I have an idea for a website but know nothing about coding or programming.
I know how I want the site to look and the features I want on the site, but no idea what kind of coding would be needed or even how to put everything together once it’s all coded.
What is the best way to go about finding people to code it and implement? I have no idea what a good price is, so ideally it will be something that gets me the best price through a “market.”
My exposure to computer programmers IRL is limited.
What are your ideas in general? That is the only way to get a good answer. Basic web pages don’t require any true coding and you can do it yourself even without any prior knowledge. Web hosts provide free templates that you just modify with point and click tools to create a basic site. Commercial sites with fancy databases underpinning them are harder and you may have something in mind that would require a graphic designer.
You didn’t mention what kind of site you’re looking to build. My suggestion would be to go to similar sites and see if there’s any mention on them as to who put them together and contact them for a quote. Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, it could be anywhere from a few hundred dollars to ten thousand or more dollars. Something else that you’ll need to know to get a good quote is the graphics. Will stock graphics work? Can you do your own design (preferably using vector files, but JPEGs or photoshop files usually work as well) or will you need to have the coder (or a third party) create the artwork? If you’ll need someone to create the artwork (specifically logos), that’s going to significantly add to the cost.
Is it going to be a store front? Is it a site that will need to be updated and if so how often and how drastic? For example, if it’s a store front and you just need to change a few things every once in a while, you can have the coder do it for you for (most likely) a nominal charge. If you’re going to need to make changes fairly often, you’ll want to use the type of site that makes it easy to do your own changes.
If you can give us a feel for what you’re attempting to do, we might be able to give you a better idea of how to go about it and what it might cost.
Also, will personal contact with the coder be helpful? Necessary? Not a big deal? That’ll make a difference in if your programmer should be someone in your local area.
First, understand that people who can code a Web site are not (necessarily) designers. In addition, remember that people who can design for the Web aren’t (necessarily) coders.
There is a huge difference between the two, and though there are competent people who can do both, it’s not that common.
Second, take some time to review vworker.com (formerly rentacoder.com). Though YMMV, we’ve had extraordinarily good experience with them. In short, the site allows you to place an ad for what you want done, then lets coders bid on the job. You can select the coder you want–not just by price but by rating or reviews. There are step-by-step instructions and hand-holding wizards to help you create a bid, good dispute resolution tools (though I’ve never used them), user-based ratings of coders and others, and excellent service for helping with postings.
Without getting too specific, here are the key things I would like on the site (that will probably be the most expensive):
I want a custom poll, 80+ options, that reorders in real time based on voting (ie no browser refreshing), displays raw vote #s underneath the option, and has the option for anonymous comments underneath each option in the form of a [+] click to expand thing (which I, the administrator, have to have the option to moderate/disable). One vote per email address, unless the user completes a certain task that allows him more votes.
I want an account system. To vote in the poll or access the chat feature (see the next #), you must be registered with a @specificdomain.xyz email address. Nothing in-depth - email, optional user name (for short cut log in), password, and email authentication. I’d also like the ability to tie a microtransaction system in here. For example, if bob@specificdomain completes a task to get him 10 extra votes in the poll, he is now able to vote 10 more times in the poll mentioned above.
A real time chat feature. For a general idea of what I want, see the bottom bar at http://www.operationsports.com/. However, rather than a buddy-list style chat (i want that option too), I want the bottom bar to have an expandable group chat window with everyone who is logged on to the site at that given time (If possible, I’d like them to be prompted to select a username with each chat session; privacy and anonymity will be very important on this site, so they have to have the ability to stay anonymous in chat).
I also want the bar to keep track of chat messages even while closed (just through a notification system…if you have it minimized and 10 people wrote messages since you minimized it, it would display a little 10).
So, it’s a fairly complex little idea, and I can imagine it will be quite expensive to get up, but I have no idea where to even start looking or what the estimated price will be.
I’m not trying to be a jerk, but I want to set an expectation here. The type of site you are asking for is probably going to cost you several thousand dollars. My gut estimate is that you are looking at something starting around $5000, and perhaps even higher.
The reason I am pointing this out is that many people simply do not have any kind of concept how expensive web design and coding can get. This is especially true if you run into someone who says, “Pfft, web sites are easy! My barber’s nephew designed a site for his shop in only a few minutes!”
Most type of web design/programming jobs are done on a per-hour basis. The cheapest rates I have heard for stuff like this is around $50/hour. What you have described is easily 100 hours of work, and probably much, much more. Unless your idea is fleshed out in substantially more detail than what you have described, it will probably take your designer at least 10 hours to hash out the functional/design specifications. That means you will have spent around $500 with nothing to show for it except a hammered-out design.
If your idea is not fully fleshed out on your end before you approach the designer/programmer, then you run the risk of incurring a lot of costs just going back-and-forth on the design issues.
Again, I’m not trying to be a buzzkill. I hope your project succeeds beyond your wildest dreams. Just be prepared that the project will probably take big bucks.
You want to account for tasks completed but you sort of left out a big chunk of the project…programming these tasks. Are they part of your site?
My professional advice is to find web development firms in your area (most metropolitan areas are crawling with them), check out their portfolios, and contact 3 or 4 with a nicely-fleshed-out plan for your site. Then, choose the one that comes back with the proposal you like the most.
