Start Your Own Home Based Travel Business

Bidding Out Your Website Globally
www.GetaCoder.com

I was constructing a couple of .php websites that I am going to use in a viral marketing program and needed to find a .php expert to design and construct the sites. Knowing that the existing web developers that I have worked with do not program .php I started my quest with Google using the keywords “php web designers”. This was last May (2006). I contacted several folks who just didn’t understand what I was after and gave me price quotes all over the charts. One guy offered to develop three concepts for me and then finalize a website to my satisfaction for a mere ten thousand dollars. I must say that I became quite discouraged.

I finally found a guy that completely understood what I wanted to do. He created a mock banner of the product that I wanted to design and seemed like a “can-do” kind of guy. He was based in Bangkok, Thailand and his partner was based in Barcelona, Spain. They committed to accomplish the finished website for $3,500.00. As luck would have it I was picking a cruise up in Barcelona and arranged to meet with Angel (the partner) before boarding the ship just a couple of weeks later. After talking with Angel, I was unsure if my concept could or would become a reality. Angel’s expertise was building the backside Administrative panel of the website and his questions left me with the distinct impression that what I was after could not be done. I put the project on the back burner.

Given my natural curiosity about technology, I started hanging out in .php discussion groups and studying sites such as PHPBuddy.com, php.net and DevShed.com. I became more familiar with the capabilities of .php and the realities of evolving php driven websites. That is when I stumbled across a world that I did not know existed before then. It seems that there are numerous programmers in countries all over the world that are looking for work and are capable of doing a top-notch job for not a heck of a lot of money. The problem was how could I contact these developers and communicate with them?

Enter GetaCoder.com. I found several websites that connect website developers worldwide with those that want to get websites built. While GetaCoder.com is the site that I used, other sites that do pretty much the same thing are GetaFreeLancer.com, IfreeLance.com, RentaCoder.com and  Elance.com. I am sure that there are lots more.

Armed with a little knowledge of php and a very descriptive outline of what I wanted built, I signed up with GetaCoder.com and posted my job for bid. Within 12 hours I had received over 20 bids from all over the world. One guy in India bid a total of $350.00 to do the job and sent me a private e-mail with links to jobs that he had done that used the exact technology that my job required. I was blown away by both his price and the quality of the work he had performed. I awarded the job to him. GetaCoder.com worked so well that I have done a couple of other webs in the same fashion and with the same results. I thought I would share some tips that I have learned along the way should you are looking to have a website developed. While I was looking specifically for a php expert, all variations of websites can be bid for. BTW, submitting a job for bid to GetaCoder.com is completely free and you will only pay $3.00 when you award a job.

Know What You Want Before Bidding the Job

This is critical. You should be able to submit all of the details of the website that you want built. Include links to sites that are comparable in ways that you want you site to look and work. Learn basic technology nomenclature so that your job description reads as if you know technology and expect a fair and honest price for quality work. Remember that a poorly written job description will lead to problems down the road. Anticipate everything possible in your original description.

Understand That English is Likely the Web Developer’s Second Language

Never use anything but straight business English, as many of the people bidding on your job live in countries where English is a second language and may be using a web translator to determine what you are asking for. Never use slang and avoid any use of words that might not be understood by the person that you are communicating with.

Beware the Cheapest Bid
In an environment where labor is available for pennies on the dollar compared to having websites built within the U.S., you should always look towards reputation and past performance more than price alone.

Never Award Your Job to a Developer That is Not Established with GetaCoder.com

Getacoder.com allows buyers to rate their experience with the web developer. This is one way to insure that you will receive quality work on time. There are always newcomers that will bid on your job, but you are much better off awarding it to a developer that has dozens of satisfied customers that have posted their testimonials.

Always Use GetaCoder.com’s Escrow Service

While shopping for coders globally is a fantastically wonderful evolution in global trade, be aware that there are people out there that will take your money and run. One of the things that I personally like about GetaCoder.com is their free escrow service. Here is how it works. You first deposit funds into your account. When a job is awarded, the developer starts on the job. To prove that you are serious, you might deposit a small amount into the escrow account for the job. As the job progresses, you might deposit a little more. Once the job is finished, the developer will want you to deposit the full job amount into the escrow account before the job is delivered. At this point you cannot reverse the deposit into escrow and the developer cannot access it. Once the job is delivered and you are happy with the results, you then release the money in escrow to the developer.

Best of luck on getting your website (s) built!

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