is $2500 to much for a website like this?

Good for you. The power should always be with the purchaser - i.e.. the customer is always king If suppliers give off a whiff that this is not the case, that they don't really value my custom - I go elsewhere

Making you hang on the call is a big smelly whiff, to my mind.



I think your wise to invest proportionately more in SEO over the longer term than "programming" in the short term.

Theres an old saying "Do what you're good at, pay others for what theyre good at". So rather than wrap all your risk up in one provider (especially if there isn't one you can meet in person and take throguh small claims if it all goes bad), source suppliers across the separate project aspects:

1 - Choose the platform you want to use - Drupal/WP/Joomla/etc based on basic research and its fit to your needs
2 - Find a decent designer/theme - give them examples of the 'look and feel' you're after
3 - Perhaps break down the programming tasks into smaller custom jobs if there are many. Find a programmer to write the custom script(s) you need OR find a good plugin (look at ratings, install it yourself and play with it) that is nearest to your need and pay the plugin developer for custom work. Ive done this and its been useful and not as expensive as you might think. Also, you can have little doubt about their ability, can you!
4 - Source your SEO etc - based on your clear IM plan and goals

PM me if you want someone to have a quick look at your project specs, although Im not sure you need that having done some research yourself. Cant promise much but I might be able to give you more specific advice sometime in the course of this week (I'm not after your contract as I'm not in this market)

For 2500 that sounds like a good deal to me

Hello,

While I can't answer your question if $2500 is a good deal, I can tell you this:

1. Going outside of the elance site is a huge risk. I've been suckered into going on Skype, and when it becomes personal, they stop treating you as a business person, and more like a friend, without deadlines, with the budget being increased 2 or more times, and they don't even bother with you anymore.

2. Escrow the money. You probably were going to do this anyway on elance, but never send the money any other way. If they don't finish it, well then you simply don't pay it. If they want to dispute it, show elance or whoever the escrow middleman is, the proof. If they say, "Oh, we don't need escrow, just send it with PayPal" don't even bother, as they're not serious about doing business. As stupid as it may sound, I did exactly this.

3. Avoid Indians (at least from my experience). 99% of them have middlemen, so you not only pay for the developer, but for a useless middleman who you don't need. Even the middleman can't speak english, and it honestly wastes your time as he's communicating to the developer on the other end while you wait and twiddle your thumbs.

Buy your hosting and domain for 25$, buy wordpress theme for 25$, browse on themeforest there are so many good themes. When you have chosen your theme install it and create your website as you like! 2500$ for a Joomla website? C'mon man, its vey too much. You can additionaly hire someone to make a logo for you 50$ max. Learn a bit wordpress, your site will be good.

Please read OP's requirements.

mrboz420 said:

Buy your hosting and domain for 25$, buy wordpress theme for 25$, browse on themeforest there are so many good themes. When you have chosen your theme install it and create your website as you like! 2500$ for a Joomla website? C'mon man, its vey too much. You can additionaly hire someone to make a logo for you 50$ max. Learn a bit wordpress, your site will be good.

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