Honest question for freelancers or for anyone who has solicited help from one.

How would I go about asking a freelancer to produce a “tube style site” or any site for that matter, using the correct technical lingo?

I don’t want to sound clueless when asking, so is there a professional or correct way to clearly communicate myself to ensure I receive the desired work?

I am somewhat of a “newbie” and I understand that people are always willing to get over on the gullible if the opportunity presents itself. Kinda of like going to a random car mechanic, if you use the right lingo they know you know your sh*t and will be less likely to try and get over on you. This is the primary reason I have dragged my feet for so long in outsourcing my needs on sites like Freelancer etc.

My request would look something like this:

“I would like a “Youtube style site” that plays embedded videos from other sites which can either be submitted by a user or administrator. Front end users must be able to comment on videos as well as share content via social media platforms. Site Logo and Advertisement must be kept in mind during design so that banner ads can be neatly placed at a later date. If you are interested, Example sites of the desired outcome will be provided in the PM”


So what do you think?

Ultimately, I wouldn’t want to end up paying for a site that visually looks right, but functionally doesn’t work right or vice versa. Or even worse, a site with constant bugs and needed fixes requiring me to keep “coming back” to the original developer.


Any and all advice, input, and/or personal experiences will be much appreciated and forever cherishedJ

 

Embedding content (mostly videos) from other sites usually uses <iframe> HTML element. And originating sites usually provide required link for it. Problem is, what if they see that a particular video is outdated and thus decide to erase it? I haven't designed a tube site before, but I think your tube site should handle this kind of risk...

Is this the "constant bugs" you're talking about?

 

Your request sounds fine. But you may want to look at other tube sites like Vimeo, DailyMotion, etc., to see what they do right and not. In my opinion, Youtube has been moving in the wrong direction, especially with their awful infinitely scrolling comments and pretty much their entire commenting system. If you are going to request a bid, you want to be certain to include everything. If you want videos in both Flash and mp4, make sure that is in writing. If you want to allow members to subscribe to other members and get an email when another video is uploaded, someone replies to a comment they made, etc., state those requirements. Unless you are going to use an off-the-shelf script, creating a Youtube style site is going to be expensive.

 

Embedded videos from other sites, that's a terrible idea. Loading content from the other sites take a bit of time if not perpetual.

In building a site for video, you need a dedicated engineer rather than a hired developer. Making video run smoothly require a lot of optimizations. Look at Yahoo videos for instance. A freelance PHP developer might have no clue how to optimize your video playback.

 

Thank you for your advice. I had one local developer in my area create a custom Wordpress site years ago. And it seemed something was always wrong with the site in terms of cross-browser compatabilty issues and a few other minor issues. Anyways, every time I needed something corrected it cost me additional. I kind of got the drift that he was slightly taking advantage of my lack of knowledge. I accept part of the blame for maybe not using all the required lingo to fully establish what I needed. It was a learning experience and one that I would not want to deal with again, especially from someone potentially out of state or even out of country. I will study this <iframe> HTML that you have mentioned!

 

Thank you. This is exactly what I was referring to! So often the developer gets the blame when things go wrong, but many times it is merely a case of miscommunication. I've learned from my mistakes in the past. So then, are you suggesting that I do not have to use technical coding language in my request? Is it sufficient to merely state how I would like the site to function step by step?

And finally, would you happen to have any suggestions of an off-the-shelf script? I have searched some video based Wordpress themes but found non that were appealing. I had really hoped it would not be too difficult to have a template developed similar to the appearance of Youtube, though not as complex and obviously not an exact copy, where I could then just embed niche videos from Youtube thus eliminating the need for a bunch of servers etc. Most tube porn sites for example(I have no desire to own one, just an example) thrive off of this type of approach since it is mostly a video based industry. The smaller sites appear to merely embed videos from the larger sites where the content originates.

Thanks again for your advice btw! Very useful information!

 

Interesting! So for this type of work is there a particular type of freelancer that I should seek out? Would you suggest that I perhaps maybe hire one individual to design and then hire someone else to do the programming instead of just finding one individual to do it all? We all have strengths and weaknesses and I think many freelancers make errors when they take on bids that do not adhere to all of their strengths.

"Making video run smoothly requires a lot of optimization" Could you explain this in further detail. I may be wrong but I was under the impression that if the video is playing off a Youtube server so to speak, then that part is pretty much taken care of.

Some of the things you have mentioned I had not previously thought of. Thanks again for your insight on the topic

 

When a person goes to the doctor, do they use all the proper medical terms? No. The average person does not know the scientific medical terms and doctors can understand patients just fine. It will be the same with a developer. If they need more information, they will ask for it.

It is going to cost you significant money to duplicate even a fraction of the features of something like Youtube. I have seen others over the years request tube scripts and if you search Yahoo or your search engine of choice for "tube script" you will see some available, most commercial. I cannot recommend any as I have never used one.

You could use Wordpress and embed videos from the big tube sites. But you will not be using Wordpress as the tube site itself as it is not intended for such use. If that is the route you want to go, it would be far cheaper to hire a designer to design a theme for you and someone to translate it to HTML and CSS and maybe develop a few plugins if you need them than it will be to create a tube site from scratch. Youtube has spent untold millions developing their site.

As for the adult tube sites, there are scripts that some of those webmasters use. Also, they may be embedding videos or using white label sites and content provided by the affiliate program they are promoting. It might not be a bad idea for you to head over to gfy.com and see if any of the people over at that adult webmaster and advertising forum can recommend a tube script for you to use. After all, it was the adult industry that pioneered streaming video on the internet. They will know more about it than most.

 

Wow, wow, and Wow! Very insightful information! I also liked your metaphor using the doctor, very true statement! One of the main reasons I have dragged my feet with this for so long is because some people make it sound relatively easy, while others make it sound very costly and difficult, which has ultimately created huge hesitancy within myself as I do not want to "bite off more than I can chew" or gamble money i do not have. I really want to make sure all of my ducks are in a row so to speak to increase my chances of a successful project.

If I do choose the Wordpress route, are you suggesting that I use 2 separate freelancers for the job? One for the theme design and then a programmer for the translation? And would I lose the Wordpress CMS capabilities during this process?

You have been a huge help. I will certainly take this advice and apply it during my research! I will also head over to gfy.com when time permits to find out more information as well. Thanks again for your suggestions!

 

Creating a theme for Wordpress and embedding videos from Youtube and other sites will be far cheaper than developing your own tube site. I think for a few hundred dollars you could get a tube script. I am not sure how good it will be. Several hundred to a few thousand dollars and you should be up and running.

Not necessarily. It is rare to find one person who is both a gifted artist and a good coder. You can go with a simple design and have one person do both. How much do you want to spend? Your budget will dictate what you can do.

No, you will not lose Wordpress capabilities. Wordpress has its purpose and can be used as a CMS but was intended to be a blog and to display simple pages.

 

Here's an edit:

“I'm looking for a developer to create a video sharing site that displays embedded videos from other sites, such as YouTube and Vimeo. These can either be submitted by a user or added by an administrator. Users must be able to comment on videos as well as share them via social media platforms (minimum: Twitter, Facebook, Google+). We will provide a site logo and example ads for the content, and these must be kept in mind during design so that banner ads can be neatly placed at a later date. If you are interested, example sites with a similar design to the desired outcome will be provided via PM.”

Overall, it was good. I just cleaned up the language a little. Good luck!

 

Brilliant!! Thank you very much! I like it!

 

You're welcome

 

I am hoping that somewhere between $500-$1000 will be enough?(fingers crossed). If not, I will simply have to wait and save up a little more money.