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Help Needed Please with a local portal site.

by janix
6 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
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Hi

I am putting together a local portal site for a small town and surrounding area. I have no real preference for using HTML, php, Wordpress or Joomla although WP is quite an easy option. However, I need to have a page that offers free classified ads in a very simple way (like they do in newspapers) but all I can find are plugins for paid ads which take up a lot of space and/or are US centred with no way to localise. I have thought of integrating a forum to use as a classified section, but I would prefer to keep the site as light as possible for speed issues.

Would really (really) appreciate it if anyone has some useful suggestions on how I can overcome these problems.

Thanks in advance, Jan
#local #needed #portal #site
  • Profile picture of the author Patrick
    The platform or CMS doesn't really matter here, unless you have a specific choice which you are comfortable with, which you said WP. You can easily get a free classifieds system in WP using either a plugin or custom post types.

    The first one is the easier way, the second one not so easy, it would require services of a wordpress developer.

    It all depends on your budget as well, If you have a good enough budget, then maybe you can get a custom CMS done for yourself as well, which might be better than having a WP site with 20 plugins, in terms of speed.
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    Freelance WordPress Developer | Free WordPress Themes | Free WordPress Plugins | Free WordPress Support
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  • Profile picture of the author freeadstime
    If your aim is eventually to gain quite a bit of traffic and win all the competitions out there, then it's probably the best to invest on the project and have someone to write the code from the scratch. You don't see successful pre-made classified ads sites, since their code has been used over thousands times and there's nothing really unique about them.
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    Post an ad to FeeAdsTime.com in major cities such as Chicago Classifieds, San Diego Classifieds and Los Angeles Classifieds.
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  • Profile picture of the author Janeth
    I ran into this exact problem the other day. There are a lot of plug-ins but very few that work like I needed. There is also a wordpress classified template but I tried it a couple years ago and it feel apart at the first sign of trying to change anything, although that was 3 or 4 years ago so maybe it's better now.

    I ended up hacking a template and using a couple different plugins. But a good place to start might have been the wordpress classified ad template. Like I said it's been many years since I used it and it worked fine until I started hacking it however it might be a little more hacker friendly now.

    Classified Ads Software | AppThemes
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  • Profile picture of the author janix
    Hi

    @scharzes and freeadstime - yes I think you are right, although it is a free community site for my town so getting big time traffic is not my main aim nor is spending a huge amount of my own money for it. Thanks also Janeth for your input and yes, the plugins available just need so much work for them to be what I need. The classified ads is just an extra add-on for the site so having a classifieds theme is not at all appropriate. I have been looking at custom post styles but then that's another story.

    Anyhow, thanks to you all for your help. Jan
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  • Profile picture of the author Daniel Fonda
    1) Well first of all, I would recommend using Wordpress - it's fairly simple to use and update and yet it offers so much flexibility and upgrades - trust me, you won't be missing out on anything.

    2) If you're lacking a bit in knowledge (php is almost a must here, seeing your needs) - I would recommend getting a freelancer or some who's pretty familiar with wordpress to put together the website for you fairly cheap - I would be happy to help you out, so please do feel free to drop me a line if you happen to need help setting your portal up
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  • Profile picture of the author mrtonyp29
    Hello , well I have a course that can help you and teach you how to build websites from scratch, also I have a new course on to go mobile, build a mobile website and also mobile apps,specifically Android apps. If interested PM for more info.
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    killermobilesecrets.com
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