aStore for Amazon Associates, the new buzz word from Amazon.com, let Associates creates professional looking niche product or general online stores - up to a hundred each - to promote and sell Amazon product lines. While earning the same Referral Fees as other Associates websites, aStores are much simpler to built, and does not require the Associate to have any any programming skills at all.
Just like Squidoo'ing, but much simpler, creating aStores is a 4-step process and can be completed in a matter of minutes. Further, these stores can embedded within an Associates present website, created as a stand-alone site or linked to from your present website.
Ready? Here we go..
Create your aStore
If you are not, then Join as an Amazon Associate.
If you already are, then Log-in to your Associate's Account, click on the aStore tab on the menu column and you'll be taken to the Manage Your aStores page.
Next click on the Add an aStore button and create your Tracking ID on the following page. Enter the tracking ID you would like to use for your new aStore. You can very well use your Assciate ID as the tracking ID for your first store, other wise find a name that is as close to your planned product content that you are going to promote. Click on the Search to continue.
The Tracking ID can include alphanumeric characters, dashes, and underscores and can be up to 64 characters long but excludes spaces.
If the tracking ID you requested is not available (already taken by another Associate), the wizard will show you some alternatives you can choose or reject.
The tracking ID will be your aStore's URL: http://astore.amazon.com/your-Tracking-ID-20
The -20 numerical at the end of your URL is the designation for Amazon US Associates.
On acceptance of the Trackind ID, you are now ready to continue with your niche product line(s) in creating your aStore pages.
Creating Category pages
Start a new Menu Item by creating a Category. Click on the Add Category Page button.
Give your category a Custom Title.
Choose the to select products from Amazon.com's inventory. You can either:
Handpick individual products for each page,
Display products that belong to selected Amazon categories or sub-categories, or
Display products from Amazon Listmania lists.
Add individual products
Click on the Add product button and you will be taken to the Product Search page.
Use the Search feature to find the product you want, or the ASIN/ISBN of individual product.
Click on the "Add" button to add the products from the search results to the category page. Click on the hyperlinked search results to see product details on Amazon.com.
In the "Added Product" box, add a custom description for each selected product by clicking on image or rearrange the order of products in the pop-up. This will help you to personalize your website.
You can add up to 54 products to each aStore Category and Subcategory page.
Display product by category
These pages will automatically show best selling products for the selected categories which you can streamline by specifying search keywords.
Products from Amazon Listmania
You can find the List ID by looking at the URL of your Listmania, which should similar to: http://www.amazon.com/gp/richpub/listmania/fullview/R15GXTRDK2PMXZ
Category description displayed at the top of this page
Make your aStore unique. Add your own text to explain each category or additional information to enhance the read value of your store.
At the bottom of the page are options for you to:
Hide category navigation, especially useful if you wanr a narrower width store or if you want to embed (iframe) this into your present webside, and
Enable a link back to my site in the navigation.
Creating Subcategory pages
Start a new Submenu Item by creating a Subcategory.
Highlight the Menu item where you want to add this content and click on the Add Subcategory Page button.
Procedure of adding products are similar to the Creating Categories.
The Move Up, Move Down and Remove buttons.
Use this button to further organize the sequencing of you Categories and Subcategories. Highlight the menu item you want organized (move up, move down or delete) before activating these button.
You can always come back to rearrange the listing later.
Color, Design & Name of Site
Customize the look and feel of your store by selecting the color theme, specifying the store title and including a link to your logo. The logo will appear next to the store title.
Choose a color scheme for your store
Choose from the color theme dropbox or use your own artistic talent to create a more exclusive shopfront color scheme.
Give your store a name
This name will appear as in the title bar of the browser and an optionally be included in the header, or shown incorporated with a small logo (200 pixels wide by 75 pixels tall) which is served from your own server.
You can always come back and edit/change this page later.
Sidebar Widgets
aStore offers the flexibility of using widgets (sidebar and body) to display Amazon.com's unique features like product similar items, accessories, customer reviews, etc.
First you need to pick the sidebar placement, to the right or left of your main content display. Next choose the widgets that you want displayed on the four different types of pages that aStores offered. They are the:
Featured Product and Category Pages,
Product Detail Page,
Search Results Page and
Shopping Cart Page.
You can always come back and edit/change this page later.
Finish & Get Links
Get the link to your aStore from the last page of the setup sequence and you're done. There are a number of ways to use your aStore links:
Link to your aStore as a stand-alone site
Easiest is to make your aStore a stand-alone section of your Web site by adding a "Store" link to your main site navigation bar that links directly to your new store.
Select Link to your aStore as a stand-alone site in the above Get Link form.
Click the Highlight HTML button and copy the selected store URL.
Then add a "Store" link to your site's main navigation using the URL provided in steps 1 and 2.
Embed your aStore using an inline frame
This method of embedding your aStore will appear to your visitors as if the aStore is part of your site and enable them to shop without leaving your site.
Create a new page or select the existing page on your site into which you would like to embed your aStore.
Select Embed your aStore using an inline frame in the above Get Link form.
Click the Highlight HTML button and copy the selected code.
Then paste the code into the HTML of the page you selected in step 2.
Add a "Store" link to your site's main navigation that links to the page containing your aStore.
Frame your aStore into your Web site using a frameset
This method of embeding your store will also be appear to your visitors as if the store is part of your Web site and enable them to shop without leaving your site.
Select Integrate your aStore using a frameset in the above form to view sample frameset code with you store's URL already placed into one of the frames.
Create a new frameset page using the code sample provided above or any custom frameset that better fits the structure of your Web site.
Place your site's navigation in one of the frames and your aStore URL in another frame.
Add a "Store" link to your site's main navigation and link it to the new frameset you just created.
