One option designers now have is that of partial outsourcing to any one of a growing list of coding services that have sprung up in the past year or so. But how do you make the determination which firm to go with? Well, figuring that out has been on my mind this week, so I thought I’d share my selection criteria.

Judging quality

First, is the site in question easy to use? Is it designed well – and more importantly, CODED well? As a service seller, your site IS your portfolio above any other work you decide to showcase. Your outsource must play by the same rules. Poke around under the hood of their site. Does the code measure up to their claims? What about any client work they have listed?

Gaging responsiveness

Before you upload a file or spend a dime, email them a couple questions. If you don’t hear back from them in 24 hours, they’re not your best bet. You need someone who can crank out quality work, but you also need reliability. If they’re promising delivery times of 8-12 hours, but they can’t answer a simple email, getting your code on time becomes a valid concern. Many of the services I reviewed had live chat available via Skype or Yahoo. This speaks volumes about their willingness to provide good customer service/support.

On a sidenote, I recently contacted a company called Stoodeo, to see what they were all about. Because their main selling point is discretion, there’s very little info on their site, and no testimonials or recent projects, save one. I sent an email briefly outlining an upcoming project, along with a few questions. That was three days ago and I still haven’t heard from them. A response time like that (without at least an auto-email) is disgraceful. I’ve already dismissed them as someone to do business with.

Protective measures

One of the main concerns about contracting a secondary source is transparency, and with it – confidentiality. Does the service your considering have a privacy policy? If not, proceed at your own risk. I’m not saying Company X is going to rip your stuff, contact your clients without permission, or do any other despicable thing you might worry about when outsourcing… but if there’s nothing in writing… well you see where I’m going with that.

Pricing and time-lines

The big question is always “what’s it gonna cost me?” Well, here are a few more questions to ask while you’re shopping:

• Are their prices listed, and are they competitive?
• Do they offer any discounts for subsequent pages?
• Do they offer different time-lines? Can you get deliverables cheaper from Company A for a 12-18 hr turn-around, as opposed to only one option of 8 hours from Company B? (Sometimes there’s no hurry, why spend more?)

Also, be wary of someone who does not list their prices at all, or who wants you to request a quote. As designers, we must quote projects based on the given parameters, but a coding service? Design slicing is an assistive service specializing in expedited code! Providers don’t have to give any thought to UI, dance around client demands, or build out content. They don’t need to worry about client branding, site goals or file structures. All they must do is follow an approved concept, along with your notes. Asking designers to request a quote negates the point of the service in my opinion, especially if you need it yesterday.

Where to look

Because this guide is intended to help you evaluate a coding service, it would not be complete without a list for you to review on your own. I looked through 15-20 sites, and those that stood out were psd2html, psdSlicing, and htmlBlender. All three have their prices clearly posted, a privacy policy in effect, and readily available ways to reach them if you have questions. In terms of options, psd2html was the most impressive, but htmlBlender offered the lowest (starting) rate. Some more services of note:

• Choppr – offers WP, Drupal & Zen Cart integration
• Frontenders – options include WP & Drupal integration
  
• HTML Slice – offers OS Commerce integration
• Markup4U – some additional options
• PSD to XHTML – no ordering options, flat rate
• SliceIt – ports to WP, MT, EE and more
• SliceMyDesign – options include WP integration
  
• Slice n Dice – no ordering options, flat rate
• XHTMLit – additional pages 50% off
  
• XHTML Slicer – integration with EE, Textpattern & WP

Update: Just discovered another service called CSS Rockstars. Haven’t tried them or heard much about them yet but they do have a nice looking site. 5/15/08

Understanding your rights, first of all, is essential to protecting them. Here are some terms you should get very cozy with, if you’re not already:

• Copyright – the right to copy, distribute, license, or utilize for profit a creative work. Creative works can include literature, music, or art (print and digital). Copyrighted works are protected for the life of the creator, and for an additional 50 years after death.
• Trademark – a label, name, symbol, distinctive mark or proprietary term used to distinguish oneself, company, or product from competitors.
• Intellectual Property – intangible property resulting from an original creative thought, such as a patent, trademark, or copyrighted material – ideas themselves cannot be copyrighted.
• Licensing – formal permission (usually with stipulations) to use, own, or do a specific thing
• Derivative Works – an alteration, mashup or modification of an original work, along with additions, which constitute a new, secondary work.
• Fair Use – this is very subjective, but basically it’s the terms under which a non-licensed citation of copyrighted material may be legally used, without paying royalties. (This is unique to the U.S.)
• Plagiarism – unauthorized use of language and/or thoughts of an author along with the misrepresentation of them as your original work.

Now that you’re armed with some basic info, the following resources can help you monitor, manage, and protect that content, theme or script which you worked so hard to create…

Monitoring Tools

Copyscape – a free content search service. Copyscape will scour the web for your copied (or quoted) content, based on the URL you enter. They also offer a premium service, a monitoring service, and some good solid information on plagiarism.

ArticleChecker.com – similar to Copyscape, this is a free plagiarism and dupe content checker. Enter your URL, upload a file, or copy/paste sample content into the text box and compare results from the top three SEs.

Google Alerts – is a fabulous tool used for a variety of reasons, and while you can’t use it to find duplicates of any lengthy content, it is useful for monitoring who’s talking about you, your site or your product.

Licensing Tools

Creative Commons – has gained a lot of popularity for authors, bloggers, themers and the like. There are several licensing options available. I chose CC for my own work simply because they present the things you need to know in terms you can understand without a law degree. Comprehensive legalese is only a click away, but unless you like to fall asleep on your keyboard, the basics are covered well enough.

GNU – has a long history, a variety of licenses to choose from, and about as much documentation as you can stomach in one day. Geared more toward software developers, GNU has reportedly been more aggressive than Creative Commons in enforcing licenses and managing violations. There are some concerns, however with the upcoming version 3 of the GPL and its incompatibility with version 2.

While there are notable differences between CC and GNU, with benefits and drawback for both, that’s beyond the scope of this article. To learn more, the WordPress Podcast has an in depth show on copyrights, GPL and Creative Commons that you may want to check out.

Additional Resources

• Got 5 minutes? Tubetorial has a short and sweet video tutorial about Copyright as it applies to bloggers.
• Did you know you may be responsible for user comments (even though you don’t own them) just as with your own content? If you’re so inclined, ProBlogger has a good comment policy implemented, which may give you some ideas for one of your own.
• Aviva Directory has some excellent coverage of blogger law, and advice on how to keep yourself out of hot water too.
• If someone is foolish enough to plagiarize (or steal outright) your content, Lorelle on WordPress has probably the most comprehensive article I’ve seen on what to do about it.
• Last but not least, the U.S. Copyright Office and U.S. Patent & Trademark Office are vast resources, offering a ton of info about copyright, how and why to register, licensing and policy, as well as trademark and patent search and tracking tools. Whew. Good luck with that. ;)