Harold Mansfield
01-17-2009, 06:36 PM
If you are an Amazon Associate, you know about the aStore, a little store front that you can create with products of your choice.
The mission is to get an astore to seamlessly integrate into my Word Press blog so it looks like it is supposed to be there.
First you need to create the astore from your Amazon Associates Dashboard.
If you are not good with CSS, you can simply chose a template from the custom ones provided by other associates from your dashboard. You are looking for a template that will use the whole page, not just one side like most astores.
Open your blog themes CSS files or use a color tool like the Colorzilla plug in for Firefox, to match your astore colors with the colors of your blog.
Do not use a store header.
Once you have all your products set up and finish constructing your astore, you will want the code that your newly constructed astore provides.
You will have three code options, pick this one : Embed my store using an inline frame.
It should look something like this:
<iframe src="http://astore.amazon.com/digitalhomeentertainment-20" width="90%" height="4000" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>
aStores don't integrate seamlessly because most blogs have sidebars. So you need to get rid of them.
You will need to make a page template file( .php) and install it into your themes files:
So make a file, using Notepad, or your favorite text editor and name it something like "shop".php.
In that file put this code:
<?php
/*
Template Name: Put the name here
*/
?>
<?php get_header(); ?><div id="content"><div id="menu"><div id="wrap"><?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?> <h1><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h1><br /><br /> <?php the_content(__('Read more'));?> <!-- <?php trackback_rdf(); ?> --> <?php endwhile; else: ?> <p><?php _e('Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.'); ?></p><?php endif; ?> </div></div><?php get_footer(); ?>
Of course change "Put the name here " to the name of your file.
Take your astore inline frame code and place it after this :
<?php
/*
Template Name: Put the name here
*/
?>
<?php get_header(); ?><div id="content">
*Put your astore code here*
Save the file and install it into the root of your Theme Files (Not your word press files)
Now. You can go and create a new page on your Wordpress blog. While creating your page, there is a page template option. Your newly made template file "shop".php should appear in the drop down menu. Select it, and save.
If all goes well your new store page should look like this (http://www.124bpms.com/store/), This (http://www.midnightfunkassociation.com/cd-store/), or This (http://www.themansfieldherald.com/book-store/).
Remember that you will not get any SEO love from this page so remember to optimize it (All in One SEO plug in would be of great use here).
You can also play around with the settings for the dimensions to make the page longer or shorter, just remember to leave enough room for the product descriptions when people click on stuff.
You can also place the code below <?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h1>, if you want to ad a few words above the astore, instead of below.
This is one of the easiest ways to use Amazon on a blog, rather than product widgets and text links, and one that I struggled with for months until someone else finally helped me with it.
Hope it helps someone.
The mission is to get an astore to seamlessly integrate into my Word Press blog so it looks like it is supposed to be there.
First you need to create the astore from your Amazon Associates Dashboard.
If you are not good with CSS, you can simply chose a template from the custom ones provided by other associates from your dashboard. You are looking for a template that will use the whole page, not just one side like most astores.
Open your blog themes CSS files or use a color tool like the Colorzilla plug in for Firefox, to match your astore colors with the colors of your blog.
Do not use a store header.
Once you have all your products set up and finish constructing your astore, you will want the code that your newly constructed astore provides.
You will have three code options, pick this one : Embed my store using an inline frame.
It should look something like this:
<iframe src="http://astore.amazon.com/digitalhomeentertainment-20" width="90%" height="4000" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"></iframe>
aStores don't integrate seamlessly because most blogs have sidebars. So you need to get rid of them.
You will need to make a page template file( .php) and install it into your themes files:
So make a file, using Notepad, or your favorite text editor and name it something like "shop".php.
In that file put this code:
<?php
/*
Template Name: Put the name here
*/
?>
<?php get_header(); ?><div id="content"><div id="menu"><div id="wrap"><?php if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?> <h1><a href="<?php the_permalink() ?>" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent Link to <?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h1><br /><br /> <?php the_content(__('Read more'));?> <!-- <?php trackback_rdf(); ?> --> <?php endwhile; else: ?> <p><?php _e('Sorry, no posts matched your criteria.'); ?></p><?php endif; ?> </div></div><?php get_footer(); ?>
Of course change "Put the name here " to the name of your file.
Take your astore inline frame code and place it after this :
<?php
/*
Template Name: Put the name here
*/
?>
<?php get_header(); ?><div id="content">
*Put your astore code here*
Save the file and install it into the root of your Theme Files (Not your word press files)
Now. You can go and create a new page on your Wordpress blog. While creating your page, there is a page template option. Your newly made template file "shop".php should appear in the drop down menu. Select it, and save.
If all goes well your new store page should look like this (http://www.124bpms.com/store/), This (http://www.midnightfunkassociation.com/cd-store/), or This (http://www.themansfieldherald.com/book-store/).
Remember that you will not get any SEO love from this page so remember to optimize it (All in One SEO plug in would be of great use here).
You can also play around with the settings for the dimensions to make the page longer or shorter, just remember to leave enough room for the product descriptions when people click on stuff.
You can also place the code below <?php the_title(); ?>"><?php the_title(); ?></a></h1>, if you want to ad a few words above the astore, instead of below.
This is one of the easiest ways to use Amazon on a blog, rather than product widgets and text links, and one that I struggled with for months until someone else finally helped me with it.
Hope it helps someone.