Developing on the Cheap

I tried an experiment at the beginning of the year and appointed a couple of developers to build two sites using Drupal.

It's not been a great success to be honest, with missed deadlines, missed opportunities and a lot of misunderstandings along the way.

I've reached a conclusion and that is simply, that if you want something to work first time, look great and be a serious business, rather than just another web site, then you have to pay serious money in order to get it built.

So, one of my new sites is currently under discussion again and I expect it will cost several thousand Pounds to have it developed.

It's a change of approach for me, because like many people in the domain game, I have always done things by spending as little cash as possible. It's my own money after all.

That is ok when you're not trying to build something substantial.

My change in thinking came about after advising a friend who runs a very successful online venture. He was quoted several thousand Pounds to build a new web site, as the old one looks dated and is creaking at the seams.

He didn't want to spend a large amount of money, so I just asked him this question,

"If somebody was to come along and ask if you would swap a one-off £8000 investment in a new site for £150,000 per year, would you do it?"

Put like that, his decision was made far easier. He's found a solid, very experienced developer who can build his complex site for him and meet all of his development targets for that £8,000.

That looks like a bargain to me.

For some reason, I hadn't really considered that approach before.

So, today I decided to take my own advice and contacted a large scale, local web development company with a blue-chip client base and gave them the site specifications.

It's time to think bigger.

Affording it might be another matter, but time will tell.