for three bucks, why the hell did you go to a professional for help in the first place?