Adding Community Features To Older Site

[DomainOgre]

I have a website that has been operating for 5 years, but is showing its age now. The site's interactive features have done well for the site over the years but are rather "barebones". One of the biggest features needed are for User Profiles since there really isnt any right now.

How would I go about doing this? Rebuilding the site with Joomla or Drupal is not really an option due to all the current members, data, and links. At least I don't think it is possible. Somebody could prove me wrong .

So would I need to use a site like Elance or even here and state my budget or do I need to get a quote somehow first? I have no idea what it would cost. Any help or advice would be appreciated.

 

[-NC-]

My day job is a web developer. In my opinion, the first thing you should do is write down in as much detail as possible what you want the site/modifications to do. Write it like a story. E.g. User1 visits the site, clicks on button x. Sees page y which displays data a, b and c.

The reason for this is that the more detailed the specification you create, then the more accurate the quotes you receive will be.

If you ask for quotes based on a very thin spec, then the chances of receiving inaccurate ( what we call "dartboard quotes" ) is greatly increased.

 

[DomainOgre]

Thanks, I will do that.

Once I get the details all layed out, where are good places to go for quotes?

 

[-NC-]

I've never commissioned any work myself, and I don't do freelance work, so I can't really give you any recommendations on that front.

some places to get freelance programming done:
http://www.namepros.com/web-development-wanted/
http://www.elance.com/
http://www.scriptlance.com/
http://www.rentacoder.com/
http://www.getafreelancer.com/