When Do You Need to Hire a Programmer

UPDATE: In case you’d like to learn more about what goes into planning, building, and deploying a website, we strongly recommend that you watch our “Web Developer AMA (Ask Me Anything) webinar”. In this webinar, our panelists – popular experts Cal Evans, Michelle Schulp, David Bisset, and Mario Peshev – will answer various web development questions and share their own experience on the topic. You can also listen to our podcast episode “Do I REALLY need to hire a developer” where host Cal Evans talks more on communication with your developer, defining budgets, reporting on the task, and so on.


If you are thinking of building a website, a web application, or a web-based store, at some point, you are going to ask yourself the question, “Do I need to hire a programmer?” The short answer to that question is “It depends.”

Three Scenarios

The real answer to that question will depend on who you are and what you are trying to build. Let’s take a look at three common entrepreneurs.

Alice

  • Alice owns her own hand-made widgets store but wants to branch out into selling her widgets online.
  • Alice understands the intricacies of hand-crafting widgets of high quality. Alice understands to a great extent who her market is and how to reach them.
  • Alice knows what she wants her website to look like but doesn’t have the skills to stand up the site, design the site, and maintain it.
  • Alice plans on managing all of the content and products on her site. She just needs someone to deal with development and design.

Alice needs both a developer and a designer to work with her to get her site up and operational. After that, she will need her developer partner on a retainer to handle monthly maintenance, and deal with issues as they arise. She will need her designer only when she wants to re-skin her site or add new graphical elements.

Bob

  • Bob has an idea for a new service that is web-based.
  • Bob understands how his idea will work.
  • Bob knows what he wants the website to look like and how the application will flow.
  • Bob is not planning on selling multiple products or services, just this single idea.

Bob needs a development partner for the long haul. Bob should seriously consider hiring a developer either part-time or full-time until the product has shipped. Bob will need a designer to develop the graphical elements, but since there is a single service involved, the relationship with the designer will be temporary.

Mary

  • Mary wants to set up a webshop to sell her photography.
  • Mary is a power-user. She understands computers and knows a little about programming.
  • Mary is comfortable with computers and has always wanted to learn programming.
  • Mary has a steady permanent income, and this project will not be her primary source of income in the beginning.

Mary probably does not need to hire a developer. Given that she is a photographer, a creative pastime, she may not even need to hire a designer. Mary can start with existing plugins and themes and customize them as necessary, using the WordPress admin interface.

If Mary chooses a good hosting partner like SiteGround, that will take care of WordPress and plugin upgrades, as well as routine backups and scanning her site for malware, she doesn’t need to immediately invest in a developer retainer to manage all of that. She can set these things up herself.

Mary may need to hire a developer in the future if she needs the functionality that does not currently exist in plugins she can download or buy. She may also want to eventually hand off the management of her infrastructure to a developer partner so that she can focus more on her photography.

Seriously, It Depends

As we’ve seen in these three different scenarios if you need to hire a developer, and at what stage of the project, largely depends on the project, and on you. If you are unsure about whether you need a developer, chances are good that you do.

Invest a little in your project by hiring a developer to sit down with you and do the “discovery phase” of your project. This is where the developer listens to your idea, asks you a LOT of questions, and then presents you with a detailed plan on how to build out your idea. They will most likely also present you with a quote for what it would cost for them to build it out.

The great thing about paying for the discovery phase though is that you now own the documentation that comes out of it. If you have any doubts about the developer you have chosen, you can shop the project around to other developers who can take the documents and give you an estimate without having to go through another discovery phase.

Don’t wait until you’ve gotten into the weeds of your project only realize that you are in over your head. Make the decision on whether to hire a developer early on in your planning phase. Then, invest the time necessary to find one with whom you feel comfortable working. Your project will go a lot smoother in the long run.

[subscribe_cta]

​How to use social media to get traffic to your shop

Ecommerce has definitely gained huge popularity in the last few years.  In fact, holiday eCommerce sales reached a total of $126 billion last year — up from $108.2 billion in 2017. That’s a 16.5% increase in online sales! Most people do not feel like going to crowded malls anymore. They prefer shopping online and finding the largest discounts from the comfort of their own home. 

