In a previous post I’ve written that I was selected as a Codeable Expert. Now let’s see what this website – codeable.io – is about. Was it made for you? If yes, how can it help you and how to use it.
What is Codeable?
Codeable is a web portal that collects the best WordPress Experts: developers, site builders, SEO Experts and designers – and connects them with clients. However, Codeable is more than just yet another freelancer site. To become a Codeable Expert, a developer has to go through a long entry process. At the end only the top 2% of the applicants are approved. This is how they assure the quality of their service.
This process involves checking the applicants’ technical skills as well as checking their communication skills, too. My opinion is that it’s a very good approach from Codeable. The code quality itself is essential in resolving web development issues. However, what makes clients really happy is often the fact how it is communicated, how they are treated.
And communication doesn’t only mean “talking nicely”. Not at all! It’s more like listening to your client’s real needs and assuring them that they are in the best possible hands. It’s also an attitude that you want to give them value: top quality solution in top quality packing.
Like Per Esbensen (Codeable CEO) told me once:
“Imagine that you in an official Mercedes-Benz service. It’s not like a no-name car service in a distant street. In the official Mercedes service everything is neat and tidy, everything is well designed, and the front end people are always kind with you. You get premium quality solution, and they give you warranty on the job they do. Of course, it has a price tag, but this is why it’s an official Mercedes service and not a no-name one.”
Codeable is aiming to be the “Mercedes service of WordPress development”. Where clients can come with their projects, tasks, problems and they can be sure that they will be served in premium quality and extra care. Something that is not always provided at cheaper outsourcing websites.
Who is Codeable for?
Well, while there is a statement that “Codeable is for everyone” on the service’s home page, I would argue with it (sorry, mates 🙂 ). Codeable is generally for people and businesses who own a WordPress based website or want to have one.
If you are one of them, then Codeable can give the perfect solution for you. Their 300 WordPress developers, designers and site builders have a high level of knowledge in the industry. If you browse through their profiles, you rarely can find anyone who has less than 5 years experience in WordPress development. So you can be sure you’re not dealing here with amateurs.
What can Codeable experts do for you?
Generally everything that is related to WordPress, but let’s see some of the typical cases:
- You need a unique WordPress theme
- You have a bug on your site and want it fixed asap.
- You need some plugins installed and configured
- You need modifications to a plugin or a theme, but you can’t do it yourself
- You are the leader of a webdesign agency and is in lack of capacity, but don’t want to turn down that project
- You are fed up with your current hosting and want to migrate your site to another one
- You need a WooCommerce-based online store
- You need a well-configured online booking on your website
- You need ongoing maintenance for your WordPress website(s)
- Just need a consultation to figure out how difficult it would be to build up your website
- etc.
… and who it isn’t for?
Let’s have a look at the other side. There are definitely groups of people for whom Codeable is not the perfect match:
- Who need a website build on other system than WordPress. Codeable is the place of WordPress experts. We (Codeable experts) have traveled different professional journeys until we ended up on Codeable, and some of us know Drupal, Laravel, Joomla, etc., too. However, it is not a standard thing on Codeable. While you can still publish projects like these on the portal, it’s not 100% guaranteed that you’ll find a suitable expert.
- Who wants to get it done as cheap as possible. A complete web store for $200? Maybe possible, but not on Codeable. And most probably not in a good quality. On Codeable, the hourly rates start at $60/h (USD). But in change for the higher price tag, you are connected with the best experts out there. And hey, it’s still more affordable than lot of expensive agencies!
- Who likes to see developers underbidding each other for his/her project. On Codeable the final price is the average of the estimations of the experts who have applied for your project. So if Dev A would do it for $800 and Dev B would do it for $1,000, then your final price tag will be $900.
How does Codeable work
OK, let’s say you need a small improvement to your WordPress website. How can you get it done using Codeable’s services?
#1: Visit Codeable.io
First you’ll have to visit Codeable.io. Be aware that there is .io at the end of the domain, not .com!
#2: Have a look
If you are absolutely new to this website, I recommend you to look around first. Read what’s on the front page, browse the list of the developers and browse through the articles in the blog to become more familiar with the site. You can also have a look at the FAQ pages, so you can have a peek into how the app works once you are inside.
This is how the Codeable home page looks like when writing this article
#3: Your first project
OK, now we are ready to jump into it after scraping the surface for a while… Let’s create our first project at Codeable! To do so, you can use this link, or press the GET STARTED NOW button on Codeable.io
#4: Select Project Type
The next screen you can see is the Project Type selector. At the moment you can select between the following categories:
- Install & Configure
- Customize
- Fix
- Develeop & Design
- Migrate
and their sub-categories.
There is also a possibility to start a 1-hour consultation with a WordPress expert. Here you can discuss what you need inside the frames of your project and you can get important and useful advices for them. Anyway, if you don’t have any clues what to do here, just reach out to the support with the Intercom icon in the right bottom corner of the screen. They will help you within minutes.
For the sake of simplicity, let’s say that you need an improvement to your WP theme, so you select the “Customize / Theme” category and click on the START button.
