http://www.kelkoo.co.uk/ Last year sold to yahoo for $575 million - an astonishingly high figure of how a small company grew wildy... I was wondering, if you were to code something similar to kelkoo with all the features that kelkoo has (search, user logins, price comparision, etc), what would you charge and how long do you think it would take to produce (say in PHP/MySQL)? What's already done for you is the design and layout of the site with most of the code design ideas already in place, so it would just be mainly coding with some ideas that you'd have to discuss with your project manager. The reason I'm asking is because I have a project, not really quite like kelkoo, but it does have some linking principles that in effect make the project of similar size and a rough figure as to what you think it costs will help start to put into mind how much money is required.
I would go through every task involved in developing such a project and break each task down into smaller tasks until I'm at a stage where I can estimate the time it will take me to develop the project. Once I've estimated each point, I add it all up and multiply it by my hourly rate. I could not even begin to estimate what it would cost without a full description
What Weirfire said times 2. But really, if you want a clone of something your better hiring an indian for $5 an hour over at scriptlance, they are the clone kings! Dont expect it to be any good though....
I personally think the development of the project should be easy enough but the marketing to actually make it work is where you are going to have to lose some weight in your pockets.
Sorry about that, I lost this thread totally yesterday and thought it had been deleted. Here were some old conceptual designs that have changed since. To be honest, I'm not expecting to pay less than $7,000. I don't mind if the code is cloned a bit because it will save a lot of money and time on the basics, but obviously it has to be fairly unique and secure. Also the developer would have to sign an NDA before the full concepts could be given over and also on completion give a total license to us saying that the software is ours completely and it won't be appearing elsewhere in any other projects - for this I'd expect to meet a coder who understands the needs for secrecy for a professional site and money making business. Now that I've asked a lot from you guys, I'll try to give a fuller understanding of the project over the next few weeks. Currently I'm finishing off the business plan and although the coding plan has been designed to a good level, it's not in a developers format yet.
LOL I once saw somebody wanting a paypal clone and the bids were from $20 to $35,000! Even for $35k you couldn't do it properly with all the FSA/FIS regulations and backend etc
At first glance this project looks like you would need to pay at least $12K if you want it done properly. Any less then you'll be lucky if you ever get it finished.
AdamSee, Once you get all yer details written down into a developers brief, let me know and i'll get a quote to you. Cheers.
Here's a Sitemap that should help to aid in understanding further. Do you have any templates that I can work from to make up a developers brief that will make it easy for you?
I'm going to bow out of this one Adam. There's too much risk involved for me at this current time and will be concentrating on the smaller jobs. If it had been a year later then I would probably be able to give you a decent quote for the whole job no problem. If I were you I'd take each step of the project and outsource it individually. That way you can take advantage of the companies who specialise in each stage of the project. Good luck Dread!
No worries Stephen That sounds like great advice, I hadn't thought about outsourcing seperate parts to other coders. Unfortunately my contacts within the coding industry are ok, but I wouldn't know where to find specific parts to it. Congratulations on your business premises, it's great to have a place to work away from home and I'm sure you're still dead chuffed about it
You should try http://www.getafreelancer.com/ It's supposed to be not bad! Thanks on the congratulations We are dead chuffed but the overheads are creeping up on us already As long as everyone pays on time we'll be ok lol.
Go with Weirfire suggestion, break down the project into smaller pieces and outsource them. This will contain your risk. I done more than 10 projects with online freelance sites and not once I have an experience that I want to boost about. I now set up my own team. In China.