When a friend asks you if you know someone who can do a very skilled task do you:-
- recommend the guy you met in the pub last night
- recommend your best mate
- recommend somebody you have heard of from twitter or Facebook
- recommend somebody who you have personally used to do that very skilled task.
If you answered anything other than number 4 or you took the 5th amendment and refused to recommend anybody then you're not a friend to your friend.
But what makes someone an expert anyway? Are you an expert because you say you are. Or are you an expert because you have shown others that you can achieve what you claim to achieve.
Sadly in the world of the Internet where publicity is free and anyone can claim to be who they want to be the world is full of so-called experts who really are nothing more than someone who has read more than you have.
You might say that that extra knowledge is good enough for you. Sometimes you might be right. But when it comes to real expert tasks you need to use the services of someone that you have first hand experience of. If you have never needed the services of an expert in that field by all means ask a friend, but make sure that that friend has used the “experts" services themselves.
Too often recently I have been called upon to work on a web site that an “expert" has created or to fix a web site that an “expert" has allegedly already fixed.
If you are lucky enough to be a contestant on "Who wants to be a millionaire" you wouldn't dream of relying on someone for their knowledge if you weren't confident about them. Don't put your website in the hands of a charlatan. Make sure that you only work with people who have been personally recommended to you by people who have already use their services.
