So a friend recommended me to somebody to work on a website that will in the future serve as an educational platform that provide training programs through videos and exercises with progress for each user.
Now, I am a good problem solver, but I am a complete noob in regards to architecture and building a professional scalable production app that will serve potentially hundreds of users. This is also my first job, and on top of that this is my first time working with wordpress. I only know html, css, js, node, react, sql basics, the basics of how a full website works, basics of dsa. Don't have much information for how to do proper authentication and all the advanced frontend techniques (lazy loading, etc). I wouldn't consider myself a good junior even. I can search things up and I did some changes today to the website directly to the live server. I figured afterwards some changes that I should do version control. That just shows how much I am unready for this job.
I tried to convey that information to the client, but he kind of ignored it and said that he believes in me and it's okay if I get stuck on some part.
The thing is I am happy to take his money, but I don't want to screw him over. From what I can observe, he is oblivious to a lot of things that will probably make him regret his uninformed decisions.
There was no interview; he didn't even ask me for projects I did before. He wants me to work alone on that website, and he is saying that we might start another website. He doesn't have a budget nor a timeline, or at least that's what he told me.
From what I see, I can do some progress on the website, but I am not sure if that website will end up in the trash because it wasn't build up to be scalable. I might be able to mitigate some issues, but I will surely f* up something sooner or later. WHAT SHOULD I DO?
First of all, are you sure you are going to get paid and how much? Because based on my experience, there are some red flags there
After reading your post, I strongly recommend hiring an experienced developer to work alongside you on this project. Alternatively, if the timeline isn’t a concern, consider starting with simpler projects to build your knowledge before tackling this one. Feel free to dm me if you need any assistance.
This isn’t going to end well for your client – you really should pass on this job, it sounds like you have almost no experience (I’m sorry – just calling it as I see it).
WordPress does most of the heavy lifting for you. I recommend using the default block editor and not using a page builder. I like Generate Press for a theme because it’s well-coded, fast, and very well-supported. The premium version comes with templates, even for learning modules.
WordPress has several LMS (Learning Module System) plugins that you can use. Right now, I’m integrating Lifter LMS with SureCart.
I am recommending SureCart over WooCommerce because WooCommerce can slow a site significantly as all the assets are on your server; SureCart keeps the heavy assets in the Cloud. Lifter works well with SureCart, so people can sign up for lessons and buy something related to the lesson, like books, downloads, etc.
Just use the WP plugins LearnPress or LearnDash, everything you need is there. Lazy loading? There’s a plugin for that as well.
WP is easily scalable for thousands of using. Use WPEngine, Siteground, or any managed wp host. 👍
Only do jobs you’re 90%+ confident in. *Maybe* 80 or 70% when you’re staying out and bed money.
It’ll be months of stress if you don’t.
Pay him back the money and tell him “thanks for the trust in me, but unfortunately I’m not technically skilled enough to take on such a project at the moment. I don’t want to frustrate me and you for months and end up with a non working website” if you can, point him to someone else who can help them.
I was “hired” by some acquaintances for an educational platform to be built on top of WordPress a couple of years ago. No interviews or verification, etc. The pay wasn’t great but their initial requirement seemed okay and I was jobless so I took the offer.
Turns out they had no idea wtf they wanted. Their requirements changed by the week, timelines got stricter, and they were far too focused on the UI instead of the functionality. I have worked with WordPress for over a decade but I am not a software developer by any means, so the frequent changes drove me insane. I would write 100 lines of JavaScript over six excruciating hours and it would all be useless in a week. There was no ChatGPT back then so I was literally dying while writing code lol. I lasted three months before giving up, and the guys immediately abandoned the idea as they couldn’t find anyone else to take over.
My suggestion would be to take the job but get a clear idea of what they need from you, and train yourself on those topics. Make sure they have the budget not just for your salary but also for the plugins you may need. WordPress won’t be too hard as you’re acquainted with general web dev. It ships with things like authentication, user roles, custom content types, etc out of the box so that should take some load off your back.
