Add a Shop to your Blog with PopShops

16Dec07

Add a Shop to your Blog with PopShops

I mentioned PopShops in my last post, when I pointed to my Blogger’s Bookstore, and now I want to talk a little bit more about the service. The simplest definition of a PopShop is an affiliate store builder. That’s right: you feature products from retailers you’re affiliated with, and get paid when you make a sale through your site or blog.

Using PopShops

To use PopShops, you’ll want to be signed up with Commission Junction, LinkShare, or one of the other large affiliate networks that PopShops supports. I’ve found that the problem with using only the tools provided by these networks is that things can get pretty overwhelming pretty fast. Usually, you’ll find yourself searching through several pages just to find a specific product. PopShops, however, makes it easy to search through available products at your affiliate shops of choice, build a store out of these products, and “pop it in”-to your site or blog by cutting and pasting a bit of code. Yes, it’s that simple.

Using it with Wordpress

I built my Blogger’s Bookstore in less than 10 minutes. Here’s what I did:

- Installed the runPHP Wordpress plugin. This allows me to use PopShops’ PHP code, and not just javascript… although the javascript works fine from within Wordpress.
- Logged into PopShops.
- Created a new shop called, appropriately, Blogger’s Bookstore.
- Searched for each book on my list (I had written my list down on a piece of paper beforehand), and added it to my new shop.
- Customized the display to make sure it fit in with the layout of my blog.
- Created a new page in Wordpress. Copy and pasted the code from PopShops. Published!

… and ta-da! My very own bookstore on my blog. My favorite thing about PopShops is that I can login anytime and make changes to my Bookstore, and it will automatically reflect the changes on my live store.

Why not try it out? PopShops has a free version, which is a little limited compared to their paid versions, but works just as well.

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