Odesk, Guru, Elance or hire Local?

[dec360]

Hello everyone,


I originally posted a longer version of this post in the wrong area. I think it fits better here. Can someone please tell me how to erase the other post?




I am currently at the point where I need to hire a web designer and don't know how to go about it. The design will be very simple nothing flashy. The hard part will be coding the function of it since its a new concept so I need a really good coder for that.


Should I look for a web designer locally or go with something like Odesk, Elance or Guru? Can I trust these companies or the person that will build my website not to sell the code or platform to someone else? Have any of you worked with any of these companies? What has been your experience?




Is there anything I can do to protect my website from copycats during the early stages?


I am also trying to come up with a good marketing strategy. Any good threads on this or good books I can read?


I would greatly appreciate any comments or thoughts on this and thanks for reading!

 

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[James Fake]

Should I look for a web designer locally or go with something like Odesk, Elance or Guru?

Honestly, it really just depends on how much money you are willing to spend. If you are trying to keep it cheap, then outsource (elance, freelanceful, odesk, etc.) but if you can swing local prices that average $50/hour than I would definitely go local. You can google the difference between outsourcing/local web designer advantages.

Should I look for a web designer locally or go with something like Odesk, Elance or Guru? Can I trust these companies or the person that will build my website not to sell the code or platform to someone else? Have any of you worked with any of these companies? What has been your experience?

I've worked with both Elance and oDesk. oDesk was decent for small 10 hour jobs. Elance had about 70% success rate and I got burned one good time on there. Hence, one of the reasons I am building Freelanceful.com

Just make sure you check their ratings and thoroughly ask them questions, if they give you generic answers or short answers; I wouldn't use them.

Is there anything I can do to protect my website from copycats during the early stages?


I am also trying to come up with a good marketing strategy. Any good threads on this or good books I can read?

Honestly, you don't need to protect your website unless you also plan to fork out $10K in patent fees which probably won't stick anyways even if you did get one. Trust me, 99% of the time; your secret web idea isn't all that secret.

Google has millions of 'beginner internet marketing' articles; we can't really give you a direction of marketing without knowing what direction you are going.

Hope that helped,
James F.

 

[dec360]

JamesF,

Thanks for your advice. The more research I do the more I realize that you are right about how unnecessary it is to stress so much over protecting my website.

I have been reading on outsourcing and some suggest hiring a programmer from each company and give them each a small task from my project. Then evaluate their work and choose the one I liked based on quality, speed, and communication.

Again thanks for your input.

 

[FastNAwesome]

Should I look for a web designer locally or go with something like Odesk, Elance or Guru? Can I trust these companies or the person that will build my website not to sell the code or platform to someone else? Have any of you worked with any of these companies? What has been your experience?

Try vworker.com.

Posting a project is painful, but you'll end up with contract tailored to your wishes and needs, and the worker will be obliged to comply with it, and deliver accordingly. I think they have an option of requiring worker to sign NDA as well.

They're also very harsh in disputes, thus protecting your money as well in case worker is late or didn't deliver everything.

For this to work as your protection, write up every single detail of your requirements in project description, and communicate timely with worker.

But keep in mind that going after some freelancer in a far away country may not be effective process at all.
If it's THAT important, consider doing stuff locally as well.

Is there anything I can do to protect my website from copycats during the early stages?

If you're good, they will come. Maybe harsh copyright notices may slow them down, or maybe just be better, stronger etc. Also it may be worth studying to what extent you can protect your idea.

I am also trying to come up with a good marketing strategy. Any good threads on this or good books I can read?

Best choice can greatly depend on what is it you're working on.

 

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[FastNAwesome]

I have been reading on outsourcing and some suggest hiring a programmer from each company and give them each a small task from my project. Then evaluate their work and choose the one I liked based on quality, speed, and communication.

May be able to help with this one, feel free to PM me.

 

[dec360]

@FastNAwesome I sent you a pm but it doesn't appear in my out box so Iam not sure if it went through.