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I need someone to build my website. My budget is $200 and I need it ASAP.

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Re: I need someone to build my website. My budget is $200 and I need it ASAP.

#11

Post by zbruhnke »

I get this kind of thing all the time from friends and family mainly, almost always it is someone who "just needs something basic" and "it shouldnt be a big deal" however, I am a perfectionist and everything is a big deal lol so inevitably i spend time on it making it perfect and they go on thinking that what I did it for is what those services cost. most of the time I feel I am simply doing a disservice to people who actually have to make their living designing sites, however at the same time I have a problem saying no and throwing together a website in a couple hours typically just gives me a break from whatever coding project i am currently working on ... I guess to each their own, but I dont mind this kind of thing as something to pass the time.

Although to share a recent favorite, my Dad owns a company in which he sells gate operators and automated entry systems and he had a client that wanted to be able to bill every month by how many times an individual went in and out of the site, after explaining a few options to him i decided it would be easiest just to write a batch file that dumped the transactions form the controller into a CSV and from the CSV into access which would then generate the reports for billing with memorized reports.

I told my dad that which he understood (barely) but when the job was given to another vendor he called dad to ask what software he needed to purchase to do this, when dad told him i was just going to write a batch file to do it he responded "Oh yeah, well I could do that but I really dont have the time, so ill just let zach do that if he wants to then, let me know what I owe ya"

lol dont you just love the guy that doesnt have enough time to use the switches in a batch file?

The nerve of some people...

Re: I need someone to build my website. My budget is $200 and I need it ASAP.

#12

Post by hitonagashi »

dpcan wrote: post #5

In my opinion, SquareSpace (and others) is missing the boat by not having a white-label system for web developers to resell their services invisibly. People pay web devs because they don't want to take the TIME to learn it and do it themselves. The reason people offer $200 is because they really want to pay someone for 8 hours of work for $200, it has NOTHING to do with web design. If you are starting a candy store,…

Our startup has a product that does that :). Admittedly, the designers have to work with us to set them up, but once they are set up, we don't have to do anything more.

http://www.usearabella.com/

Re: I need someone to build my website. My budget is $200 and I need it ASAP.

#13

Post by benchmark »

SHOwnsYou wrote: post #9

I am either giving up a huge secret or revealing how little I actually value my time... You guys are giving up a huge opportunity. It is easy to make a thousand or more per week from these types of jobs. A thousand isn't a lot, but it is easily done in a few hours. If they are paying commodity prices, then you give them a commodity. The key? Boiler - Plate. Have a standard contract. Have a standard website theme, per…

I tried something similar. I designed websites for five local restaurants, all at the same time, then SEO'd them into top positions on Google. Then I went door to door to each restaurant and showed them the websites, live online.

The restaurant owners wouldn't need to do anything. They could assume possession of the website that very day (I would only need to change some pictures and change the website name from "Your Family Restaurant" to their name).

Guess what... I only moved one, and even that one was a special deal. I couldn't even rent the other websites out for a small monthly fee.

I figure it wasn't a price point as much as they just didn't see the value in having a website. If they did, they'd already have a website.

Lesson: Let people come to you. Let them have the need first.

BTW: Every now and then, late at night, I'll get a takeout order for lettuce wraps and fried rice (sigh).

Re: I need someone to build my website. My budget is $200 and I need it ASAP.

#14

Post by needmoney »

SHOwnsYou wrote: post #9

I am either giving up a huge secret or revealing how little I actually value my time... You guys are giving up a huge opportunity. It is easy to make a thousand or more per week from these types of jobs. A thousand isn't a lot, but it is easily done in a few hours. If they are paying commodity prices, then you give them a commodity. The key? Boiler - Plate. Have a standard contract. Have a standard website theme, per…

Where can I find these jobs?

Re: I need someone to build my website. My budget is $200 and I need it ASAP.

#15

Post by GFischer »

kls wrote: post #3

The margins are just too low on these, hell a decent copy writer is going to cost you half of that if not more. If it needs to have a polished look add a graphics person to that. And that's just to get all of the creative done. I just don't see how on the thin margin of $200 to $500 it can be done. Even with offshore labor the onshore management would eat it up to the point that it would not have a value proposition…

Sorry to disappoint you, but here in the 3rd world, "$200 for professional services sets up unrealistic expectations." well... for U$ 100 an hour you can get world-class services here in Uruguay.

I get paid U$ 8/hour (I'm not that bad a developer, but probably below average and nowhere near world-class). For comparison, a good mechanic costs U$ 20/hour.

There are several companies here that thrive on the "too-low-margin-for-the-US" market, I should set up one too...

Re: I need someone to build my website. My budget is $200 and I need it ASAP.

