1. Introduction
In addition to forums like these, there are services like “Rent A Coder” where you can post your project and have developers bid on the chance to work with you. Sometimes these services can yield quality results, but often times they are a bit more trouble than they are worth. As with many things, the best way to hire a WordPress developer is to use some kind of recruiting or staffing firm. This takes all of the effort out of finding a quality developer because the firm does all the leg work for you. You simply tell them what you need and what you are willing to pay and they will find a person who can effectively complete your project. The only downside to this approach is that a staffing firm will most likely provide the highest quality developer, but it will also cost the most money.
Traditionally, there are many options to hire a professional developer to work on WordPress. There are numerous forums where “gurus” of WordPress dwell. These forums are full of really great developers who are just itching to prove themselves. At the forums, you can announce exactly what you are looking for and the price you are looking to pay. This will sometimes prompt developers to make a run at a specific task in hopes of getting the job. The only downside to this approach is that it can require a bit of back and forth before you find the perfect candidate.
2. Understanding WordPress Development
Another common task for WordPress users is to try and implement new features to the site, usually using a plugin. More often than not, users will download a plugin and believe it does not function properly with their theme. They then tell a developer to resolve the problem, but in most cases, the developer can tell that the plugin simply conflicts with the theme. With a developer’s experience, he can tell where the plugin is going wrong and try to add in support for it on the theme. However, the quality of a plugin is not always perfect, and you may end up getting the developer to custom write a similar feature to the plugin. It would be most cost-effective to weigh the cost of developing a custom feature vs the time it would take for a developer to get a problematic plugin working correctly. Step one for any form of development in WordPress, from theme tweaking to complex feature implementations, is to always make changes on a development server and certainly not the live site. This will avoid issues affecting the site viewers and can prevent disaster with the use of the WP DB Migrate plugin when transferring changes to the live site.
Understanding WordPress development is very important for a practical approach for both hiring and working with WordPress developers. This may be very beneficial if you are also new to WordPress because it sheds light on the potential roadblocks when hiring a new developer. When first experiencing WordPress, usually users end up modifying preexisting themes, whether it be altering the design or adding in functionality. Although this method is quick and somewhat effective, it is usually the wrong way to go about development. The most efficient, security, and update-friendly method would be creating a child theme and customizing it from there. By doing this, theme updates will not overwrite any modifications and it’s easily fixable if any errors are made. This is a key point to remember when asking a developer to do any theme modifications, as doing it the wrong way could result in future problems. Custom theme creation is usually the best route to take when trying to achieve a unique site design or adding in new features. This would be ideal to hire a developer specifically for the task, but finding someone experienced is strongly recommended. A custom theme should consist of mainly PHP and little to no HTML.
3. Benefits of Hiring WordPress Developers
Professional WordPress developers more often than not have had a hand in obtaining a higher search engine ranking for a website, and they can offer this service to you as well. Higher search engine rankings mean increased traffic and better chances of obtaining customers. If the developer has knowledge in marketing, he/she can use the website to market a business or product, increase brand awareness, and attain better end results.
If you are unfamiliar with website development or simply don’t have the time to maintain your website, hiring a WordPress developer can save you a lot of hassle – and possibly a huge headache. You get to have the peace of mind that a professional with extensive knowledge and experience is taking care of your website. With more time on your hands, you can then focus on other important tasks that contribute to your website or business.
Having a self-hosted WordPress website has many advantages. As a business owner, you have complete control over your website, increased security, and support through plugins. You also have portability of your data. With these benefits also comes the responsibility of maintaining your website on your own, such as managing website backups, software updates, security, and more. Hiring a WordPress developer can offer an escape from these responsibilities while offering many more benefits.
4. Platforms for Hiring WordPress Developers
oDesk is very similar to Elance and it is no surprise because both companies have now merged. In the early days, oDesk struggled to obtain quality service providers, but it is now used by several of the top WordPress developers. Both Elance and oDesk are very large platforms. They are well suited to long-term contracts or multiple hires because they have stronger account systems and clause support. It is possible to locate developers you have hired on these platforms in the future, for additional work. Both platforms have a fixed price job and hourly job system. This is good for the buyer because working to a budget on an hourly job can be difficult to monitor. Time worked on contracts is verified via a system that takes screenshots of the developer’s screen. This is a useful feature, but the availability of screenshot viewers has caused issues with trust between buyers and developers. This kind of software is very invasive and developers tend to feel like they are being “watched”. At the end of the day, Elance and oDesk take a 10% cut from developers’ earnings, but it is still a good way to get familiar with a developer before taking things off-site. Required tax and insurance are handled for the buyer too. Both platforms have the option to invite a developer to a job, which is useful to assess the interest of a developer before contacting them. From personal experience, the success rate for invites is extremely high because the option works the same way a referral does.
