Hiring a programmer, you get what you pay for.

TommyCarey Level X³

August 28, 2016, 3:37 am

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Recently I've been posting jobs on multiple websites trying to find a decent programmer who is willing to take a lower payment in exchange for a retainer each month. Now I'm not saying I'd pay the person $0 to do a ton of work, I would actually pay them something lol.

The job I was looking to get done was a design and programming for a website that would be an easy sell to webmasters and web designers. I posted the job at $300 and in the description I mentioned that I would give an additional 10% of the profits to the designer/programmer for life as a retainer so they could manage the code and add new features if I wanted. Now I probably wouldn't need new features for the first 6 months so all they would really have to do after the launch would be to watch the code and make sure it didn't break.

Now I know for a fact that I can get this website to roughly $3,000 profit per month within 1 to 3 months so most designers and programmers from India and the Philippines would love an additional $300 USD sent to them just to monitor some code each month lol. And who knows, I might be able to get the website to $10,000 a month within the first year

Now for anyone who doesn't know about India and the Philippines, their minimum wage is roughly $300 USD per month. So basically I'd be giving them minimum wage just to monitor a website lol.

Now to get to my point of you get what you pay for. After going back and forth with a designer/programmer for a week about what I need done, she said she would do it for $200 and the 10% retainer. In my head I'm all like "Well she knows exactly what I need and knows what is going on" but that was far from the case. It seems that she was going to outsource the work to someone and when she accepted my job she sent it to her designer/programmer and they came back telling her that $200 - $300 wasn't enough. She came back and requested that I pay $3,000 for this job to be started and completed within 30 days. Now she never told me she was outsourcing this, but I could tell she was because of how she was acting. She knew exactly what was needed because we went over it and then she came back asking for 1,000% more lol.

Luckily I didn't get stuck in this deal and didn't deposit any money into escrow. But when I was starting out I did get scammed in a situation similar to this. But that was because I was dumb and started talking to the guy off of the platform and just sent him money via paypal and didn't know exactly what to look for when getting scammed Hiring a programmer, you get what you pay for.

Hiring a programmer, you get what you pay for.

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EliteWriter

I am sorry you had to meet this person and waste time discussing this over with her for nothing. At least you did not get stuck with it further as you had not paid her anything. I know how situations like this feel - when you are a reliable and trustworthy person you sort of expect that the people you deal with are going to be the same. Unfortunately it is difficult to find these people, and even if you do you need to train yourself to try to decipher what they are all about, and this is often difficult since we deal with them online. This sort of 'intuition' only comes with experience I guess. Personally I have come to the conclusion that as long as it is possible I do everything myself.

10 years ago

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Lynne

YES EliteWriter. I feel just the same. It is hard to find people that are trustworthy and reliable. Yet every time I get let down by someone I let it get to me. The fact is that there are a lot more time wasters and lazy people than there are hardworking people so I don't know I feel let down all the time.

For some reason I always want to trust people and believe in the best in them... but yes it is best to do everything myself in most cases.

This is why I found it so hard to let go and buy services! Fortunately I am finding that spending time to get to know the sellers here and finding quality sellers has actually turned into a very pleasant experience.

I am starting to outsource more and more...

10 years ago

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TommyCarey

Yeah, it gets annoying over time when I keep running into the same problem. Everyone wants to make money online but they don't want to actually learn anything. They would rather be a middle man and outsource the work to someone who knows how to do it. And then they have to increase the pricing because they bid too low and the programmer won't touch the job, ugh.

Don't get me wrong, I outsource too, but I don't bid $200 to $300 and come back to let the person know that it will now cost $3,000 lmao

A good example I have is my main designer. I will show him a listing and he'll tell me what he would want out of it. He understands that I'm going to be the middle man and he doesn't have to do anything but design a website and talk to me. I deal with all the headaches, and he knows this, so he reduces his prices for me so that I can get a nice commission as well. Some of our designs cost $3,000 to $5,000 and that's what he normally charges, but he cuts his price in half so I can make some money too

He doesn't have to deal with the clients, monitor emails, have 100s of headaches each month and he loves it. He deals with me and me alone to get the job done. I talk with the clients and get feedback, then forward it to him. THIS is how outsourcing should be done. It should not be done by bidding on everything and then going to your designer or programmer with a job and getting rejected because the bid was too low.

