I have a theme and want to do all the work to market it and run the operation completely transparent and legit. Seems the reason why most of these sites go under is because they scam their customers. NOT what I am in business to do!!! However, i do not have much knowledge at all in actually putting together a script and implementing it. I can runt he operation and basics of the site, but I'd need help on setting it up.
i should add that I can acquire the domain, so seo and all else. My deal is I dont just want to buy a script cause someone is selling it then im stuck and dont know where to go from there...
From what I understand from your post, it looks like you have a few options depending on your budget. If your broke: Learn PHP yourself using academicearth.org (the Harvard Dynamic Websites lecture) and hitting up the PHP forums like the one at Zend. The "Head First Labs" books are also good, I used their HTML/CSS book to get my start. This is the LONG route, but once you know the stuff you can do anything with it. It will also make you better able to communicate your vision to your future programmers. If you have some cash to throw around: Go to the "services " sections of the big IM forums, elance, Odesk, and Craigslist, and ask for estimates on the project. If you have a job with excess cash flow (my "guesstimate" is about $500-600+ per month): Go to Craigslist in other countries and post your gig. Then interview and hire a PHP/MySQL programmer part-time or on a project basis. Hopefully this was of use to you. Best of luck on your new endeavor!
im not broke, but im also hesitant to throw in cash...then be stuck not knowing what to do. dont worry, i'll learn as much as i can,but that'll take time. really, what i want is a business partner. someone to build the site(at their expense), then I will advertise and operate the business (at my expense) and split profits.
In that case you might want to network in the offline world. Go to a local university or figure out where a local programmer meet-up takes place and go hang out. Just be sure that you can come across on your end of the deal with the leads/traffic! I know that wasn't much but hopefully it'll help!
Best of luck with it. It'll be a royal bitch to get going, but once you do get it going, you will make quite a bit of money. Won't make you rich, itll be alot of work, but it'll be a decent amount,
PHP forums and other web development forums keep having offers/requests for partners. Dig through them and you might get someone to partner with. If I come across some similar offers, I would surely let you know.
Penny Auctions are a pretty competitive business these days. Our forum at pennyauctionnation.com helps people such as yourself to decide whether or not they want to enter into this industry. It is also full of actual Penny Auction owners, so it's not just a lot of speculation on how to run a site. It will be worth your time to do some research, and may save you a little money in the long run. Good luck to you.