Platforms that aggregate profiles of developers and facilitate hiring are the best place to start searching for a WordPress developer. Elance is a platform that brings both buyers and service providers together. It allows buyers to post their project, which then becomes visible to service providers. Service providers then place a bid on the project. The buyer can see the feedback and ratings of service providers. Elance allows for hiring on an hourly basis and on fixed price contracts. I have hired more than 50 developers on Elance since 2006 and currently have 11 contracts in progress.
5. Community-Based Options for Hiring WordPress Developers
Some clients look to more specific and exclusive groups or organizations, such as WebDevStudios or the WP Questions community. Brad Williams, the owner of WebDevStudios describes his company as “a community of like-minded, passionate WordPress professionals providing the highest quality of WordPress focused services to businesses and individuals.” These groups can be somewhat more difficult to access, as not just anyone can become a member, much less an employee. However, economic downturns affect many industries and though some developers may disagree, WordPress is not an exception. As more job-seeking developers migrate to these more lucrative sectors, employers are likely to find experienced professionals willing to step out from the freelance scene. The benefits here are still similar to any community-based hiring, but with higher assurance of professionalism and quality due to the nature of such organized groups.
Oftentimes these employers are searching for members in the WordPress IRC or the wp-pro mailing list. Joining such a community and simply placing a “help-wanted” advertisement can be an effective means of finding a developer. Mike Schinkel, a WordCamp organizer, says that “Long-term relationships are what matter and people are both more able and more willing to give time to someone already participating within the community.” IRC and mailing lists serve as great environments to better acquaint oneself with potential hires and their work before making any decisions. These relationships are already based around a common interest in WordPress and, assuming any given developer has been active within the community, much of their work and character will already be apparent. This can mitigate much of the uncertainty and risk involved in hiring a complete stranger.
The job market has undergone a revolution in recent years. More and more employers discussed in our interviews are eschewing traditional jobs and platforms and are looking to hire community members for their WordPress needs. This is not to say that they do not seek well-qualified, professional developers, but rather, they look for those same professionals within the context of community in hopes of symbiotically filling more specific needs.
6. Evaluating Developer Skills and Experience
While skills are easily the most important factor in evaluating a developer, experience is also a key consideration. Find out how long the developer has been working with WordPress, and how they got to where they are now. What someone says and what someone has done in the past can often be quite different, so ask for specific details on past projects and what the developer’s role was. High quality developers will be proud to point out past work and explain what they did to contribute to the project. In some cases you might want to measure experience based on knowledge in a certain area, such as if you are looking for BuddyPress development you’ll want a developer who has experience specific to that. Note here also that developers who know WordPress inside and out might actually be too hard to work with for simple tasks, and can be more costly than what the job is worth. In this case you might be better off finding someone with less experience.
In order to evaluate these skills, consider asking for a small ‘test’ project that can help you gauge the developer’s capabilities. You can then examine the code or outcome of the project to make sure it’s up to your standards. This is often a better way to evaluate someone rather than taking their word on past work, since it’s easy to make false claims about experience. Be warned that asking for sample work or doing a trial project may not be possible with developers who are in high demand or working for a company, so you may need to rely more on references and past work in these cases.
The first thing you’ll want to do is determine what exactly it is you want this developer to do. Are you looking to streamline your site by adding some custom scripts or tweaking your theme? Do you need someone to maintain your current setup? Are you trying to develop a new plugin or tool? All of these tasks can require very different skill sets, and it’s important to know what your prospective developer is capable of. A good WordPress developer will be open and honest about what he or she is and isn’t confident in doing, so don’t be afraid to ask for specifics.
