WordPress MU

Recently Ron and I built a business directory for a popular financial blog serving the LGBT community. They wanted an add-on to their site where LBGT-friendly businesses could get a listing and a blog, if they wanted one - plus the ability to feed in their current blog if they already had one.

http://blogs.queercents.com

"The Queercents Professional Directory is your place to browse for LGBT and LGBT-friendly professionals. We all know from our day-to-day experiences and those shared at Queercents that the issues faced by LGBT people take on a unique spin. That is why it is often important to work with professionals who know how to deal with the unique issues of our lives.

What sets the Queercents directory apart from other listings is not only can you see a business’ information but you can also view an extended profile and get to know this person through their articles and blog posts published directly on this site."

See the directory & search here:
http://blogs.queercents.com/directory/

You'll note the entire site is integrated design-wise with their flagship blog at the top domain. (http://queercents.com)

Sample business listing here:
http://blogs.queercents.com/carolchristie/

Each business listing has a profile area that shows at the top of their blog posts. On signup, each business picks their state and business type, gets the listing started, then remits payment for further activation. An unpaid listing hides the profile and blog posts, directing the owner to login.

And on the main directory blog, all business listing blog posts show up there and are categorized by business type. So for example, you could find all the posts from all the wedding planners, or all the accountants.

this was a pretty cool project to work on, and we'd love to hear what the community thinks of the application.

Very nice, I love the profile on top of the blog posts, very unique display, but makes absolute sense!

Oh, and the sample business listing just happens to be the town I'm in...strange how that stuff happens.

Very nice. I really like the consistent design and structure on all the hosted blogs. And the profile integration onto each listing's homepage is great!

I like how you did your directory listing. A similar but different approach to what we did with the Blog Topics plugin that DeannaS wrote. I'd be interested in learning more about how you did yours.

@awarner - :D funny. And yeah, the profile bit is one of those things that makes you go "doh" when you think about it.

@kgraeme - we started with the exact same plugin :D, and tweaked it to the client's specs. We tweak almost every plugin we use, sometimes to the point we've either rewritten it, or expanded it greatly.

I plan on doing some sort of write up on it at http://wpmututorials.com as well.

heh blocked as sex/porn site. Gotta love my library.

How did you (if you do) differentiate between a business blog and a personal blog? We're working to build a business directory as part of a larger community effort and are stumped about how to recognize new blogs as either "community" or "business" from creation, with different templates for each.
Hope this makes sense.

There aren't. It's purely a business directory.

If I *did* want to do that, and use a different theme, I'd do a check on blog creation to see if it was in the "personal" category, and select a different theme based on that.

Hi andrea_r,

which plugin did you use to create the directory?

Thanks

A whole bunch of them, with customizations. :)

Would love to get my hands on a good business directory solution for MU...;-)

That sounds like a hint... :P

Your deductions are correct...perhaps we could discuss this?

Hit up my contact form. :)

This looks perfect for what I am looking for as well!

Any tutorials? or plugins? hints? or custom install?

Thanks

Kris

Click on my name, go to the contact form. :)

Nice directory man. I've been trying to do something kinda like that.

Just wish I could mix and match plugins like you. I'm slowly getting it. But good job. Makes me wanna keep working on my directory site.

Cool site!

This is exactly what I've been looking for! Kinda. I'm looking for specific (or "as specific as possible") directions of how to create this sort of site on a WP platform. The easiest thing I've been able to find is Joomla's SOBI 2. I've asked the WP forum for help before but no replies yet. Mind shedding a little light?

Each "profile" is actually a blog under WPMU. :) We wrote our own plugin to display extra profile fields.

Looks very nice.

You should bottle this up and sell it - it'd be as popular as moonshine! Seriously, a WP business directory plugin is lacking, so you have a commercial opportunity here.

Good luck!
John

Hi, I really like the plugin you've used.

I am trying to build something similar, it would be brilliant if I could get a hold of it.

Would you be keen in sharing?