Please recommend a Web Developer to implement a marketplace website (eg Freelance.com)

[MagNorthDigital]

Budget TBC
we'd rather discuss scope of work and receive quotations

Programmers are not Plumbers. Good luck with building your site.

 

[Charly]

Naw boys, this was a smash and grab post, someone just wanted some cheap labour, you know cause we're from South Africa, and the dumb c##nts over there can speak English. Paying crumbs and expecting fishes and loaves. That's why OP scoffed at RedViking, and retromod is on the money.

Whomever took on this project, get a deposit up front, and track EVERTYTHING you do, keep detailed logs of when you take a sh+t, cause this is going to get ugly

That's the name of the game for freelance work. I have the advantage of having lower living costs than freelancers from the UK/US. I think we can agree that our local going rate is lower than overseas, and South Africans are known for having a solid work ethic. But I agree that sometimes overseas companies take this too far and treat us as if our time is worth nothing and expect us to beg for the crumbs they offer. I will respectfully leave the discussion at that point.

That being said, I will gladly work for any client as long as there is mutual respect and the work isn't unethical. I'm always transparent about the estimated costs, and as long as I'm being paid, the rest of the business's affairs are none of my concern unless they want my input or I firmly believe they are going in the wrong direction. I always want to see my clients succeed, but this isn't always the result. I had a project in 2018 for Dragie.com to fix their spaghetti code and update it to the Material UI framework where I'd put ~20 hours into a project (and had been paid) for the first milestone, only for the client to call the project off.

 

[charlieharper]

No ways I am going to do a scoping and the effort to compile a detailed proposal with demo mockup, if your budget and my thumbsuck based on experience and perceived complexity doesn't have the same number of zeroes...

Reminds me when I just started out about 4 years ago.
At the time I received mentorship from my EU based Developer friends who’s been in the freelancing business for many years before me and have some real skin in the game.

--- Story ---
I got an enquiry from a person who had a very ambitious idea for a web app... however, I was being honest and said that it’s perhaps more realistic to start with a small MVP and grow the app, which made sense to them. No point in spending a lot of RRRRRR just to find out no one is using it.

Following the advice of my mentors not to do anything for free, the ’startup' agreed to a paid consultation, on how to convert their giant idea that would realistically take months to build with a team, into an MVP that could be done with a single developer in ± 6 weeks.
The consultation was about 2 weeks work, which involved writing a phased plan, wireframe designs, meetings and a lot of going back and forth (like crazy) with the design - and not to mention sometimes getting requests like “could you please summarise what we discussed on our meeting and email it to me” as if I’m a school kid.
Which I gladly did cause I don’t know any better. (Meanwhile EU friends - add that unexpected summary to your invoice!!!!)

I sent the invoice at the end of the month for the consultation work, which was same amount agreed upon.

After paying me, a few days later I had another meeting. Suddenly the person implies I’m scamming them cause they expected a “fungible” product at the end of a 2 week ?consultation?.

Of course, when just starting out the freelance thing after doing pro-bono dev work as a student and building passion projects to launch on Product Hunt, this can be discouraging as hell, with self doubt and imposter syndrome shooting through the roof.

After numerous polite emails trying to figure out where I stand with them, they never got back to me.

4 years later their domain is still registered, but nothing came from it.