I have a real problem with the word "Expert" on the web.

[Harold Mansfield]

It seems more and more I see people looking for "experts" in the world of websites (WordPress specifically) and social networking.

I have a real problem with this. There aren't too many people that I would consider experts on the web. It changes too fast and there is something new every 5 minutes. Seriously. Every 5 minutes.

I kind of feel when potential clients say "I'm looking for an expert" that they are trying to corner you into being all knowing, all seeing, for whatever pops into their head as long as it's on the web, or a computer.

I've had more than one person in the past start questioning my level of knowledge when they get off target and start talking about stuff like Mastering Adwords, and generating huge amounts of traffic. "Well, I thought you were the expert". Well, I don't do those things. And I don't advertise that I do. It's a different thing all together. But people think it's all one thing. So I can't commit to how they are missusing the word.

I had 2 people this week ask me, "Are you an expert? I'm looking for an expert.". And I told them "No. There is only a hand full of true experts in [Insert web thing here] , and they built the thing.

Do I know a lot? Sure.
Do I know everything there is to know about the Internet, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, Google+, Linked In, SEO, SEM, CTR, Servers, MySQL, Graphic Design, HTML, HTML5, PHP, Flash, Animation, Photography, WordPress, BuddyPress ( and Every Single Plug In ever made for them), Web Design, Network Security, Mac Mail, Marketing and whatever new thing they just read about yesterday? Of course not. Who does?

Am I too sensitive, or are they being unrealistic in their expectations?

[vangogh]

I think it's just a word people use. If they ask if you're an expert about something you do know, I think it's fine answering the question yes. When they ask if you're an expert about something you don't claim to do then of course say no. It's just a word though. If you really don't like it and don't want to be associated with it you can always answer the question, by saying something like you have a lot of experience dealing with WordPress (or whatever the question is about). The person on the other end just wants to know that you know what you're doing.

As long as you're honest about what you do and don't know there shouldn't be any problem. People use the word expert. I wouldn't get hung up on the word.

[DeniseTaylor]

The Internet is very diverse--and complex. Those who don't understand it tend to have fixed ideas about how they think it works.

All you can do is keep track of the type of issues you're running across and if you don't want to offer those services, perhaps you can develop a relationship with someone who can. Then recommend them to your customers with a possible referral fee.

Of course, you'd want to find people you can trust and who might also reciprocate.

Then explain to your customers that the Internet is vast and specialists are common and necessary, etc.

[Harold Mansfield]

The problem really isn't with my identity and the services that I clearly offer. It's more about people having a little bit on knowledge and trying to back you into a corner on things that they really don't get.
This may be more venting, than an actual problem. But I find when I turn the tables and ask them "What are you looking for an expert in. What do you need done?" Then they start to realize that they may need the expertise of more than one person, because everything is not all one thing.

And of course, the "Expert" people, are usually the ones with the novice budget.

[KristineS]

I think "expert" is just the buzzword of the moment. I'm seeing that word used a lot in social media right now, and a lot of the so called "experts" are giving advice I think is useless, so I have an aversion to this word as well. I think it's just a fad word though. If it bothers you, as it does me, I think the easiest thing to do is detail what you know and what you don't know and move on. I'm guessing the word will die off after a while and some new buzzword will take its place.

[Media Ad Buying]

They are most definitely being too unrealistic. I think what's happened is that a lot of people in digital and social media have hired people and have been unhappy with them for one reason or another. What they need to realize is that most traditional media people are not digital savvy and social media people may not be digital savvy. In digital and social media you have two options: You can hire one of the few agencies that actually can handle everything as a one stop shop like McCann Worldwide. Your budget would have to be very large for an agency such as McCann to take you on. If you're not big enough then you only have option 2. Option 2 is to hire specialists in the area you're interested in. It's unrealistic to think a specialist would have knowledge as large as a big agency. The other thing they should be aware of is that if you hire a mega agency you will pay for all the knowledge inside that agency.

[vangogh]

It's more about people having a little bit on knowledge and trying to back you into a corner on things that they really don't get.

