Is it reasonable to pay $1500+ for website development? How about $250? Why the vast differences in pricing? What skills are you paying for when hiring a website consultant?
Today while socializing with friends at a Memorial Day Celebration, that topic was broached. A friend whom I am helping set up a website spoke with another fellow who said he paid $250 on Elance to have his website developed AND his other site moved to the new host. Wow! What a deal! So why wouldn’t everyone hire these peeps who are charging such great rates to setup a website? At the risk of sounding biased there are several reasons:
You Get What You Pay For
Long ago I had perused these sites looking to generate more income from my business. But when I saw that people are looking for HUGE projects built with minimal pay, I immediately backed off. And why do they even think they can get these rates? Because the people who are bidding on projects are in Sri Lanka, Mumbai, Pakistan, etc and work for pennies on a project MINUS the quality programming and coding that are necessary to ensure a quality site search engine friendly site. POOR coding and I do mean way behind standards often plague the sites I have come to the rescue of.
I have come to the rescue of clients several times who attempted to go that route and received either A) poor quality of work that had to be redone or B) deadlines come and gone with nothing to show for their down payments months down the road.
United States Economy
Because ACA Web Consulting is ranked highly (thank you Jesus) nationally and internationally I receive calls every week from overseas companies looking for me to outsource work to them. My response is always the same…”Sorry I don’t outsource overseas”. We need to keep our money here in the states.
Skillset
I realize that you don’t have to live in the United States to have an advanced skill set with regard to coding, project management and aesthetics. The schooling and ongoing training and industry standards that web developers must keep up with is ever changing. On top of that those of us who are Search Engine optimizers have the added task of staying afloat with the algorithm changes that Google rolls out, ON TOP OF having a keen eye for aesthetics and design. So put all those into one: Programmer, Graphic Designer, Search Engine Optimizer and Online marketing specialist. Typical rates nationally range from $70-$120 and worth every penny by an ethical hard working website consultant. The average hourly pay for a person in Mumbai as a software engineer is $3.33 an hour.
Here are some quotes from the web about these services:
I have never experienced such a terrible, inept and slow customer service before in my life. * yelp Elance review
Not only was the founder Srinivas Anumolu indicted on fraud charges, but the company effectively farms work out of the United States by favoring “agencies” from Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, and India. and gives the shaft to the freelancing American worker. * yelp Elance Review
I personally could outsource and save lots of mula, but I simply won’t. I pay my designers and programmers the money that they deserve. Your business deserves the best, don’t skimp, it’ll only bite you in the long run.
