Advice Needed Regarding WordPress Programmer, Plug-In Developer

I need to hire a Wordpress Developer and WP Plug-In Developer (preferably the same individual or company). I don’t know whether to outsource, do contract labor or hire a programmer/developer full-time, in-house.

I also don’t know what a fair price is for the services I require. Can someone please help me with the following questions?

I am trying to develop a site, but the functionality the site needs exceeds my skill-set.

I need to hire a programmer to develop custom plug-ins and ensure proper functionality for the site. The site is about average complexity in terms of functionality relative to most established mutli-user sites/communities.

Should I:

• • Outsource, hire contract labor or a hire full-time programmer?
  • How much should I pay for each full time and outsource/contract? (Site will be fairly elaborate but about average for sites of it’s nature.)

Does WordPress being open source cause any problems with security? I’m comfortable with the platform, but is it worth it to just trust someone else to develop a site using a platform I’m not familiar with and unable to work within?

I will publish all relevant comments so go ahead and put your link in the URL section.

I’ve developed a lot of sites but haven’t coded from scratch since 2005 (Dreamweaver days before CMS took off). I have adequate knowledge of HTML, but not great. I’ve developed hundreds of sites, but nearly all using WordPress, Weebly or some similar platform that makes it easy for people like me to make a good looking website without the development skills I would presume most on this forum possess.

For what it’s worth, I tried posting this to the WordPress development forum, where the admin shut it down on grounds that it belonged in the “Jobs” section. “Jobs” wouldn’t publish it because it’s not a job listing.

Hopefully Reddit can come through and provide me with some objective insights from people with nothing at stake to help me make a decision about what type of help I need and how much money I should set aside for those services.

“Brute Squad” is right… As you can see, Jan was none too eager to allow anyone to potentially help me, even though (at least IMHO) she’s dead wrong about this. I know Reddit can be pretty brutal at times too, but I’ve endured plenty of other people’s superiority complex today so please go easy on me and if you can help answer my questions take the two minutes it takes to do so.

** In addition to comments, I’ll publish a followed link in this post to the site/URL of choice for whomever provides the most helpful answer. **