Programming job

[White Wolf]

I'll try and explain the best I can what I need done.....

I run a creditcard website www.excellentcreditcardoffers.com . When I create a new credit card I can only select the credit card issuer and 1 category such as (Airline card, low Interest, etc) I would like to be able to assign multiple cats per card so if a card that is issued by Visa would show under the category "Visa" as well as any other category that it may fit into such as (low Interest, balance Transfer, Etc)

I would also like to be able to create custom title tags for each page in the admin CP. I'm not sure if this can be done or not it uses the "smarty" template engine.

My question is what would be the cost range to have a PHP/MYSQL programmer do this?

[Andy]

I suggest having a look on www.elance.com to get an idea of price ranges. But the rating of the programmer would be important too.

I think your job involves:

* Database restructuring
* Data input page modifications
* Code to search the database for the best card to match various parameters specified
* Code to generate lists of cards for various categories
* Input form for the card search feature
* Output page for the search results

Maybe a week's work for the above?

Also, I am not sure what is involved with changes to the template system. Also, there may be css and html coding to be done.

I suggest creating some dummy web pages containing all the forms and example output screens so the programmer will know exactly what you want and just needs to do the background coding and database work.

I would charge $300 for the bulleted list I made (average of $50 per task).

Template changes involving the appearance of the site and tweaking of styles are not my cup of tea since it can take ages to get it right but I worked with Rachel (Tamuril Art and Design - see footer) before who does this kind of work. She did the styling for my www.improreview.com site and this forum.

[White Wolf]

Sorry for the late response, and thanks for your reply.

I did have someone lined up from India, but he would not tell me his asking price for the job. He insisted I tell him my budget. To me when someone does this they are looking for as much $ out of you as possable. I believe you should give them the price you think it's worth for doing it, if the customer can't afford it and you are willing to lower it then you can negotiate a price.

Anyways, I studied the code and mysql and was able to do all the changes myself plus allot more then what I requested above. (pats self on back)

[SensoVision]

I did have someone lined up from India, but he would not tell me his asking price for the job. He insisted I tell him my budget. To me when someone does this they are looking for as much $ out of you as possable

He simply may not know know prices for his services in US for example. I have to admit that in the past I also let customer to decide which price he willing to pay.

Anyways, I studied the code and mysql and was able to do all the changes myself plus allot more then what I requested above. (pats self on back)

Good job, Kevin! Glad to hear you saved on money and did everything yourself, hope that improvements let your site make more money now.

[White Wolf]

He simply may not know know prices for his services in US for example. I have to admit that in the past I also let customer to decide which price he willing to pay.

Yes that may be the reason, I guess it really gets frustrating when the Programmer don't know what to charge and the customer don't know what to offer. 

Good job, Kevin!  Glad to hear you saved on money and did everything yourself, hope that improvements let your site make more money now.

Thanks Denis, I did most of the title , description and keywords last week, and have already seen some competitive keywords move way up.

[Andy]

I guess many webmasters are put off by the idea of fiddling with code. But I think that many coding issues with web sites are very simple once you take the plunge and tackle them.

There are so many tutorials online now and examples of code. So as the web gets ever more competitive I think it is important for webmasters to now get to grips with code if they want to outshine their competition.

Even if you outsource work, you should be better able to communicate what you want done and evaluate the end result if you have an outline understanding of the code that powers web sites.

Anyways, I studied the code and mysql and was able to do all the changes myself plus allot more then what I requested above. (pats self on back)

Well done!

I feel that anyone offering a service to clients must state the price. They are in business and should understand what their time is worth and what their fees are.

If you have no idea what to charge, you could estimate how many hours it may take to finish the job and times that by the minimum wage in your country, then factor in your added value above a minimum wage worker plus some contingency for unforeseen delays in the project due to misunderstandings etc. Then draft up a contract spelling out how you arrived at that figure and the terms of completion.

For very simple tasks this may be OTT but what is simple for the programmer may be far from simple for the customer so in this case, the programmer can simply ask for $50, $100 or whatever. The webmaster wants the job done to make money so even if the job takes 20 minutes the customer may be happy to pay the $100 since they will make this back many times. A typical example would be SEO where the title tags of some pages are changed to get better ranking.