Amazon AWS Stores, The Non-Programmers Guide

"Giving your web site's visitors access to products from Amazon has become virtually painless, using Amazon Web Services. Providing this service will give you additional web content as well as providing a valuable resource for visitors, giving them additional reasons for returning. All of this while making you money through Amazon's Associates Program." - Quoted from Adding an Amazon Store to your Web Site Made Painless byStuart Lewallan.

Setting up these websites of course requires the use of a script that will query Amazon's database for products that you are searching and then parsing these information back to be displayed on your webpages.

These scripts are available in various programming languages - PHP, Perl, ASP and more, and while you may purchase some of them, others are free. We are looking at some free scripts here.

My latest Amazon Lens: Amazon aStores - The No-Nonsense Guide

Both Associate and Developer

You have to wear these two hats to set up you AWS stores

Remeber, you have to be an Associate of Amazon.com to be able to receive any referral payments on Amazon and Amazon's Third-Party products sold through your site, and also an AWS developer to able to install and run AWS scripts.

Join As An Associate: Signing up as an Amazon Associate is fast and straightfoward - you will be given an 'AssociateID' which you will use as a referal to get your commison payments.
Apply To Be An AWS Developer: AWS developers are associates who uses programs or scripts to access Amazon product data to display on their shop sites - you will be granted an 'AWSAccessKeyId' which you must incorporate into your script.

Free Amazon AWS Scripts

Download, configure and install the script

Locate and download an (preferbally free) Amazon AWS script - PHPs are quiet eazy to handle - unzip, set up the configuration files properly, upload the configured system to your server, and your basic site should be up and running. A couple of scripts that we recommend you try first is listed here :

Amazon Products Feed: This script, written in Perl, has a very strong user community dedicated to its potential and development. It is also supported by a strong forum group. We were using this script for about a year before moving to a PHP version listed below..
Amazon Store Manager V2 (ASM2): Written in PHP, installs in minutes, very easy to use, even for the novice webmaster, comes with built in SEO capability. This is the script we are using for all our AWS stores.
Chipmunk's PHP AWS script: A completely customizable amazon affiliate script. You decide what products you want to show in categories you create. We have yet to use this one so we can't say much about it.
AmazOOP Awesom! : a PHP OOP API for AWS: A component that lets you create lists of products to feature on your Mambo-driven site using information provided by Amazon through Amazon Web Services.
HotScripts.com: The largest depository of free and commercial script on the internet. Search this site and you'll come across lots more of what you are looking for.

A Couple of Resources

Just in case you are starting out

Two sites that can really get you going, hopefully in the right direction.

What is ASM.com : Amazon Affiliate Store Manager: A script support website for newbie webmasters of Amazon Store Manager Version 2, a free PHP script with which you can easily download, set up and run Amazon Affiliate stores.
Amazon Browse Node Lookup: Easy Amazon US, UK, DE, FR & CA browse node lookup and Amazon shopping guide for ASM2 Web Service developers.

Interesting Articles

From What is ASM.com : Amazon Affiliate Store Manager

A short list of articles that you might want to read to acquaint yourself better with the AWS script. Find more from the site itself.

Amazon International Direct Store: During this holidays Amazon.com's International Direct Store is sure a great way to send gifts overseas or purchase that hard to find item. International Direct delivers direct to your door and it offers Amazon customers a unique service...
Create Links While Browsing Amazon.com: "If you frequently create text links to Amazon products you'll appreciate this easy way to do so while you're reading about a product on Amazon...
Front Page Setup: The basic install of ASM2 defaults to a landing (home) page which displays a short
* Welcome Message, and
* a boxed Store Category Menu.
An alternative to this is of course you can setup your affiliate shop site to have it's own...
Browse Nodes & Search Indices: Amazon Store Manager's product and product search display is based on Amazon.com's SearchIndices and BrowseNodes values. SearchIndices are product subject areas such as...

Get Yourself Going

and start building your first niche product store.

Don't stop at one. Built a different store for a new niche product line. Spread the net and you catch more fish.

Found yourself a good domain name yet? Register it at the World's Largest Registrar - GoDaddy.com.

The House Of Clocks & Watches: Online shopping for bestselling and finest brand clocks and watches including as TAG Heuer, Movado, Bulova, Armani, Anne Klein, Ashford, Timex, Nike, electronic time pieces and more. Your online clocks and watches store.
Baits, Lures, Reels & Tackles: Online shopping for everyday low prices on bait, lures, reel, tackles, fishing attire and other accessories, opens 24/7, all online.
Tops2Day.com : International Direct Store: Shop for Books, DVD, Consumer Electronics, Health & Personal Care, Home & Garden, Jewelry, Music, Software, Sporting Goods, Tools & VHS from Amazon.com's International Direct Store exporting directly to Australia, Austria, Denmark,..
Bags, Backpacks, Luggage & All: Shop online for over a hundred brand of bags, handbags, backpacks, luggage and travel accessories at everyday low prices including designer brands Prada, Gucci, Forzieri, Christian Dior, Dolce & Gabbana, Fendi, Versace, Giorgio Armani,..

Get Yourself Motivated

Amazon's TOS says you cannot buy goods through your own affiliate store(s)

You cannot buy from your own store (Amazon's TOS prohibits it) :

How to Start a Home-Based Web Design Business, 3rd (Home-Based Business Series)

What To Look Out For

Just in case you're wondering what else

Amazon's once claim of having more than 900,00 affiliates, each sharing returns from the same referral pie.
Current hot keywords for affiliate site webmasters from Google - 'thin affiliates' and 'supplemental results'

HangOut

The place to catch up and get involved, everybody's a friend

Get to know other AWS webmasters, talk to people, ask questions or read up on notes, mods, guides and more.

My other guide Lenses

Adding the occasional one of two periodically..

Amazon aStores - The No-Nonsense Guide: 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.
Share Your Digital Photos Online: For those who will be in Germany come June 6th. the experience of the FIFA World Cup is probably one ultimate lifetime experience which you want to remember forever,..
Notes on Powell's Books: "From humble storefront beginnings in 1971 on a derelict corner of northwest Portland, Powell's Books has grown into one of the world's great bookstores, with seven locations...
Squidoo'ing The Squid: A Lens at Squidoo.com is one person's view on a topic that is passionate to him - a single web page that can point to blogs, favorite links, RSS feeds, Flickr photos, Google Maps,..

Squidoo

Amazon AWS Stores, The Non-Programmers Guide