Hello, dear habravchane! In this post I want to talk about how and at what price I ordered the site from freelancers, when I got the result and what I did of it myself. The task was to create a “landing store”: a one-page website for two products, with the ability to immediately place an order through a full-featured basket.

This post contains very few technical details and talks more about workflow and interaction with people.

Technical task

Being a developer myself, I perfectly understand the significance of the technical task and realize that if you miss something, it will not be realized. Quite a small percentage of performers with significant experience and customer-oriented approach will patiently tell the customer how and what better to do if he did not take into account something. But it is to such people that the most confidence is added, and they want to come with new orders.
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I tried to make the most detailed TZ, placing all the information in the form of a layout with an approximate arrangement of elements and comments, according to what logic that should work. But even with such a detailed enough, in my opinion, description and actually ready-made prototype, people managed to ask questions, the answers to which seemed obvious to me. Hence the conclusion - the more detailed and accessible you “chew” what you want to convey, the more you formalize and clearly describe what the result should be, the less questions you get. If the thought that “this is so understandable” slips in your head - no, and again no! Do not be lazy and describe this moment, make a footnote or an explanation.

Design

Next, I placed an order on one of the popular freelance sites. I am quite critical of the visual component of the sites, and a pleasant thoughtful design plays a big role for me.

In total, I received 61 offers, among which there was even “copy any landing page and change any elements in it (background, pictures, text, contacts, etc.) in 24 hours”. All offers can be divided into several price categories (plus or minus):

• From 1000 to 3000 - rustic, often not very professional, for my taste
• From 4,000 to 8,000 is a quite digestible quality, but not always stable. Large portfolios, and I think most customers will be satisfied with the result.
• From 9000 to 15000 - one often gets the impression of a slightly overpriced price, but looking through the portfolio, one can still see a stable result. This price category is popular. Basically, I personally did not like the style of work. And when you doubt in such cases, the risk is not very justified.
• Category 20 and above - often depends on the designer's ego. Many talented artists work in this category - such sites are impressive, but for my task it was superfluous. It can be supplemented with a developed prototype, which creates the impression of approaching the work “with the head” and at least somehow justifies the high cost.

At first I liked the portfolio of the designer, who aimed in the latter category. After talking and bargaining a bit, he said, “I can do it without frills,” halving the price in half, but that pushed me away. I was afraid to pay for the “semi-finished product” from an expensive designer who condescended to make something for me, so be it. Let it be better to complete the work with normal returns for the same money from someone else.

When I was ready to choose from what was, I received another offer from the second price category. Surprisingly, I liked almost all of the portfolio and I immediately invited the designer to cooperate. With all my wishes, we agreed on 7000 rubles.

For the page, a high-quality photo of the product from different angles was required - I was concerned about this myself, and even made this video . On the second day, the designer sent me almost finished work, which immediately exceeded my expectations! We made some minor edits, after which the mobile version was rendered.

Layout

The next step was to breathe life into the layout. In general, I myself like to design and impose, but this is not my main activity. And, if I had not delegated this work, I would probably not have finished it yet.

Placing an order, I received 20 offers. The most shocking was the offer for 19,000 rubles. When asked what I would get for such a price, the potential contractor replied: “A quality layout is included, a check list for verification , a description of the logic of the basket operation”.

There were several offers for 1500-2000 rubles, then several for 6000 rubles and a couple more 10,000+ rubles.

One of the proposals attracted me most of all with the correct clarifying questions (I asked to provide pictures in x2 resolution in advance so that they were clearly displayed on retina displays), and I suggested starting the work. We agreed on 3000 rubles. The coder provided the first results in a couple of days and said that he was slightly delayed due to the anniversary of the parents' wedding.

Three days later, he provided the finished result. I pointed out a few shortcomings and expressed my wishes, after which he disappeared and appeared only a week later, complaining that he was unwell. But most of my wishes were fulfilled, and moreover, much of what I didn’t initially ask for was done - cart functionality and even the server part. All this I was going to do myself. Only one not very significant wish remains, to which I indicated and proposed to discuss a convenient payment method ...

Then, for three weeks, I occasionally tried to find out how he was doing, and once again offered to pay, but without success. At the end of the third week, the layout designer appeared, wrote “Today I will try to finish it” and disappeared again ... After that, I spat, downloaded the ready-for-layout layout, remade JavaScript as it was more convenient for me, and made backend.

Dear coder, if you read this article, please write where I could transfer the payment to you. I am extremely embarrassed to use the result of your work for free.

Backend

I did the server part myself in 1.5 days. In principle, I could also order this part, but, I am afraid, the labor costs for TK with a description of the nuances and my vision of the desired result, coupled with the wishes for the quality of the code, would be comparable to the resources that my own work took.

I used the Slim Framework , connecting several libraries to it:

• Illuminate Database (aka Eloquent - Laravel component) - for working with the database
• PHP dotenv - for configuration in different environments
• recaptcha - to protect against spam
• PHPMailer - to send emails

The code is stored in the repository on Bitbucket , and runs on a regular virtual hosting.

Why is this all?

Initially, I understood that the project itself would hardly be commercially successful. This is due to the current state of affairs in this niche, but, first of all, it was interesting for me to put the idea into practice, so that I would not reproach myself for not even trying to do it. So, I can say with confidence that I have achieved my goal, having received an interesting experience.

If you have an idea, do not put it on the back burner, but try to implement it. I was about to start a year ago, but I did it just now. Try to delegate work to the maximum, to deal with the project, and not the nuances of implementation. Any idea can be implemented within a reasonable time and amount, even if you are heavily loaded with basic work. And the finished result always delivers pleasant emotions!

Update , as many ask:

Landing itself - http://tadiran-air.ru
Exchange - https://fl.ru