That happens. I get people contacting me like that too. I consider it a sign they probably aren't going to work out well as a client. It's like the person who leads with "this shouldn't take you more than a half hour" or "this will be really easy." I want to reply that if it's so easy and will take so little time why do they need my help.


if you hire a mega agency you will pay for all the knowledge inside that agency

That's true, though it's also true for smaller firms and freelancers. The knowledge may not be as varied since there are less people to hold it, but it takes considerable time and effort to learn the specialties and you should still expect to pay for that value.

[Harold Mansfield]

Ha! I'm on a couple of freelance boards, and get notices when new jobs are posted. I may actually go for 1/20th of anything posted. And it's because so many of them start out just like that:
"I just need something simple", and "Shouldn't take more than an hour". Or people that have a long list of theme and plug in hacks, and set a definite budget of something like $150. Total. Those are the ones that always title their job listing, "Looking for a WordPress expert".

And arrogant about it. Using statements like ,"Don't even respond if you aren't an expert". Seriously? For $150 for what is probably 10 hours work?

It's amazing what people think they can control and get done for very little money. Consequently, the ONLY people that ever answer any of those type of listings, are from India. Almost always.

[vangogh]

I've see those ads. Craig's List is filled with similar ones. They require 5 years of experience in about a dozen skills, some of which haven't even existed for more than a year. To learn all of what they want you'd have to spend about 30 years of time mastering them all. At the end they list the pay and it's usually on the scale of minimum wage.

On the freelancer boards you're competing with people from 3rd world countries who consider $150 a lot of money and fair for 10 hours of work. That's the real issue. It's not always that the poster is unrealistic, but that there are people around the world who are happy to work for the money being offered.

[Harold Mansfield]

I just wonder what the success rate is. I'm sure there are some capable, probably brilliant developers and coders on those boards from India and other places, it's just that when ever I check some of these people out online, or thier profiles or even if they have a website, they always look like amatuers. And then I've seen a few Indian web design and SEO companies that look like they know what they are doing, and they don't work that cheap. They charge normal rates in GBP's or USD's.

It just makes me wonder.

[vangogh]

they always look like amatuers.

Many probably are. The freelancer boards are often for people looking for cheap sources of labor and the labor that will work for that low cost. I gave up looking at freelance job boards shortly after I started in business. It's a different market. I figure the people posting jobs aren't my clients and the people responding with bids aren't competing in the same way I am.

[Harold Mansfield]

I too swore them off a long time ago. But every now and then I'll get one, and the person just didn't know any other way to look for people.
I'll almost always answer people in the U.S., with a decent budget. But I'll read 20 job listings a day to get 1 or 2 of those a week.

I don't do boards that act as a 3rd party for the payments. Escrow and all that jazz. I've learned a lesson on that a long time ago.
Escrow can take a long time, and the person can hold up your final payment for days while they see what else they can squeeze out of you above and beyond what they asked and paid for. And the appeals process, should you decide to call them on it, holds up the money even longer and even void the deal, with your work already done and gone.

I don't recommend it to anyone doing services. Maybe selling high priced domains and other definitive products. But definitely NOT services.

[vangogh]

I'll read 20 job listings a day to get 1 or 2 of those a week.

If the 1-2 jobs are worth taking then I don't think reading 20 listings should keep you from reading 20 more next week. It depends on the jobs, of course, and how much time it takes reading the 20 listings to get them.

I stopped after reading a few and thinking how much I would need to charge and then looking at bids that were 10% of what I'd have to bid. It seemed obvious I wouldn't get the jobs and so I moved on to other marketing channels.

[billbenson]

You know, what's an expert marksman? The guy at the gun club that hits the most clay birds. Or would it be one of our boys at war who is still alive because of his abilities under pressure. Both IMO. The environment is just radically different.

[vangogh]

It works the same way. The expert WordPress developer is the one who knows how to work with WordPress above some minimum standard. Where it might differ is that's not as singular as pointing a gun a clay birds. Someone could be an expert WP theme developer and yet not be an expert in plugin development. Someone else could be an expert in WP security and yet another person could be an expert in making WP more usable. The experts at the top of the chain will be experts in multiple WP specialties, perhaps all of them.

The problem with a word like expert is by itself it doesn't suggest what discipline your an expert at and also what level of expertise you have.

