How much would this cost to code?

[SFD]

The basic concept is a landing page and a share page

The idea behind it is to give away a free product and build a list of people.

The landing page collects

name
email
referral code (automatically from the url)

The share page allocates that user (based on email) a referral code and gives them three buttons to share the code:

twitter
facebook
email

as well as code to use on forums, button for their blog etc.

Clicking on twitter will set their twitter status to a predefined message including link with referral code ready for them to submit, the same with facebook and email.

The site must also be able to send out reminder emails closer to the deadline with the same buttons on.

The person who refers the most people who also refer people wins the product and the site would need to be able to show (only to admin) how many people they referred etc.

It would need to be able to operate time and time again so a competition can be run each month and the old links would need to still bring traffic but not be counted for that particular month i.e referral numbers in a certain range not counted.

Are there are problems with this and what kind of cost would you estimate for coding?

Or are there are ready-made package that already do this?

Cheers :)

[edmondscommerce]

surprisingly little I think

its a good idea, though the expense would come in keeping it secure.

i.e. It would be easy for me to create this raw functionality, and likewise it would be relatively easy to write another script to exploit it and win me the prize!

So then you need to put some more effort into making it harder to automate - some extra checks, maybe just a recaptcha or maybe something less intrusive to the user..

[mit74]

The basic concept is a landing page and a share page

The idea behind it is to give away a free product and build a list of people.

The landing page collects

name
email
referral code (automatically from the url)

The share page allocates that user (based on email) a referral code and gives them three buttons to share the code:

twitter
facebook
email

as well as code to use on forums, button for their blog etc.

Clicking on twitter will set their twitter status to a predefined message including link with referral code ready for them to submit, the same with facebook and email.

The site must also be able to send out reminder emails closer to the deadline with the same buttons on.

The person who refers the most people who also refer people wins the product and the site would need to be able to show (only to admin) how many people they referred etc.

It would need to be able to operate time and time again so a competition can be run each month and the old links would need to still bring traffic but not be counted for that particular month i.e referral numbers in a certain range not counted.

Are there are problems with this and what kind of cost would you estimate for coding?

Or are there are ready-made package that already do this?

Cheers :)


I'm not sure I understand how the system works, the person has buttons on their facebook and twitter which people click and takes them to a landing page?

Firstly you'd probably need to setup a database to log it properly but the main thing is that it will be easy to spoof. What's to stop the user faking IPs and then clicking the buttons themselves? Because of the testing and research needed it would probably be more expensive than you'd think.

[SFD]

surprisingly little I think

its a good idea, though the expense would come in keeping it secure.


Could the security come from having them log into a registered facebook or twitter account, is that possible?

Also, the people who are initially referred have to refer someone else for their vote to count.

For example:

Person A refers 100 people but only 50 of those refer at least one more person. This means person A only has 50 referrals that count.

That kind of adds another layer of security doesn't it?

I'm not sure I understand how the system works, the person has buttons on their facebook and twitter which people click and takes them to a landing page?

Well, it would be a message along the lines of:

"Win a brand new pair of Mission x909 Speakers from AudioDirect by visiting www.domain.com/889567"

[mit74]

to do it totally securely would be very expensive (over £500), to do it based on IP as a security measure then probably cheaper.

[J-Wholesale]

to do it totally securely would be very expensive (over £500), to do it based on IP as a security measure then probably cheaper.

I wouldn't consider £500 to be even remotely expensive for programming work. I'd be shocked to find any respectable web programmer who'd do this job for less.

[DanHaynes]

For a professional job I would estimate the cost closer to £5000 than £500.

[SFD]

For a professional job I would estimate the cost closer to £5000 than £500.

Really, why's that?

I was thinking £300 - £500.

[stugster]

APIs for the twitter/facebook integration are available. Can use that auth API for security too (http://oauth.net/) - that would check your signup user has access to the Twitter/Facebook page they say they do.

Other than that, a wee bit planning of the mySQL database; nothing complicated. Implement the databse structure. Probably an hour there.

The design and layout of the site, probably 3 hours?

The coding of the PHP, probably 4-10 hours.

The £500 region isn't far off.



Hate to say it, but you could chuck it on GetaFreelancer.com and probably pay £250.

[DanHaynes]

Really, why's that?

I was thinking £300 - £500.

Well I was thinking 20 (wo)man days at £250 per day. The spec (above) is obviously not complete and that would require fleshing out. Twitter, facebook, emailing/job scheduling, storing personal data/security, tracking codes, spamming prevention/detection, admin functionality for the site.

