Hi

 

I am looking to build a new website and I desperatly need some advice on how to go about building it. I am fairly amateur as sites I have built have been html based via frontpage. I have recently done a little with Dreamweaver and I have also built a flash website. I have also tampered around with Flash CMS templates and had some great results. Also I have peiced together several sucessful forums.

Basic knowledge I'd say but I enjoy the learning curve.

 

What I want to build is a site similar to www.checkatrade.com

I want the consumer to be able to search an area (surrey, middlesex etc) and find a trader. There is only one type of trade so it does need to be as complex as checkatrade. But I do want the consumer to see a list which is listed by a score rating. So the consumer would need a section to "rate" the trader.

 

Also each trader would need a small profile section. Name, address etc and also a couple of pictures. I will probably add the profile as apose to the trader being able to log in and edit the profile, but I guess I have not made up my mind on a final decision on this.

 

I would greatly appreciate some advice on what the best platform will be to generate this type of website. Also any freebie templates to pull apart are always good.

 

Kind Regards

Mark

you will need knowledge of a server side language for this, php being the one I would recommend also mysql would be advisable due to the type of website you are building. If you are unfamiliar with these then it could be a large learning curve to achieve this.

 

I am not trying to put you off but there would be a lot of learning to do.

Well I think you could do it in drupal with CCK and ratings. You could create a custom content type of "trader" and add some fields like business name and address etc.

 

or you could have a bash at joomla and the sobi2 plugin.

 

I like drupal personally but thats down to choice. Both require mySQL and PHP

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate that there will be a lot to learn and tbh I am looking forward to getting stuck in.

Do you think it would be possible to get a decent professional looking site using joomla or drupal? I have never been that keen in the past.

 

Also can anyone point me in the right direction of finding a suitable site to pull apart or a template that will have a similar structure?

 

Kind Regards

Mark

 

ps. Any idea of what kind of money it would cost for a pro to build it for me?

Well I dunno how much it would cost to do want you wanted for a pro. try one of the 'find a freelancer' sites for an idea maybe? You could (for example) get drupal or joomla running on your local PC with WAMP then have a bit of a play and maybe ask questions (on the drupal or forums as well as here) as you go?

 

Am i right in thinking you basically want a web directory which trades men can list their businness and users can then rate their services? I think you can do this is both joomla / sobi2 and drupal with CCK

 

As for sites looking good this is an example of drupal siteshere i reckon some of look really decent and are quite high profile sites to

 

http://buytaert.net/tag/drupal-sites

 

joomla probalby has a list of cool sites done in that platform somewhere to

 

 

 

 

Thanks for the replies. I appreciate that there will be a lot to learn and tbh I am looking forward to getting stuck in.

Do you think it would be possible to get a decent professional looking site using joomla or drupal? I have never been that keen in the past.

 

Also can anyone point me in the right direction of finding a suitable site to pull apart or a template that will have a similar structure?

 

Kind Regards

Mark

 

ps. Any idea of what kind of money it would cost for a pro to build it for me?

I would strongly recommend the Drupal site script, relatively easy to set up so long as you don't want to modify anything too much. There's also a great community surrounding it with loads of themes and add-ons!

 

 

 

 

 

www.kinetic-d.com