??? Referrals - Offshore Website Development ???

Hello,

A friend of mine and I are starting a small business, and would like
to hire someone to develop our corporate website.

As usual with new ventures, money is tight right now. As we don't
expect the site to be that complex we're toying with the idea of
having the work offshored to India, China, or Eastern Europe
somewhere.

Has anyone had experience doing this?

Can you recommend any good vendors? We're particularly interested in
China, as we're expecting hourly rates to be cheaper.

Also, can you recommend any good online resources where I can do some
research? I'm looking into www.rentacoder.com, but am wondering if
there are similar sites I can look at.

Any pointers will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Frank

Gazing into my crystal ball I observed IslandBoundEnterprises (AT) gmail (DOT) com
writing in news:1173645435.382516.176840 (AT) t69g2000cwt (DOT) googlegroups.com:

Hello,

A friend of mine and I are starting a small business, and would like
to hire someone to develop our corporate website.

As usual with new ventures, money is tight right now. As we don't
expect the site to be that complex we're toying with the idea of
having the work offshored to India, China, or Eastern Europe
somewhere.

Has anyone had experience doing this?

Can you recommend any good vendors? We're particularly interested in
China, as we're expecting hourly rates to be cheaper.

Also, can you recommend any good online resources where I can do some
research? I'm looking into www.rentacoder.com, but am wondering if
there are similar sites I can look at.

Any pointers will be greatly appreciated.

Regards,
Frank

There are some drawbacks to offshore development. Communications can be
difficult as you are in bed when the developer is working, and vice
versa. Edits are done over night, you are surprised in the morning, and
have to wait until the next morning to be surprised about the edits done
to the edits two days before.

There is also the obvious language barrier. This can get quite annoying
when you say something three times before you are understood, and the
developer has to do the same.

I don't know how standards compliant offshore developers are, and I
would imagine probably not at all. You're probably going to be dealing
with people who think nothing of nesting tables six deep, use javascript
for navigation, pixels for font size, Flash splash page, or even all
pages done in Flash.

IMHO, you are better off using local talent. Put an ad in Craigslist. I
am sure you can find someone at home who will do the job better for a
good price.


--
Adrienne Boswell at Home
Arbpen Web Site Design Services
http://www.cavalcade-of-coding.info
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