This modification has now been updated to the new Microkid Boosted v1.1 modification.
update; As requested I have now included the mod to show thumbnails and set maximum number of posts in this package. You can choose to add thumbnails or just use the text links from the standard microkid related posts. This means you don’t have to buy the two packages seperately.
This mod really helps to integrate your blog posts and products in your shop closely.
Update: When you click through to see examples of this mod you will see that the related products links include thumbnails. This is from a mod I did of the Microkid related post plugin. Without the mod you will only see the basic text links.
One of the biggest benefits of the change over of wp e-commerce to custom post types is that it adds a lot more power to it’s functionality and allows it to interact with other plug-ins much easier. If you want to show related products in your wp e-commerce 3.8 store then one of the best ways is with Microkids Related Posts plug-in.
Microkids related post plug-in does much more than just show related posts based on keyword, tag or category. It is fully integrated with WordPress custom post facility and so it allows you to search on a whole range of different page types – including products.
The power of the plug-in is your ability to select which products and pages you want to add on to your product page. The closer the match you can get between the product being viewed and the related products the more useful it is for your web store visitors.
You can see an example of it in operation at one of my stores that sells mobiles phones online. At the bottom of the description there is a box which contains related posts and products. If you are able to do a bit of coding then this is pretty simple to do using Microkids api commands. If you’re not into coding then don’t worry you can purchase the adapted wp e-commerce files at the bottom of this post for just £20.00.
If you want to test out the Microkid Related Post plugin then you can display the prodicts or posts quickly and easily by using the widget. This gives you a listing in the sidebar. While it’s not as effective as listing the alternative products at the bottom of the page it does mean you don’t need to do any coding you just drag the widget across to your sidebar like normal.
Microkid’s plug-in is my favorite related post plug-in but it does have some thing to be aware of;
- Reciprocal linking. I love this feature and you might want to use it when you start on your internal product relationships. Basically when this option is switched on then when you link to one product it will automatically put a link on that product back. It’s a bit of a time saver when you first start but it’s also useful for connecting your older products and posts to newer one. The older ones will have some page rank and authority with the search engines so use it to boost your newer posts and products. The problem is though it can get a bit out of hand if you are not careful and keep linking to the same products or post. Try and keep it to less than 6 of each or it gets confusing for visitors. There may come a time where you decide to switch off the reciprocal link function.
- No thumbnails. This is one of the biggest draw backs of using the Microkid related post plug-in. However there have been a lot of requests for it on the various forums and Microkid is putting together an update at the moment. Thumbnails may be part of the new version.
If you can live with the above two potential problems than this is the plug-in for you to display related products in wp e-commerce. There’s also no reason why you can not use it to put together cross-selling options as well. it just needs a bit of thinking about.
I’m going to wait for the next update of the plug-in to see what the situation is. If thumbnails have not been incorporated in the plug-in then I’ll take a look at seeing if I can update the code and release a modified version of it. I’ll also take a look at if there’s a way to limited the number of reciprocal links.
If you want the hack to display related products in wp e-commerce 3.8 then purchase it here.
works on wp 3.2.x
