Internet programming work - for cheap!
Hey guys,
First of all - I am in *NO* way affiliated with this web site. I am just providing a notice to fellow Beyonders who might require such work.
I have had a certain site idea in the works for a few years now, but never had the money or resources to get it underway. As some of you know, I am a designer by trade, so I built the site myself. I actually built the original years ago, but updated it this last year to something a little more professional and with more content. But what I don't know is how to program the back-end... databases, etc. PHP, Perl... what?
For my particular project, local people wanted 2-3g to build the database and management tools. I'm not one of the Beyond rich folk, so it was hard to fit such an expense (and risk) into my budget.
Then I found rentacoder.com. There are other sites online that provide similar services, and they might be all well and good.... but I haven't tried them so I cannot comment on them.
This site first asks you if you want a coder from a developed country (Like Canada or the USA), or if you want to select one from around the world. The latter is by FAR the cheapest route to take. If you are going to get someone in an established country, then you might as well just find someone locally that you can work with face-to-face.
You put up your project for bid, and coders from around the world provide you with their lowest price. And trust me - there are a VAST amount of coders on this site, so the ranges are huge. I set $500 at the minimum I would pay someone, with no maximum. I got some quotes as high as 3g!
It tells you how many projects the coder has done through this website. It tells you the approval rating of those who hired him/her. It tells you how good they are compared to the other coders, and whether or not they have had disputes with those who hired them. (And whether they won or lost those disputes; Rentacoder will mediate issues if required)
They also hold your money in Escrow so it is pretty secure. You only pay once you are satisfied that the business requirements have been met.
In the end, I am paying $500, and have actually managed to slip a couple of extra business requirements in there which would have cost me $500 alone by hiring a local. This guy is in Nepal, speaks fluent English (important, to avoid miscommunications), and is rated *99.99%* better than the other coders on rentacoder.com. This is to say, the guy is a programming genius.
Now, I'm all for progressing our own Calgary (and Canadian) economy, but it is hard to argue the savings I experienced here. And besides... if my site works out (and I truly believe it will), I will be generating plenty of dollars here anyway.
The best part of it all: The site service is FREE. The coder pays a percentage, but you don't pay squat up front. Then, when the job is done, you just pay what you offered.
So if you guys need this kind of thing done, check it out... or check out one of the several other similiar sites out there. As that ING dude says - "save your money".
Side Note: I set my project at minimum of $500, and there were several bids at $500. Had I set it lower, and left the project open to bids for longer, I'm guessing I could have gotten a coder for even less! The project was open for bid for about 2 days, and I received roughly 3 dozen interested parties.
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