To Blog or not to Blog

[sLaV-]

Just after some feedback and suggestions on blogging. Currently thinking about including a blog on our site and linking it to oscommerce. Basically we want to have it so people can talk about products and their experiences with the products we sell or talk about new technology on the way and thoughts ... so we want to create a community along with our oscommerce site

 

I want to know what peoples thoughts and suggestions were on this ... are you currently running a blog on your oscommerce site ... how have you integrated it .... would you recommend it ... all those types of things .....

 

 

Soooo let's hear it :D

[sLaV-]

Damn no bloggers out there?? :(

[lindsayanng]

what types of things are you selling? Is it something that people will ACTUALLY want to talk about. i cant image that things like kitchen ware, pet supplies, or underwear would be great blogging topics.. however, car parts, tattoo supplies, ect are all community based products.. so its really up to the products you sell which defines the type of people that visit your site.

 

its never a BAD thing, although BLOGS are kind of annoying in my eyes. To me they are just peoples self esteem boosting diaries that no one REALLY wants to hear about. If you REALLY want to create a community, then a forum might be the best way to go. its a LOT more interactive. You can make money off your forum too by selling ads on it if you wanted.

[sLaV-]

Nice suggestions cheers :)

 

We're selling PC Parts and peripherals ... We've noticed that a LOT of people are finding our site through google by searching for the product + the word "reviews" and since Google has already indexed our reviews pages WITH NO CURRENT REVIEWS IN THEM (only managed to change that AFTER google indexed it) ... they reach our reviews page with nothing on there then leave ... so we were thinking of creating either a blog or as you mentioned a forum where we can have everyone talk about it.....

 

I guess the main aim is to 1: Build a Community and 2: Don't want people to forget that they CAN actually purchase these products from us ... so was kind of hoping to integrate the blog/forum to our oscommerce .... just thinking of the best way of doing this and was hoping someone had done it and give some insight of how they went about it .......

 

I mean I can install the blog/forum in their own directory (ourdomain.com.au/blog) ... but whats the best way of making sure its integrated with oscommerce ??

[lindsayanng]

well, there is the Articles Manager which i have downloaded. I wanted to be able to offer pet advice and information on my website and at the same time, link each article to the products.. the article manager is SUPPOSED to do this. Some peopel have gotten the cross sell to work, but i have not.. but either way, it wold DEFINITELY be the best way to offer product reviews. The onyl thing it DOES NOT have is the ability for customer comments. Maybe News Desk contribution might.. check that too..

 

Reviews are great, but if you REALLY want a community, then forum is the way to go.. maybe BOTH.

 

using an oscommerce type of ""blog" contribution is best because you can do what you want, which is link each article to a few products..

[sLaV-]

well, there is the Articles Manager which i have downloaded. I wanted to be able to offer pet advice and information on my website and at the same time, link each article to the products.. the article manager is SUPPOSED to do this. Some peopel have gotten the cross sell to work, but i have not.. but either way, it wold DEFINITELY be the best way to offer product reviews. The onyl thing it DOES NOT have is the ability for customer comments. Maybe News Desk contribution might.. check that too..

 

Reviews are great, but if you REALLY want a community, then forum is the way to go.. maybe BOTH.

 

using an oscommerce type of ""blog" contribution is best because you can do what you want, which is link each article to a few products..

 

Articles Manager sounds ok ... but ye really need it for customers/everyone to comment on and add their 2c to it...

Will check out news desk thanks for the tip :)

 

You've got me leaning more towards a forum now hehe ... gonna take me a while to get my head around on how to integrate the two ... should be fun tho :P

haha both?? that would be awesome but integrating just the one is doing my head in at the moment :lol:

 

I havn't even checked for a forum contribution to be honest ... might have a quick sqizz ;)

 

Thanks for the input lindsay :)

[lindsayanng]

not a problem.. integrating a blog is as easy as linking the two.. you just want to make sure that when you link from the blog back, that you can HOPEFULLY keep the session alive so customers dont accidentally loose their cart contents. Adding products is possible, i believe you can do it manually, but you can also use a contribution that i THINK is called outside link products - i THINK it might do what you want it to.. Not sure as i havent used it.

 

I dont think there is a forum contribution, but your host might have a preferred forum script if you are interested.

[sLaV-]

Yep looks like i'll be busing trying to get this going

 

found an awesome contribution that i think should do the trick ... gotta test it out

 

PHPBB 2.0.8a implementation

 

sounds like exactly what i need if i was to take up the forum path :D :)

 

 

I'll let you know if i get it going if anyones interested :)

[lindsayanng]

NICE!!!!

[♥GLWalker]

Yep looks like i'll be busing trying to get this going

 

found an awesome contribution that i think should do the trick ... gotta test it out

 

PHPBB 2.0.8a implementation

 

sounds like exactly what i need if i was to take up the forum path :D :)

 

 

I'll let you know if i get it going if anyones interested :)

If you merge together a forum login and your osCommerce login/accounts, you are heading for a major security flaw. You will now give hackers a new way into your stores database via another software. Its work enough to stay on top of securing one peice of software, but you now will have to secure two. While it is important to keep them both secure, the store is the most important. People are used to logging into forums seperately.

