Option 1: Link To Your Blog

Our recommended method for quickly incorporating a blog with your Big Cartel shop is to simply link to your blog in your shop navigation. If you do not currently have a blog, you can create a blog for free now using our favourite hosted blog app Tumblr.

Tumblr includes thousands of free themes, many of which are minimalist design that will match well with your Aarcade Big Cartel theme. Some great examples of such themes are those created by minimalistco.

By linking to your blog, all of the features and functions of your blog remain available to your visitor. Incorporating a 3rd party blog into your web space in this manner has become a common and accepted practice, even for larger businesses. Just be sure that your blog includes visible links back to your shop.

How to…

Once you have your blog set up, you can then link to your blog in your shop navigation by adding it to the Website field in your Big Cartel Store > Settings admin page. Refer to How do I add a link from my Big Cartel shop back to my web site or blog?

Option 2: Import Your Blog

This is not our preferred option for adding a blog to your shop because only your latest post content is displayed to your visitor. Control over design is limited and important blog features are lost, such as commenting, archive navigation, searching, etc.

This option also duplicates your blog content on the web, creating two locations where people can discover your blog. This reduces the focus on both locations and can also confuse the visitor if they discover one location and then the other.

However, if having your blog content within your shop layout is your biggest priority and you feel the issues mentioned above are not critical, then importing your blog may be a suitable option for you.

How to…

If you wish to import your blog, please refer to the Blog Page in our Extras section.

In some cases you may wish to add further custom style codes to fine tune your imported blog and entry content appearance – see support article How do I customise my Big Cartel theme?

Custom Domain

If you have a custom domain for your Big Cartel shop, most popular blogging platforms will allow you to apply this custom domain to your blog as well. For example, if your shop is located at..

http://www.my-domain.com

..your blog could be located at..

http://blog.my-domain.com

If you have an Aarcade Domain & Email Service, Aarcade will set your domain records for you. For related information refer to:

• How do I apply a custom domain to my Tumblr blog?
• How do I set my custom domain in my Blogger admin?