Install an Amazon aStore into a WordPress Page
A lot of you have been admiring my gorgeous Bookshop and asking me how I built it. So, I've asked my technical dept (hubby) too put together a quick lesson for you. So, I'll hand you over to Peter . . .
Hi, Peter here . . . Here's a video tutorial that's great for teaching you how to create an Amazon aStore but might get a bit too techie for some folk when it comes to putting the aStore on your blog.
Watch the first 3 minutes of the video if you need to know how to create your aStore and then simply follow the instructions I've included lower in this post to easily get your Amazon shop working on your WordPress site.
Creating an Amazon aStore is not too difficult as you can see from the video above, the challenge is how to get it to work on your WordPress blog without messing with php or in case you don't have an aStore Page Template.
Here's a little tutorial to show you how we did it.
Within your Amazon Associates pages and once you've created and designed your aStore, click the 'Finish & get link' button. This will take you to a page that has this information: (click the image to enlarge it)
As the big red arrow indicates, check the button to 'Embed my store using an inline frame'
The code generated in the box is what you need to copy and paste into your WordPress page.
Now create a new page within your WordPress blog. there are a few things you need to notice. Firstly, this all needs to be done using the HTML editing panel and NOT the Visual one. See the red arrow #1 in the image below. It won't work if you're in the Visual one.
(Click the image to enlarge)
We need to make a slight change to the code too. Alter the 90% to 100% as shown by Arrow #2
Finally, as Arrow #3 is indicating, we altered the page template for our Book Shop page to remove the sidebars - the aStore just didn't fit when we included them.
And that's it. Just click the Publish button.
A word of warning! Do NOT click the Visual tab to see how it looks, for some bizarre reason WordPress will delete the Amazon aStore code. It may be worth saving the code in a notepad file so you can easily paste it back it should it ever disappear on you.
Yay! It's me again! So, there you go ~ get yourself a Bookshop just like mine and let me know so I can come and have a nosey. I might just pinch some of your recommendations 😉
Heather, thanks for this! It reminded me that I’m an Amazon affiliate and I intended to do something like this, but forgot. It is giving me some good food-for-thought for my own website, yay! Thank you!
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Yay! Lisa, you MUST do it – you can customise it with your gorgeous pink and black and it will look fabbytastic!! You’ll have lots of fun filling the bookshelves (that was the best bit 😉
Hugs
Heather x
Thanks, Heather. I had not thought about doing a book store. I put up my own books individually. I think the store looks way better. As for the visual vs html tab – for some reason when you use iframes things get lost when you switch back and forth. I sure learned that the time-consuming way.
A simple suggestion is to complete everything in the visual tab and then go to the html to put in the html info. Then publish the page. Once published THEN go look at the page.
Ali,
Thanks for sharing your expertise – I appreciate that.
Sounds like you might give it a go and get your own aStore.
It was lots of fun and can grow and grow.
Heather x
Hi Heather,
Great tutorial Peter – just one thing that people who’ve had Amazon accounts for a while should check – make sure you have your website registered as part of your account, otherwise you run the risk of sales not being attributed to you.
I’ve also noticed the whole “iframe” issue thing – and now that YouTube has a new way of embedding (using iframes 🙁 ) this could be a challenge – thankfully you can still choose the “old html” way of getting your embed code.
Time to write to Wordoress & ask them about iframes, me thinks!!
Take care,
Tracey
x
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Tracey,
Thanks for the tip about checking that you’ve registered your account.
Looking forward to hearing your feedback from WordPress.
Heather x
Thanks for sharing, I am going to refer a client here who is an Amazon affiliate. WordPress does not like iframes which is why when you got to look at a visual picture of it, it goes away. I blogged about that today with video…interesting. I know there is always a way. I have been thinking about setting that up for myself too…You have given me more of a reason to try it. Thanks hubby!
Thanks Michelle,
Hope your client get some good ideas.
I’m off to read your blog.
Heather x
Thanks, Heather and Peter!
The video was helpful but your instructions are worth their weight in gold. They’re going to save us WP users a lot of time and trouble trying to figure this out on our own.
You’ve just created a mini miracle and eliminated a bothersome learning curve. Now all your readers who are Amazon affiliates will be inspired to add an aStore to their site.
You Shine. Keep the good stuff coming! 🙂
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Oh, thank you lovely Melanie,
I’m so glad that we can help and support others to do what we’re doing. It’s so lovely being part of this great big supportive family on the net. Whenever one person finds out how to do something, they go and share it with everyone else. That way – we all learn and grow together – Yay!!! I love it!!!
Thanks for being part of my online family.
Heather x
This is awesome Heather! Thanks so much to Peter for doing this too. This is a super cool idea and I appreciate your sharing it with us.
One question, can you add books you want and take away books you don’t want or is it totally up to Amazon what they list there?
Again, thanks much!
Sharon
Sharon,
You’re very welcome ~ and yes, you get to choose the books you want to put on the bookshelves. Under the ‘Browse by Category’ list, there is a ‘similar items’ tab – that’s where Amazon do the choosing (but I think you can switch that bit off if you don’t want it). I had lots of fun deciding on which books I wanted and I can go back and add or take away whenever I like.
love
Heather x
I followed each of Peter’s step carefully, but only ended up with a page that had the link to my Amazon astore. I do not understand what I’m doing wrong and so do not know what to tell you so you could help me.
Thanks for the info, Heather & Peter. I am a newbie. My site is a WordPress site. I signed up to be an Amazon Affiliate. I have obtained the html. I don’t know where to insert the html. Can/will you help? Thanks, sites such as yours which share are great. Barbara
Thanks so much for your tutorial. This seems like a much more straight forward option to all those plugins out there. Thanks!
Patti,
It’s a pleasure, I love to keep things simple.
Good luck
Heather x
nice..brilliant post…got a fab store for my site
YAY! That’s great news, glad it helped
Heather x
Thanks for finally talking about > Install an Amazon aStore into a WordPress Page | Mum’s Got A Business < Loved it!
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Pleasure, hope it helped
Heather x
Thank you so much. I’ve tried a few plug-ins and couldn’t really get them to work. I wanted a simple store and now I have one. I am going to set up on my other sites too.
Great post – very useful – easy to follow instructions
Chellie,
So glad we could help. Thank you for stopping by and for your kind words.
Good luck
Heather x
Wow! This is just awesome and useful info to embed a store in wordpress. Thanks for sharing 🙂
I wanted to let you know that your instructions are what helped me to put my store in my blog after months of trying. Thank you! One thing everyone else always left out was switching to ‘one column, no sidebar’ That made my site visible. I call it Mahogany Favorites.
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I keep trying to put my astores into WP and every time the code disappears no matter what I do. I am thinking that it will not work unless I upgrade. Your tutorial is great Peter, I know what I am doing but even if I didn’t you explained everything perfect and easy to understand.
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