How do you avoid getting scammed on Upwork? Hire me Seriously. I have a team overseas that does this kind of thing all day long. I've been managing them for years, and we do great work.
Hiring developers as a non-developer is not easy. I hired this one guy for a small project on Upwork a few years ago (may have been Odesk back then?). He sounded great, had great reviews, but the work I needed done was fairly technical. The code that I got back from him was AWFUL. Poorly thought out, variables weren't named well, etc.
On upwork, its a gamble. You may need to hire a couple different people (or so) before you find one that does good work. You'll waste some money doing that, so be prepared for that.
General tips:
1) Start small (like people say above)
2) break up the project into logical steps. If its a website, each page is a step. Have them implement each page and look at it for quality. If its slightly off, thats fine. Have them fix it. If it looks lazily done, fire them. They're a contractor not an employee. Your job is not to turn them into a productive human being.
3) Listen to how them present themselves - definitely do an audio or even a video interview. Do they sound confident in how they describe things? Ask them to explain what they're going to do during your project. If they bring up a technical term, ask them to explain it to you. People that are experienced with this stuff will make you feel comfortable with how they answer your questions. This will weed out some of the people that are good but don't speak well, unfortunately, but it will also weed out people that don't know what they're doing.
4) pay attention to your responsibilities in this too. Having someone do something for you on upwork is a bit like the game of telephone. Cultural differences can cause problems too. Its your job to make sure the communication is as good as possible. Describe everything you need done in excruciating detail. Then have them explain it back to you.
5) ideally, you'd also find someone that's willing to disagree with you on your ideas. Welcome that kind of feedback. (also judge whether they are logical in what they say, too)
Hiring developers as a non-developer is not easy. I hired this one guy for a small project on Upwork a few years ago (may have been Odesk back then?). He sounded great, had great reviews, but the work I needed done was fairly technical. The code that I got back from him was AWFUL. Poorly thought out, variables weren't named well, etc.
On upwork, its a gamble. You may need to hire a couple different people (or so) before you find one that does good work. You'll waste some money doing that, so be prepared for that.
General tips:
1) Start small (like people say above)
2) break up the project into logical steps. If its a website, each page is a step. Have them implement each page and look at it for quality. If its slightly off, thats fine. Have them fix it. If it looks lazily done, fire them. They're a contractor not an employee. Your job is not to turn them into a productive human being.
3) Listen to how them present themselves - definitely do an audio or even a video interview. Do they sound confident in how they describe things? Ask them to explain what they're going to do during your project. If they bring up a technical term, ask them to explain it to you. People that are experienced with this stuff will make you feel comfortable with how they answer your questions. This will weed out some of the people that are good but don't speak well, unfortunately, but it will also weed out people that don't know what they're doing.
4) pay attention to your responsibilities in this too. Having someone do something for you on upwork is a bit like the game of telephone. Cultural differences can cause problems too. Its your job to make sure the communication is as good as possible. Describe everything you need done in excruciating detail. Then have them explain it back to you.
5) ideally, you'd also find someone that's willing to disagree with you on your ideas. Welcome that kind of feedback. (also judge whether they are logical in what they say, too)