Website Developer Warning! DIY often leads to DOA.

Hiring a Website Developer, Freelancer or Guru?

Thinking of hiring website developers from a popular freelance website? Are you currently managing a website or programming project that you wish you could hit the rewind button and start over?

We get it. We all want to save money and the do it yourself approach may work for some projects.

But often DIY leads to DOA, because you don’t know what you don’t know.

Knowing what end result you want is not enough to make sure the job gets done right. Giving a website developer a goal and a budget often leads to a disaster. They will make that square peg fit the round hole and leave you holding the bag.

Things To Consider When Hiring A Website Developer

Here are just a few things you should ask yourself before venturing down the freelancer path:

  • Do you know enough to select the right freelancer or are you just relying on reviews and price?
  • Do you have the expertise to help select the right programming language, CMS (Content Management System), eCommerce platform or other software being used for your web project?
  • Do you know how to judge if the coding is being done in a manner that is secure, runs efficiently and will stand the test of time (security, bug and maintenance updates and patches)?
  • Is someone appropriately determining the best organization of the data associated with your project, not only for the front end needs but your business and organizational needs now and into the future?
  • If your web project requires any integration with current systems or processes, do you have the experience needed to produce the appropriate workflows and how that should translate to the web?

Depending on your project goals, I guarantee there are even more questions that need to be asked and answered.

Ideally you should hire a company who can stand behind their work.

Would you buy a car from a complete stranger with good reviews and a good price? Someone you can’t go back to if something went wrong? Why would you do that with your 24x7x365 web presence? You should look to a company who is more than a “hit and run” on to the next project. They should want to stand behind their work, provide some level of guarantee and ultimately treat you like a professional should who wants to not only earn your business for this project but develop an ongoing relationship centered around experience, knowledge, competence, trust and capability.

At minimum, get some sound advice from a consultant.

Maybe you know enough to be dangerous or feel confident you have the time and resources to take on some freelancers. We would still recommend you bring in someone who can help you ask the right questions and make sure you are on the right path. A few hundred dollars could save thousands in the long run. A second pair of experienced and knowledgeable eyes could mean the difference between a successful DIY project and a project that is DOA.

Some Parting Thoughts

Your 24 x 7 x 365 web presence is your constant connection to customers, new and old.  So why leave things to inexperience?

Possibly you think you can’t afford to hire a company or at least a consultant who can help you navigate the freelancers. Remember that your time is worth money. Every hour you spend doing something you don’t know much about is costly because it is time you could be spending doing something you are good at. And that hour could equate to minutes for someone more experienced.

Think twice before managing a web based project on your own or leaving it to freelancers. For everything in life, you always get what you pay for and if you hire cheap and manage without experience and knowledge, the result often will be DOA.

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