I posted a long time ago about a website I have been designing for a small school (similar in style to trincheronapavalley.com), discussing Flash, Ajax, different ways to do it. I've finally completed the text, photos, design work (Photoshop), but I know nothing about web development. Now I need to hire someone. I'm in the Los Angeles area. I've looked online, on Craigslist, etc.. It's a bit of a minefield for someone like me. There seems to be some good guys and some guys whose promotion is not always completely honest and transparent. I see that pricing is all over the map. I would say I'm probably not looking for a big, established operation. I've also tried college kid doing stuff on the side and that didn't go so well. And I'm at a disadvantage as I don't know the time involved so I have no idea if I'm paying $40-50/hr (that's probably the range I'm comfortable with) or $250/hr. Maybe $50/hr is just unreal for what I want, or unreal in the L.A. market, I just don't know. I'm probably looking for someone who knows and loves the tech, likes the project, not self-important (a craftsman as opposed to a tech "priest" with "secret" knowledge), honest, transparent, no bait and switch - "well, we can't do exactly what you want for that price, so we came up with Plan B." Could be someone starting out, might even be a student as long as they were devoted to learning their craft and wanted to work on the project. Also, I was thinking I'd want to work with someone local. Hard to judge people you can't meet face to face. And of course I'm skittish about sending my files and $2,000 to Budapest and never hearing back. But obviously there are also awesome, skilled people in far-away places who might do excellent work for less than I could find in the L.A. market. Are there reasons I should or should not consider this? Appreciate any suggestions, places to look, etc..
This is Internet Market my friend, and you have to learn trusting people. It's upto you how you keep and maintain the trust but you have to have it, without trust it's not going to work.