Creating a "Coupons Site" using Joomla

[kinley]

Hi,

I am thinking of creating a "Coupons Site" using Joomla as the CMS.

I am confused as to should I look for a "coupon" themed Joomla template or shall I search for extensions which will help manage the site as per need.

OR, is it not possible to create a user friendly coupon site using Joomla? and I shall look at creating the site by coding from the ground up.

Please help!

Thanks

[lorax]

There seem to me to be two fundamental questions here.

Q1) Is Joomla capable/flexible enough or should you build your own.

A1) It is far better than you will likely be able to build on your own and it will save you a huge amount of development time. Downside is, you have to learn how to use the interface and how to modify templates.

Q2) How do you locate a suitable template.

A2) You could try coupon template or some such but I'd start by listing the functionality you're looking for. What are the characteristics of a coupon site that make it different from any other site? Create this list then look for templates that get close. From there you can modify the templates to include the additional functionality (or tweak existing) you're looking for.

[kinley]

Thanks Lorax for the suggestions :)

Frankly, I do not understand coding much and have always made sites using Joomla (the easy way out!)

If I get a site made using PHP coding, would it have a back-end (like in Joomla) to manage things on the fly?

[lorax]

If you decide to go with a custom site then you'll need to tell the programmer that you want to be able to administer the site using a GUI. And be aware that their GUI design skills (not visual so much as click flow, organization, intuitive usefulness) should be defined as well or you are bound to be unhappy. If you are not comfortable with specifications like this OR do not have a programmer that you know and like to work with then I suggest you stick with Joomla.

[kinley]

Thanks Buddy :)

If I go in for a custom made site, would it be in simple PHP coding with various scripts embedded into it?

And, as far as the GUI back-end goes, don't we have some kind of standards like GUI type 1 or type 2 etc? or we will have to advice the developer of what we need. (as newbies can miss out on somethings which are important for the back-end and not referred by the developer).

Sorry for asking these questions as I am totally unaware of how custom websites are made (part thanks to Joomla for my lack of knowledge on this).

[kinley]

Lorax, FYI, I just stumbled across a Joomla extension SOBI2, which can also be used in creating a coupon site on Joomla platform.