I have a successful ecommerce background and I am gifted with lots of knowledge. Now other companies are willing to contract me as a consultant on ecommerce related businesses. Those are very small companies, nothing big. How much should I charge them on a monthly basis as a ecommerce marketing and technology consultant? I would meet with this company once a week for 2-3 hours, but my knowledge is very deep and good.

Basically this company will create a simple internet store, but they need expertise on how to implement it from a technical point of view and from a marketing view.

An hourly rate. In the UK that could be anything from 20/hour to 500/hour. How much demand is there for your skills? If theres lots of demand, charge more!

There are different billing methods you can use. Whichever you choose will depending on how you represent yourself. If you represent yourself as a contractor (someone who's paid to perform a task), you'll be paid for the time it takes you. If you represent yourself as a consultant, you'll be paid for the result you produce. The former is time-based billing, and the latter is know as value billing, or value-based pricing.

Time-based billing is much simpler to apply. Once you determine what your hourly rate is, simply charge for your time. You can either charge the client hourly, or estimate the time involved, then charge a flat rate. The downside to time-based billing is that your income will always be limited to how much time you have.

Value-based pricing is where you help the prospect determine the project's value to his business, then charge a portion of that value. The advantage of this method is that it forces you to speak the language that your prospects understand (that is, "results" and "return on their investment," rather than geekspeak, like "PHP" or "ASP" ), so you end up closing more deals. The downside is, since it's more complex, there's a learning curve involved. You really have to change your thinking from that of a developer to that of a businessperson. In other words, you probably won't be able to run out tomorrow and start doing it. I find value pricing more rewarding personally and more equitable to both the client and the developer.

Hope that helps.

I think an hourly rate is best, but the ammount of that rate should be considered on what you deliver and how skilled you are in what you are doing.