If I wasn't already working 60+ hours a week I would definitely learn how to do some programming and better my skills in HTML. That way I could just do all the work myself Hiring a programmer, you get what you pay for.

10 years ago

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Webguy2024

You do get what you pay for and due diligence is the key prior to the hiring process. My best experiences where when I hired programmers, window sys admins, designers and more through tech staffing agencies. I have only had good results here. Staffing agencies offer temp to hire positions and if a person doesn't work out you then call the staffing agency and send them packing. The staffing agency will send another candidate the next day. To date I have not run into or have been sent un-qualified candidates via quality staffing agencies. Staffing agencies vet the candidates via rigorous testing to ensure that they haven't fudged on their resume. It is important for me (someone who hires) to know that a person is truly qualified and that an agency won't just send some un-tested person to fill an assignments just to make money. I don't have time or money to waste with the unskilled. Additionally, I have found that hiring candidates that have a considerably higher rates will actually save you money in the long run because they get their work done 10 times faster than those who are less experienced. As we all know, you get what you pay for.

10 years ago

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TommyCarey

Additionally, I have found that hiring candidates that have a considerably higher rates will actually save you money in the long run because they get their work done 10 times faster than those who are less experienced.

So true. I've paid a higher price for some programmers in the past and was definitely not disappointed. But when I contacted them to do this job they were either busy or I couldn't afford them lol

10 years ago

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Lynne

Geez Razzy, some people just drive me crazy. I would have been really annoyed if I were in your position.

I don't know why some people can't see the value in what is being offered. Perhaps she thought that you wouldn't keep your word and pay her 10% of the profits for life to monitor it?

I find the way some people's minds work very strange. I would never accept a job and settle on a rate and then go back and try and change it again. An agreement is an agreement and it sticks.

10 years ago

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TommyCarey

Yeah, it's a bit ridiculous. I mean if they were in India and were getting $300+ a month just to make sure the code works everyday, that's a good life lol

Imagine if I got it to $100,000 profit per year, they'd be making $10,000 just to watch something. And the minimum wage in India is slightly lower than $3,600 USD per year.

I understand that people have been scammed in the past and this deal sounds too good to be true, but damn, I thought I'd get at least one good programmer wanting to do it lol

10 years ago

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Cristian

10 percent for life is actually pretty decent! I would love to get deals like that if I was a programmer. You may never know when gold strucks and you'll end up doing a lot of profit over a small code gig.

I also hate when people are outsourcing me, yeah sure, I'm also outsourcing and maybe I should understand, but damn people are annoying when outsourcing! At least be honest with me from the start, tell me you are outsourcing so I know what to expect.

10 years ago

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TommyCarey

I thought so too lol

I can market the hell out of any website and I know for a fact that I can get this new system to be very profitable for the amount of time that I have to put into it lol. The only problem is that people on other freelance websites don't know who I am and know that I'm a genuine guy Hiring a programmer, you get what you pay for.

10 years ago

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Everett

I'm uncertain if anyone has the same experience as me, but from my own experience "programmers" from third world countries, or eastern countries usually outsource programming to a third party. You'll find that the code you wanted is poorly done, with tons of bugs and security exploits.

I would suggest to target the top 5 English speaking countries due to the low quality. However, there are some good programmers but also there is language barriers. For instance, if you speak english, why would you want your code in a different language? This would likely occur, and if you hired someone to fix it, they wouldn't be able to easily read your code.

10 years ago

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overcast

I have tried sites like Fiverr, Upwork, freelancer and came across some of the worst buyers. As in most of them wanted me to move mountain for like under 5o bucks. I think that's what is wrong with people. They want others to do free work for them and don't want to pay them. So surely some wants to work poorly and some wants to just get rid of the client and run away. The low cost work don't sustain much. Because internet and electricity costs are high all around the world.

9 years ago

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itommy

I don't think so, it depends on how you chose a programmer to build elements for your website.
Even you can get low cheap price but you get high quality service if you chose a right programmer. Make sure that you will need to check their profile and pre-works that they did so you know they are a good programmer or not.

9 years ago

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augusta

That's workers for you not just programmers, sometimes you get other times it a big mess but the most important thing is us been careful to sort out the right person that would be reliable and can give us the best service.Sorry, you were scammed sometimes,its part of the learning phase to get better.If one doesn't get hit, you might have a story such as this to tell.So it might you do it your self or get the best hands.

9 years ago

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Seoclerks

Hiring a programmer, you get what you pay for.

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