On another note, the contribution your looking at is particularly old and therefore made for older versions of both phpBB and osC. If you look into simple machines forums you may find a good solution. It will easily integrate into your existing design for a seamless look. Ive combined the two here: http:usingneem.com/forum.php

[sLaV-]

If you merge together a forum login and your osCommerce login/accounts, you are heading for a major security flaw. You will now give hackers a new way into your stores database via another software. Its work enough to stay on top of securing one peice of software, but you now will have to secure two. While it is important to keep them both secure, the store is the most important. People are used to logging into forums seperately.

On another note, the contribution your looking at is particularly old and therefore made for older versions of both phpBB and osC. If you look into simple machines forums you may find a good solution. It will easily integrate into your existing design for a seamless look. Ive combined the two here: http:usingneem.com/forum.php

 

WOW thats EXACTLY what i wanted to do ..... did you use a contribution for this??

[♥GLWalker]

WOW thats EXACTLY what i wanted to do ..... did you use a contribution for this??

Not really, there was an old contib that gave me the idea, but it doesnt work anymore. But whats good is its even simpler than the old contribution to get it framed in. And its completely indexable too.

If your interested in using it then you would have a few steps to follow.

1) install simplemachines forum in a folder of your choice. IE- /forum/

2) while installing you must use the same database as your store. Not a problem becuase the database tables for SMF are abbreviated with SMF_. So no conflicts at all.

3)1 or 2 changes to the smf config file to show the homepage being a new php page in your osc catalog. Rather then the forum being yourdomain.com/forum/index.php it would be yourdomain.com/forum.php

4)you simply take all the code from your forums index.php page and insert it into a new php page for osc. IE, take the shipping page and duplicate it as forum.php, then where it hase the command for PAGE_TEXT, insert SMF index page code there. You should remove the right column and left column for more room. You may want to modify the footer a bit too for looks, becuase you have to leave SMF footer in place. Their policy.

5) Find a SMF template that you can use to blend into the same look as your OSC site. I found a really simple template for SMF and just changed the widths and colors to match. And removed a lot of its header. I also had to make a new languages file for OSC. This just holds the page title and breadcrumb names.

[ssnb]

I have been trying to incorporate a wordpress blog into my OSC site for weeks - and no one seems to be able to help!

 

It kinda works, but the comments and categories don't display properly.

 

I have searched the contributions and there are none that actually incorporate properly.

 

So in which case, you might be better off doing more research before you jump in!!

 

http://www.oscommerce.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=312274

 

 

Cheers

Sol

[uncommonhound]

Not really, there was an old contib that gave me the idea, but it doesnt work anymore. But whats good is its even simpler than the old contribution to get it framed in. And its completely indexable too.

If your interested in using it then you would have a few steps to follow.

1) install simplemachines forum in a folder of your choice. IE- /forum/

2) while installing you must use the same database as your store. Not a problem becuase the database tables for SMF are abbreviated with SMF_. So no conflicts at all.

3)1 or 2 changes to the smf config file to show the homepage being a new php page in your osc catalog. Rather then the forum being yourdomain.com/forum/index.php it would be yourdomain.com/forum.php

4)you simply take all the code from your forums index.php page and insert it into a new php page for osc. IE, take the shipping page and duplicate it as forum.php, then where it hase the command for PAGE_TEXT, insert SMF index page code there. You should remove the right column and left column for more room. You may want to modify the footer a bit too for looks, becuase you have to leave SMF footer in place. Their policy.

5) Find a SMF template that you can use to blend into the same look as your OSC site. I found a really simple template for SMF and just changed the widths and colors to match. And removed a lot of its header. I also had to make a new languages file for OSC. This just holds the page title and breadcrumb names.

 

I tried to do this but am getting errors... I was able to do step 1, 2. I tried to do step 3, but I get the error "Warning: require_once(/home/hound/public_html/catalog/Settings.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/hound/public_html/catalog/forum.php on line 123" How do I redirect to find the file in the public_html/forum/ folder?

 

It should go to /home/hound/public_html/forum/Settings.php)

 

Thank you..

[uncommonhound]

I tried to do this but am getting errors... I was able to do step 1, 2. I tried to do step 3, but I get the error "Warning: require_once(/home/hound/public_html/catalog/Settings.php) [function.require-once]: failed to open stream: No such file or directory in /home/hound/public_html/catalog/forum.php on line 123" How do I redirect to find the file in the public_html/forum/ folder?

 

It should go to /home/hound/public_html/forum/Settings.php)

 

Thank you..

 

Instead of fighting with this I just moved the forum folder into the catalog folder... still have a few issues with the redirects from forum/index.php but I think I can figure it out.

[Guest]

Kind of late to the party here but I would say that it is always a good idea to encourage a community to grow where possible.

 

I always buy my tech stuff from ebuyer, not particularly because of the service but because it has a massive community that is usually quite knowledgeable and submits a hell of a lot of customer reviews - I don't even bother reading the manufacturer description, I just skip straight to the reviews for a less biased view:

 

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/139739 - 30 reviews mostly very positive, you know you're getting something good.