Like many businesses or publishers who use WordPress, I often ask myself how I can find someone who knows more than I do about the platform to develop and manage my site. In my previous post on outsourcing WordPress work, the discussion centered on where to find help. Now that we know where to look, the next step is figuring out who is the right person for the job. In this article, I’ll share some advice on how to evaluate developers and make sure you’re hiring the right person for the task.
7. Factors to Consider when Hiring WordPress Developers
Skills assessment. Using a developer who has little to no experience with WordPress can result in a site that is unrecognizable from the original design or one that is full of bugs. This can sometimes lead to constant additional costs as the site is rebuilt or repaired. Take a good look at the skills and experience of the developer. A good developer should also be able to provide samples of their work and have good references for each skill. An important factor to consider is whether to use an individual freelancer or whether to employ the services of a development company.
The factors that are of most importance when considering who to hire to develop your WordPress site can be broken down as follows:
When considering the development of a customized WordPress site, one of the key decisions is whether to work with a freelancer or a WordPress development firm. Although this is a topic that extends far beyond the scope of this discussion, by considering the key factors that will be covered below, you will be more likely to make the right decision for you, your site, and your budget.
8. Pricing and Budget Considerations
As businesses consider hiring a developer, cost is often the key factor in deciding who to hire. The cost of hiring a full-time developer is certainly higher than hiring a freelance developer. While hiring in-house can give the business more control over the project and a long-term addition to the team, it is also the most expensive option. The average pay rate for a developer can range from $30,000 to $80,000 depending on experience. This also does not include the extra costs of an in-house employee, such as benefits, equipment, and software. Considering this could cost double the developer’s salary, it is really breaking the bank for small businesses and startups. Hiring a freelance developer can be a much more cost-effective solution. On the lower end of the spectrum, a freelance developer may only cost $15,000 to $30,000 for the project. They also supply their own equipment and software and are not a liability for the business once the project is completed. This is certainly a benefit for businesses looking to get a simple project completed without an ongoing commitment. Outsourcing a developer is also very cost-effective. Many freelance developers and offshore development companies are willing to take a long-term project or contract for an incredibly low rate. This makes it very tempting to consider throwing away the extra control and long-term addition of an employee for a simple low-cost contract. Although outsourcing can save a large amount of money, it is not the most stable solution and can wind up costing more money if the project turns into a disaster.
9. Communication and Collaboration with Developers
Many of the most talented WordPress developers, those who work on the core and contribute to the community, are simply hired by one another. This is the reason, even if you are looking for a developer for a smaller, personal project, it is still crucial to represent a piece of the community. You may think that using freelance web platforms is a better option to find a fast and affordable solution to your project, but keep in mind that the developer you hire from another country to contract for a small job may end up being the most helpful and talented resource for future efforts. They may contribute a plugin to WordPress derived from your work together; they may become the go-to person for all things related to your website. Even if you have a small project that is not likely to be the beginning of a developer-site relationship, effective communication and collaboration will help get the job done right and build rapport for possible future work. Now I am going to delve into specific differences in communication and collaboration methods you will employ by hiring a platform-based developer versus hiring a developer within the community.
10. Managing and Tracking Project Progress
Any task added to the ‘to-do’ list will need to be categorized as either a bug or a feature. This is an important distinction since bugs often need to be fixed before any more features are added. The bug list will have a built-in bug-tracking system. Each bug will be displayed as a single line with a color indicating whether it’s open, fixed, or closed. Clicking on the line will expand it to show a description and comments from developers along with the date it was fixed or closed. This ensures that bugs don’t get forgotten about and released to the public in the same state they were found.
Any project will have multiple developers, so each one will have the option to view an individual task list which only shows tasks assigned to them. A history of the completion time of their tasks will be kept so developers can track their own progress, and you can get an idea of who your most efficient workers are.
First of all, rather than just emailing a list of features and bugs, you’ll have a ‘to-do’ list on the site itself where tasks can be assigned to developers along with a completion date. This will increase developer motivation as they’ll be able to see themselves completing tasks and watch the list get shorter.
11. Ensuring Quality and Timely Delivery of Work
Communication and a set plan for what you require are vital in assuring quality and timely development work from any individual or team. Always ensure you are available for your developer, and if not, ask that he/she sends through a clear breakdown of what has been done and what is being done on the project. Regularly referencing this to the project plan is a good way to ensure everything is running to schedule.
