How does one go about bringing a commercial web app concept to life if they're not proficient enough of a coder yet to develop it themselves?

Do you approach a programmer, have them sign a non-disclosure form, then present your requirements and have them develop it for you once you've agreed on price?

Also, how do you go about getting a ballpark figure on how much your web app idea would cost to develop without giving away your idea?

Get them to sign the non-disclosure first? before you say what the idea is?

Also, have you copyrighted / attempted to patent your idea?

Originally Posted by Frank Drebin

How does one go about bringing a commercial web app concept to life if they're not proficient enough of a coder yet to develop it themselves?

Do you approach a programmer, have them sign a non-disclosure form, then present your requirements and have them develop it for you once you've agreed on price?

That sound right to me.

Also, how do you go about getting a ballpark figure on how much your web app idea would cost to develop without giving away your idea?

If you know roughly what you web app will do, then you should have an idea, how many pages, database fields, forms and other user interaction there would be, which should give the developer an idea of the cost, without any knowledge or your idea.

Maybe break down your idea to smaller projects that together could build the whole app, but on their own mean nothing to anyone.

Then ask about how to do such bits.

Finding out how much effort / time is involved in the "bits" should give you a rough idea on time and value.

Heck, pm me and ill tell you how much effort it will be.
I honestly dont have the time to steal any ideas people have and get tired of people with their "ideas" so the chances are ive heard your idea before

Originally Posted by lynxus

Also, have you copyrighted / attempted to patent your idea?

No I haven't because the web app I would like to create utilizes functions that already exist in many other sites, it's just the purpose I would be using for is different. Now, to the extent of my knowledge, I cannot patent/copyright that can I? It would be like google patenting search engines. Like with google and search engines, my site would be doing something that's being done by other sites/companies already so it's not an original concept. It's just for what it will be utilized that will be a semi-original concept

Originally Posted by lynxus

Maybe break down your idea to smaller projects that together could build the whole app, but on their own mean nothing to anyone.

Then ask about how to do such bits.

Finding out how much effort / time is involved in the "bits" should give you a rough idea on time and value.

Heck, pm me and ill tell you how much effort it will be.
I honestly dont have the time to steal any ideas people have and get tired of people with their "ideas" so the chances are ive heard your idea before

haha, ok thanks, that's actually a good idea you provided about breaking it down to "bits", getting an idea on how much each bit will cost and then calculating the overall cost by adding the cost of each individual bit.

I will PM you soon.

Originally Posted by Frank Drebin

haha, ok thanks, that's actually a good idea you provided about breaking it down to "bits", getting an idea on how much each bit will cost and then calculating the overall cost by adding the cost of each individual bit.

I will PM you soon.

Yeah,
You will find that in the programming world making things / tasks very modular is quite the norm.

You can have several people working on one project but not one of them knows what the "whole" application would be.

While an NDA can be good, you may find that many programmers won't touch one unless it looks like you're a legitimate corporation with lots of resources behind you. Smaller companies or individuals will have a much harder time finding quality programmers when using a NDA. You may be better off just making sure that you own the intellectual property rights of whatever is developed. Either way, don't expect to get anything quality or of significant size developed without having an adequate budget. Depending on the web app, you should easily be looking at $10k+ and potentially $100k+.

Originally Posted by Frank Drebin

It would be like google patenting search engines.

Or Facebook patenting social networking newsfeeds. Which they have done. Google also owns several patents related to search technology. I think it's all ridiculous personally.

If you know roughly what you web app will do, then you should have an idea, how many pages, database fields, forms and other user interaction there would be, which should give the developer an idea of the cost, without any knowledge or your idea.

yes,i agree with it!