Take the money and sub out parts of the job to another developer. Bid high. 👍
there are some [mature wordpress lms’s](https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/best-wordpress-lms-plugins-compared/). you won’t have to create one from scratch. there are also different community plugins (memberpress, buddypress/buddyboss, peepso, etc).
start reviewing them. playing with what you can, etc.
download local and start testing out different configurations so you familiarize yourself with how wordpress works. it’s a dead simple local development environment. https://localwp.com/
and, of course, familiarize yourself with wordpress’ developer docs: https://developer.wordpress.org/
Do you want the money? If so, lean in. Find a good Discord and ask a lot of questions. All the functionality your client could possibly want already exists in the form of plugins: his business is not unique.
For what it’s worth, the client might actually save money and get better value from using Kajabi or Teachable (et cetera). If my client were a small business, I would refuse to code an LMS and instead point him towards a DFY solution and tell him to focus on marketing and sales. You said that you’re being paid a junior rate. I’d view it as being paid to learn. There’s nothing wrong with that. You were up front with your relative lack of experience, and he said it didn’t matter. If hiring you proves to be a poor business decision, that’s kinda on him.
As for authentication goes WordPress backend is pretty much ready out of the box. The key issue here is performance and you will need to look for a good hosting provider. Video streaming especially high quality videos is going to require good performance.
I’m not a fan of these posts tbh.
The answer is, you shouldn’t be taking on work yet.
If you’re not ready to be charging to do this kind of work then what makes you think you can take this persons money. Nobody decides they want to be a construction builder and on day one starts taking on clients. So why do people think they can in web design?
They type of build you are talking about sounds like it will be dealing with a lot of user information and you should have a full understanding of how the website does that. I’m assuming there will be payment methods etc too, so again, this shouldn’t be completed by someone who is worried they can’t complete the work.
I would say go away and learn more before taking on clients. Don’t become another cowboy in the space. Good luck!
How old are you and how much are you charging?
I could help you. Hit me up. I’ll give you a couple of hours to get pointed in the right direction.
There isn’t ANYTHING I can’t do in WordPress in a couple of hours. Hit me up!
First of all you don’t really have to code anything, find plugins that do the job already and use them.
He has some red flags, probably he will not pay you soon.
If you are paid hourly and not for a finished product then you aren’t screwing him over, there’s no budget or scope or timeline, he knows you aren’t experienced so in a way it’s not your problem.
It does not sound like you have the experience to take this on.
But if you do, then you need to use plugins to achieve what you want. For example LearnDash. It does not sound like you can build your own functionality for it.
The problem with just using plugins though is your client is stuck with the functionality they provide. You wont be able to do any customising for them without the experience. So if they ok with how the plugins work then you may be able to do it.
If you are good problem solved, you can do it, so split everything into small tasks, you dont even need to know a lot of php to work on a wordpress site, learn the basics of php syntax, and you should be fine. Also remember you have chatgpt to help
How about you hire someone on fiver all what you asked for was built before and the fiver guys has a template of it ,in the mean time learn how a somewhat good software should look like so you can review his work
You honestly are going to fall flat on your face.
You have no idea what you are getting into
That is even by leveraging LMS PLugins.
LMS sites are a Herculean task and the is even for those that are seasoned.
I also pray that you don’t need this also to be an Iphoje or Google App in addition to the LMS system.
Do you even know what Webserver you need to select for this type of project
Do you know the hosting provider and their environment ?
Will you need to scale horizontally or vertically ?
If you are going to leverage a load balancer, where are the most hits coming from to know if you need to place it at the CDN Level or at the server level ?
How are you handling securing?
Do you have any idea how complicate setting up social login to an LMS site can be ?
can you map the users back to the WordPress core users such as Amin/editor/ etc etc ?