#16

Post by kls »

GFischer wrote: post #15
kls wrote: post #3

The margins are just too low on these, hell a decent copy writer is going to cost you half of that if not more. If it needs to have a polished look add a graphics person to that. And that's just to get all of the creative done. I just don't see how on the thin margin of $200 to $500 it can be done. Even with offshore labor the onshore management would eat it up to the point that it would not have a value proposition…

Sorry to disappoint you, but here in the 3rd world, "$200 for professional services sets up unrealistic expectations." well... for U$ 100 an hour you can get world-class services here in Uruguay. I get paid U$ 8/hour (I'm not that bad a developer, but probably below average and nowhere near world-class). For comparison, a good mechanic costs U$ 20/hour. There are several companies here that thrive on the "too-low-mar…

Once the American manager and sales team eats up $150 of that then you have $50 for at least 3 days work. Unless you are planning on having no US sales presence.

Re: I need someone to build my website. My budget is $200 and I need it ASAP.

#17

Post by lylejohnson »

phranc wrote: post #6
kls wrote: post #3

The margins are just too low on these, hell a decent copy writer is going to cost you half of that if not more. If it needs to have a polished look add a graphics person to that. And that's just to get all of the creative done. I just don't see how on the thin margin of $200 to $500 it can be done. Even with offshore labor the onshore management would eat it up to the point that it would not have a value proposition…

> Developers require a lot more knowledge and skills than mechanics Oh? Care to elaborate on this statement or stop while you're ahead.

Was thinking the same thing, and it also reminded me of a scene from "Seinfeld":

Jerry: So, Puddy, this is a pretty good move for you, huh? No more "grease monkey".

David Puddy: I don't much care for that term.

Jerry: Oh. Sorry, I didn't know...

David Puddy: No, I don't know too many monkeys who could take apart a fuel injector.

Re: I need someone to build my website. My budget is $200 and I need it ASAP.

#18

Post by GFischer »

kls wrote: post #16
GFischer wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to disappoint you, but here in the 3rd world, "$200 for professional services sets up unrealistic expectations." well... for U$ 100 an hour you can get world-class services here in Uruguay. I get paid U$ 8/hour (I'm not that bad a developer, but probably below average and nowhere near world-class). For comparison, a good mechanic costs U$ 20/hour. There are several companies here that thrive on the "too-low-mar…

Once the American manager and sales team eats up $150 of that then you have $50 for at least 3 days work. Unless you are planning on having no US sales presence.

Yep that's too little even for us.

And your point is that the kind of "I need a website for U$ 200" don't know how to get to rentacoder or equivalent.

I wonder if they get to craigslist, or if you could have a high enough volume with a very small US presence.

One of my first jobs was for a small company that outsourced, it had an US phone, an Uruguay-based sales rep that spoke very good american-accent English.. maybe that's enough for the sales leads?

Re: I need someone to build my website. My budget is $200 and I need it ASAP.

#19

Post by kls »

phranc wrote: post #6
kls wrote: post #3

The margins are just too low on these, hell a decent copy writer is going to cost you half of that if not more. If it needs to have a polished look add a graphics person to that. And that's just to get all of the creative done. I just don't see how on the thin margin of $200 to $500 it can be done. Even with offshore labor the onshore management would eat it up to the point that it would not have a value proposition…

> Developers require a lot more knowledge and skills than mechanics Oh? Care to elaborate on this statement or stop while you're ahead.

Yes I can, my grandfather, my father and myself (in my early life) where all Aircraft Mechanics. I am still a motor-sports mechanic (hobbyist for off-road motor-sports team) and restore old Jeeps, Bronco's and Scouts. From Frame to finish. I can tell you emphatically that software development is more complex than Mechanics. Further, I do hobbies work in the automotive electronics space and develop software that uses CAN, OBDII and hack ECU's. The development environments and list of technologies required are far more spare because it is an fairly heterogeneous environment but I did not say anything about automotive programming (though I do believe that it is less complex than web, mainly because it is not cluttered by technology soup) I was speaking specifically about pull a part off, replace it, run a diagnostic machine on it mechanic. I specifically chose mechanic because it is a trade I know a lot about given that it is the family business.

Re: I need someone to build my website. My budget is $200 and I need it ASAP.

#20

Post by kls »

GFischer wrote: post #18
kls wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once the American manager and sales team eats up $150 of that then you have $50 for at least 3 days work. Unless you are planning on having no US sales presence.

Yep that's too little even for us. And your point is that the kind of "I need a website for U$ 200" don't know how to get to rentacoder or equivalent. I wonder if they get to craigslist, or if you could have a high enough volume with a very small US presence. One of my first jobs was for a small company that outsourced, it had an US phone, an Uruguay-based sales rep that spoke very good american-accent English.. mayb…

I just don't see it, I could be wrong it happens more than I would like. But I don't see how you can have a US presence. If someone can figure out that part they will have a big piece of the puzzle solved.
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