To effectively manage this situation, you need to define some clear milestones for your project and target dates for each to be completed. Correspond with the developer to ensure that these targets are realistic, and if not, re-evaluate the work required for each milestone. A preferred method is to pay as you go, releasing funds for each milestone as it’s completed satisfactorily. Never pay the full amount upfront, and always ensure the developer updates you on the progress of each milestone.
Quality assurance is a critical component of any development work, and hiring WordPress developers is no exception. Many developers have personal portfolios, so it’s good to review their work to gauge the quality, but it’s not enough. You need to have some sort of version control or protection to ensure that you get the product you are asking for. This is generally undertaken by the developer creating a development site for your project and moving it to a live server once you have approved the quality.
12. Onboarding and Training for WordPress Developers
Step Two: Scheduling Priority and Specific Tasks for Training. Now you should have a good idea of where the knowledge gaps are, both for the new developer and within your development team as a whole. Make a list of these topics, ordered by priority and grouping related topics into overall skills to be learned. During the evaluation, hopefully, you have also discussed and established some short and long-term goals for the new developer. These will help determine what is both best and most efficient in preparation for tasks to come. Schedule training tasks around company projects so there is immediate application of new skills. This will reinforce what the developer has learned, as well as add input the new practices in place of old habits.
Step One: What do they need to learn? This step is all about evaluating and documenting the current skills of the new developer and comparing them to the skills they will need to best contribute to your company. From your company’s standpoint, this is also an evaluation of where your current developers are most and least familiar with best practices for software development. This avoids the common mistake of providing documentation for everything, regardless of its efficiency or contribution to a project.
A developer is a long-term investment, and proper training and onboarding will pay for itself many times over the life of the developer’s time with your company. Software is all about solving problems, and the more deeply a developer understands a problem, the better and more efficient they will be able to solve it. Proper training ensures that your developers understand both the mission and tasks of your company, as well as software tools and best practices to complete them. Many companies do not provide training. This is a mistake. A study showed that most companies earn an average of $30,000 more per year for each developer they had trained in TDD. A good analogy here is college education. Imagine the difference in performance and understanding between a new graduate and a student with a year left until graduation. Jumping right into tasks is essentially the same as throwing your money away on a developer that will take longer and produce lower quality results.
13. Maintaining Long-Term Relationships with Developers
Another idea is simply asking other site owners who have good custom functionality on their site, who did the work for them? If you see a nice feature on a WordPress site, contact that site owner and ask who did the work. We have found that hiring a developer who was personally recommended is often the best way to get good results for a specific job.
The best way to find long-term developers is using the developer listing service Work lists. Chop your project or ongoing work into small easy to understand jobs and invite developers who you think might be suitable. Developer listings are automatically emailed to matching developers who can then apply for the job. This does require more involvement than using a marketplace, but often the quality of developer is higher.
Once a developer has proven their skills and reliability, you will want to hire them many times in the future. The most effective way to do this is to form an “independent contractor relationship” with the developer. Regularly hiring someone on a long-term basis as an independent contractor is functionally equivalent to employing a developer. It will be easier to manage a committed independent contractor with a dedicated workload, as opposed to hiring different people for individual jobs on the marketplace site. The committed contractor will have a better chance to thoroughly understand your website and provide more effective services. Step-by-step, you can improve your website quality over time by using the same skilled contractor. And as your site improves, so will the job opportunities you can offer. This is the ideal situation for maintaining a long-term relationship with a developer.
When you find a good developer, ask if they are interested in long-term work. If so, hire them for a small test job to assess their skills with potential to roll into ongoing work. If you have a larger project, consider breaking it into a few smaller jobs. This will give you a good opportunity to assess a developer’s skills and reliability with minimal risk. At the same time, you are providing a potential long-term job for the developer. If it works out well, try to hire the same developer again in the future.
In your work with your WordPress developers, particularly independent contractors, you will find that you can improve your site by regularly revisiting your job listing and the qualified contractor pool on the marketplace site. If you find a good one, invite them to apply on your job listing. Offer them the same terms you offered to the broader pool. Often times, select highly-qualified contractors will not see a particular job listing and you want to ensure you do not miss an opportunity to engage them.
