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Building a Supersite...CMS

by wizkidding
11 replies
  • WEB DESIGN
    • |
I'm looking to build a site with a lot of articles and information, like bodybuidling dotcom but in a different industry. I was wondering what platform there site is built on, and if anyone knows of a CMS template that I could acquire to build a site like that
#building #supersitecms
  • Profile picture of the author lovenot
    Use joomla or just wordpress. Then look for a theme that you like among those two and modify them.
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  • Profile picture of the author wizkidding
    I'm familiar with WP, I already have a blog on that platform. But that is a far cry from something as sophisticated as bodybuilding dotcom
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    • Profile picture of the author NoFluff
      Not sure exactly which parts of the bodybuilding site you're trying to replicate, but Wordpress has actually come some way as a CMS. In your case, I'd take a look at setting things up on an MU install, but you might be able to get to wher eyou need with custom post types as well.

      Clicking on the SuperSite tab, that looks like nothing more than posts in different categories, though you could also have a separate post type for each thing. i.e. an exercises post type, a nutrition post type.

      BodySpace looks like some kind of social network, which you could use BuddyPress for, I'm not crazy about bbPress, but it would provide a Forum, and as far as a shop goes there are numerous plugins for that - each with their pros and cons.

      I haven't worked with Joomla in a while, but I'm sure there are similar extensions there. That said, I remember Joomla being more technically involved than Wordpress, so if the thought of MU + BuddyPress and the setup structure and other things scares you or seems over your head, consider working with a developer skilled in either of those to get set up.

      And by all means, avoid anything that's custom. If you don't know exactly what you're going for you'll end up with a huge bill and more than likely subpar results that are tough to maintain or find help for. Wordpress and Joomla both at least come with a large community and lots of information available.
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      • Profile picture of the author wizkidding
        thanks very informative posts. I would definitely be outsourcing the build. My need to get a basic understanding is simply so that I can post the job on a freelance site, and get bids. I'd also need to hire someone through odesk for maintenance, and updates if that can't be automated or done in a strait forward control panel type way. I'm all for wordpress seeing as it is so novice friendly. But I have a sneaking suspicion that for all i'd like to accomplish I'm going to end up using something else. I could be wrong, and I'd love to be surprised.

        I currently have a flash based website for something else, that has a wordpress blog connected to it. I'm able to update that, modify my flash gallery, and tinker with and update my blog with no problem. I'm pretty good at following instructions from forums.

        I'm looking to build a site with thousands of articles like BB dotcoms supersite. I'll need a forum. Automated feeding and rotating of ads. A forum, a web store, an interactive marquee, mailing list opt in, and I'll need to be able to run split tests of landing pages to optimize sales copy. I'd prefer the simplest and most effective tools available. I'll also need a solution that gives my site fast page loading times

        Also does anyone have any idea what it costs to host a site like Bodybuilding dotcom?
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  • Profile picture of the author TigerNone
    You are going to want to take a look at something like Joomla or Drupal. Off the top of my head some other candidates would be Conrete5 and if you are into windows hosting then try Orchard.
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    • Profile picture of the author wizkidding
      So the Windows/Linux determines which platform I can run? What if I wanted to integrate OSCommerce or Magento? Would that even be possible? Or would the store have to be on a separate part of the domain? Obviously some of this stuff is over my head. But I should have mentioned in my OP that I wanted to integrate Ecommerce in the site
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  • Profile picture of the author TigerNone
    To a certain extent yes. Orchard is written in ASP.NET, so you would need to run it on a windows server. The others are in PHP, so you can run them on either. If you want to integrate Magento or OSCommerce then I think you should look at Drupal or Joomla. Orchard is a pretty young project and I don't think it supports them yet. Integrating them into Drupal or Joomla is a fairly common thing though, so you should be able to find lots of information on how to do it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Solem
    I love wordpress and think you could do a lot with it, but check out Website Software | Content Management System Software | Website Designer Software | PHP CMS and Big Medium: A content management system (CMS) for web designers (Global Moxie) to see what you think.

    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author wizkidding
    nice thread jack.

    Anyone have any idea about what my hosting costs would be? I hit up rackspace for a quote, (knowing that they are expensive) but they told me that they don't have standard pricing, and every thing is customized for the customer. I want a reliable solution, at good value, but I don't know how to answer questions such as self managed hosting, how much bandwidth etc.

    Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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  • Profile picture of the author waqas89
    just go with ready made cms, and if you some buddy which can customize the theme for you then it will be awesome
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  • Profile picture of the author wizkidding
    bump. anybody know how much it would cost to host a site like bodybuilding?
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