[lucas.bowser]

I just wonder what the success rate is. I'm sure there are some capable, probably brilliant developers and coders on those boards from India and other places, it's just that when ever I check some of these people out online, or thier profiles or even if they have a website, they always look like amatuers.
Speaking as someone who's outsourced code to one of these sites in the past, they can work just fine, but you need to be very specific about what you want them to do. They do not work in generalities. You will write all of the function interfaces, database design and meta code, and they will build an test it accordingly. The coders on these "job boards" are not necessarily amateurs, but their not engineers or designers either. Many times, they are the programming equivalent of a burger flipper.


And then I've seen a few Indian web design and SEO companies that look like they know what they are doing, and they don't work that cheap. They charge normal rates in GBP's or USD's.
Yep. You'll find the same thing in most countries now. No matter where you are in the world, you pay for the best of the best because there is a shortage of those skills in that country as well. In India there is a huge disparity between the middle class and the poor. So much so, that in comparison the middle class often look like they are super wealthy. The company I work for built an engineering shop in China a few years back because there was a large labor disparity between there and the US. Now, local sourcing of engineering is starting to close the gap with US wages. We're seeing similar trends in skilled labor wages for India as well. The higher up the food chain you move, the less of a disparity there is.

[Business Attorney]

I think the word expert is overused but you have to consider who is using it and in what context. I would not normally use the term because it is very subjective, but I think that there is a big difference between me asking for an expert in PHP and someone asking for an expert in building websites. Similarly, I see a difference in asking whether someone is an expert in designing and installing WordPress multiuser websites versus asking whether they are an expert in building websites. In both instances, what the client is really asking is whether someone has particular knowledge and experience in an area or is it merely something that they are willing to tackle, learning along the way.

[vangogh]

Now, local sourcing of engineering is starting to close the gap with US wages. We're seeing similar trends in skilled labor wages for India as well. The higher up the food chain you move, the less of a disparity there is.

Yep. Much of what Harold is seeing on job boards is bidding by freelancers/companies that haven't closed the gap. In some cases they have just as much expertise, but they live in an area where a lot less money is still a lot more money to them. As most jobs go to places like these, the gap will continue to close and it will become more economical to hire elsewhere.


what the client is really asking is whether someone has particular knowledge and experience in an area or is it merely something that they are willing to tackle, learning along the way.

Exactly. That's why I wouldn't focus on the word expert. It's just a word. The client mainly wants to know if you're qualified to do the job they want done. If you can get the job done then say you're an expert and if you can't say you're not an expert. I wouldn't worry about defining what an expert is or isn't. It is a subjective word after all.

[billbenson]

My sister has a masters degree in Opera. When Whitney Houston died, I asked my sister what she thought of Whitney's voice. While I, as a lay person, thought Whitney had a beautiful voice, my sister described her voice in terms of vocal range etc. As it turns out, my sister (an expert) thought that Whitney had an unusual skill set. But I think that yes, there are experts in different fields that you should defer to.

[KristineS]

I agree Bill that there are experts in certain fields and their opinion or skill set should carry extra weight. The problem with the word "expert" occurs when people are claiming expertise in things that either haven't been around enough yet for anyone to be able to claim expertise (except perhaps the developers) or make the claim with no facts to back it up.

In your sister's case, she has clearly studied and put in her time to become an expert in her field. That does merit some respect and consideration . In other cases, however, that situation is not the same.

[Harold Mansfield]

I agree Bill that there are experts in certain fields and their opinion or skill set should carry extra weight. The problem with the word "expert" occurs when people are claiming expertise in things that either haven't been around enough yet for anyone to be able to claim expertise (except perhaps the developers) or make the claim with no facts to back it up.


That's exactly it! When I hear people profess to be experts in something like Social Media, (by the way, it's really "Social Networking". You Tube is "Social Media". I hate that the terms have been clouded.) I cringe. How can they be? The book is still being written and the facts are changing daily. Even large brands with teams of people are still figuring it out.

To me, the only people that I would consider "experts" at WordPress are the people that built it, and maybe the team at WPMUDEV. And it really costs to hire them. Most people that call me don't have anywhere close to that kind of budget.

Other than that, there's basically just a lot ( probably not a lot) of people that are really good at it. And some are better in certain areas, than others.

I have done troubleshooting work for WordPress service providers who have called be because they couldn't find out what was wrong with one of their client's sites. Does it make them bad at what they do? Of course not. It's just that everyone doesn't do every possible thing well.

