Amazon has recently modified their Product Advertising API requirements. Brand new affiliates must have their site audited before the API keys are granted. Usually, this is after 3 sales. Existing sites/blogs with traffic can apply for early access. Most plugins and themes use this API.
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here are many WordPress plugins and themes to help Amazon affiliates. We look at dozens of them. From basic search and utility plugins – to advanced software that finely searches Amazon’s marketplaces. These advanced plugins then manage your selected products with WooCommerce. There are even browser extensions and mobile apps for Amazon affiliates. There are so many options it can be difficult to know where to start.
The good news is that there is no reason to build your links manually. And you do not need a premium plugin for most startup sites. This guide will give you an in-depth look at what’s available.
WordPress plugins and themes for Amazon affiliates can be grouped into 4 categories:
- Amazon Searching & Linking – Plugins that search Amazon’s product database and allow you to post selected products with your affiliate link.
- Amazon Themes – Themes with built-in Amazon searching and posting or a focus on Amazon affiliates. These themes are often targeted at specific presentation formats, such as review sites.
- Site and Store Builders – Plugins that finely search Amazon’s product database via the API. They convert the selected items into WooCommerce products and manage the pricing and inventory updates.
- Amazon Affiliate Utilities – Plugins that solve a particular point solution – globalizing links, displaying reviews, finding discounts and other handy functions for improving your user’s experience.
Site and Store Builders:
Azon Authority, Prosociate, and WooZone
These are the power players in the Amazon plugin world with the most robust capabilities. They all have varying degrees of advanced searching capabilities. After the Amazon items are searched and selected, the plugin converts them into WooCommerce products. This gives Amazon affiliates the ability to manage their products in WooCommerce, the most powerful commerce backend for WordPress. With Amazon API connectivity, they each have robust searching and importing of images, reviews, and descriptions. The product’s pricing and inventory levels are kept up to date via cron jobs and can be automatically removed when out of stock.
A common misconception is that these are only for building storefronts with 1000’s of products. In fact, these store builders excel at niche and authority sites. They provide much better searching, automatic pricing updates, content via Amazon’s API and WooCommerce support. The WooCommerce support gives you access to all of the WooCommerce ecosystem and core functionality. This means you have many add-on options such as wish lists, related products, cross-selling, department management etc. at your disposal. The three products in this category share a number of features and have a common baseline of functionality.
| Azon Authority | Prosociate | WooZone | |
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| 90-day “cookie” |  |
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| Geotargeting | |
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| Search Amazon via API | |
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| Statistics | |
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| CSV Import | |
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| Text Spinning | |
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| Pricing update via CRON | |
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| WooCommerce Powered | |
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| Advanced Searching | |
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| Assign products to categories | |
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Differentiators
Azon Authority, Prosociate, and WooZone have much in common. As they continue to develop their plugins, they each have extended their core capabilities in different areas.
Azon Authority
Azon Authority adds a theme to the base source code of Prosociate. The theme provides basic Facebook integration and is translation ready. Like Prosociate and WooZone, Azon Authority will work with any WooCommerce theme you want. There is an automated translation capability included for gisting of content to other languages. Azon Authority also has an ASIN Grabber function which allows you to insert an Amazon URL and have a list of Amazon Product ASINs returned, ready for import. You can also generate a list of product information by entering an ASIN:
Pretty cool! But you will be locked into a single theme.
Prosociate
A little biased as we develop Prosociate. Prosociate adds Ebay support to the mix which is particularly useful for review and comparison sites. Product discovery is another focus area for Prosociate with extended, more granular, Amazon searching. With over 350 million products at Amazon, granular searching will help find the perfect products for your niche. There is also built-in text spinning and integration with third-party spinners. Both Prosociate and WooZone allow you to use product images stored on Amazon’s cloud to ensure fast delivery and save on local server storage.
Prosociate also has hosting, content development, SEO and more. We also create built-for-you sites as well as quick start services.
