Forum Moderators: coopster
I'm in a really difficult situation and I'm hoping some of you more experienced webmasters/programmers could help me out.
My situation is this: I'm an SEO and have no problems getting websites to rank well. A while back I decided to started my own website. I've had 2 different programmers/designers work on it with virtually everything from the very beginning. The first guy was awful. He didn't test or check anything and there were probably 50,000 bugs in the year after we first "launched" the site. The second guy was a lot better, but spent most of his time cleaning up the mess the first guy made and there are still some bugs that pop up. The problem is that this second guy has become too busy to help out anymore.
Essentially my real problem is this: How do I find a good, reliable, affordable programmer who can at least get back to me within 24 hours of me emailing him about a bug or issue?
My site is on the second page of Google for our biggest keyword and the first of Yahoo. Some of the sites on the first page of Google make 7 even 8 figures a year easily, and the traffic for this keyword is through the roof. The problem is that I can NEVER work on the rankings or marketing or anything else because I'm ALWAYS busy dealing with issues with the site. And of course these issues present themselves in the most critical situations - when customers are paying, or receiving email, etc.
I'm sure this post seems all over the map but it's just too difficult to deal with all the technical aspects of a website sometimes and it's starting to drive me nuts!
Any thoughts/advice would be GREATLY appreciated!
[edited by: eelixduppy at 9:23 pm (utc) on Jan. 12, 2009]
[edit reason] see sticky [/edit]
It will be a bit of trial and error. As it seems that you could deal with the issues if you had time, why not try a less experienced programmer. You could then get them to work the way you want, as opposed to the way they would like to do it.
1. Business development experience
2. Exhibit sound communication skills
3. Willingness to take ownership
4. Heart so serve based on the customers' definition of success.
5. Diverse technology experience
6. References
7. Education & Certifications
Like anything else, most of us have tried the "do it yourself" projects at home and end costing more to bring in the specialist after the fact. If you are serious, invest and research with seriousness.
Regards
[edited by: eelixduppy at 9:19 pm (utc) on Jan. 12, 2009]
[edit reason] no URLs in sig [/edit]
For example, today we're not sure if the site is even sending out very, very important emails to registered users. We've tested ourselves and only some come through. Could be our hosting company, could be anything really.
