How do I start a ratings and reviews website like Yelp or coursereport.com?

I would hurl myself toward getting the following working first: * User signup (default to user) * Profile setup (photo, etc). * Add Stripe information * Make it easy to share the link to my profile * Enable Expert-mode, to answer phone calls * Enable Twilio for calls * Set Hourly-rate for calls * Build/program API to handle conference calls etc * Connect to LinkedIn / Facebook / Twitter for 'verification' I wouldn't spend time with any Javascript frameworks etc at first. Just make it usable and not a pain for people to get in and make a phone call, or edit their profile. Other than that, Clarity is very well built as it is. I'm sure you're trying to build this for a specific business.

The best technology is whatever gets you up and running the quickest. You'll throw away the first iteration (and possibly the second and third...) anyway. What you need most in the beginning is to test your idea and get feedback, and you need it fast.

I consult with clients who are looking for the right outsourcing situation all the time, and the best way to get started is to figure out what kind of outsourcing partner will be the best 'fit' for your needs. After that, it's easy to find out where that type of outsourcing partner/contractor/freelance hangs out and pick a winner. Try writing up some notes about things like: 1) You mentioned you had a small budget - how small? If your budget is $1500 your options are going to be very different than if it's $25,000. Both of those could be considered 'small budgets' in the right context, so try to put a number out there. 2) You also mentioned that you wanted 'good quality, clean code'. What does this mean and are you willing to pay for that? If you are building an MVP and are really short on funds, you might have to use a less senior developer/team and take the risk of getting sloppier code - but sometimes with an MVP that's ok! If you are building a production app, that's a different story. 3) What is your technical and management expertise? Can you create specifications and manage a developer on your own (not easy to do)? If so, you can save money by using a freelancer, etc. If you are very non-technical and will need PM support, you might consider a small group or agency. 4) What does 'website development' involve, in your vision? Design? Copywriting? QA? Server migration and admin? ui/ux? 5) What is your tolerance for going offshore? You will hear lots of people saying that offshore teams all suck, and lots of people saying that they did it and it went fine. Like most software projects, there is a high failure rate but lots of success with offshore. You can save a ton of money, but you can also take a bath so you need to consider whether you are up to the challenge or not - going offshore takes much more patience, attention, documentation, etc. but it can work. 6) What are the skills/tech that you will need? It's best to get a team that is great at the skills you need. If you want a ruby site, hire a ruby shop. If you want a augmented reality site, find a team that is great at that. Watch out for the generalists :) By thinking through questions like the above, you can change your statement from "Where do you go for outsourcing website development" to something like this: "I am looking for an outsourcing partner who would be interested in a 15k-20k project that will be build in python. This application will be evolved into our production app so the quality must be good. I am a good project manager and will work with the developer on the requirements/spec side, and help test. We will need application/db design and development, server administration, and technical support but all design, content, copy, ui/ux will be provided. We will consider offshore teams but you must have excellent spoken english." When you expand your 'what we're looking for' paragraph, the whole search for outsourcing partner gets much easier! If you like, feel free to give me a call and share your 'vendor profile' with me and I can help point you in the right direction.

You have to have something worth selling....and position it properly which means clear calls to action. Most sites are informative and miss the calls to action...people are lazy, they won't look hard. Personally I leave if not interested

This is a bit of a complex question to answer, but assuming is a typical service based business website where you are using primarily for SEO, Marketing, and informational purposes - the cost is or should be very relatively low. Depending on the type of build you prefer, whether you hire a developer who knows SEO to build your website natively friendly with SEO or not will affect your final price. Not every designer is a good developer or good SEO person. But I would say, even with SEO for a basic informational website with good SEO structure should be no more than $3,000 usd... custom designing and complex animations or backend data entry would of course drive the cost up. We did some service informational sites in the past that ended up racking the clients' total to $30k. This isn't common but they were a big client with complex systems on the backend while the front end was informational only for guests.