I'd like to make a local "Angie's List" type of page for classmates to list their businesses/skills/etc, so that other classmates, if they need someone to fix a roof, landscaping, bake cakes, or even a doctor or dentist, can take a look at the list and see if any classmates (or someone in the classmates family) and contact that classmate to hire them for the job.

Now that we're 58-ish years old, our children are grown and possibly have businesses or skills that we can use. And we want to support our classmates as much as possible and send business their way.

So, any suggestions on how to set something like this up? I could just list the business category, and then under that the classmate's name and contact info and a paragraph about what they do, or things they've done in that capacity, but I'd like it to look really good and not just a plain old list. Something that looks professional.

Ideas?

Thank you in advance!

That's so ironic that you mention this as I'm in the process of doing the same thing with our multi-year site. I want to roll it out to celebrate having the site for 5 years. Ours will be called Colt discounts and I plan on having categories like home improvement, health and fitness, etc. Then the classmates can send me their business card in .jpg form so I can upload it and underneath we'll have the classmates name and grad year, the discount offered and a description, etc. But we're going to do ours as a fundraiser for the Alumni Association/Foundation and will only charge $35 for one year, $45 for 2 years and $55 for 3 years (I think). That way, it's a win-win-win for all concerned. I'd love to share ideas with anyone else who is doing similar. I live in the LA area (school is in San Diego).

Perfect timing as my alumni site needs a makeover!

I like the idea better than simply offering space to businesses and will be giving this some thought and possibly a try. Thanks!

Edit Adding: Putting Lori and "Crawford'" ideas together, reviews could be added BY members after the listing. How to do this... I am not a fan of using the user forums for this but we might be able to add something from Jotform.com. I'll have to check if they have the type form we could use - possibly with a star rating. One thing when using a third party plug-in... making sure it responds for those using the Responsive Design. (I recommend the responsive design!)

I'll be back as soon as I complete a few tests.

Gwen Corey wrote:

So have you found anything to use for the form? I liked the Gravity Form plugin, but I really don't want to have to pay for anything, unless it's a one time payment and cheap! My classmates aren't much for donations for things, but I do this out of love and residual school spirit. LOL

If not a plugin, then any ideas or sample links to sites that use something like this?

Thanks!

Lori

Lori - were you able to do anything with this?
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Some time ago, one of our classmates asked something similar, wanting to 'advertise' the fact that he was a published author with a couple of books, and we created a page entitled 'What Some of Us Are Doing.'
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I would envision a list of skills in alphabetical order [carpentry, landscaping, roofing, etc] and names and phone numbers adjacent to the skill.