The project type selector
#5: The project details form
Here you’ll have to fill in a simple form. By submitting it, your project will be online inside the Codeable app. Let’s see how you should fill it in to get the best possible service as fast as possible…
- Project title: should not be too long, but should be specific enough to give a rough idea about what it is about. Let’s say, you need the customization for an Avada child theme, and what you need is a new blog layout. Then the title should be something like “Avada child theme needs new blog layout”. Try not to be too generic (like “I need help with my website”) here – however, I’m sure you’ll get help even in these cases, too.
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Preferred experts: if you have someone on Codeable’s experts list who’d you like to work with then you can add his/her name to this field. You can add up to 5 experts in this field. Of course, if you leave this field empty, your project will be visible for all experts.
- Tip: if you’d like to work with us, simply add my name, “Ervin Domonkos” to this field
- How soon do you need it? This setting here is not a deadline! It just gives the experts a hint about how urgent the project is for you. The deadline finally will be what you agree about later.
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Describe your project: this is the most important part. Some tips how a good description looks like:
- It’s a good rule of thumb to start with describing what your website is about, what you’d like to achieve. Then you can describe the current situation, then describe how the desired situation would be different from it.
- If the work has to be done on an existing website, always include the URL in the description. Anyway, this will be the first thing the experts ask for if you forget to add it.
- If there are more things to be done during the project, use bullet points. It’s always easier to realize what needs to be done this way than trying to figure it out of a block of text.
- If a new process needs to be implemented on your site, then try describing it as steps – like:
- Step 1 – user clicks here
- Step 2 – the popup jumps up with the form
- Step 3 – user fills it out
- Step 4 – Clicks on the Submit button
- Step 5 – confirmation email sent
- If you have any material (images, videos, documents) that can help understanding your project, then please include a link to them or upload them to the project.
- Upload files: here is where you can upload anything that can be useful for completing the project. If your project is a bigger one, then it’s strongly recommended to write a Brief Document in which you try to describe all the aspects of the project.
- Budget: estimates are based on the scope, complexity and urgency of a project. However, if you specify your budget size, the experts will know better how complex solution should they offer to you. E.g. in a bigger budget project there is always more space to pay attention to small but important nuances. A low budget one can usually only afford a “works ok, but nothing special” solution most of the times. It’s up to you which one makes you satisfied.
If everything is ready, please read through everything once again, and then you can Publish your project.
What to do if I want to modify something after the project was published?
Don’t worry, you can modify it later. It can even happen that some experts will ask you to add some more information to it. So it’s not a bad thing if your project description is not perfect at the beginning.
#6: After publishing
After publishing it, your project will appear in the Codeable app. Inside the app the Codeable experts will see your project, and someone will reply to it typically in a few hours.
Of course if you chose some Preferred experts in the previous step, then only those people will see your project.
What to do if no-one responds to my project?
There can be more reasons why it happened:
- Your brief wasn’t concrete enough
- Your budget was too low compared to what you’d like to achieve
- Simply everyone was a bit busy when you posted it.
If you feel like there has too much time elapsed since you posted your project, you can always reach out to the support (bottom right corner of Codeable’s screen) asking to help you find a suitable expert.
#7: Conversation about your project
On Codeable your project’s page is called a Workroom. As the experts start answering to your project intro, a conversation starts between you and them. The experts will ask you questions about your project in order to make it crystal clear what needs to be done. If it’s an improvement to an existing site, then they might ask for your wp-admin credentials as well – in order to have a look “under the hood”.
Important! When you share your admin password with them, please don’t add it directly to the Project’s conversation, as it is visible to all experts at this time. Use Codeable’s Credential Vault instead, which is a secure way of sharing passwords and sensitive data. And in the Vault you can choose whom you’d like to share it with.
#8: Estimating
Once everything is crystal clear, one or a few experts will add their estimations for your project. You’ll see the average value of their estimations in the right sidebar as the Estimated Price. And this will eventually be your project’s price.
By estimating, the expert also states that he/she possesses the knowledge and has availability to do your project.
#9: Hiring
If you are satisfied with the price, you can hire one of the experts who have made an estimation for your project by clicking on the HIRE XY button on the right hand side.
After clicking on the button you’ll be asked to pay for the project upfront. Your money will be kept on Codeable’s escrow account until the expert delivers the solution.
#10: Ongoing project
Your project room will become a private workroom after the payment. From now on only you and the hired expert can see its contents.
A Codeable workroom
As the next thing, the expert will start working on your project. Once done, they will ask you to review the work done.
When you are satisfied, you can press the COMPLETE button.
#11: Completed project
After you mark the project complete, the project’s status will change to Completed and the money you paid upfront is transferred to the expert’s account.
Although the project is completed, you can re-visit it any time to check your previous conversations and to download the project files in the future.
If you happen to need help in the future on the same website and you’d like to use the same expert’s services, you can write them in this same workroom. So you can make sure only you and he/she can see the new task (and you can add the new task as an additional task).
Thank you for reading this article. Hope we’ll meet on Codeable someday!
