I would tend to disagree with Bruce and would maintain that you get what you pay for regardless of where the developer is. If you are paying someone $15 a day to code html, then it is going to be pretty basic stuff. You are probably developing sites of not very high quality, maybe destined for use in the countries where you source your workers and where expectations are not high. If your website is destined for use in a Western country and has to compete then it is likely to be built by people paid a competitive Western wage using skill levels required to achieve the necessary standards.
I say this as a telecommute developer myself to clients in Europe, North America and other select parts of the world. You can more or less judge from the country of origin whether or not you are going to get a worthwhile return. That rules out Eastern Europe, South America, most of Asia, especially India and all of the Middle East except Israel. I would say that this advert is for sites whose final destination is in one of those regions that I just ruled outt. It should be noted that the population of non-Western countries is larger than those of Western countries and their internet usage is growing, therefore the number of developers and the proliferation of cheap job offers is also growing. These cheap developers are not competing against people such as myself because they are in a different market. I have had a number of North American clients come to me after dissatisfaction with Asian freelancers. The primary problem is language, followed closely by culture and in that I mean business culture which includes everything from law to how to do business. The Western business culture is far more sophisticated than anything you'll find in those countries. You could liken it to building a house. There might be someone who could do it for $360 a sq meter but it wouldn't last long in a 7.1 earthquake! (NZ houses typically cost well over $1,000 per sq m) On Sep 11, 11:23 am, Bruce Clement <[email protected]> wrote: > On Sat, Sep 11, 2010 at 6:01 AM, Leandro Carvalho <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Really, is this a joke? 0_0 > > No, it isn't a joke. It's the reality of the international > availability of services. In some countries the cost of living is low > compared to the west and so an amount of money that would be poverty > level here is a reasonable income there. The ad was placed on an > international board, not a New Zealand one and in some parts of the > world US$360 for a fairly entry level programming job would be a good > wage. > > Part of the problem is that the currency of some countries is low > because it is in little demand or infrastructural problems, but part > of the problem is because the high population density means that > businesses (and government agencies) can do so much more with the same > fixed cost facilities so businesses can afford to work on much lower > margins than would be required here helping keep the costs down. > > If you're looking at offering site or software development services > over the internet you are directly competing with people who can get > the same standard or living as you for a lot less money so you can be > undercut. If you want to retain a New Zealand standard of living in > New Zealand you need to be offering services that can't be delivered > remotely ... the ability to front up at your client's office for a > face-to-face being the obvious one but there are others including > detailed knowledge of the local environment and the other issues > surrounding confidence that dealing locally provides, > > -- > Bruce Clement > > Home: http://www.clement.co.nz/ > Twitter: http://twitter.com/Bruce_Clement > Google Buzz:http://www.google.com/profiles/aotearoanz > > "Before attempting to create something new, it is vital to have a good > appreciation of everything that already exists in this field." Mikhail > Kalashnikov -- NZ PHP Users Group: http://groups.google.com/group/nzphpug To post, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected]