WooZone
WooZone uses wpCron for updating product pricing and inventory. There are also a number of extra add-on modules. These upsell products include a discount finder plugin, Amazon Discount Finder (ADF) and the Kingdom Theme. All of the WooZone products are available at Code Canyon. Prosociate and AzonAuthority are lifetime support and update licenses. You will have to factor in additional annual support costs with all WooZone products. Also, do be sure of your purchase as the WooZone/CodeCanyon refund policy can be rigid. WooZone has recently adopted a modular user interface:
Pricing
The pricing for the three site-building products varies quite a bit.
Azon Authority pricing seems to be artificially presented higher to show large discount or “sales price”. There are a few upsells and you are presented with a, “… you are about to discover the one secret strategy …” audio pitch on entering the site. It is definitely a high-pressure sales environment. The pricing is one-time though with no monthly or annual costs for updates or support.
Prosociate licensing is also lifetime with no ongoing costs. At $39 for the single-site and $59 for the unlimited sites, they are the least expensive product and often have coupons codes. In the case of Prosociate, the purchase price includes both the Amazon and eBay modules so you can easily mix Amazon and eBay affiliate products — nice!.
WooZone is a CodeCanyon marketplace product. There are a few upsells but the sales funnel is not intrusive. The initial pricing may seem a bit lower but it only includes 6 months of support. These are large complex products that run your business. Support is a requirement and WooZone support must be purchased every 6 months. Also, marketplace purchases are notoriously difficult to get refunds for. The pricing below includes one year of support for all initial purchases for comparison purposes:
| Single Site Initial |
Single Site Year 2+ |
5 Sites Initial |
5 Sites Year 2+ |
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| Azon Authority | $147 | lifetime | $197 | lifetime |
| Prosociate | $39 | lifetime | $59 | lifetime |
| WooZone | $52 | $49 annual | $260 | $245 annual |
notes: |
1) AzonAuthority $197 up to 10 sites ($147/$197 often discounted) 2) Prosociate $59 is unlimited ($49/$59 often 20-25% off coupons and includes eBay) 3) WooZone $52/$260 (occasionally discounted to $40 per site) includes the 6-month support extension to 1-year support. |
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Amazon Searching & Linking
This is the largest category of products. There are many plugins that will search Amazon via the API and add your affiliate link to the posted item. Many also have link management and templating systems to present the products in different formats. Products in this category include; Amazon’s Link Builder, EasyAzon, Amazon Simple Affiliate (ASA2), and ThirstyAffiliate.
Amazon Associate Link Builder
Amazon has their own plugin – LinkBuilder. A WordPress plugin for bloggers and marketers to add Amazon affiliate links to their sites. The plugin lets you search for products in the Amazon database via their API. It allows you to easily add affiliate product links to your posts and pages. Linkbuilder also gives you the ability to make your own templates. You can even clone and modify an existing template:
Custom Template Editor
Of course, the software applies your Amazon Associate id to the product links that are inserted. LinkBuilder supports many different ways to present your affiliate links including; text links, carousels and custom ad units. After searching and selecting a product to insert, you can then assign a template. LinkBuilder will also allow you to assign your international Associate ID and marketplace:
Link Builder Templates
It will be very interesting to see how Amazon does with support and development but this is a great start. The current version lacks the capabilities of the larger affiliate plugins. Missing features many users appreciate are; geotargeting, integration with WooCommerce, link management, and statistics. As for pricing, Link Builder is FREE.
Easy Azon
EasyAzon is a well known, well-marketed product for Amazon affiliates. It is very popular and seems to have found the right blend of ease and performance. The primary features in EasyAzon, that are not in Link Builder, are geotargeting and link management. Geotargeting allows you to redirect an international visitor to a different Amazon site. A visitor from London could be sent to the Amazon.UK page. Link management is also a nice feature to have for setting No_follow, New_window and other link properties. EasyAzon features include:
- Text Links – Links with optional product details on mouseover
- Image Links – Images are pulled from Amazon via the API in multiple sizes.
