If you are looking for a fully functional e-commerce site for
under $200, then take a look at Rent a
Coder. No matter how large and complex the project is, you can
find an eager coder willing to design everything from J2ME games to
J2EE websites, usually for under $100.
I'm guessing that most of the jobs available are actually homework
assignments for lazy students. Most of them read like that, but
there's a difference between developing a real email server and client
(oh, you need to be able to support multimedia content on the client)
for $100 and doing a class project of the same nature.
I know that's not much money. If you need a little more, how
about creating a multiplayer 3d combat game. (max bid is $240) Don't
forget the level editor.
I honestly don't know whether I should be more worried that people
are posting jobs like this with ridiculously low maximum bids, or that
there might actually be programmers out there responding to these
offers. Either way, I'd recommend steering clear of this site for
now. It's clear that few of the buyers or sellers sellers there have
any software development experience.