Thread: Advice on Web Development

Hi everyone. I hope you're all having a dandy day I hope you hear me out on this one.

My question is, where can I find a company to create my website for me? It seems that learning the languages and web design is not for me. I've tried for about a month now and the more I learn, the more it seems I HAVE to learn. HTML, PHP, Python, Ruby on Rails, C++ (my goodness JAVA is crazy!), all of which I have found out through this forum. I started out with an idea, purchased a domain name, obtained a hosting server (LiquidWeb), learned to somewhat use Drupal (CMS), learned a few bits and pieces from that and have created barely the front page the way I want it. It takes me hours to find a simple fix and it took me a 2 days to create a slideshow. I'm a little ashamed at myself for "giving up" but I'm also wondering why I should be doing this when someone else can clearly do it better than I can in a shorter amount of time. I will however continue to learn little by little, there is no doubt about that.

That is why I am on the brink of making the decision to outsource this project of mine. However, I am not familiar with the outsourcing territory. I've searched this forum and a few others to see what its like and basically, it just confused me a tad more. I read somewhere here that its better to find a company to do all parts of a project instead of hiring a person to do web programming and web design and so on. I've thus gone on Elance, Odesk, Guru, Freelancer, and a few others to find notable and trustworthy programmers and designers, but I do wonder, isn't it better to find a company to do all in one so communication is better, faster and stronger?

I won't lie this is hard and I apologize if this sounds like a plea. I'm not overwhelmed by all of this, but rather, want to expedite the process as fast as possible. It makes me anxious because I want to start managing the website, telling people about it! Some people say its the process of making it that makes you appreciate your website and the ability to control your website if need be later on. Some people say outsourcing was the best thing that happened to them. In any case, I agree on both parts, but if price lets me, I will probably outsource my project to a company.

If you are curious as to what I'm trying to do (because I trust everyone here as it feels like a tight community), it's a website to VIEW AND PAY all your bills from one site. No more going from site to site, password to password and bill to bill. You would have total control of your finances in LESS time on ONE page. It's comparable to many sites but the most similar ones that I found were:
Manilla.com (No pay bill function)
Pageonce.com (Just for mobile. I'm afraid they'll take over the home desktop territory soon)
Paytrust.com (Exact same service as mine. The best part of this website was your statements were sent to Paytrust and you could view everything online however you liked. I guess that was their strongest point besides being able to see all your bills from one place). The reason why I came into this was because I was getting annoyed at going from site to site, and thought of the idea. I did a quick research and found that Paytrust was bought out by Intuit, the guys who bought Mint.com. Their reputation since then has dropped tremendously along with their customer service according to many recent reviews, which would account for their unstable customer views and subscriptions. Word of mouth is such a powerful tool. They once had a large number of people who payed for their services but that was before Intuit bought them out. I read somewhere that at one point, they had 40,000 people paying for their service at $10 a month. That's almost unfathomable to me

If anyone has any suggestions, ideas, comments and yes criticisms, please advise as they are all appreciated. As always, to each his own and thank you all. Apologies for the long post. It's 4AM I had no distractions

EDIT: Silly me, I found a few companies that do just this on Freelancer. They are located in India but some of you say to get quality work done in America. Reviews for the company are top notch from about 1400 people dating to today. I just need to get my papers straight and questions right. Oh and the price! Any advice when doing the above?

Thank you all

Call me paranoid, but I have a hard time trusting people on Elance and Odesk. With a project this big, I would suggest finding a local company or some local freelancers to do it for you. Like you said, communication is key, and time zone and language differences could hamper communication. Also, you should consider mobile. Create an app or a mobile website in addition to your normal website. The industry is too big not to get a piece of that pie. Great idea! Let me know when it's finished, because you've got a customer in me!

Originally Posted by ryantreb

Call me paranoid

You're paranoid.

Shuffle:
You will spend 10x doing it in the US versus overseas. If you have good specs, it doesn't matter where you have it written, and if hours are that important to you, shift to graveyard hours while they create your project (all though many service providers keep US hours or at least part of the day).

I have been writing code for 30+ years and can't imagine writing code that accesses peoples bank accounts and bill paying without complete confidence that I know EXACTLY what I am doing. One security hole and you will be in court writing checks to people until you die. It would be better to find funding and create your own team, then you can do background checks. But at the least you need to find an excellent "ethical hacker" team to try and break into any software you end up creating.

I don't want to discourage your project but I believe many people are able to pay all of their bills through online bill pay at their local bank. I know that BoA offers it as well as PNC. A lot of the smaller local banks are offering the same service.

However, their is nothing wrong with competition! Best of luck to you!

Thank you guys for your comments! I was beginning to think I'd get no feedback haha...

