In charging an hourly rate, I reward clients who make my job easier. Here are some ways you can save yourself money by saving me time:

1) Communicate up front
Tell me what you want your site to look like and achieve before I get started designing it. If you tell me clearly what you want from the beginning, there will be less chance of misunderstanding, and less chance that I'll have to waste time undoing or redoing a design that wasn't what you had in mind. 

2) Keep correspondence to a minimum
Yes, we need to discuss your site design, and many emails will be exchanged throughout the design project. However, some people get carried away, bombarding me with so many messages that it becomes a serious drain on my time. To keep billable hours to a minimum, think about what you need and send me concise to-do lists. When working on a company site, I find it's more time-efficient to designate a single liaison, not a whole group of employees hitting "reply all."

3) Send me lists
The simple list is one of the most underutilized communication tools, in my opinion. Email makes it so easy. If I've submitted a design for your approval and you'd like me to make changes, just email me a list and I'll use it as a checklist to get the work done. That's much more efficient than a long stream-of-consciousness-style email... for both of us.

4) Do some work yourself
If you're computer inclined and willing to do some of the time consuming prep work -- scanning photos, say, or editing your sound clips -- you're more than welcome to, and it will reduce your total cost.