355 Words

Rosalind wants to share her inspirational poetry with a wider community. Alas, poor Rosalind lives in a remote town.

Jonathan is a graphics artist who settled in a mountain resort community after he left college. He would like to start a graphics business in this new location but office space in local buildings is far too expensive and his meager advertising budget wouldn't attract enough customers to get started.

Merle was a secretary at a college for many years. She retired recently. She misses interaction with students. And spends her time surfing Internet. She has an idea for starting a business matching students with other students in her community who are looking to share housing. And thinks Internet would be a perfect avenue to reach out to them and attract clients.

What do they have in common?

They need to reach a wider audience. They have a product or service to sell. They have a talent to promote. Their funds are very limited.

I am technically a programmer. A bad programmer. I am capable of writing bad (and sometimes effective) code.

But I don't write software that I sell. That would be a terrible idea. It would take me infinitely longer to do it myself, and it wouldn't be as good.

Instead, I hire someone to do it for me. Most people feel intimidated when they think about trying to find a good programmer. But it's *far* easier than you might think.

There are a number of different web sites these days whose only purpose is to help you find quality freelance work. And they aren't just for programming either. I've hired people to make graphics and write software tutorials for me. And I know people who have hired someone to write an entire book for them.

Different sites may specialize in different kinds of work. For example, there are sites that focus primarily on web-based scripts. At any rate, you can probably find someone to do whatever you need at one of these sites. So don't worry about finding a good programmer.

Another issue that may put you off from hiring a programmer is cost. In some cases, programmers can be expensive. $30-$50 an hour or more. But more often than not, you'll find programmers on freelance sites for *much* less than that. I still sometimes find it hard to believe how cheaply some people will work.

Of course, you get what you pay for. Or so they say. But that hasn't been my experience in hiring programmers. I often get more than I pay for.