What should I look for + expect when hiring a programmer?

Just make a post in the warrior for hire section. Then see what you get. If you do not get what you need refine your post.

I have commissioned lots of programmers in my time and have two rules. One check the contract to ensure that you get coppyright over his code - particularly if you wish to deploy to other areas. Second make sure the programmer allows as much time for bug fixing as he does for intital development. Sorry if I am telling what you know but I have been caught out before.

What you should do first is list down all the details of how exactly you want the software to work, the features you want, how they work together etc. Balasmiq (http://www.balsamiq.com/) may help you if you want to spend some time with that.

This will give the programmer a clear idea of what you expect. You also need to figure out which language you want the program to be built in. You'd fine a ton of programmers for PHP and a lot of hosts support it too. It is also pretty good though not quite as good as, say, Python (I'm biased ) but it'll most likely be sufficient for your needs.

Clones shouldn't cost anything but a few minutes; in fact, the programmer can create you an installation script from which you can install it as many times on as many servers you want yourself. This will be additional work at the start but handy in the future.

Most backend programmers wouldn't be able to do a really good frontend design so I'm afraid you'll want to look for a designer who has some experience designing frontend of complex applications. Look up on Dribbble for some ideas and some potential designers. Some might do a good job so if you can find them, you can save some time.

If you want really good software, you don't want people who can do X, Y and Z. Look for people who can do X and do it really well and are reliable. Find someone else to do the Y and Z. There are a lot of nuances of good software that you have to spend time learning and thus, someone who really cares about their craft will be better than a jack of all trades.

What you should look for in a programmer, again, varies according to your needs however, I'd look for the projects they have worked on, talk to a couple of their customers if possible and see their presence on sites such as Stackoverflow, Github, etc. Github, specially, can tell you a lot about the projects they have done on the side.

There are many programmers on the WF who do a really good job and many, many more who do a horrible job. This is true of any marketplace and the best might not even stand out. However, if you can spend some time, you can find them.

One last thing: with programmers, the deadlines will always be an issue. Even if someone promises you X, you are almost always going to get the project delayed unless its a trivial project. There are several things that you just can't decide at the start and there are several small areas where you have to spend more time than you thought, etc. So, expect the project to be slightly delayed too.

Good luck with your search!

Good suggestion by "hpgoodboy", I'm totally agreed with him. Create a thread on the particular section of this forum about your query, you will definitely get so many PM or replies on there in some few days.

I recommend search it on freelancer type of site, they have reviews system, you will have many bids also so you can choose programmers with low bid and high reviews. You can even check testimonials for their service, this will make sure you get quality programmer instead of newbie one.