Hi,

I run an escort directory in London.

I need a web designer to redesign my site. I’m looking for some quotes and expert advice.
I want a Profile, Social Networking Site, a Portal were the escorts can register, build and manage their own page, by uploading their own pictures and details, they have to submit their details for my approval, I have the final say if the their page goes online or not, I must have total control of what goes online, also if they update new pictures this also has to be approved by me before going online. Most dating sites are like this, their profiles have to be approved by admin(http://www.freedating.co.uk/).

There is no need for,
1. Guest book & Image Comments
2. No Text Chat
3. Potential customers don’t have to sign up to see Escorts

I would like,
1. 100% FREE for Escorts to SIGNUP and JOIN!! under the ADVERTISE WITH US slogan
2. Escorts own Profile/Gallery URL, 1 page per Escort 5 picture maximum
3. Upload and Share Images
4. Cam Chat, clients will have to pay for this service
5. Clients to Message Escorts from their page
6. Video & Voice Profiles for escorts
7. One forum and several clubs
8. Blogs for Escorts

I want the Portal to be capable of taking escorts from all over the world, the client can find an escort by country and region with out having to register or giving any personal details.
Also in the beginning escorts will register for free but the site has to be ready to accept payment from the escorts. Escorts will in the future get a message in their page when they log in to see their profile saying that they had a free trial and now in order to continue with my site they will have to make payment. This payment will be made by credit card.

I am very particular about the layout and design of my Portal, it has to be easy to use and clients will find the escorts without having to open many pages.
The success of my site is due to its easy navigation, with one click from my homepage the client can find the escort, this has to be kept in mind when designing my Portal.

Other escort directories are huge in content with many escorts but difficult to use, the client gets lost trying to find an escort on this sites.

Here are some Profile, Social Networking Sites for your attention.
www.facebook.com
www.myspace.com
www.Hi5.com
www.Grono.net
www.freedating.co.uk
www.lookitsme.co.uk
www.faceparty.com

Also I have heard about www.Joomla.org and www.sourceforge.net, which one is best to use for a Social Networking site?

Thank you

Pedro

Sourceforge is a code repository site so you may find some thing there to help build a site.

Joomla is a CMS which could be used for the individual sections of a portal site but you would need some thing to build a front section that could integrate with Joomla.
I would suggest that a dating site script would be better suited for your proposed site, though a custom script would be preferable.

I been trying to get to grips with both those sites and I have no idea were to start, I really dont have any experience in web design and programing.
Can you tell me roughly how much a site like the one I want would cost?

Thanks,I really appreciate your help

Hard to do,Because you should have enough money and many things.

Mcooce, Im going to ignore your comment.

whats the best script to use?

You might want to check out in2community.com - they are currently looking for beta trial participants. I signed up (I hope I get an invite -it's a private beta) because I don't have any development experience, nor the money to finance someone to build a social network for me but I want to add one to my foodie website. According to their site you can put a social network on your own website by inserting one line of code - and it's free!

I would probably try a forum script with image gallery. It will probably need heavy customisation. The features you need are already available in most used forums (at least phpBB, probably vBulletin as well....).

And I would not ignore mcooce's comment. If you do not have ability to code&design yourself, you have pay for it. And if you want quality, you have pay more...

Hi Lola,
You can go for the social networking script which is already available in the market, and designs can be changed according to your requirement.All you need to pay for the work, as Ternet said this can be much quality depends upon the pay and time frame.

You're selling hookers on the web, that's something much different than MySpace. You're trying to fuse the ideas?

Originally Posted by LolaEscort.com

I been trying to get to grips with both those sites and I have no idea were to start, I really dont have any experience in web design and programing.

Can you tell me roughly how much a site like the one I want would cost?

If you go with "shrink wrap," it'll be free to a few hundred dollars. With no experience in html or server side coding, you might actually be better off spending the money. If you go for custom programming, expect it to cost a lot more ... night and day.

Your best bet is to spend as much time as you can afford to looking at each CMS that comes reasonably close to what you want to do, narrow the list down, cross off the ones that aren't template ready, and then look for quotes from developers to add the specific functions you need that an out of the box solution doesn't provide.

For somebody who knows what they're doing in asp or php, it's not a difficult thing at all, what you'd like to do. Just time consuming. But dev time is extremely expensive ... so the closer you can get, the better off you are.

If you live in Microsoft land, you might want to look at community server. I think it offers everything you want except the video camera thing.

Do it in Joomla, easy and does not require alot of work to get it up and running