About the Project
Jan's Pantry is a trusted UK deals and voucher site built around a personal brand — Jan curates the best codes and offers across eight categories, writes her own take on each deal, and delivers them to a growing subscriber list. The brief was to build a platform that felt warm, editorial, and trustworthy — the opposite of a generic affiliate coupon site.
Everything was built on the LocalWebsCoder CMS: bespoke PHP, flat-file architecture, no WordPress, no bloat.
What We Built
Gated Voucher Code Reveals
The centrepiece of the platform. Every deal has a voucher code hidden behind an email gate — visitors enter their email address to instantly reveal the code. This simultaneously unlocks the deal for the user and grows Jan's subscriber list. No third-party tools, no popups — the reveal is built natively into the deal page.
Editorial Deal Pages
Each deal has its own full page with:
- Featured image
- Deal type and category tags
- Expiry date
- "Jan's Take" — a personal editorial section where Jan writes her own experience and recommendation in her own voice
- Related deals
- Sidebar with latest and fresh deals
This editorial layer is what separates Jan's Pantry from generic coupon aggregators. It builds trust and keeps readers coming back.
Newsletter & Subscriber Management
A built-in subscriber system collects emails from the code reveal gate and optional free sign-up. Subscribers receive Jan's weekly deals newsletter. The entire list is managed within the CMS — no Mailchimp dependency, no monthly fees.
Category Browsing
Eight deal categories with dedicated listing pages:
- Food & Grocery
- Health & Beauty
- Home & Garden
- Fashion
- Restaurants & Dining
- Entertainment
- Travel
- Technology
Each category has its own URL, filtered deal grid, and sidebar — making the site fully browsable and SEO-friendly.
Homepage Deal Layout
A three-column homepage design built for discovery:
- Left sidebar — Latest Deals with thumbnail, category tag, and coupon label
- Main column — Featured deal of the day with full image and summary
- Right sidebar — Fresh Deals list and Browse by Category navigation
The top announcement bar drives newsletter sign-ups with a persistent, low-friction prompt.
RSS Feed
An auto-generated RSS feed of all live deals — letting power users and deal aggregators subscribe to Jan's latest posts without any third-party tooling.
Jan's Promise Trust Block
A persistent trust signal on every deal page: "Every code is tested before we post it. If it doesn't work, let us know and we'll fix it." — reinforcing the personal, accountable brand that makes Jan's Pantry stand out.
Client CMS
Jan manages everything herself — adding new deals, writing her takes, setting expiry dates, and uploading images — all through the LocalWebsCoder admin panel. No developer needed for day-to-day content.
Tech Stack
- CMS: LocalWebsCoder CMS (bespoke flat-file PHP)
- Frontend: Vanilla JS, custom CSS — warm editorial design system
- Email gate: Native PHP reveal system — no third-party dependency
- Newsletter: Built-in subscriber capture and list management
- RSS: Auto-generated XML feed from deal content
- SEO: Per-deal canonical URLs, structured data, meta strategy
- Hosting: Managed UK hosting — SSL, uptime monitoring, backups
Result
A fully independent deals platform with its own subscriber list, editorial voice, and revenue model — built and owned outright by the client, with no ongoing platform fees or third-party lock-in.
