Hi,

Here is an overview of the project.  You will create a database driven web site that will be a directory for local businesses to advertise on and local consumers to receive coupons. Local businesses would pay an annual fee to be listed in this directory. There would be approximately 80 categories of businesses, much the same as you would find in a yellow page phone directory.  

Consumers visiting this site in search of coupons, would be able to click on whatever category they wanted which would then take them to a page that would have all the businesses listed that were advertising for that category.  The business name, contact information and perhaps a map would be shown there as well as a link that consumers can click on to download and/or print a sheet of coupons for that particular business.

Consumers would also have the option of creating a profile (username and password) that would allow them to find coupons that they were interested in and then save them as favorites in the event that they were not able to print them at that time.

We also need e-commerce capability for prospective businesses who would come to the site, and have the option of being taken to an order page. From there they could choose from four or five different advertising packages, and sign up for the program at that time, so it would need to be linked to a payment processor. Businesses would also need to be able to create a profile which would be a separate database from the consumers.  We would like businesses to have the option to view their account and see the number of times their coupons have been downloaded and possibly a few other minimal statistics.

This site was originally designed using ASP, which I am not a big fan of, but was never completed.  I would much rather have the site designed using PHP or some other langiage while incorporating some open source or off the shelf application, that I have seen on many sites. I am not familiar with the other porgramming languages or platforms that are suitable for this project, however I do not see the need for creating something unique from the ground up based on our requirements. There would be minimal graphics on the site, perhaps a header with logo and possibly a few accent graphics as well.

Here are the deliverables:

1. You would create, upload and install on our server, a fully functional working demo of the site with the specifications I have stated above.

2. All categories that we supply would be in place, but no other data associated with those categories would be necessary.  There would be an admin control panel which would allow us to add, delete or change categories as well as add content to the pages that those categories are linked to as we continue to grow and add new businesses to the directory.

3. The admin control panel would also have the ability for us to easily change out banners either in the header or sidebar, as there will occasionally be featured advertisers or sponsors. We would also need the functionality to modify, add or delete any other pages on our site as the need arises.

3. We would want the ability to easily backup the database on a regular basis as we see fit.

4. A search box is required to give consumers the ability to search for a business name.

Please include a brief overview of the platform you intend to use and ideally supply me with an example of any similar type of sites you have done, even if they are not specifically related to coupons.

Thank you for your interest in this project.