In general, I would avoid these places if you have someone local you can work with. If not, then you have to be super super clear on what you want. If there is

In general, I would avoid these places if you have someone local you can work with. If not, then you have to be super super clear on what you want. If there is any ambiguity then prepare for disaster. You'll need to have clear specs, or interfaces, with very clear success criteria for them to work with. Sometimes I find writing clear specs and managing the outcome takes longer than just hacking it myself, which is why I don't use them much anymore. summed up, if you are not a developer already, your chances of a successful outcome are slim. I try to explain this to people all the time who have no idea of what they are getting themselves into. It is not a place that you can "offload" your technical work without deep technical oversight. It is a site where an in-house or near-shore team can write a system, develop a plug-gable architecture, define interfaces, and solicit developers to build a bunch of plug-ins that the in-house team would have no hope of completing on time. If you do not posses that technical talent, then you first need a onshore guy that can help provide technical know-how. He can then help you make decisions as to what will succeed on sites like that, or most likely will link you with a Eastern-European or Indian development house directly.