Can you leverage object caching ?
The last thing you need is to put yourself in a position where you get sued.
I hope you didn’t sign anything yet. And DONT SIGN ANYTHING. Some people will play dirty.
Kind of had a similar situation… Although I was waaaay less educated in the field. Basically – had never heard of WordPress until this job was presented to me. Those advocating WordPress here are right – rule 34 – if you can think it theres a plugin for it. Or you can figure it out/Google it/discord/ find a buddy. Not many learned anything worth knowing the safe and moral way… Iffy – yes. But what you could learn could be amazing for you down the road. If they didn’t care enough to get someone “qualified” is their problem. If you indeed told them upfront you didn’t have the necessary skills needed and they still paid you up front – I say try it out. Whats the worst that could happen? You mess up and they fire you? You quit? I say Go for it kid. If you get worried – if there’s a point where a wrong move could cost other people their jobs then rethink they situation going forward or not… But out the gate – pssh. Do your best.
Set up Moodle, that way you can build the site as the brochure site and have a link to Moodle LMS. Ping me if you need help on this but I’ve done this for many clients and Moodle is amazing for educational purposes.
If you are not qualified to take the job, you shouldn’t take the job. Otherwise, you are going to have a dissatisfied customer and likely an endless amount of stress.
Can you just install a plugin like LearnDash?
https://www.learndash.com/
It seems like you’re talking about building something from scratch and I don’t understand why.
Pass it to an asian for five bucks on fiverr
If you’re willing to share details, and the pay of course, we can make it happen.
6+ years WordPress Developer here.
That way, you earn money, and experience along the a way, a friend too probably if you’re fun to chill with!
Learndash does everything you’d need for this, with additional addons if needed. There are many other learning system plugins like Learndash that are cheaper, it’s just a well-rounded plugin for a site like this.
A page builder plugin will save you dozens of hours writing code. My agency uses [Breakdance.com](http://Breakdance.com) for all of our clients’ sites. Drag and drop responsive sites without any code. But if you know basic HTML/CSS, you can get even more out of it. All around best for us.
If you want it even easier, there is an addon for Elementor that adds Learndash blocks so you don’t have to use shortcodes.
You don’t need to do all of this from scratch, if you can negotiate some sort of budget they are willing to pay for plugins (they usually have a yearly subscription fee) there’s high-quality off-the-shelf plugins that do this stuff and have had years of development+bug fixing behind them. That is one of the beauties of WordPress. It’s also one of the biggest issues for novice users, don’t go crazy. Use as few plugins as you can, but find ones that add the functionality you need.
Without knowing the specific requirements, it sounds like you could build this without writing any code. You just need to research the right plugins to use.
We rarely write any code at my agency, we have certain plugins we trust and if we need additional functionality we research the options and find the best one within budget.
WordPress purests will tell you otherwise, they believe in doing everything custom. But if you do not have a solid grasp on everything you are doing, absolutely do not do a client project that way. It *will* break. And if you ever bring in additional people, you better have documented your code extensively so they can work with it. And you’ll have to keep on top of wordpress updates that could break your code. Plugins that are actively maintained get updated by their developers for wordpress changes and bug fixes.
In terms of scaling, you need a good server and to ensure you do not use too many plugins that eat up resources. We use [www.wpmudev.com](http://www.wpmudev.com) for our higher-value clients because it is easy to scale their VPS (virtual private server) resources up as you need it.
All that said, I don’t think you should be taking this job. You should at least have a basic grasp of how WordPress works to do something like this. But if you really need to do it, then you need to get a yearly plugin subscription budget. With the right plugins you could build this in a day without writing any code. If you can’t get that, there are free alternatives for just about everything they just limit features or are not as well maintained. I think Elementor still has a free version if you need a free page builder.
Congratulations on the new opportunity! look at it this way, you are about to get the experience that you will need to complete your project. trust yourself be confident and find the resources you need.