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Should you outsource your web development or learn to DIY?



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Should you outsource your web development or learn to DIY?

When it comes to web development, you either know how to do it or you don't. You either need to learn how to do it yourself, and do it, or you need to outsource your web development out to someone else.
Should you outsource your web development or learn to DIY?
To those that haven't done web dev before, that can be a bit of a minefield. Even for those that have as things change, prices change, services end and it can mean having to shop around again. And like most things you want to buy, web development is something that would pay to shop around as well right?

If you are looking to improve or upgrade your site. And you'd like to have some feature working on it that you have in mind, something it needs that you don't know how to do. You either have to seek help and learn how to do it yourself. Or find out if it's better to just hire a web dev to do it for you.

I guess it really depends on the complexity of what kind of web development you need. Some things are probably really easy to learn how to do yourself, and then do them. But some things are simply beyond your knowledge or know-how and skills to do.

But if you really need that feature or without it your site wont progress and have a chance to succeed, then you either (as the webmaster) have to learn how to do it or whether or not you'll need to hire a web developer to do it for you.

Which would be better to do based on these surrounding points;

Learn to do it yourself and then do it if you can?
That could take a lot of time depending on the task at hand. Time to learn and time to apply. That could also cost you in other ways in lost time alone and you might eventually find out that you will need to buy or hire a web developer anyway. On the other hand, you would learn how to do that thing yourself, which could come in handy later on and also go towards improving your web dev skills anyway.

Just hire a web developer to do it for you?
This of course pretty much guarantees the work will be done and probably a lot better and a lot faster than you could do it in which means no lost time but you will have to pay for it. That can vary from $10-100 for fairly small and trivial web dev tasks to $100-1000+ depending on complexity and time involved.

When it comes to web development and web design. It's usually do or die.

So in a scenario like that, what would you do and why?

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MasterA
This is a very good discussion and I have actually been thinking about this for a long time. When I first become a webmaster, I was very bad with development. I can do the simple things like adding a link to the footer or changing the colours of your style but when it came to more complex web development tasks like creating a new theme, then it just becomes an impossible task for me so I had to hire web developers to help me complete the task. However, over time, I just thought that I needed to spend so much money because I had to constantly update my website and as a result, my website became less and less profitable. Therefore, I decided to learn how to code so I can make the changes myself which saves me a lot of money.

Even if you do all the web development yourself, it just takes a lot of time which you could be using elsewhere. This would make websites less profitable because you spend less time on new projects and constantly updating old projects which won't really change your revenue. Therefore, maybe hiring developers to help out still is a good idea for older projects even if you can do it yourself and focus on the newer/more profitable projects.



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Lynne
Oh this is a simple answer for me. I use a website builder for my Wordpress blogs. I am a member of Wealthy Affiliate and setting up a website takes me about 5 minutes flat. Of course this is a simple website, so if I want to blog that is the route I will go. I know how to add plugins in and to do the basics for myself.

However if I will be needing anything more than a simple blog I will hire a freelancer here to assist me with building my website, in fact I am about to do that soon for my latest website.

The thing is that maybe I can learn how to do these things, but it is not where my talents or my interests lie. This means it will be a chore to learn and a chore to do. I believe my time can be better spent doing the things I have talent and interest in. I would rather tell someone what I want and pay them to do it for me



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Cristian
You mean "do or buy" - I think there is a middle ground there, I actually find myself somewhere in between. I have basic web development skills like knowing my way around WordPress, HTML CSS and some PHP as well as knowing a little Photoshop plus numerous other small skills I've picked up over the years that really come in handy when developing a website.

So yes, I would totally hire someone to implement the things I don't know, but what I do know and what I think I'm doing right, I'll do it myself only hiring people for small fixes or features.



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vinaya
Two ywars ago, when I was ready to launch my first website, I did not know anything. I asked the local designer and his asking price was so high that I had to drop the idea of hiring a designer. Then I began looking for free resources online. I searched "how to make a website" on Google. I learned how to make a wordpress site in minutes by reading articles and watching videos. Currently, I not only design my websites but also sell my designing service.



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