: As a website developer, I can tell you what really helps me (and my company) avoid miscommunications and delays that follow. Have a well defined project outline. If your needs are comprehensive,

@Pope3001725

As a website developer, I can tell you what really helps me (and my company) avoid miscommunications and delays that follow.


Have a well defined project outline. If your needs are comprehensive, you need to show that you have thought it through very thoroughly. A serious website developer will know to avoid a project that is open-ended, and chances are good that a hungry freelancer will pick up your job instead and later regret it as it gets beyond what he thought he was signing onto. More information up front, using electronic documents (not scanned paper), will make your job very attractive.
If you cannot provide mockups, point to several websites that have elements that you like. Do not point to one website and say "copy them, they look great." A good designer should be able to incorporate ideas from the sites you point to without plagiarizing anything. The end result should be something that is unique to you without the additional overhead of describing your vision in words only.
Have a budget in mind to go along with that well defined project outline. Most likely, your website developer will be telling you "I cannot do all these features within your budget" and will engage in dialog to help meet your needs. I cannot speak for everyone, but my company never targets a client's max budget. Instead we provide modular quotes that target a budget range, and the customer decides how far their money should go. It's generally a very bad idea to use your entire budget up front. Leave room to spare, because as your project evolves new expenses will be found. It will really strain the relationship between you and the developer(s) if you try to add new requirements without additional compensation, so be prepared--it will likely happen.
Do not quote the project to death. Your developers will not forget that it took 20+ hours to quote the job. Suggestions 1-3 above will really help avoid that situation.


That really isn't a complete list, but I hope it helps point you in the right direction. To summarize: Get your project specifications together, be serious about your project, have a reasonable budget, and you should be able to find a developer that can work well with you.

Vote Up Vote Down

Login to post a comment!