Charge per page. You can never really charge per hour because alot of hours go in. Unforeseen hours, most of which will probably be of your own fault. I would ask around in your area before deciding on a set price. You want to be competitive but at the same time your not a professional, so charging professional rates may not be the best thing to do. I would keep the pricing on the low side until you make a name for yourself or as you learn more about web design/development. As it takes a decent amount of time to "build" a website.

Your logo, a picture of yourself, maybe a famous landmark in your area. Something that people can associate you to your business would be great. Don't think there is much you can do about the loading times with that template. You might be able to disable a few things, but that would all be under the template controls.