Let me get someone else to do it!

January 15, 2009 6:31 PM

If I wanted someone to design a wordpress template for me (with graphics/images) for a personal website, what sort of budget would I expect to be looking at, and how would I find people willing to do it for me?

I am relatively web-savvy and code-literate, but get frustrated quickly when trying to turn my little brain-ideas into actual physical (or digital) things. Dealing with photoshop or illustrator in particular makes me grumble at my inability to make what I'm thinking match what I'm seeing, and I'm not comfortable enough with wordpress to know how I can make it do what I want, or even to know if it can do what I want.

To that end, I'd like to investigate having someone else do it for me. I have a basic idea for a wordpress-based website with a relatively minimal frontpage and two main sub-pages, and I know there are people out there who could do it better than I could. So how do I find one of those people, and how much would I have to pay them?

posted by that girl to computers & internet (9 comments total)

I don't know how much to pay them, but here's where to find them.
posted by desjardins at 6:40 PM on January 15

99 Designs is a great resource for things like this because you get a bunch of ideas to chose from. Just look at some of the other contests and your get an idea of a good competitive price.
posted by ISeemToBeAVerb at 6:45 PM on January 15

Coders hire out for probably about $50/hour. If they happen to have something lying around that can easily be adapted to your purposes, it might only take an hour or two. If your concept requires a significant amount of novel code, I'd budget five hours. And of course if you get very particular, or allow mission creep, the sky's the limit. I built my own theme—I got very fussy, and wound up doing a lot of research, learning a lot of stuff, and taking a whole lot of time.

You could post a job offer on rentacoder.com, or on jobs.metafilter.com. Or you could google "wordpress custom themes" and see who you find.
posted by adamrice at 6:47 PM on January 15

I know someone personally who does custom wordpress template development (Wordpress is his profession and his side job), he says the rate of $50/hr is right around where it's at. If you'd like more information, me-mail me, and I'll drop some info.
posted by deezil at 7:03 PM on January 15

You should also be aware of some of the cool premium themes out there that are nicely done, and the best part - free. Here’s a showcase of 16 free Wordpress premium themes that are definitely worth a look.
posted by netbros at 9:36 PM on January 15

I am relatively web-savvy and code-literate, but get frustrated quickly when trying to turn my little brain-ideas into actual physical (or digital) things.

Warning: describing the things in your head to another person, in the hope they'll make what you are imagining, is not going to work out better than describing them to a web browser yourself.

Either way you need to make your brainy-thing more concrete first. If you can't draw a picture (or hack one from other screenshots + cut and paste) it's not realistic to expect another human being to understand what you mean.
posted by rokusan at 12:35 AM on January 16

Oh, I can scribble it out on a piece of paper fine. I just am bad at the polish part.
posted by that girl at 4:30 AM on January 16

One method I'd suggest for finding a designer is looking at a WP theme site (netbros link above, for example, or the Wordpress section on Themeforest), identifying something that has a similar aesthetic to what you're picturing, and then getting in touch with the designer and asking for a quote. The price is going to vary a great deal between individuals but I'd say expect to pay at least a few hundred for a custom design and theme.

I don't recommend using rentacoder.com -- that site is not very design focused, it's mainly for programmers. I think it would be tough to fill your brief there. There are other, similar sites that are more design-oriented, or you could just try Craigslist, but I think the method I suggested above it going to net better results.

Also, personally I would be hesitant to use 99Designs. The site is quite controversial in some circles since they feel it encourages people to work on spec -- basically doing a job in the guise of a content, with no guarantee of getting paid.
posted by camcgee at 9:49 AM on January 16

Agreed that you're best off hunting down a good archive of existing Wordpress themes, finding one that is already close/close enough, and contacting the author to see if they would be willing to customize or tweak it for you.

http://delicious.com/search?p=themes is a nice place to start when hunting around.

I would strongly recommend against just 'hiring a designer' or 'hiring a coder' unless you know their work and know you'll like it. That's be benefit of looking at existing portfolios...
posted by verb at 1:48 PM on January 16