Now Hiring!

I received a call from a business owner in San Diego who is looking to hire a developer. She was asking about an outsourcer that I’d used. This happens a lot. Normally, I end up saying the same thing i.e. that there are plenty of free tools and other tools you need to pay for that can be integrated into a wordpress website easily.

Most businesses need a “website organizer” more than they do a “website developer.” A website organizer knows how to put free/paid apps together in a way that make sense for a business…and knows when and when not to call in a programmer to do minor or major programming.

Here is the job description and my advice…

We need a developer(s) that can produce the site as described below and can implement effectively. We provide a robust website directory for consumers (customers) to locate specific niche business/products services by searching in our site by state, cities, neighborhoods, or type of service. Example given as illustration only would be (Mobile carpet cleaners in San Diego/Hillcrest).

The business revenue model is a paid membership for businesses who list their service so they can be located along with a brief description plus link to their web site. (Unique id code to track) (SEO optimized) customers, will be offered multiple membership options, (ex: platinum, gold, silver) at different price points.

Visitors, who use site will also be offered free, access to our mailing list for free offers and eventual up sell offers.

We need to focus on a good auto responder system with ready to go offers and information sent to mailing list.

We’ll need a highly functional shopping cart that can accept all major credit cards, including paypal, google, and bank transfers.

We would like the following functions:

*add members (and ability to charge them) – Wishlist Products

*add advertisers (and ability to charge them) – Wishlist Products, make individual ones, “Authors” with permission to write blog posts about their services as a bonus.

*email capture/sign up – GravityForms or FormSpring to MailChimp

*Google Analytics – easy to add yourself. Use Wordpress Stats plugin for easier/quicker analytics.

*Shopping cart *accept payments (credit card and bank transfers) – WP eCommerce probably best.

*sell products- e-books, etc. WP-eCommerce. Integrate Amazon links, etc…for extra upselling.

*ability to add categories (state/city/neighborhood) – any Wordpress site does this

*put in embedded video – Any wordpress site does this easily.

*must be a site that we, (administrators) can manipulate. – any wordpress Site does this easily.

There are also a number of valuable plugins for wordpressMU (that are probably available for Wordpress as well) that could enhance the functionality of the site i.e. Pop-Overs, WP Greet Box, etc…but that’s for another day.