Industry experts say social media plays a major role in eCommerce businesses because it helps companies establish a strong web presence and increase their website traffic. When it comes to Black Friday, people are particularly ready to spend. That is why you have to make sure your eCommerce store is ready for this special day and come up with the right strategies, which include social media.

Review last year’s Black Friday campaign

Before you rush into planning anything for the upcoming Black Friday, you should definitely take the time to review your campaigns from previous years. Check how it went and whether you fully achieved your goals at the time. Do you think your last campaign was successful? Ask yourself similar questions and figure out what went wrong. This first step is about reflecting on your previous success or failure. In this way, you can see what you can improve for the next campaign. It will be better if you break down last year’s results by channel. For example, if you ran ads and promotions on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, you need to decide which one had the best return on investment. Finally, you have to figure out what you definitely want to repeat this year. There might be certain things that can be effective for this year’s campaign as well.

🔥 Check out the 15 Black Friday Ecommerce tips that will help you drive more online sales during the year’s most important shopping season.

Black friday. Vector illustration.
Black friday text on the airport timetable. Sale theme. Vector illustration.

Start planning earlier

Success comes to those who plan ahead. Unfortunately, when companies have to create social media content, it often falls to the last minute. And of course, if someone is pressed for time, the results are normally less inspiring. You should consider creating a social media calendar. This way, you can map out when your Black Friday campaign starts and when it has to finish. Besides this, you also have to decide which channels to use. Most people think it is better if you create a large number of posts, but be careful. You certainly do not want to be annoying and annoy your customers with all the spam. Planning these things earlier improves your chances of success in Black Friday sales.

[bf_prep_checklist_download]

Get more creative

When you launch your social media campaign, you have to choose which channels to use. Ideally, you would have a slightly different strategy and approach to each one of them. For example, what you create for Facebook should be completely different from what you post on Instagram. People can get “ad fatigue” seeing the same ads and posts and are looking for variety. If you want to keep your regular customers, you have to offer them something unique and appealing. Spend more time discovering the audiences on each channel and make sure your content is going to serve the needs of the audience in the best way possible. Come up with some Black Friday themed content that is specific to your business, to the channel, and be creative!

Choose the best products to promote

Person Hands Shopping Online With Credit Card And Laptop At Desk
Person Hands Shopping Online With Credit Card And Laptop At Desk

If you are looking for success in the Black Friday sales and promotions, don’t just promote any products. Choose them wisely. Every eCommerce company has its own top products and bestsellers. They are usually what your company is known and famous for, so you should not miss the chance to promote their discounts on your social media Black Friday posts. When people check on Facebook and see them at a lower price, they will not hesitate to take advantage and order them.

Save time and use social media tool to schedule and post

When your posts are ready for your social media channels use a social media tool such as Social Web Suite to schedule all your posts in advance. This will save you a lot of time and you will be able to see all the posts on your social media calendar so you can add more if you need it. This will also allow you to publish your posts to all your social networks at the same time which is great for time-sensitive news. The best thing is that after the Black Friday promotion, you will be able to see the analytics of the posts and see how your social media marketing efforts performed.

Planning a Black Friday social media campaign might not be an easy task, but in the end, it will be worth your efforts. Fewer people are visiting physical shops and are now spending a lot of time and money online shopping. Social media certainly helps them to find various products easily and reminds followers that sales are a limited-time offer. The most important thing is to prepare your Black Friday strategy with thought. Creating high quality and engaging social media posts shouldn’t be rushed. Remember, quality over quantity. There is no point in creating hundreds of posts with no value. Black Friday is a favorite day of many people of all ages, and if you are well prepared for, it can bring you huge profits.

This was the final installment of our Black Friday series. Check out all our past content on the blog for tips on how to improve your website design, conversions, online marketing, and more.    

[subscribe_cta]

How to Leverage Your Network to Gain More Website Traffic

Did you know you can increase your online traffic by tapping into your offline network? In-person relationship building can have a tremendous impact on your ability to reach people online. Even introverts can find a way to connect with a community and increase visibility and number of visits to their site. Here are four tried and true methods, from easiest to hardest:

Continue reading “How to Leverage Your Network to Gain More Website Traffic”

SiteGround Gets Inspiration from the Dribbble Community

At SiteGround, we take pride in calling web hosting our “craft.” For us, a craftsperson is someone who puts heart and soul in their work, aims for delivering high-quality service, and pays attention to detail in all aspects of the process. But we were curious: is that how other people see it as well? How do we visually communicate the idea of craftsmanship in the highly technological context of the web hosting industry?