14. Handling Disputes and Issues with Developers
If, however, your dispute lies with an issue not involving a payment for a service yet, there is an alternative option to the disputes resolution. This is where the problem is taken to the Small Claims Court, providing there is a valid case. A case for the Small Claims Court is usually under $10,000, requiring no lawyer, and can be both cost and time-effective. At times, legal representation and fine print advice from a lawyer can provide valuable insight to any case or dispute with a developer, so this is not an entirely bad approach. It may also be the case that the other party is served better, in which case a Statement of Claim may lead to an out-of-court settlement through mediation and avoids court. This is often the most favorable result for both parties if the relationship has, for the most part, been a good one.
Although the disputes case will be less biased with evidence supporting both sides, PayPal doesn’t entirely have the best reputation for dispute problem resolution. It may be worth contacting PayPal’s email customer support and trying to get the case escalated to a decision by someone working at PayPal directly, as this is often more reliable and impartial.
If the refund request is accepted, it will be refunded to the source it was paid from. It is worth noting that refunds on the money sent from a credit card can take up to 30 days (at least with PayPal) to clear due to various bank clearing processes.
Often, the developer will decline the refund initially, combining a statement asking for another chance to remedy the problem. Creating a paper trail is essential, as should the problem go to the disputes stage with PayPal or the legal stage, there is clear evidence of the initial attempt to make things right between both parties. A good way to create a paper trail is through an email addressing the problem and the steps (including refund) you two have decided to take in order to remedy the situation. It is often best to start with the most simple and non-intrusive solution. Fixing the dispute between yourselves is the best instantaneous solution if possible, as disputes via PayPal can be both time-consuming and risky with the chance of a biased decision going either way.
The first thing a person will often do is simply ask for a refund. If the developer agrees with your complaint, he may issue a partial or full refund. However, things often do not go as smoothly, and you may feel the existence of a refund button is your only remedy. To save the PayPal disputes process and grant another opportunity for the developer to make things right, you can send a refund request from within PayPal.
If you choose to go the freelance route when hiring developers, you must understand that maintaining the “employer” role in relation to the developer can create a legally binding relationship in the eyes of your country if certain criteria are met. An example of this criteria from the New Zealand Government’s Employment website is “An employer-employee relationship exists when one person has the right to say how and when work will be done by another person in return for a reward or payment”. As such, if the project does not go as planned, chances are you may face some legal issues.
15. Leveraging Feedback and Reviews from Other Clients
A formal study was conducted by Jens Grossklags from the Department of Information and Operations Management at the University of Southern California on the impact of information on trust with client feedback. The model in this study assumes a marketplace with trust-concerned buyers and sellers, where sellers can influence potential buyers by providing information. The information in this context would be feedback. This can translate to today’s freelance marketplaces, with the platform and developers being the buyers and sellers. The study implemented two kinds of feedback, where good and bad feedback has a one-off fixed cost and action-conditional costs. This resulted in a higher probability of a closed transaction with good feedback. While the study may have limitations, it does give insight into how feedback can influence a hire from the start.
Client feedback and reviews are great features for hiring WordPress developers within the platform alternative. Feedback and reviews are often more honest in the platform environment because the client knows the developer cannot delete the comments in the hopes of preserving a better reputation. Feedback and reviews can be a powerful tool in the hiring process. A study showed that 90% of respondents claimed positive online reviews influenced their purchases. The same study showed that 86% said buying decisions were influenced by negative online reviews. Although it is spontaneous, feedback and reviews can influence a hiring decision.
16. Conclusion
Communities and small businesses should consider hiring a developer for the long term to build and develop the website. This developer can become an influential part of the community and can improve the website to a higher level than any of the other methods. It is recommended that the developer is hired on a permanent basis. A team blog explains that a permanent hire is beneficial for the development of a community website. The blog compares two three-month periods of development over the course of two years and concludes that a long-term developer has allowed the community to achieve things it would not have been able to with short-term developers. This is due to the developer’s increased level of influence in the community and more in-depth understanding of what is required.
Recruitment of WordPress developers for the creation of a community website can be achieved by hiring a developer for the long term to build and develop the website, ongoing development in a team environment, outsourcing different projects to different developers, and short contracts with a view to a long-term relationship.
