At the risk of sounding like I'm just defending my own business model, I'd like to counter a couple things in Colin Wright's comment:

First, you want to be careful not to conflate "developer" and "designer". The two are very different disciplines.

Second, and most importantly: It's true that hiring a high school or college student will save you a lot of money but if you expect that person to "know about as much as any freelancer" you're in for a big surprise. While it's definitely possible to get quality work done this way, the more likely outcome is that you'll find someone without any substantial experience and their code quality and professionalism (including things like timely communication and adherence to specs and deadlines) will reflect this.

Now that's not to say you should never hire students -- not at all -- but just be aware that you're probably not going to get the same level of results as you would working with a professional. Sometimes cost is the deciding factor and you're willing to make that trade-off, and that's fine, but other times you don't want to risk the problems that may arise. In the latter case, you really want to look at all the factors before making a decision based on the price tag alone.

(And yes, I'm quite aware that there are fantastic, cheap, professional student developers out there but experience tells me the odds are against your landing one.)

I agree with Kenn's comments, not only from the client-side concerns of aptitude and professionalism but also on the level of exploitation that I see when someone sets out looking for cheap design/development work. To assert that students "know about as much as any freelancer" is...wow, a really damaging position, just like hiring students that work cheap because they want experience/exposure. Thinking like that hurts us all and cheapens what we do. Not because students are lowly and incapable, but because as highly as we all might think of our capabilities in school, we definately don't know it all, nor possess the worldly experience that comes with years in jobs or working with clients.

To answer the question, I say the way to find good help is through people you know. Ask questions. Everyone has worked with or knows someone in this field at some point. That's how all my clients find me. I don't advertise. Happy clients with solid results make for the best advertising. And a lot of times, if you are working with a tight budget and you are open and honest, designers/developers will work with you to find a solution. I know I have.

Hey Tiani,

The value you receive from any developer (and especially from an overseas developer) will depend largely on you and your process. Using sites like Ross suggested (Elance oDesk, etc.) will plug you into an international world of competitive rates, where people are able to work for a fraction of what someone might charge where you are.

You might end up paying considerably less for your resources, but whether you'll get more value out of the people you hire is another question. One of the most important factors in outsourcing software development is to make sure your requirements are well defined before you start. Changing requirements or defining them as you go along will quickly eat up any cost savings you get from outsourcing.

If you're not completely sure about your requirements, you would be better off hiring someone who has really great communication and product development skills. That won't likely be the case with the lowest bidder on the big marketplace sites. Definitely get referrals before choosing someone to work with in any case.

I haven't used any of these but have come across them in my online travels. Maybe someone else can attest to their usefulness.

http://www.elance.com/ - anything http://www.guru.com/ - anything http://haystack.com/ - designers

Another idea is to find a local college, community college or even high school and post something on their bulletin board (digital or real life) about needing a web designer.

This achieves two ends: 1) you're able to pay quite a bit less because the person you're hiring is inexperienced, but they will still know about as much as any freelancer and 2) they will get loads of experience working on a professional project, and any money they make will be fine because they probably still live at home or in a dormitory anyway.

It was the projects I took while in college that really pushed me forward professionally and jump-started my career, and it would be great to be able to do the same for someone else :)

Psst... Take a look at the bottom of the sidebar over there →

:)

Seriously though, value is something you want to think about before you hire anyone. You can certainly get good prices from sites like Elance and the like, but your results will often be hit-or-miss. A better approach is to ask friends or colleagues who they've worked with, as that will get you important information you won't find in a classified ad, such as how well they communicate, their attention to detail, and so on.