PHP coding a Discount Code Website

[ChristopherB]

Hey all,

I've just completed my design for a voucher code website, it's a bit different and i aim to incorporate alot more than just discounts. What i'm wondering is did anyone who did this from the ground up use any frame work or just built the whole thing from scratch?

I'm a newbie php coder but i believe i can do it if i put my mind to it, can anyone offer any tips ect.. if you've done this before?

This is just a side proejct as you can imagine it's going to drain alot of my time.

[voucherz]

Originally Posted by ChristopherB What i'm wondering is did anyone who did this from the ground up use any frame work or just built the whole thing from scratch?

I ended up coding my voucher site from scratch, mainly because I code in .net, and there's hardly any affiliate related products available (freely)

You should check out the icodes.co.uk site as they are building up a voucher syndication framework - Its in its early days, but it could be a pretty cool feature.

Im currently rebuilding my own voucher site, with the ethos of "no fuss, ease of use, no cookie stuffing" - I just hate voucher sites which fire up a zillion browser windows.

[ChristopherB]

Thanks,

I read the icodes thing from the pagerank10 guys but i thought i would want my own design, community ect.. and i know that takes work, i'm prepared for it.

I was looking at some php frameworks such as codeigniter as a base - i haven't used a framework before but i udnerstand they have all the basic functions already included as classes and can easily be seo'd.

I have whipped up an ace design i love it so much so i would be wanting to use that (im more a designer than a coder.)

Did you find coding your voucher site from scratch worth it? People who speak to me know i love wordpress and i love making it do things it's not made for (ohh...) but i think what i want to create is way past wordpress.

[accelerator]

If you are in this for the long-term then I think you can view improving your PHP coding skills as an investment. If you are an affiliate marketer with good coding skills it opens up possibilities for you and can give you a competitive advantage.

I used to be a VB.net coder but I have now switched to PHP mainly for development speed. With PHP, there are a lot more examples you can look at and I find it easier to get help online.

Regarding your query, my own advice would be to do whatever allows you to get the site up and operational as quickly as possible. What I mean by this is that it's easy to get too carried away on the coding and make it over complicated. Just keep it as simple as you possibly can to give you the functionality you feel is necessary, and then concentrate on getting visitors to the site, as that is the most important bit.

Rgds

[philhancox]

My current discount site (thediscountblog co.uk) is built with WordPress albeit heavily customised. I'm building a bigger, better site with php/mysql. No idea what frameworks are so yeah, building it from scratch! Big challenges reap big rewards

[voucherz]

Did you find coding your voucher site from scratch worth it?

Yeah, definately, it means you can have full control of the site, in a way that you understand yourself. The new voucherz site is been totally stripped back to a max of 3 clicks to a code. Developing a site is always a great way to learn new skills and areas of expertise.

I agree with the above comment about keeping the site simple. You have to remember that the majority of your visitors/punters wont be as web zavvy as us developers/designers.

[ChristopherB]

Thanks for the advise guys. I'll get coding real soon in my spare time then and yeh learning how to code whole mysql and php site to a high level from scratch will certainly open up more opportunities.

By the way, i've only just noticed when im logged in, signatures are not displayed but when im logged out they are... is that the same for everyone?

[babrees]

I don't have a clue when it comes to php, and I have no intention of learning either

I took a standard script that is extremely flexible and customised it to work exactly how I want it. Why reinvent the wheel?

It is also extremely easy to use any design/layout you may want with it The script author is just doing a fantastic upgrade so that I now have a lot of new plans for my site. Nearly out of beta mode and I'm looking forward to using it on my freebie site.


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[aotagain]

Doing a DIY job will also ensure that you don't have a 'me-too' looking site with a 'me-too' domain name. There are so many of those in the affiliate world that they are just a homogenous mass as far as any customers are concerned and probably in due course Google as well.

Plus, as the market changes (which is a certainty), it will be less trouble moving stuff around and making it work differently.

I would say 2 things are critical: planning and designing a database to extract datafeed information for maximum flexibility in the future and learning css, so that you can completely change the look and layout of a site (or do another one off the same db data) quite easily without delving into deep coding. If you're not a database geek, then you might need someone to do this for you to a brief - they'll ask you questions you'd never thought of, which are really important, not now, but when you come to ask the database to do something different next year.

To get a CMS/database package good enough to allow you to modify your business model as changes take place would cost a fortune.

[Stellar]

To get a CMS/database package good enough to allow you to modify your business model as changes take place would cost a fortune.

Why?? Never heard of open source??!

[aotagain]

I know there's plenty of open source available thats plenty good enough for many sites. imo the decision to use it depends a lot on whether you work forwards from the technology or backwards from the customer.

Probably just a personal preference and possibly old-fashioned, but I've never liked the method of having an idea for a site, sketching it all out, putting in a few possibles for the future and then trying to find a package that will allow what I want. Usually ends in a fight between me and the interface !

php/mysql is fine - I just think for the time spent working out how to change it as you go along with a package, might as well learn the php/db stuff anyway.