Help! Skills to look for in web developer?

(be kind to the newbie)

[moncora]

Hi masters, I need your help!

I've got great products and a great idea. However I miss that very important person who can make my idea a reality. As I don't know what skills I should prioritize in a partner I desperately need your recommendations before I can post a job ad.

Please bear with me as I explain what I need in less than fluent English and without technical terms!

I need a clean looking online store, were function and form is equally important. It needs to be available in several languages and currencies. The product availability in the store changes depending on the region settings. There are two types of products sold in the store: downloadable material and customized products. In the customer profile, the previously purchased downloadable material needs to be stored for the customer's later use.

For the customer to order the customized products, a user friendly function for the customer to change the appearance of a product, directly in the store, will be necessary. With ease the customer must be able to see what the ready product could look like in a different color or with a different pattern, and place their orders from this function.

I'd love to see the store work on several platforms (mobile) if possible.

So, if you know, please tell me what skills I should consider obligatory when looking for a partner!
Or should my focus not be the experience but the creativity and artistic skill of a potential partner?

Would you say Elance is the right place to start looking for a partner? Other recommendations are very welcome!

Finally, what is a fair pay to offer for this job? As a professional, would you find it interesting to be offered a relatively modest sum for the initial creation of the store and then a fair part of the company profit for as long as you stick around to help out?

I'm extremely thankful for your help!

[topr8]

>>As a professional, would you find it interesting to be offered a relatively modest sum for the initial creation of the store and then a fair part of the company profit for as long as you stick around to help out?

i shouldn't think you'd find any takers on that kind of deal.

>>Finally, what is a fair pay to offer for this job?
just to develop a site like that, absolute minumum USD30,000

but if you are looking for websales from search engines of whatever you'd also need to spend a significant amount in marketing (of whatever sort and there are many ways to market a site)

[moncora]

Thank you very much topr8! Do you have any advice regarding what skills I should consider obligatory when looking to hire a web developer?

Thank you for your time!

[DXL]

As a professional, would you find it interesting to be offered a relatively modest sum for the initial creation of the store and then a fair part of the company profit for as long as you stick around to help out?

This is an offer that people occasionally make to web developers, and it's an offer that is overwhelmingly refused. To the point that it's probably on a web designer's top list of potential clients that annoy them.

That and someone asking for a website "like eBay but better" and so on, but saying that all they have is a $900 budget.

[topr8]

>>what skills I should consider obligatory when looking to hire a web developer?

are you looking to hire a webdeveloper or contact out the work?

... either way, i think you are asking the wrong question, i think you should look to have a very detailed (as detailed as possible) list of requirements for a website, how it should look and how it should function. once you have a very precise schedule of work so to speak, then you can look for someone to do it ... or infact you can ask/pay someone to advise you as to what skills an employee/contractor will need.

... for instance your requirements may or may not require 'advanced' javascript/ajax skills - depending on what you want the website to do precisely.

... ditto for lots of other skills.