Best way to pick a company/programer for app/website job $3000 to $5000?

Hmm.. Pick me
lol...
What are you doing...

Sortfolio : Find a great web designer by style, budget, and location.

Great website for high end designers.

It takes time, effort and a lot of will power to push yourself to find a "good worker/company" I think you know you need to do your due diligence on the front and before hiring somebody but it really comes down to testing and only putting up enough money that you're willing to lose to find that good worker.

In the construction industry. It is typical to hire 10 temporary workers to fill one full-time spot because chances are 9 out of the 10 workers are not going to be what you're looking for, so you'll need enough capital to pay for the extra workers in order to find out one good future employee. The same thing when it comes to finding workers on the Internet you hire 10 companies are contractors to do one job and although you did your due diligence and made sure that they had good feedback good reputation blah blah and so on You will find that one out of the 10 will actually be what you're looking for.

It really really sucks that this is the way it is but it truly is "hard to find good help"

If you can, you should break it up into smaller pieces. Then outsources the smaller parts to various people. Then you can judge how they perform, then you offer more of the project to the one that's doing a better job.

Unless you've got a good recommendation from someone you actually know, giving the whole project to one person/company could be hit or miss. Especially if this is the first time you're doing the outsourcing thing.

Thanks Clint Faber & pnllc for the input.

This will be my first time and a little concerned on how best to do this, but the small test is a good way to do it.

Let them prove them selves with a small task, then one big hit to my wallet.

If you want to protect your money with escrow on either a fixed fee or hourly job...
If you want a money back guarantee via free arbitration...
If you want to search for programmer that can do what you need with qualifying criteria...

Use vWorker (previously known as RentACoder).

None of the other online outsourcing services provide all those features in one package.

Ive had success hiring good people at Vworker.com (previously rentacoder).. but on every website you gotta INTERVIEW them, besides looking at their work/history/track record..

I can't stress this one enough, interview them, ask them every kind of question that has to do with the job and the way they work.. I would even go as far as asking them questions like.. how would you move Mount Fiji?
(got this from Microsoft, they ask hiring questions like this to see how the person would attack such a problem, there is no right or wrong answer, they just betray how a person attacks problems).

Why are you motivated for this job? What makes you more qualified into doing XYZ than the other programmers? etc..

Also dont hesitate to ask for some references of their previous employers. and call them up to ask how they handle things, etc.

Note, I'm assuming this is for big projects, I dont interview people for small projects, just important big ones where I need to make sure I get a good team/person.

For more crazy job interview questions, pick up the book "How would you move Mount Fij" .. thats the book I got for crazy hiring questions.

Hope it helps

- Alphy