- CTAs – The Call to Action link Inserts a small Amazon buy now button into your post or page.
- Infloblocks – Boxes that have an image, text link, price and a CTA button. These can also be displayed on hover.
- Geotargeting – Redirects the shopper to international Amazon sites based on the location of their computer. The redirect is based on the client’s browser location.
- “Add-To-Cart” – Add to cart allows you to do cart-to-cart transfers between the local shop and Amazon. Items that are carted at Amazon have 90 days to make a sale and receive a commission. It only applies to the item in the cart and you need to decide if the user experience will work for this type of link on your site.
The product searching in EasyAzon is not very robust compared to other plugins. However, if you know your asin and need basic searching, multiple link styles and geotargeting, EasyAzon may be right for you.
Pricing is $47 for unlimited personal sites to $67 for the Developer license.
Amazon Simple Affiliate (ASA 2)
ASA2 can really give EasyAzon a run for its money. The product searching and template support features are more robust in ASA2 than EasyAzon. Both EasyAzon and ASA2 have Geotargeting support. One of the unique features of ASA2 is the repository or repo.
ASA2 Repo
The Repo serves as a performance layer between your server and the Amazon API. It is based on Custom Post Types, so the products contained in the Repo are stored in the WordPress database. If you are a technically inclined user or a developer, you will appreciate ASA2. Pricing is; $69 single site, $119 up to 5 domains, and $249 for up to 25 domains.
Thirsty Affiliates
Thirsty Affiliates is an affiliate link management system. It is licensed using the “freemium” model with a baseline product that is free and addon modules that are charged for.
A robust product, the free version provides many features for affiliate marketers including:
- Affiliate link shortening or cloaking (yourwebsite.com/recommends/affiliate-link)
- Affiliate link 301 redirection
- Customizable link URL prefixes
- DoFollow/NoFollow options
- Open in new window options
Though not specifically built for Amazon affiliates, they do have an add-on Amazon module and an add-on geotargeting module. The AZON module lets you search for products across the Amazon network. You can then import them directly into ThirstyAffiliates with one click. The Geolocation module lets you quickly create geo-targeted affiliate links. This allows you to, ” specify a different end-destination for any country giving you maximum flexibility.”
ThirstyAffiliates is free for the basic core product. It is an affiliate link management tool first and Amazon tool second. If you have many affiliate links from different programs, Thirsty Affiliate may be perfect for you. There are a number of add-ons available with most being $49. ThirstyAffiliate also packages options in discounted bundles.
Amazon Themes
Amazon affiliates can certainly use most themes and add Amazon focused plugins. There are, however, themes with dedicated functions for managing your Amazon sites. Some have built-in Amazon searching and posting. Another group of themes places their emphasis on presentation with built-in comparison charts, sliders and review templates. Using a dedicated theme allows you to not worry about lots of custom templates and css. You can get a site up and running very quickly. Amazon themes evaluated include AuthorityAzon, Ultimate Azon and the ReadyThemes family of products.
Authority Azon
Authority Azon is a theme with basic Amazon searching capabilities. The theme provides a number of presentation options including review pages and comparison charts. Authority Azon also provides advanced filtering for users to navigate the comparison charts.
Need a quick start? Authority Azon offers a done-for-you service. This lets you outsource much of your initial content creation and focus on branding, backlinks, and general audience building. Authority Azon will build the baseline affiliate site for you – from niche selection to contract writers. Theme pricing is $37 single site, $67 unlimited personal, and $167 for the developer license (unlimited client sites). The done-for-you pricing starts at $499.
Ultimate Azon
Ultimate Azon does not have built-in Amazon searching and posting. The focus is on presentation and theme functionality like sliders and comparison charts. You can use EasyAzon or Amazon’s new Link Builder to handle the Amazon API connection and let the theme take care of making your site look great. Ultimate Azon can create sortable tables for review sites by simply creating a new slider and populating it with products.
