Seeking Solution For Subscription Based Content

I am creating a site that will have new users subscribing to see the content in the profiles of "developers" i.e. their contact information and the areas they specialize in.

That way the new users (lets call them buyers) can contact the developer and negotiate a project independent of my site. I will only be providing the contact information for a small $5 a month fee.

I need this site to be able to rate the developers by allowing the buyer to leave feedback and a rating similar to an Ebay feedback rating on how well the developer did on the project.

I will be charging the buyer a $5 per month membership fee (via paypal, since I read that it integrates with CBsubs) which will enable them to see a listing of all the developers, their rates, info, feedback scores and comments.

The developers will be able to sign up to our site for free to list their information so that they can be selected by the buyers for projects.

My understanding is that CB users (the developers) would also be able to publish articles in Joomla and CBsubs would restrict access to those articles as well. i.e. a developer could write an article about his services and the buyers that have subscribed to my site could read this article.

From my understanding CB + CBsubs would be able to handle most of this... (Correct me if I am wrong)

Are there additional plugins, extensions, modules, etc. available to support feedback ratings on the developer profiles or a way to have feed back added in?

Since buyers will be selecting developers based on the feedback ratings others have left for the developer, this will be an essential part of the site.

If CB + CBsubs + "additional extention - hopefully you can tell me of" can not do this, what would be my options.

Also within CB am I able to divide developers (CB user profiles) up into various categories for the buyer to select? i.e. PHP Developers, C# Developers, Ruby on Rails Developers, etc.

If not can I run multiple instances of CB, one instance for each programming language so that the buyer can select which language they need work done in.

Also it would be very helpful if I could allow developers to feature themselves for a $25 fee so that their profile shows up above and before other developers. (Think featured items on ebay, only instead of items it would be developer's profiles)

Another nice feature would be for the buyer to be able to tell which developers are currently online, or when they logged in last. This would be helpful for buyers to be able to select developers that are currently available and looking for work. Can CB do this?

Also I would like to be able to list developers without their contact information showing (since it is the contact information that buyers will be paying a membership fee for) to new potential buyers visiting the site that have not yet subscribed for a membership.

Can this be done?

Any help with how to accomplish these things will be greatly appreciated. I really hope your products will satisfy most of my needs, and if not that you can point me in the right direction of where to go or who to talk to next.

I am willing to pay developers if needed, but being a business man, I am looking for the best solution for the best price.

Thanks in advance,

Aaron Wyman

Post edited by: MercenaryGamer, at: 2010/05/17 19:39

From my understanding CB + CBsubs would be able to handle most of this... (Correct me if I am wrong)

Correct, CBSubs can restrict tabs and fields using CBSubs Fields Tabs Protection based on subscription; such fields and or tabs could contain the "developers" contact information. You could then use the CB Rating fieldtype plugin available to document subscribers to allow users to rate the "developers". You could then use CBSubs Content and its By URL Part protection to protect a userlist which is structured to display only the "developers" and accessible only by those subscribed.

Are there additional plugins, extensions, modules, etc. available to support feedback ratings on the developer profiles or a way to have feed back added in?

The rating field has no "feedback" option, but using document subscriber CB ProfileBook you can offer users a "Guestbook", which can be renamed to "Feedback" of course that DOES have a rating feature AND allows posting "feedback" on the users profile. This should meet your needs.

Also within CB am I able to divide developers (CB user profiles) up into various categories for the buyer to select? i.e. PHP Developers, C# Developers, Ruby on Rails Developers, etc.

This could simply be a drop-down select field where the developer selects which type of developer they are perhaps? You could then have multiple userlists which filters by such field. This field can also be protected by the developers subscription which would prevent other users from access it.

Also it would be very helpful if I could allow developers to feature themselves for a $25 fee so that their profile shows up above and before other developers. (Think featured items on ebay, only instead of items it would be developer's profiles)

This could be done with a CBSubs 1 time subscription that sets a CB Field value say 1 for yes and 0 for no on an checkbox field that is readonly (so they can't edit it!) then sort a userlist by this field. This would allow displaying "featured" developers first.

Another nice feature would be for the buyer to be able to tell which developers are currently online, or when they logged in last. This would be helpful for buyers to be able to select developers that are currently available and looking for work. Can CB do this?

Both are already available features from CB by way of fields.

Also I would like to be able to list developers without their contact information showing (since it is the contact information that buyers will be paying a membership fee for) to new potential buyers visiting the site that have not yet subscribed for a membership.

Protected tabs and or fields will only display if the user has a subscription; this includes on userlists.

Please keep in mind we do not prepare, install, setup, etc... your installation; this is left to the enduser to do. We certainly will investigate any potential bugs of any sort if you have any issues however.