How and where to find a php/MySQL/Wordpress developer?

Question

Freelance

To improve the paid Wordpress template, a developer with good knowledge of php / MySQL / Wordpress is required. I posted the project on freelance sites. There are very few responses, and those who responded disappeared after reading the TOR, because the work seemed difficult to them (including new tables in the database that need to be created). Work for about 2 weeks - a month. Algorithm testing is also required.
In this regard, I have the following questions:
1) Do people, in principle, agree reluctantly to finalize someone else's template?
2) It turns out that on Freelancehunt.com and Fl.ru there is only one shkolota or specialists of below average level hanging out? I'm just finished off by their answers - "I'll do the job in an hour", "I'm ready to get to work", "I make cool sites", etc. That is, people do not even read what is written and what is required and answer automatically to everyone in a row? And why do people who have one website design in their portfolio respond to orders with programming?
I looked at profiles on freelansim.ru - almost the same people as on Fl.ru. Isn't a person interested in working for a month instead of picking up orders for an hour?
3) If a person offers his services on an hourly basis, will he be paid to understand the existing code?
4) Testing the results of work also scares people away? I just talked with foreign developers and they focused on the fact that they would be testing.
5) If a person writes a rate per day, how many hours on average will he work?
I would be grateful for advice and clarification of these points.

Answer 1

I wouldn’t have business with you either:
Some of your “Works for about 2 weeks”, “the template is just correctly made, a lot of sales” - well, you don’t fumble - what are you starting to evaluate? A make-up artist's work is also simple - wind it up, sprinkle it with varnish and you're done. Business then ...
"I talked with foreign developers" - well, what are the problems to spit on the "shkolota" and go west?
I suspect that you want everything and a mountain of carts for minimal money. And to go west - you have to spend a big budget like that.

Answer 2

1) Do people, in principle, agree reluctantly to finalize someone else's template?

Yes, because the predecessors could have done very badly, and in this area of ​​the web (the lowest paid and least requiring skills), the chances are huge.

2) It turns out that on Freelancehunt.com and Fl.ru there is only one shkolota or specialists of below average level hanging out?

Yes, but they also have less income, so it may be beneficial for you to use these exchanges.
In any case, their level is quite suitable for your order.

3) If a person offers his services on an hourly basis, will he be paid to understand the existing code?

I will even say more: you pay for all his time spent. Even when he has done everything and explains to you how to bet, these explanations must be paid at the same rate.
This method is the most convenient and least conflicting.

Answer 3

1) I don't think
2) you are being spammed, try searching upwork.com, the rate is about $20 per hour for an average non-Indian programmer
3) of course yes, no one will figure out your code at their own expense, programming is 80% of the time to figure it out and 20% of the time to write code
4) testing is usually done by testers, in large companies they are, a programmer usually checks what he has done, and a tester does a comprehensive check
5) so check with him the rate per hour, personally I have more than 3-4 hours per I can’t work productively / efficiently during the day, the task for 8 hours is not done in one working day

Answer 4

1. go to a normal exchange.
2. If the people, after reading the TK and your confidence that "work for 2-4 weeks" falls off - either categorically the wrong people, or the TK does not meet the deadlines / money. In the second case, be glad that they are not taken. It would be much worse if they took it and did not pull it.
Now for questions
1. Refinement of someone else's template is reading someone else's code. in most cases, doing with 0 may be easier. Especially if the code is poorly documented.
2. Because the people want money. Look for freelancers with a good rate and invite them. Here is also a note about the month. A good freelancing specialist often has a moment when he himself is no longer looking for orders, but chooses from offers. So do not be lazy - and start the search yourself
3. yes. as well as rallies with you on Skype, answering your mail, etc. This is the time spent on your project.
4. Normal - no. On the contrary, submitting work without testing is a sure way to ruin your reputation. Another thing, what do you mean by testing?
5. from 0 to 24. I would still advise either to pay for the project (breaking it into parts and fixing the terms and stages), or to the hourly rate - in this case, you will need a time tracker and, again, a work plan. The second option for money can be very different from the expected one (you plan 80 hours - 2 weeks, the freelancer "ate" 120 - you get an expense of 150% of the budget).

