How To Build an Amazon aStore

I'm currently working on a website to create a step-by-step guide on how to build an Amazon aStore. Any feedback on this would be gratefully recieved.

1

After signing up for your amazon associates/affliates account this is the first step in creating your own aStore.

The first category can be named using the custom title field. You then add products either by selecting an Amazon category. In this example the main category I have chosen is Music. This will then show the top selling items from Amazons music category. You could create a search filter for this Though it may be better to select a search filter under subcategories.

You can then choose a number of subcategories under the main category, by either using a search filter, adding items individually or using the provided sub categories to auto fill.


Be aware that this first category does not collapse when viewing other categories, so you may want to keep the number of subcategories under this limited.

You also have the ability to add text to the top of each category and subcategory by filling the box at the bottom.

2

You can also change the look of your aStore, very handy for matching the colour scheme of your blog, website, etc

You can select different theme's and colours for all apsoect of the aStore here, including fonts.

One thing I should flag here is that this is where you "Name" Your store, this is easily done by filling in the space for it at the bottom of the page. I have seen many aStores that still display "My Associate Store"

3

On the next screen you will see a number of options to add and position widgets on your aStore

The sidebar can be selected to show on the left or right of the page. If you select no widgets for the home page it will just show your categories and a search box.

Personally I don't like the Listmania options, though you may find them useful

the options for to show similair items, accessories and reviews I do find useful.

4

Getting your link!

You have 3 options here. The easiest is just to select the standalone site, which will display your aStore and you can use the link to it in emails, Blogs, etc.

The most popular use is for using "iFrames", this is a way of integrating the aStore into almost any website, web blog or similair. You just need to tick the iframes button, hit 'Highlight HTML' and copy. Then paste the code as HTML in any web presence that allows the input of HTML.

The final option of publishing to Frames is for the more experienced web master.

I will cover how to add individual items in the next tutorial.