Outsourcing web related projects to freelance designers

Online marketing and website production are two very common things that I deal with. Often I come across situations where the dificulty of a task at hand exceeds anyone’s ability or time that works for my company. So, where do you go when you need to get work done, and you dont want to do it yourself. You can hire a freelancer to do it.

Why freelancers are great:
Hiring a freelance programmer / designer / marketer to do work for you can be a great method of getting things done. Most programmers, business owners, and project managers don’t have the time or resources to get everything that they need to get done. By using a freelancer to outsource some work to, you can get a highly professional product, and often at a lower cost than doing it yourself. Freelancers are professionals, sometimes with degrees, that can get just about anything done, and always at a good price. You can always have your local web deisnger, or design firm do something for you, but it normally comes at a higher price than a freelancer.

Where to hire freelancers:
There are a variety of freelance marketplaces on the internet where you can posts your specific project, and receive bids from the thousands of freelancers that watch those website’s. Freelance marketplaces work much like ebay. You post your project with specific details, a price range, and a deadline for completion of the project. A freelancer will see your project and bid on it if they have the skills to complete it, and the price is in their range for the specific work that needs to be done. When their work is complete, you pay them the agreed upon fee, and they deliver to you the finished product. After the entire transaction is complete, you rate your experience with the freelancer and they rate you as a buyer.

Just about any project imanigable can be outsourced at a freelance marketplace. Anything from search engine optimization, a basic or complex complete website, ecommerce design, graphic design, traditional marketing and advertising, advanced programming, if you can think of something, it can proably be outsourced.

About the prices:
Since you are receiving bids on your project from multiple providers, the price on your project is very fair. There is feirce competition for projects between freelancers which helps drive down the price. Prices on freelance marketplaces tend to be very reasonable. But, quality work always demands a fair price. You should be wary of providers with low or no feedback, or if their price is substancially lower than everyone else’s.

Keep in mind that while prices are low, nothing comes free. Highly complex projects are very expensive no matter who does them. Also keep in mind that if you are trying to integrate your website, or ecommerce system across to another platform, it will be expensive. Same thing goes for any type of ‘web services’ or advanced XML / SOAP / AJAX / CUSTOM DATABASE / API integration and managerment etc.

Freelance Marketplaces:
http://www.getafreelancer.com (recommended)
http://www.rentacoder.com (recommended)
http://www.elance.com
http://www.scriptlance.com
http://www.codelance.com
http://www.freelancersdirect.com
http://www.thecentralmall.com/index.html
http://www.scriptjobs.com
http://www.radlance.com
http://www.smartbids.co.uk
http://www.nasnap.com
http://www.looksurf.com
http://www.ecknowledge.com
http://www.contractedwork.com