Don’t go to a firm and expect them to write your site plan for you. Also don’t take one firm’s plan to another firm and ask them to bid on it - keep them all separate (it’s ok to tell them you’re shopping around tho). Don’t be secretive about what you want either - no one (at the web firms) is interested in stealing your plan.
That chat on that site, BTW, is a 3rd party app from meebo that the site is running. So it’s not like some easy thing to do to get a custom chat app programmed for your site. I can easily see the polling, login, accounting and tasks features being $5k+ and the chat itself being $5k alone if it’s highly customized.
ETA: The reason I suggest you want a firm instead of just “some coders” is because of what Rhythmdvl pointed out - you don’t want just a “coder” to work on your site. You need graphics people, coders, DB people and hopefully marketers too. And someone to be the single point liaison between you and the team. You need a firm to get that.
If you’ve got the idea fleshed out, start writing it down. It doesn’t have to be fancy - hand drawn screen shots are just fine. You’d be amazed at how many people don’t even take it THAT far. They just come in and say “Hey! I need a website!” and expect the web guys to just magically read their mind and spit out what they want.
The more solid documentation you can get together, the cheaper it’s going to be for you. Most web developers/companies have figured out methods to deal with customers who don’t want to take the time to flesh out their ideas, and it usually involves several iterations and more money. If you can draw out the basic functionality of your website, you’re going to save yourself a lot of money, time, and hassle.
If your website consists of things that you see in a LOT of websites - like chat rooms - it really might not be all that expensive to put together. There are pre-packaged things out there that you can use for commonly used features. The trick is, the minute you want more than the common features - any kind of customization - things get way more expensive. If there’s any chance you can do without fancy customizations, do it, it’ll be WAY cheaper. For example, you said you figured the chat function would cost $1000-$1500. I can tell you right now that if I had to write a chat system from scratch, not modifying something already out there, $1000-$1500 would probably not even get me started, whereas using something already packaged would be a fraction of that price.
Just read ZipperJJ’s reply. She speaks the truth, and knows what she’s talking about. Do what she says.
OK, and I just read Athena’s reply and ZipperJJ’s. I heartily agree with both of them. Here’s what I wrote anyway, because I think it’s still relevant. Here’s another way to get an estimate assuming you write stuff down, and you’re willing to work virtually.
Sign-up for a free account and say that you want to submit a fixed-bid project. I think with at least one of them (elance?) there is a standard confidentiality agreement you can say you want to include.
Think through whether you are looking for a designer or a web developer. Perhaps look through some profiles, and find someone that does both. Decide if you want someone local. Decide if you want an individual, or a firm with various talents. Lay out your requirements in as detailed a manner as you can. With their bids, ask providers to also share with you their portfolio of other web sites they have created.
Similar to eBay, providers all have feedback ratings and written comments that you can peruse. Look at these, and only reach out/accept people with good feedback.
The offshore developers will have the lowest rates, but again, look closely at their feedback (especially around communication and expectation setting), the communication in their bids, if they answered your questions, etc.
Another note–be prepared for cost overruns. Not every cost overrun is acceptable, of course. I’m referring to the inevitable miscommunications that take place when what you have in mind is difficult to translate into an actionable plan. A good designer/coder will know, ask, and be prepared for most contingencies, but in any custom work of large scope there is bound to be features or functionality that you thought would be included as part of your vision but weren’t accurately communicated to your worker.
Again, this doesn’t mean everything is going to cost extra (you wanted wheels with your car?), but talking to prospective suppliers about these types of contingencies during the contracting/proposal state is essential.
I will say that the chat idea was more of a long-term project idea (something I just thought of last night brainstorming about the site), and I figured it’d be the most expensive.
Does anyone know of any 3rd party chat programs that’ll do most of what I want?
You need to budget for changes and general maintenance on the site. Our department hired a graduate student (her studies were in web development) to build our web site. She worked part time and completed it in three months. She did it in php and html.
I got stuck maintaining it. One of those surprise responsibilities tacked on to my job description. Thank goodness we had the lady use Adobe Go Live. It made my job maintaining the site easier. I didn’t have the time to learn php and html. Sadly Adobe abandoned Go Live 2 years ago. But, there are other similar products out there.
’ Don’t forget to insist that coders fully comment their work.
’ They don’t need to explain how it’s working, but should leave ample signposts for someone else to understand what does what within their code.
’ This way, if you need the aforementioned maintenance or updating and the original authors are no longer available, you’ll keep costs down as you bring someone new up to speed.
’ It won’t eliminate costs, of course, but being sure that your vendor includes this up front is good practice.
Are you trying to make big money with this website? In other words, are you trying to go from $0 revenue to million dollar income? If so, you can’t realistically expect that from buying programming services out in the open market. Even the cheap programmers are too expensive for that type of startup business plan.
If the website is simply a bonus supplement to a business that’s already making money, that’s a different scenario.
The type of features you describe are fairly standard (user registration, polls, chat) and could be implemented as part of most content management systems. Something as basic as word press could handle each of those features (with plugins). it would be much less expensive to find someone to help set that up and customize it for you that to get someone writing code from scratch.