Hello,
I'm brand spanking new to Drupal and to this forum. I poked around a bit and didn't see anything posted on this topic yet.
I've just taken on a freelance project to create a newspaper (or newspaper-like) website for a client. So far what I know is that he wants to have different departments (I'm assuming things like "current events", "sports", "entertainment", etc.) and he also wants several different people to contribute content. He wants to be able to post different types of content: text, slideshows, videos, etc. Knowing this, Drupal sounds like a good solution.
Only problem is, I have no experience with Drupal. The client is wanting an estimate of how many hours this project should take, and since I've only ever built dynamic websites from scratch, I really don't know what Drupal development times look like. Plus, because I'm new to the system, there will be a learning curve for me and it may take me longer than an experienced Drupal developer. My rate is relatively low to compensate for my inexperience, but still, I don't want to rip off my client.
So my question for you is this: roughly how many hours would it take a moderately-experienced Drupal developer to create a news website like this? I know that this is entirely dependent on the specific requirements of the project (which I don't yet have), but it'd be great to know a ballpark figure for how long this kind of thing generally takes. I really have no concept. 30 hours? 100 hours? Less? More?
Thanks in advance!
Heather