Some other notable features include; custom “Brand” post type, two Supporting Product Review post types, Custom Product Review post type and multiple sidebar areas.
Ultimate Azon is a nice simple theme targeted specifically at review sites. With no Amazon connectivity, you will need an additional plugin to handle the searching and posting with your Amazon affiliate information. Pricing is $37 for the theme.
ReadyThemes
ReadyThemes has two product families with Amazon searching and posting capabilities. The first family has lightweight themes built for performance and target review sites and bloggers. A second set of themes is an Amazon & Ebay integrated collection of child themes for the most popular WordPress.org themes.
ReadyThemes offers affiliate review and blog themes as well as Amazon powered versions of popular WordPress.org themes. All ready to build your affiliate site right away.It is targeted at a slightly more technical user and developers. Single Themes are $37 with an all-in price of $69 for all themes and plugins.
Amazon Affiliate WordPress Utilities
These point solutions aim to provide a specific solution to improve your Amazon monetized sites. Products in this category include; Amazon Deals Finder, Amazon Product in Post, Amazon Link Engine, RSS via Shortcode and ScrapeAZon.
Amazon Product in Post
Amazon Product is simple and elegant. It allows you to put an Amazon Product In a post or page by using just the Amazon product’s ASIN. There are a number of formating options.
The latest version has a more robust caching system and there is no longer a limit of 10 ASINs per shortcode or product page. They have added an add to cart option should that be a good order-flow for your site. In addition, when adding a new ‘Amazon Post’, you can add multiple ASINs and create separate posts/pages with one submission. Product in Post is a FREE plugin from WordPress.org though it has not been updated in a while.
Amazon Link Engine
The Amazon Link Engine plugin is used to convert Amazon links on your affiliate site into globalized links that work across all Amazon International Sites This would allow you to add geotargeting to a product like the new Amazon Link Builder. Amazon Link Engine is a part of Geniuslink. You can sync the Amazon Link Engine to your Geniuslink account. Once paired you can get access to advanced reporting metrics and track your international affiliate commissions.
Amazon Link Engine is a FREE plugin available at WordPress.org
RSS via Shortcode
The not exclusively an Amazon utility it is very useful for Amazon affiliates. RSS Via Shortcode is a basic RSS reader that uses a shortcode to display [rssonpage rss=" RSS FEED url"]. You can choose the number of RSS items to display. RSS via SHortcode can be used to create Amazon affiliate and eBay Partner Network listings.
RSS via shortcode is a FREE plugin available at WordPress.org
ScrapeAzon
The ScrapeAZon plugin lets you display Amazon product customer reviews. You enroll in both the Amazon.com Affiliate Program and the Amazon.com Product Advertising API to use this plugin. Using items like reviews, prices, images always requires the access to be via the Amazon API.
Features:
- Uses a shortcode to display customer reviews
- Reviews are placed in iframes and styled with shortcode CSS, or style sheet(responsive).
- Includes a widget that can be used for sidebars
- Can pull reviews from any Amazon International sites with API access
ScrapeAzon is a FREE plugin available at WordPress.org
Conclusions
There is an embarrassment of riches in the WordPress marketplace for Amazon affiliates. Ranging from free tools to powerful site builders, there is no reason to be manually dealing with ASINs and affiliate links. In the searching and linking category, Amazon’s new Link Builder is the minimum anyone should be using. It is free, a time saver and creates better looking Amazon affiliate links. If you need a specific discrete problem solved, there is likely a utility type plugin for that. The theme category lets anyone hit the ground running. It is a great place to start and there are even free themes available that search Amazon and post to your blog or review site. Site-builders, using WooCommerce backends are very powerful and have similar core functionality. Ongoing costs and support will be most important for these more complex products. Let the plugins and themes in this guide take care of the menial WordPress tasks you will face as Amazon affiliates. Then you can focus on building your audience and authority with engaging content, quality backlinks, and a compelling value proposition.