Answer 5

Elena, probably you recently wrote to me in the mail, and then we never discussed it on Skype. I will answer your questions first.
Most often yes. The quality of the code is unknown (the number of sales of the template does not say anything about the quality), it is not known how easy / difficult it is to implement the required changes. It is not known how "understandable" the code is, how documented it is. At least you need to spend some time to figure it out. A low-skilled freelancer with little work will be happy to tinker for free, but is unlikely to succeed in the end. Freelancers have more work, and so the shaft, so the study of someone else's code is possible only in a paid version.
Somewhere like that. However, it is on all exchanges. On the same upwork, quality freelancers usually turn into teams / companies, or filter customers with a high rate. Because over time, the exchange ceases to be the main source of orders, the main work is regular customers and on their recommendations.
If this is someone else's code that needs to be modified / integrated with it - yes, of course. And also all the rest of the time on the project - discussions, approvals, edits, testing, etc. - all this is also work and is billed in the same way as writing the code itself.
What do you mean by testing. Writing full-fledged tests is no problem if needed. But this is also the time that you have to pay. Regular testing - to check that everything works as it should, is part of the workflow for normal developers. No one will commit code if it is not tested.
Average working hours. 5-6, no more. However, only some types of work can be considered this way, for example, layout without complex javascript. Or build a theme from static. To develop some complex algorithms, you need to count the hourly.
In general, the situation is quite simple. There are simple tasks and complex tasks. There are beginner developers and experienced developers. In the WordPress ecosystem, there is still a whole layer of "implementers" who are not developers at all - they know how to customize the theme, copy-paste some pieces of code from the Internet, nothing more. There are many beginners, they flock to any order on the exchange in the hope of getting it, and the task itself is "we'll figure it out along the way." There are fewer experienced developers, and they usually have enough work anyway - there is a queue, plus often their own projects. Therefore, there is an opportunity to choose projects - adequate clients, good budgets, interesting tasks. The rate for experienced developers is higher, but in the end it can sometimes turn out even cheaper - an experienced developer will definitely do the task, do it on time, and do it fast enough.
And one more important nuance with someone else's code, which few people think about. Some experienced developers don't know how to code shit. Learned for a long time. And if the code that was given to him has crooked solutions with which you will have to integrate, then most likely you will be asked to refactor everything so that all (at least all related to the task) code at the output is normal. An inexperienced developer will build his rake on top of what he was given - as long as it works, he will hand over the project, receive money and forget. It to a question on separate tables in a DB. As they wrote to you in the comments, it's not a fact that they are needed - the one who recommended it to you probably did not understand the core and capabilities of WP itself enough. And such moments can be throughout the project code. An experienced developer will delve into the TOR, study the code, and offer you the best solution.

Answer 6

>1) In principle, do people reluctantly agree to modify someone else's template?
Depends on the quality of the code. It happens that the previous programmer (or several previous ones) did such a thing that it is easier to take only the layout and redo it on a new one.
There are also paid templates in which the inside is very faintly reminiscent of WordPress.
It is not profitable to work with such code. There, what is usually solved with 1-2 lines of code in 5 minutes may require at least a couple of hours.
>2) It turns out that on Freelancehunt.com and Fl.ru there is one shkolota or below-average specialists hanging out?
And it is not profitable to work through these exchanges now.
>4) Testing the results of work also scares people away?
Depends on what you mean by testing. In general, you better attach a link to your TK somewhere here. Then the discussion will be more substantive. And there will be a chance that you can find a performer - some orders are taken through this site.
Offhand, you didn’t think something there) It is very rare when the creation of new custom tables in the database is really justified.

Answer 7

1) Depends on the quality of the project, the worse it is, the more reluctant it is
2) There are quite a lot of good programmers, write an adequate budget and deadlines and there will be responses
3) Of course it will be because at this time he works for you.
4) No, it's just time and money too.
5) How much agree.

Answer 8

1) Almost always the themes from the zomforest come with such a large framework of their own, you need to spend time delving into it. From the outside it seems that the revision is fast. There are few responses to orders more complicated than "insert metric code in WP".
2) And where else to go for a novice web programmer, you shouldn't have expected anything else. Nevertheless, with an adequate budget, you can find a performer.