Concerns about Hiring on Upwork

[8690f68f]

Hello Everyone,

I am a new UpWork Community member. I am looking to hire here for several web development projects. I do have some concerns being a new member that I am hoping this thread will ease! I am coming from the website Fiverr, another Freelance network website, and unfortunately I got burned by a FreeLancer there which was very unfortunate. I hired to create a website for my Fledgling Real Estate Business and while the work was completed, nulled plug-ins and a theme were used during development which caused the site to have Malware issues and forced me to shut it down making it a complete waste.

In a nutshell, I am hoping this post will generate some helpful tips & responses to keep me from having the same thing happen when hiring on UpWork.

Thank you!

-Alex Linden

The Essential Realtor

[lysis10]

Just some advice since it seems you're looking for cheap, go buy a theme somewhere yourself and then have the developer use it. You're not gonna find someone to build a theme from scratch for cheap. They will always use stolen themes and plugins, but you can avoid this by buying a theme from a legitimate storefront (I like themeforest.net) and then just asking someone to install it for you. Even someone expensive shouldn't charge much for intsalling a theme that you already own.

[8690f68f]

Thank you Jennifer, to be honest, I don't really know what to consider as cheap in the development field. The guy that scammed me cost $400 and I would have happily paid him to purchase the theme had I known anything about that prior to the order. I've seen prices anywhere from $50 to $2,000 for a seemingly-simple 4 page website on Wordpress, and unfortunately before that scam, I knew nothing about nulled themes or plug-ins.

[lysis10]

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Alex L wrote:

Thank you Jennifer, to be honest, I don't really know what to consider as cheap in the development field. The guy that scammed me cost $400 and I would have happily paid him to purchase the theme had I known anything about that prior to the order. I've seen prices anywhere from $50 to $2,000 for a seemingly-simple 4 page website on Wordpress, and unfortunately before that scam, I knew nothing about nulled themes or plug-ins.

---

I think it depends on the work and after-launch maintenance. I'm sure it can be confusing if you don't know. A nice pre-made theme will cost you about $40-$50. If you want a simple WP site, then I think it's a viable option to buy the theme and then ask someone to set up the site for you, which shouldn't be too much provided you use the theme components and don't ask for customizations.

On a side note, never let someone else buy your domain or hosting.. You should buy it yourself or you are at the mercy of some stranger who could shut you down at any time. Make sure you have full control of domain and hosting.

[8690f68f]

Sorry for getting back to this thread slowly, still trying to figure things out and want to make sure I am not wasting people's time asking questions with easy to find answers. 🙂 

I would still like to use the Domain & CPanel Hosting that I had for the corrupted website, do you think this is something I should avoid or is it possible to do a wipe of the whole current Nulled WordPress and then simply install a new one?

I just want to make sure before moving forward with an action plan, that some bad data or code from the previous corruption cannot get into the new website's wordpress theme. Will an uninstall of the current "nulled" theme & plug-ins take care of the issue or is this something you folks would recommend I go deeper than that on?

Thank you very much!

-Alex

[prestonhunter]

Alex:

I have hired over 100 freelancers on Upwork. I understand that you have worked through two other freelance work platforms. I am familiar with those specific platforms, and I don't consider them to be appropriate for getting "real" web development or programming work done. There are some intrinsic problems with how those sites function.

Having said that, let me assue you that it is very possible to use Upwork in unwise ways that result in losing time and money.

A few tips I would have for you:

- Upwork does not provide free project management

- You probably need an independent project manager, which you can hire through Upwork, but are not required to.

- Hire multiple freelancers. Continue working only with the members of your team who provide you with the best value.

- Upwork has some features known as "dispute" and "arbitration." Resolve now that you will never use those. Instead, manage your project proactively. Instead of thinking that there is a "get out of jail free" card that can bail you out after spending $3000 on the wrong freelancer... Instead: have your project manager monitor the work that is being submitted, and fire any underperforming team members.

- Remember that Upwork does not provide websites. Upwork provides a way to find, hire, and pay freelancers.

[8690f68f]

Thank you Preston, 

I appreciate the sound advice. I am very new to this and getting tips from experienced members is superb. I will definitely look into getting a project manager as simply put, I have no idea what I am doing when it comes to web page development and that makes it very difficult to keep tabs on work-progress being done for the pages.

[prestonhunter]

You are definitely not required to work with a project manager.

But keep in mind this fact: ALL significant web development projects have a project manager. There is an independent project manager hired by the project owner. Of, if there isn't one of those, then the project owner is the project manager. Unless the project owner does NOT act as the project manager. In which case the lead dev is the project manager. But only about 20% of lead devs are capable of performing as their own project manager.

All of which can be summarized as:

80% of development projects without a project manager will fail.

Do you know if the lead dev you hired is one of the 20%? Or is she one of the 80%?

[8690f68f]

In terms of hiring a project manager, I'm not sure that seems entirely necessary just because I feel like the project in question here is relatively small? Again though, my ignorance of the topic may be higher than I assume. 

As far as I can tell, all that needs to be done is to -

Wipe the nulled theme from the CPanel Hosting.

Purchase a WordPress Theme.

Have the WordPress Theme installed.

Set up the WordPress theme to reflect what I want for the site. (I have some level of competence doing wordpress editing, I am just wholly incompetent with anything in the world of coding)

Am I vastly underestimating the amount of time & effort involved in this project, or was the suggestion of a project manager more due to the fact that it would help prevent a similar scam as occurred previously?

Thank you all very much!

[prestonhunter]

A small project does not necessarily need a separate project manager.

But nearly any project will benefit from hiring multiple people to work on it so that you can assess their relative value and continue working only with the best.

[8690f68f]

I understand, similar to hiring contractors for bids on housing projects like roof replacement, plumbing work, etc.

Thank you for your recommendations and advice:)