While I adore WordPress for the ease of publishing information and consider using it for a single product website, I'd love to have both a blog and a shop on a site.
For now, I use WordPress for blogging, but if the other CMS offers the same functionality and ease of use, I can use it for a new site.
Currently, I can expect a couple of ways to get a blog and a shop:
1. Have a WordPress blog (the homepage is the blog) and link to Zen Cart from the blog
The drawbacks are that I'll have to work out how to operate Zen Cart and I'll need a designer to make the shop look the same as the blog (or visa versa).
(How do I link from the top navigation if the pages are generated using a PHP function?)
2. Install Zen Cart and use a WordPress module.
The drawback of this is that I might have to use Zen Cart as the main CMS. Also, I don't want to tweak any plugins for Zen Cart to integrate recent posts and comments in Zen Cart.
3. Another way is to have Zen Cart and link to a blog from the top navigation
In this case, apart from still having to manage Zen Cart, it will be a separate entity from the blog and will have its own homepage.
(Also, how do I do that?)
4. Use Drupal for both blogging and shopping carting
Though it'd be great to have them both integrated in one another, I heard (and have read the manual) that Drupal needs quite some effort to manage.
Ideally, I'd want a WP plugin with the same functionality as Zen Cart (which will mean easy maintenance).
Also, I'd love to use the three page optimization technique for the online shop.
Can anyone point me in the right direction?
Your advice will be highly appreciated
Thanks.
Edited by A.N.Onym, 13 October 2006 - 06:43 AM.






