There is a great deal to know when looking for the right freelance coder for your website. When looking for and once you have found a freelance coder, deal with them cautiously. Many people are on the internet just mining for ideas. It is possible to patent a computer program, but to stop people from copying it and selling it is difficult to enforce. When looking for a freelance coder to do your work, look for more than just one.
Once you have a freelancer coder or two, give them the instructions on what you want the program to do, but just enough information for them to complete their part of it. Never give just one person the entire job. It is true that most coders and people in general are honest, but why take a chance. A quick buck is too tempting for those with low scruples or is hungry. Protect yourself and your work.
If the freelance coder you are interviewing has marketed software products, this might appear to be good, but it’s not. Those that have the gift to program, only do program. They are not marketers nor do they want to be. It’s like asking a sculptor who works with wood to build your house because they work with wood. It is just not practical.
When assigning work, be very specific about fonts and have all your coders use the same one. There are some letters and numbers in some fonts that it are hard to distinguish like the 0, o and O, along with l, I, I, L, and 1. All of those just plugged in are different keys. The lower case I and the upper case I have exactly the same appearance in the font Calibri. Knowing this fact can help solve problems in the future. If you are not sure what font to use, take a suggestion from the first freelance coder you hire. Just make sure the rest of them then are instructed to use the same font. As suggestions, the following are commonly used: Bitstream Vera Sans Mono, Crystal, Monaco, and both Courier and Courier New.
Because of the problem of theft and hidden programming in many scripts, it is advisable to know something about programming, or the advice of a friend that has this knowledge. Everything you outsource needs to be checked.
Ask all prospective coders how they communicate with their clients. Instant messaging is the preferred way, along with emails. The good online freelancers have multiple email addresses and use multiple instant messaging services. This way, if one system is down, you will not lose contact with them. The good coders are online most of the time they are awake. Ask each prospective freelance coder how much time they are online. The longer the better when it comes to this. You want someone that eats, breaths, and lives codes for entertainment. These are the coder freelancers that are the best.
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