web designer website design

tonytee

Does anyone know/can recommend a good website design company or freelancer?

I need a website designed where I will be advertising a service. I receive payment for that service then contract that service out. However, there is a unique twist: the contractors will have to bid for the job and the lowest bid wins the job - everything will be automated ie payment gateway paypal, emailing of new jobs to contractors, bidding process, outbid notification, winning bidder notification with job details, job completion notification, isp verification (to stop bid fraud/spam) and various other backend admin section areas to make my life easy. Will be dealing with around 500 jobs per week so need thr CMS to be easy to use. As much automation as is possible.

I have advertised this job through various freelance websites and 2 guys have tried to build the site but they lack the required skill. I have abandoned it twice.

I need someone with a high level of skill.

All content is provided and I am very clear what I want - I just cant find someone who knows what they are doing unfortunately. I have spent alot of money already and time which has frustrated me.

If anyone can recommend someone or a company that can definately do this job I would be greatful. Or if you, yourself can do this kind of work I would like to hear from you.

I dont want to be messed around anymore.

Thanks in advance.

[Deleted User]

Prepare to pay lots of money if you want the work done in the UK..

RobTang

maybe you're just aiming it at the wrong freelancers.

Its more web application development / web programming than website design per se.

While this is the sort of thing I do, i would personally ignore it if it was just a web design job.

While its not the most complex thing in the work it will still cost a fair bit, be realistic about how much your willing to spend.
The problem is you have to compete with big companies who are willing to pay a lot (more than you) for franky average people.

Personally I thinklLong term you are best off employing someone directly or getting a programmer as a business partner.

Vuze

In agreement with the previous comments - this is aimed at the wrong audience if you posted it as a web design job, this is web development and programming. It sounds like you want to create a 'reverse auction' type of site or essentially a hybrid/clone of these existing freelancer job sites. If you develop that in the UK, be prepared to back it up with a budget in the tens of thousands of pounds.

If you are making it on the cheap, you can go down the route of buying an existing script, such as an 'elance clone' script and then paying a developer to modify it to your needs.

tonytee

Thank you for all the replies. I dont have know what my budget for this job should be but am willing to spend £5000 if it needs that much. I want it to be automated because that will save money in the long run. Even the jobs will be emailed automatically to service providers withing x miles of the job postcode - they can then bid!

Bidding against another service provider should generally get me the lowest price.

I have alread posted on some freelancer sites and the providers I have chosen are all from India and while promising alot have let me down continously. I did use a UK company for a very large project in the past but they contracted the work to an Indian company anyway. The language barrier and the email only contact was a problem. So was the time difference in the two countries. I have heard from alot of people who claim all the IT talent is in India but haven't had the privelege yet.

I posted the project on freelancer.com and that deals with all IT related work/jobs. I didnt know which subject to post under though

What I want to know is when I do next advertise for a service provider what should I ask for? ie reverse auction, in what computing language etc etc.

The original service providers quoted me $600 and $750 to build the project from scratch.

What should I expect to pay an overseas provider who has the capability to complete this project.

Thanks in advance.

zee_2

look up http://www.acorndomains.co.uk/ I use it for domains ,you can get 5 page website made for £120 [last time I looked ] also after contact you could have one made up ,any one who offers service has to be good or finished with domaineers.
to join is free ,if you want to post request under proper subtitle ,just ask..allways proper answer and point in right direction.....websites are not hard when doing all the time...good luck...zee

[Deleted User]

Frankly, your best bet for value & quality is finding a decent computer science student to do it for you over the summer. I knocked out a 'news management system' for a company a few years back and it only took a week - it had built in analytics, emailing of new updates, content management of pages, image and file uploads, user management ect.. This stuff isn't that hard. (Work was free as it was for charity- it's still in use 6 years on)

The trickiest bit is designing a decent database schema. Make sure you're working out all the 'workflows' you want in the website properly and what security you want.

DVardysShadow

RobTang wrote: »

... Its more web application development / web programming than website design per se.

I agree.

ringo_24601 wrote: »

... The trickiest bit is designing a decent database schema. Make sure you're working out all the 'workflows' you want in the website properly and what security you want.

I agree.

This project is NOT a website project, it is a database project with a web interface. You need to really understand that looking at this as a website project rather than a database project is actually having the tail wagging the dog - it is the reason you have failed to have it developed.

Website developers and database developers are 2 different animals. Website developers tend to deal with information - description of goods and services and pushing this to the customer. So look and feel is important. Database developers deal with processing data - capturing and displaying details of transactions and undertaking actions such as sending emails when required.

Get the database working - you need to tell the database developer that it will be web based - but only when it is working as a database do you do any website work. Ideally, your database developer should at least include a basic website. But if he does, forget about branding and appearance. Just make sure that the data is managed how you want to manage it - ie that it works properly. Really, just the entry boxes, response fields and buttons, no backgrounds, no colours no fiddling with layout. No 'can you change the colours', 'can you increase the font size', 'can you add tooltips'.

Once you have that working, then hand it over to a website developer to produce something which has the look and feels you want.

andthethreebears

Just showed this thread to by better half (thinking he could help) he says:

the split is between design and development, not website development and database development
(wouldn't be much of a web developer if you couldn't design/maintain a good database)
that guy won't find someone with a truly high level of skill for the money he's offering, unless they really need the money
try graduates? look on web design / development forums? or if you are desperate / willing to splash some cash - get a recruiter involved.

sorry!

nowtsquared

Have you produced a requirements document of any sort, and something that describes how you see this system working from the perspective of a paying client, a contract bidder and yourself.

You can then tout this around looking to get bids for the work
GLWT

happywarmgun

I do this kind of stuff. Cannot imagine it coming in at under 10k in the UK and I can imagine it coming in at far more than that.... As others have said you are really looking to develop a web application and integrate it into a website rather than 'design a website'. The problem you have is that people who know how to do this kind of thing can easily get work with the big corporates who pay the big bucks.