Using upwork on ecommerce site

nino1

I am setting up a shopify site and need some customization on my product page.
Some of the stuff i need can be gotten from third party apps but these apps are €10/€20 per month.
I am thinking of using a developer on upworks who cam do the job for €50-€80 as a one off payment.

Anyone have any experience or advise on using a freelancer on upworks for this?

martyoo

I have used developers from similar websites for my own business and for the most part it's worked out well. Like anything online check their reviews and previous work. A lot of them are based in India so expect a delay with emails and some language issues.

You need to be absolutely crystal clear with them on what you want so making sure they understand fully what's required is key.

jacksn

martyoo wrote: »

You need to be absolutely crystal clear with them on what you want so making sure they understand fully what's required is key.

This ^ it can be very robotic dealing with offshore, if you expect them to understand the "flow" of what you want mean they wont.. they rarely think outside the box and instead they will send a question back to your task and then you send an answer then another question which is all wasted time.

ironclaw

jacksn wrote: »

This ^ it can be very robotic dealing with offshore, if you expect them to understand the "flow" of what you want mean they wont.. they rarely think outside the box and instead they will send a question back to your task and then you send an answer then another question which is all wasted time.

This is solid advice. Don't be overly tempted by the saving of paying someone offshore $50 a day to design your website. The heartache and loss I've had to come into and rescue quickly evaporates the saving.

I'd strongly recommend you chat to some locally based devs, people you can jump on a phone call with, converse with and perhaps even meet for coffee to sketch out an idea. Will it cost more? Marginally. Will it be money better spent? Absolutely in my eyes. It is critical that your dev to understand your business unless you want a singular, very specific task done. And this understanding can only be gained by an in-depth, free flow chat something you will struggle with when it comes to offshore.

Another aspect to check is code quality. A lot of offshore work is off the shelf, meaning the quickest, fastest possible route. You could be dealing with someone who is simply one lesson ahead of yourself. This is fine when its basic work but if you have something unique, mission-critical or something that really needed double checking, it can cause problems especially if you need it upgraded and can't get back in touch with your original dev.

The old saying rings true, even in tech, buy cheap and you'll buy twice.

Im using it at the moment, for a little bit of web work. Theres a lot of profiles of 'people' that are actually companies and you have to be wise screening them.

I hired a guy for the job yesterday who said he was starting straight away. 24 hours later nothing done, and he had various excuses, so I cancelled the contract instantly. I hired another person today and within 6 hours half of a 20 hour job was complete already. So thats what you are dealing with. Just got to be ruthless read between the lines.

Axwell

Shouldn't really matter if they are a person or a company as long as they are going to do the work and meet the deadlines. If you set out and agree milestones for the job instead of a fixed price at the end with people then it tends to work better. That way they need to meet those deliverables to get paid along the way instead of go missing for a few days and rush all the work towards the end because the client is looking for it and has seen no progress.

TL17

Deleted User wrote:

I hired a guy for the job yesterday who said he was starting straight away. 24 hours later nothing done, and he had various excuses, so I cancelled the contract instantly. I hired another person today and within 6 hours half of a 20 hour job was complete already. So thats what you are dealing with. Just got to be ruthless read between the lines.

Where can you contact someone to do this. I assume it India?
Would you be able to give more info on guy you choose ?

Axwell

On UpWork - loads of people from all over the world, not necessarily just India.

Axwell

Axwell wrote: »

Shouldn't really matter if they are a person or a company as long as they are going to do the work and meet the deadlines. If you set out and agree milestones for the job instead of a fixed price at the end with people then it tends to work better. That way they need to meet those deliverables to get paid along the way instead of go missing for a few days and rush all the work towards the end because the client is looking for it and has seen no progress.

I'd much prefer to be dealing 1v1 with someone and not a company that might have different people working on the same project. Lines of communication are better.

Axwell

Deleted User wrote: »

I'd much prefer to be dealing 1v1 with someone and not a company that might have different people working on the same project. Lines of communication are better.

That's fair enough but in your case above you would imagine even if it was a company that you would be dealing with lets say the project manager who finds the work and his staff then complete the tasks. The fact he went missing and did nothing for 24 hours sounds more like an individual who just doesn't deliver (of which there are many of on Upwork and other sites) and doesn't stick to agreed milestones and timelines. That's the biggest pain on sites like UpWork, you will be told everything is 'not a problem' and they understand the brief completely but inevitably things aren't delivered on time or as requested more times than not. Some of the excuses are rather creative too :pac:

brynne

If the Shopify site is a new addition to an existing business that has been trading for more than a year (and you have less than 10 employees), don't forget that you may be able to access an Online Trading Voucher via your Local Enterprise Office. They'll reimburse you up to the value of €2500 (representing half your own spend of €5000) to employ a professional developer to set up or improve an eCommerce site.

davindub

Just to share my own experiences of this. I code as a hobby and would have be able to complete any project myself i posted to upwork but had little time.

A few times i hired the cheapest person, with little experience but who promised they would be able for the job, i quickly had to cancel these, they obviously could barely code.

The most expensive doesnt equal the best.

When you find a good contractor, you tend to stick to them, but they may leave the site later, meaning upgrades are more expensive.

Spend a bit of time thinking about what you want done, once small jobs, you prob should use upwork. Longer projects or changes down the line i would advise build a relationship with a local firm.

If you intend to spend 50 euros or less, you would be looking for something that takes a couple of hours max. Coding is not quick, so keep that in mind.

I have a guy i use for websites on upwork (php, html etc) if anyone wants his details pm and ill share.

nino1

anyone have any better experience with fiverr?

Axwell

It's no different - same sort of people looking for work on there. Just posting tasks they do at lower rates with add-ons then to bump up the cost. These experiences are going to be the same across all of these sort of websites, most are probably signed up to them all in an effort to get as many jobs in as they can.

ironclaw

Axwell wrote: »

It's no different - same sort of people looking for work on there. Just posting tasks they do at lower rates with add-ons then to bump up the cost. These experiences are going to be the same across all of these sort of websites, most are probably signed up to them all in an effort to get as many jobs in as they can.

Every Tom, Dick and Harry who is starting as a Digital Nomad is signed up on each and everyone one of these sites. Not saying its a bad thing, just saying that there is zero difference. There is a huge amount of people wanting the Instagram lifestyle on a Thailand beach with their MacBook, some of them dangerously unqualified to be doing such work.