Looking for expert to customize site in a tutor role

I'm fairly new to programming but am learning it. I've got a lot of zencart material so am learning how to customize the site however some things are out of my league and I need help. I'm looking for an expert to tutor/teach me how to do certain customizations I want preferably over teamviewer while using skype.

Is there anyone here willing to work with me in that type of arrangement. We could try a few hours and if it goes smoothly we could continue the working relationship.

thanks

crexis:

I'm fairly new to programming but am learning it. I've got a lot of zencart material so am learning how to customize the site however some things are out of my league and I need help. I'm looking for an expert to tutor/teach me how to do certain customizations I want preferably over teamviewer while using skype.

Is there anyone here willing to work with me in that type of arrangement. We could try a few hours and if it goes smoothly we could continue the working relationship.

thanks

I estimate that most competent developers charge upwards of $80p/hr. Can you sustain that cost in your new venture or would it be better learning slowly for free or simply paying a pro to crack on and get it done sooner than later.

crexis:

So am learning how to customize the site however some things are out of my league and I need help. I'm looking for an expert to tutor/teach me how to do certain customizations.
<snip>
Is there anyone here willing to work with me in that type of arrangement. We could try a few hours and if it goes smoothly we could continue the working relationship.

I realise that you are trying to seek ongoing help rather than advice, but I'll let you in on a dirty little secret. The expert you want doesn't exist in one person, and anyone that tells you otherwise doesn't have your best interests at heart. The things they don't know will be things they'll end up learning at your expense (but they won't tell you that).

The fact is, Zencart (like any other worthy eCommerce system) consists of lots of different pieces of code created by many different people, each with thier own strengths and weaknesses.. About the only persons that would even come close to being an 'expert' in all things Zen would be the dev team members, and if you follow these forums for long enough you'll soon see that even they have their own areas of expertise and leave certain questions for other team members (or forum participants) because being an expert at everything zen (and keeping the knowledge up to date) just isn't practical or possible... And if such an expert did exist, I'm sure they'll be able to demand a lot more $$$ than you'd be willing to pay.

So, what do I advise? Use the forum!

Seriously, you aren't going to want or need to know 'everything at once', so why not post your questions, ask for clarifications or suggestions here in these forums, on a 'need to know' basis. I can pretty much guarantee that if you show that you are willing to learn something about ZenCart there will always be at least one expert skilled in that particular area that will be more than happy to help out, free of any charges or obligations.

The side benefit of utilising the forums for support is that it is almost assured that if someone provides and answer of information that will be helpful to you, there will almost certainly be many others that will receive the same benefits as a result. In contrast, if you pay for a private expert for advice, you and the expert will be the only ones to benefit (assuming the expert gives good advice). Such a waste of HR.

And finally, since not all experts are what they claim to be, it is generally only a matter of time before they get out of their depth and start offering wrong or misleading advice and you'll not see it coming. OTOH, it is very rare for wrong/misleading advice to be posted in the forum without an even more experienced expert coming along to make amends (often leading to minor disputes over technicalities). Although far from ideal, such disputes exist because of doubts and/or misunderstandings that become quite apparent in the forum, but are easily 'hidden' by a so called expert in a private consult.

Cheers
Rod

RodG:

I realise that you are trying to seek ongoing help rather than advice, but I'll let you in on a dirty little secret. The expert you want doesn't exist in one person, and anyone that tells you otherwise doesn't have your best interests at heart. The things they don't know will be things they'll end up learning at your expense (but they won't tell you that).

The fact is, Zencart (like any other worthy eCommerce system) consists of lots of different pieces of code created by many different people, each with thier own strengths and weaknesses.. About the only persons that would even come close to being an 'expert' in all things Zen would be the dev team members, and if you follow these forums for long enough you'll soon see that even they have their own areas of expertise and leave certain questions for other team members (or forum participants) because being an expert at everything zen (and keeping the knowledge up to date) just isn't practical or possible... And if such an expert did exist, I'm sure they'll be able to demand a lot more $$$ than you'd be willing to pay.

So, what do I advise? Use the forum!

Seriously, you aren't going to want or need to know 'everything at once', so why not post your questions, ask for clarifications or suggestions here in these forums, on a 'need to know' basis. I can pretty much guarantee that if you show that you are willing to learn something about ZenCart there will always be at least one expert skilled in that particular area that will be more than happy to help out, free of any charges or obligations.

The side benefit of utilising the forums for support is that it is almost assured that if someone provides and answer of information that will be helpful to you, there will almost certainly be many others that will receive the same benefits as a result. In contrast, if you pay for a private expert for advice, you and the expert will be the only ones to benefit (assuming the expert gives good advice). Such a waste of HR.

And finally, since not all experts are what they claim to be, it is generally only a matter of time before they get out of their depth and start offering wrong or misleading advice and you'll not see it coming. OTOH, it is very rare for wrong/misleading advice to be posted in the forum without an even more experienced expert coming along to make amends (often leading to minor disputes over technicalities). Although far from ideal, such disputes exist because of doubts and/or misunderstandings that become quite apparent in the forum, but are easily 'hidden' by a so called expert in a private consult.

Cheers
Rod

I think that was the most honest answer I have seen on these forums in a long time.

GREAT advice Rod :bigups:

rbarbour:

I think that was the most honest answer I have seen on these forums in a long time.

GREAT advice Rod :bigups:

+1 from me also

And there is this: http://www.zen-cart.com/content.php?22-book

Thanks for the informative post. I am using the zen cart forums and I bought a couple zencart books along with the ten ton video tutorials. Most of the site I'm going to do myself but just sparingly for certain issues I wanted to use someone for issues which couldn't get resolved in the forums.

crexis:

Thanks for the informative post. I am using the zen cart forums and I bought a couple zencart books along with the ten ton video tutorials. Most of the site I'm going to do myself but just sparingly for certain issues I wanted to use someone for issues which couldn't get resolved in the forums.

Unless there is some very complex coding involved you should get the help you need from all of us. As Rod said, some know a lot of something, someone else knows a lot of something else. Neither of us are experts about everything (the devs excepted... and they have their specialists as well).

So, don't hesitate to ask questions - as long as they are conforming with the forum rules, you can get a lot of help here.

When I first started in 2007, I knew Jack S:censored:, it was only after a while that I became more comfortable in giving advice to others.

And don't forget: The learning is in the doing.

Good Luck with your store!

Cheers / Frank