Continue reading “SiteGround Gets Inspiration from the Dribbble Community”

Web Craft Masters: From Tech Businesses to Bootstrapping Happiness

Today, we are excited to share with you the next interview in our series, featuring David Henzel, ex-MaxCDN, and current entrepreneur consultant. He is one of those rare people who are not afraid of making big changes in their lives. With a huge entrepreneurial flair, he co-founded the popular tech company MaxCDN, moved from Europe to the US to develop and grow his business and after selling it in 2016, decided to make another significant move – to settle in Bodrum and start a radically new project.

At Managing Happiness David teaches entrepreneurs to apply business practices to their personal life. He also hosts an amazing podcast, recently featuring SiteGround’s own CEO Tenko Nikolov. Read our interview for David’s tips on how to live and do business with more meaning.

Continue reading “Web Craft Masters: From Tech Businesses to Bootstrapping Happiness”

OptinMonster for SiteGround Users

Email communication is one of the foundations of effective online marketing and a key to growing your business. But in order to start an email communication, you need to get those visitors’ emails first. One of the best ways to do this is to convert visitors into subscribers while they’re still on your website, using opt-in forms. And some of the most effective opt-in forms are the dynamic ones that grab your visitors’ attention instantly – the exit pop-ups or floating subscription bars for example. But how do you create and implement a beautiful and effective opt-in popup form without having a team of designers, marketers and developers? A good option used by many of our customers is OptinMonster – a tool for a hassle-free lead generation. And through a recent SiteGround partnership with OptinMonster our users can now get a 30-day free trial and some special discounts.

Continue reading “OptinMonster for SiteGround Users”

Our Affiliate Program in 2016 – Founded on Product Quality and Trust


2016 was the most successful in the history of SiteGround. We kept growing in terms of clients and employees and we worked on many new projects that improved further the quality of our service. One of the key factors for our success is the relationship with our affiliate partners. During the past year, we welcomed 63% more affiliates and witnessed a 60% increase in the number of affiliate sales. We have distributed nearly $6 million in commissions.

Continue reading “Our Affiliate Program in 2016 – Founded on Product Quality and Trust”

SiteGround x CreativeMornings/SOF

“Everyone is creative. Everyone is welcome.” This is part of the manifesto of CreativeMornings–a global monthly breakfast lecture series for the creative community. Their motto in the spirit of our Community Series is just part of the reason why we love and support our local CM chapter. It is also what inspired our joint #CMCreativeTravels campaign that will take one person from our community to a CreativeMornings event of their choice anywhere in the world. But first, a little background.

CreativeMornings originated in NYC and is now happening in over 150 cities around the world. Ever since we stumbled upon our first CM talk years ago, we’ve been great fans of the series and the values it promotes, since they resonate very deeply with our own: creativity, inclusivity, connection and collaboration. That’s why when we found out that Sofia, the city of our headquarters, is about to become part of the global CreativeMornings family, we could not wait to get involved. We reached out to the organizing team and said we wanted to help out. Ever since we cannot imagine spending every last Friday morning of the month any other way – and it’s been almost a year now.

Continue reading “SiteGround x CreativeMornings/SOF”

Supporting Indie Publishing Through Offscreen Magazine

Offscreen cover image

Four years ago we stumbled on the following somewhere on the web: “Offscreen – a print-only magazine about the people behind the internet and technology.” Naturally, our first thought was “Why make a print magazine for people who spend most of their time online?” It certainly piqued our curiosity, and that’s how we came to order our first issue of Offscreen. It was also issue No1 – a brand new magazine. Today, we happily received Issue No14 at the SiteGround office.

Continue reading “Supporting Indie Publishing Through Offscreen Magazine”

2015: The Affiliates’ Assessment

_happy-new-affiliates
We said goodbye to a very successful 2015 and the collaboration with our affiliates had a key role in achieving our great resultsWe have 100% increase in the number of sales generated by our affiliate partners and have paid out commissions worth 4 million dollars! What’s more, the results from our annual affiliate survey results proved that our affiliates are extremely happy with both our service and program features! Read on for the rest of the survey findings.

Continue reading “2015: The Affiliates’ Assessment”