As I said for a professional implementation which will be simple to maintain, administer and extend in the future (at minimal cost) that is what I would be thinking to quote :)

If you can do it for £300 then great. How long would that take you just out of interest?

[designtime]

I think £150 should do it! My site was only £500.

[DanHaynes]

Well I was thinking 20 (wo)man days at £250 per day. The spec (above) is obviously not complete and that would require fleshing out. Twitter, facebook, emailing/job scheduling, storing personal data/security, tracking codes, spamming prevention/detection, admin functionality for the site.

As I said for a professional implementation which will be simple to maintain, administer and extend in the future (at minimal cost) that is what I would be thinking to quote :)

If you can do it for £300 then great. How long would that take you just out of interest?


Oops, sorry didn't realise I was replying to the OP. By the look of it you can get it done for that figure. Sounds like a bargain to me :)

[BigRedOne]

Well I was thinking 20 (wo)man days at £250 per day. The spec (above) is obviously not complete and that would require fleshing out. Twitter, facebook, emailing/job scheduling, storing personal data/security, tracking codes, spamming prevention/detection, admin functionality for the site.

As I said for a professional implementation which will be simple to maintain, administer and extend in the future (at minimal cost) that is what I would be thinking to quote :)

If you can do it for £300 then great. How long would that take you just out of interest?

As a developer myself and given the requirements you have I think Dan Hayes quote is by far the most realistic. There is some analysis needed to design a solution that ensures your competition isn't easily exploitable, scalable and secure.

Can't see you're gonna get that for £500.

[SFD]

OK, here is the best looking example I have found

www dot dsocialpromo dot com

While £300 may be on the very cheap side I think £5000 is far far out.

20 days @ £250 a day?

I just can't think anything on that would take 20 days, and if it did take someone 20 days maybe they shouldn't be being paid £250 per day.

[DanHaynes]

20 days @ £250 a day?

I just can't think anything on that would take 20 days, and if it did take someone 20 days maybe they shouldn't be being paid £250 per day.

Well it would depend on your exact requirements of course. And part of that process of detailing the specification would also be what you are paying for (not just the build). What is the admin functionality you require for example? During the build you may well decide you need more? Once you start testing the prototypes this will become more apparent. If you pay a professional in the area £250 for 20 days you will end up (hopefully) with exactly what you want and probably something more and better than you first envisaged. You have a maintainable, flexible and extendable implementation backed up by both technical and administration documentation. You will also have a much clearer idea about where you can take the system in the future and how easy or difficult or costly extensions might be.

You can also pay £500 and end up with a site like the one you quoted above. Both routes are valid :)

[BigRedOne]

I just can't think anything on that would take 20 days, and if it did take someone 20 days maybe they shouldn't be being paid £250 per day.

As I say from the info given 20 days would be a good finger in the air estimate.




A couple of questions that come to mind include.
Are you planning on more than one competition at the same time?
Do you want to administer the competitions from within the app?
If I refer 20 people and one of the people I refer then refers 100 Do I get any credit? or do I only get credit for the people I immediately refer?

Building a scaleable solution and securing and testing to ensure its not vulnerable to exploitation by users, XSS and SQL injection attacks takes time.

[Astaroth]

The main issue will be stopping people from clicking through on their own link and registering.

There are a number of options in terms of both technology and T&Cs that will help you to limit the impact but depending on the complexity of the technological aspect may have a significant impact on the cost.

On the point of costs, I don't think that an open mic discussion is particularly useful as many clients have different approaches in terms of preferences for a fit for purpose solution -v- an enterprise strength system.

[landlordquery]

Try using drupal

[landlordquery]

Or for something more advanced, Xwiki or Magnolia

[edmondscommerce]

Using oauth would be a good part of the security pie, and takes away some of the id management headache away from your system which is nice. Implementing oAuth though would be more involved than a bog standard login system.

As I said in my first post, this could easily be done for not very much, but it would likely be very easy to exploit with a similar amount of effort.

You could live dangerously and launch with the bare bones functionality and then improve it once the idea is proven and generating a bit of revenue.

As for the various quotes and how much is developer time worth yadda yadda, per day would someone working for half the price actually cost less in the end - that's up to you to decide.

I only have to work twice as fast/effectively as them to offer the same value for money. There is every chance I can comfortably exceed even that.