My little adventure started last year.
I saw an opportunity in developing an online craft market/village that could sell handmade products, provide crafters with their own dedicated craft page, link their social media to the dedicated craft page, further more link crafters to markets and provide articles and stories of people, places, and anything of interest really.
This bit is not aimed at bringing developers down, but only to share my experience and hope someone can learn from it. Fortunately there are amazing developers out there, but it is finding the right one for your online business.
If I had to think back to when I started this project, I admit there were many failures, one BIG unfortunate failure; the developer! This project has been in the hands of two developers and I can honestly say that if you don't have a semi-working draft piece within the first two weeks of commencing the project, you may have a huge problem nearer to the actual launch.
I often found that the developer steered the project in a direction of complexity and away from the original requirements and often this delayed the launched. My advice is to ensure your requirements are well documented to help prevent this. I did have a very detailed spec and that did help me a lot in the times the developer had steered the project in a different direction. I do believe now why he tried changing the direction was for the fact he couldn't actually do certain pieces of work.
Edit: just to add to this, don't be afraid in using existing platforms (CMS); provided you have someone that can customise willingly. I should have chosen this route right from the word go, instead I chose a full on custimised site which was a bad idea (in my opinion).
It really helps finding a developer near to you, having one 14 hours away makes things a bit more challenging. You can't just quickly meet over a coffee or meal to see the progress, discuss any issues or work through a piece of work. I did this with the second developer and it make the world of difference.
Also keep in mind that if your website is customised, mobile responsive development does take time, so allow for that extra development time.
8 days before launching my website (launch date 1st March), the developer had absconded - I have no words to explain what it was like. How do you even plan for that!
In March, I took on a new developer and we launched beginning of the week, it only took 2 months apposed to 6 months...
It has been a long road, and in some way worth it. Don't ever give up or it will never be yours to have.
Craft
http://www.craftersvillage.co.za
I saw an opportunity in developing an online craft market/village that could sell handmade products, provide crafters with their own dedicated craft page, link their social media to the dedicated craft page, further more link crafters to markets and provide articles and stories of people, places, and anything of interest really.
This bit is not aimed at bringing developers down, but only to share my experience and hope someone can learn from it. Fortunately there are amazing developers out there, but it is finding the right one for your online business.
If I had to think back to when I started this project, I admit there were many failures, one BIG unfortunate failure; the developer! This project has been in the hands of two developers and I can honestly say that if you don't have a semi-working draft piece within the first two weeks of commencing the project, you may have a huge problem nearer to the actual launch.
I often found that the developer steered the project in a direction of complexity and away from the original requirements and often this delayed the launched. My advice is to ensure your requirements are well documented to help prevent this. I did have a very detailed spec and that did help me a lot in the times the developer had steered the project in a different direction. I do believe now why he tried changing the direction was for the fact he couldn't actually do certain pieces of work.
Edit: just to add to this, don't be afraid in using existing platforms (CMS); provided you have someone that can customise willingly. I should have chosen this route right from the word go, instead I chose a full on custimised site which was a bad idea (in my opinion).
It really helps finding a developer near to you, having one 14 hours away makes things a bit more challenging. You can't just quickly meet over a coffee or meal to see the progress, discuss any issues or work through a piece of work. I did this with the second developer and it make the world of difference.
Also keep in mind that if your website is customised, mobile responsive development does take time, so allow for that extra development time.
8 days before launching my website (launch date 1st March), the developer had absconded - I have no words to explain what it was like. How do you even plan for that!
In March, I took on a new developer and we launched beginning of the week, it only took 2 months apposed to 6 months...
It has been a long road, and in some way worth it. Don't ever give up or it will never be yours to have.
Craft
http://www.craftersvillage.co.za
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i must say the web developer need's some time and reconstruct everything.