@HealthStatus: I agree that security is my main issue here. That is one of the main reasons why I chose to outsource this project. I can't find myself doing something dealing with sensitive information from others, even though I plan to learn little by little. On the competitors websites, I don't see anything but the "safety guarantee" symbols such as VERISIGN, MCafee and TRUSTe. I did plan to have a team of hackers go through the website as I test a few of my own accounts on it.

@BruceTonGuy: Yes people can pay from their banks, such as PNC and Wells Fargo...BUT that is assuming you are a member of that bank! I asked a few people who are members of the above two why they didn't use that option. One reason was because they did not know, and the other was because they didn't feel too comfortable with such services. Ah, yes competition...everyone has to fall now and then

I also have an idea for my specified target group: The average cubicle worker from the ages of 20 - 35. Time is of the essence and I see a lot of people checking their bills at work

The more I research, the more competition I find...the more the merrier!

Again, thank you for your time and I look forward to more advice! The little I've read has helped me that much more. Anyone else?

Thank you for the info! I do understand that its not the pretty sites that make cash. I do not really like "pretty" aspect of sites, as I think it just hurts to look at if you are doing something serious, let alone anything at all. I am looking for a simple, clean, and more importantly, an effectively functioning website.

I'm a little low on financials, which is why I was so reluctant to start outsourcing this project. Looking at the website, I assume he can aid in web design but not the creation of it. I do appreciate the info and will look towards his site when the site is done! Thanks!

Just to clarify, can anyone give the components to the creation of a website? I realize I can't properly portray what I need to other people besides saying "I need a website that looks and functions like this" and thus cannot put a proper price on what I am asking for.

Really do appreciate every comment

I realize that an idea is worthless until the execution.

However, through some research in outsourcing my project, it seems someone has taken the initiative to take the idea, the links and the information and presented it elsewhere already. Some people just lack the creativity to do something on their own it seems. All I can say I'll take you head on. Whether it be on this project or another, you just found yourself the wrong competition buddy.

Also, I hope you read this cause if not, it's almost meaningless

Be VERY VERY careful about doing something like this. In order to make this work, you need a way of storing bank account and password info for your clients. In many cases, there are established industry standards regarding storing this type of data. For example, to process and store credit card data they use the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS). This isn't just a software issue, it becomes a physical security issue. You REALLY need to get with someone that has a deep understanding of technology and will guide you through the process. Outsourced Indian programmers will, at best, only code what you tell them to. You cannot rely on them to know all of the particulars regarding security standards in your industry.

The risks are pretty big if you do not follow the standard and there is a breech. The banks/credit card companies may try to hold you liable for losses incurred because of a security hole on your account. I can't be sure. You would have to check with an attorney about that issue.

Also, doesn't checkfree (or is it called MyCheckFree ?) do this already? My mother uses that to pay almost all of her bills, and (as the name implies) it is free. I'm not saying that this is not workable, but between companies like mycheckfree and banks offering the service to their customers, it seems like you are competing with "free".

Originally Posted by Shuffle

I realize that an idea is worthless until the execution.

However, through some research in outsourcing my project, it seems someone has taken the initiative to take the idea, the links and the information and presented it elsewhere already. Some people just lack the creativity to do something on their own it seems. All I can say I'll take you head on. Whether it be on this project or another, you just found yourself the wrong competition buddy.

Also, I hope you read this cause if not, it's almost meaningless

Are you saying that in the 2 plus weeks that you came up with this idea that someone else is attempting to implement it? Are you sure that they got the idea from you? As has been mentioned above, there are other, similar, services out there.

Originally Posted by mcjon77

Are you saying that in the 2 plus weeks that you came up with this idea that someone else is attempting to implement it? Are you sure that they got the idea from you? As has been mentioned above, there are other, similar, services out there.

Thanks for the info! Yes I have been talking to a few people regarding the security. I just learned about Web API's and I asked a few small banks if I could use their information given I had someone who knew what they were doing with the information.

Yes I'm pretty sure as the person described my post And yes there is a website called Mycheckfree.com that does the same exact thing. However they have a limited # of payees, do not take care of your paper bills, and are known for their not so great customer service. More recent reviews are not so forgiving. You get what you pay for I guess...in this case it's nothing

I appreciate your concern and will look into it more

It seems like you got a basic ideas of what you going to do now
When do you think you are going to put the website up?
Maybe you can try other ideas first since website need some experience first...

I am not knowing how to make a website too, so I would like to catch up your progress and see how you going to do!

Maybe in the beginning you can help me to make a website first to get some experience.
Do you have any idea on making a website?

The MOST IMPORTANT thing about a website
is to have a COMMERCIAL OFFER based on
your CURRENT top-selling products or services
that hits people in the face the second they
see your site.

What is selling well for you? Make it 33% of your front page
or you site will be just another pretty site in the designers
portfolio of pretty but USELESS website.