Written on August 18, 2008  /  with 51 comments  /  in the Magento Tips category.

Setup a Blog Inside Your Magento Store!

Update: August 2o, 2011

I recently revisited this Magento/Wordpress thing on a new ecommerce project I have been working on for my site ScreenPaintHD.com. I needed a blog and of course I couldn’t have just any blog… I needed WordPress. So I attempted to follow these steps that I had created previously (see below) and tried using the Lazzymonks extension but remembered in the process that it isn’t WordPress.

So instead I tried out the FishPig WordPress Integration extension for Magento and i’m up and running perfectly. You can check it out by going to the “blog” link located in the footer. The intall process is a little technical so you want to make sure you know what you are doing… but after it’s all configured the two blend together quite nicely.

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Are you looking to integrate a blog into your Magento shopping cart ecommerce store? There are a few ways you can accomplish this, but one way that I have found is far better than any of the other possible solutions. It’s using Lazzymonks Blog Extension for Magento. Here are the specific steps for setting it up.

Setup Blog in Magento

First go to the extension page so that you can grab the extension key. If you have already tried installing the Lazzymonks WordPress Integration extension, than you have two steps you need to take first. 1) uninstall the wordpress integration extension from your Magento Extensions manager. 2) delete the blog_setup entry in the core_resource table of your database. (trust me on this one, these two steps definitely come from experience)

Now go to your Magento Extensions manager and input the extension key to install. This will install the extension package and put files in your directory. If you are not using the default template that comes with Magento install, than you need to copy the folder ‘blog’ from app/design/frontend/default/default/template/blog to where ever your theme is. Also do the same for blog.xml from app/design/frontend/default/default/layout. If you miss this step your blog will show up as a blank page.

You will now have a new menu item in your admin called Blog where you can create categories and blog posts, very similarly to how you would in WordPress. You will also want to go to System >> Configuration >> Blog  - this is where you can customize the main blog settings such as layout etc.

If you by any chance run into any problems setting this up hit me back and I can help you out. If you follow my steps, each one step for step than you should not run into any problems at all.

What this can do for your store!

A simple easy to use blog inside your Magento ecommerce store can do wonders for your sales if you are delivering a good product. Think of all the good articles and reviews you could give on all your products each day, week, and month. One of the things many ecommerce websites lack is quality content to go along with their catalog. People seem to think that a catalog is good enough for content. This is simply not true. Adding a blog to your online store and writing quality content about your products and about your industry could increase your online sales dramatically.

Still Need a Theme For Your Magento Project? Check Out HelloThemes

HelloThemes has a very large selection of Premium Magento Themes covering all different types of needs from Electronic styled themes for Electronic stores to Furniture styled themes. Check them out before trying to mess with your own theme. It could save you a ton of time and money.

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