Recently I did a post about several tools that I found useful for niche blogging and I recommended Datafeedr which is a great product, but I really have to tell you about PopShops as it is by far and away the easiest tool I have come across to add a store. The best thing is that you can use it for free. They actually have three levels of membership FREE, $5 a month, and $30 a month. Basically, the difference amongst the pricing is that FREE is limited in customization and you are limited to only 10 stores, $5 a month gets you unlimited stores, and the $30 a month allows you to add a search feature and SEO rules to make your store more appealing in the eyes of the search engines.
So why am I now recommending this even though I gave Datafeedr the thumbs up? Is it because of the awesome affiliate commissions I will get paid for referring you to PopShops? No, so far as I can tell, they don’t even have an affiliate program (let me know if they do).
It boils down to ease of use. Datafeedr is probably easy for those of you who are well versed in tweaking code and the like, but PopShops is exceedingly easy – you just copy the code and pop it in your post or page – done.
Here are some layout examples you can use with PopShops (feel free to buy these watches, they are from Overstock.com):
Standard PopShops layout:
And this one is cool – although too wide for this blog…for the right layout, this looks really nice:
This one is borderless:
This is only a sampling of the layouts you can have with PopShops. If you are looking for an easy solution to “popping” in a store, I think that PopShops is about as simple as you can get. Give the free version a try and see if it is for you.
If anyone would care to comment about their experiences with PopShops versus Datafeedr or any other store solution, please comment below.
On a closing note, you might ask why not just integrate an Amazon store with your blog? Well, I do utilize my Amazon affiliate tools on many of my blogs, but the thing with Amazon is the cookie lasts less than a day and the payouts aren’t that great (usually). So while I do use it, I get better results with other tools like the ones above. Many of the stores that work with PopShops and Datafeedr have cookies that last at 15 days and many will be quite a bit longer giving me a better chance for those who aren’t impulse buyers, but eventually come back to whatever store my affiliate link sent them to and then buy. If they went to Amazon through my affiliate link and they don’t buy within a day, I am out of luck.
Datafeedr creates ACTUAL pages with CONTENT while PS just inserts a JavaScript link which pulls the products from their server. This means that the products you add using PS aren’t actually considered content on your site to the search engines. Search engine friendly eh?
Maybe PS has other options in their paid versions but just view the source code of a PS created site, like the source code of this page, you will not see any products or product information, you will only see a line of JavaScript code.
But if you look at the source code when using Datafeedr, you can actually see the product names and description and images and links and all of that info is stored on your server and can be spidered by the search engines and hence ranked. In addition each product has also its own individual product page. Just wanted to point out one of many important differences between PS and Datafeedr.
Thanks for responding Stefan. I am using the $5 version, so I don’t have the SEO rules option. Having used your program, I found it to be an awesome product…the problem for me was that it was slightly difficult to use. Your videos are great and very thorough, I am just a bit of a dunce. You guys even sent me an e-mail to ask if you can help me get going – so I am thoroughly impressed with your program and service.
It wasn’t the installation, it was once I was inside the control panel within the blog in which I was using the Datafeedr plugin. This was somewhat combersome for me – getting the structuring of the store and such – again – me=computer dunce.
I would suggest anyone who is looking at trying out a store on their site try both and see what works best for you.
If you try Datafeedr and PopShops, it will be obvious which program is more robust and has more options – Datafeedr – hands down. I just want to give some options as some people will not be able to shell out the funds to put a store on their site and I think PopShops is a good alternative.
Hi,
Those popshops are great looking ones.
I`m on the move to put some Amazon afilliate store, and know i`ve find your blog …
Cumps,
Fazer um Blog’s last blog post..Fazer Dinheiro
Good Content…Thank you so much
Cheap Prices Buy Toys Kids Baby Games