Just to finish that other thought. 5 years ago:
Facebook, Twitter and so on were "Social Networking"
Digg, Reddit, Fark and so on were "Social Bookmarking"
You Tube, Vimeo, Last FM and so on were "Social Media"

Now everyone just calls everything "Social Media".

[merlot105]

I think you are correct in the sense that few of us truly know everything about the web and everything about where it might be heading in the near-term future. Nevertheless, I think if you want to be successful at what you do, you must find out a wayhow to market yourself accordingly. Using the word "expert" is a word some people choose to use when marketing themselves. And in the end, are they to blame for this? If they market themselves as "experts" and fall considerably short of that self-served moniker, then the customers/market will react accordingly - stop using his/her service.

[Harold Mansfield]

I don't have a problem with the word "Specialist" or "Specializing". I think that is more appropriate when speaking of web services.
I also take a clue from Attorney advertising. At the bottom they all say something to the effect ( or affect) of "No lawyer is an expert. We merely specialize..blah, blah, blah..."

[vangogh]

To me, the only people that I would consider "experts" at WordPress are the people that built it, and maybe the team at WPMUDEV.

I think you might defining expert too tightly. You don't have to have built WordPress to be an expert developing for it. Expert is just a word. People have different levels of expertise on a given subject or working with certain software. I don't think there's an exact demarcation between expert and non-expert. Somewhere along the way people gain enough expertise with something that they or others consider them experts. It's just a word though.

As an aside I can think of dozens of people off the top of my head who didn't build WordPress and have more expertise with WordPress than the people at WPMUDEV.

[Business Attorney]

Just to finish that other thought. 5 years ago:
Facebook, Twitter and so on were "Social Networking"
Digg, Reddit, Fark and so on were "Social Bookmarking"
You Tube, Vimeo, Last FM and so on were "Social Media"

Now everyone just calls everything "Social Media".

I think part of the reason the terms have been combined is that many of the sites themselves have begun to overlap features. Social bookmarking sites have added networking; Facebook and to some extent Twitter have added or increased the media components and Facebook has incorporated bookmarking (which, as an aside, really bugs me and quickly gets friends blocked). A large percentage of the tweets I receive are now essentially bookmarks (tweets of articles) rather than personal interaction. If the sites don't stay in their boxes, the name you tag on them becomes less meaningful.

[Harold Mansfield]

As an aside I can think of dozens of people off the top of my head who didn't build WordPress and have more expertise with WordPress than the people at WPMUDEV.

Dozens? I can think of many great theme developers, and many good plug in developers, but not many over all experts on every aspect of how the WordPress functions as a stand alone software.

[billbenson]

I think you can compare what you are referring to with many doctors. Science is always changing and the have a job that requires constant research to be current. A lawyer would be the same. I think someone who knows a subject well and tries to stay up to date as much as possible can be safely called an expert in his field. To me the word doesn't imply knowing everything about the subject.

I'll give you another example. Some people think that getting a black belt in karate makes them an expert. Some black belts just keep practicing the same stuff they learned to get the black belt. To me they aren't experts. Others continue to learn for the rest of their lives. There is enough to learn to occupy several lifetimes. The people that keep learning are the experts IMO. I think that applies to most of the subjects mentioned here.

[vangogh]

@Harold - You think of the people at WPMUDEV as experts, because you're more familiar with them than you are with others who work with WordPress. It shows the subjectivity of a word like expert. Your opinion is based in part on your familiarity. WPMUDEV clearly have expertise with WordPress, but to say they're experts in every aspect of WordPress isn't something you can't really tell.

We can only consider the expertise of someone else in relation to our own expertise. For example pick a topic you know nothing about and anyone who talks about that topic in a reasonably intelligent way is going to appear to be an expert. Learn something about that topic and you start to see where the "expert" is lacking.

I'm not suggesting that WPMUDEV doesn't have expertise with WordPress, however you have to consider that your view of their expertise has a lot to do with your own expertise with WP and your familiarity with them as a company. There are plenty of other people and companies who have as much if not more expertise than the people at WPMUDEV and many people and companies who's expertise is far enough above some baseline that they can be called WordPress experts.