To get the most out of the Amazon Link plugin you need to sign up with a number of Amazon services:
- Standard Amazon Account
- Amazon Affiliate/Associate Account for each locale
- Product Advertising API & Amazon Web Services
Amazon Account
An Amazon Account is not essential but the account details and login credentials used for this can be identical for all your other account, it also allows you to be paid with Amazon Vouchers.
Amazon Associate Account
To actually earn commission from sales made through Amazon Links on your site you must sign up to the Amazon Associate program for your targeted locales. I recommend you at least sign up for your home locale and the United States. Sign up for an Associate Account at the following sites:
- Amazon.co.uk Associates
- Amazon.com Associates
- Amazon.ca Associates
- Amazon.cn Associates
- Amazon.de Associates
- Amazon.es Associates
- Amazon.fr Associates
- Amazon.it Associates
- Amazon.jp Associates
- Amazon.com.br Associates
Once you have signed up for your home locale, Amazon may allow you to quickly sign up for associated accounts – e.g. Signing up for Amazon.co.uk will then prompt you to sign up for Germany, France, Spain and Italy.
At the end of this process you should have a set of ‘Associates IDs’ that you need to enter into the plugin on either the Amazon Link > Setup Page or on the Amazon Link > Associate IDs Settings Page under ‘Amazon Tracking ID Channels’. Click on ‘Default Affiliate Tags’ and enter the IDs in the appropriate country field.
You may want to set up your payment method now, as prompted by the Amazon Affiliate Site. Once you have done this or have selected ‘Specify Payment Method later’ you will be taken to the ‘Associates Central Home’ Page. At the top of this page is a tab for the ‘Product Advertising API’ click on this to sign up for the API.
Product Advertising API
From the Associates Central Home page navigate to the ‘Product Advertising API’ page and click on the ‘Sign Up Now’ button this should take you to a sign up page, e.g for the UK it is here: https://affiliate-program.amazon.co.uk/gp/flex/advertising/api/sign-in.html.
Sign in using the account details set up for your Associate Account, once you have successfully registered (thankfully only once for all domains) click on ‘Manage Your Account’ then ‘Access Identifiers’. This should take you to the AWS portal.
Amazon Web Services Account
Log in to the AWS Portal using the same account details as before. Under the ‘Services You’re Signed Up For’ section it should list at least ‘Product Advertising API’.
On this page select ‘Security Credentials’ then scroll down to ‘Access Credentials’ -> ‘Access Keys’. The ‘Access Key ID’ and the ‘Secret Access Key’ need to be copied into the Amazon Link Settings Page -> Options -> Amazon Affiliate Information -> ‘AWS Public Key’ and ‘AWS Private key’ Settings. Update the settings and the ‘AWS Keys Validated’ should now be ticked.
Congratulations you now have a full set of Amazon Credentials to drive the Amazon Link Plugin!
Localisation
To take advantage of the localisation options and all those Associate Accounts you have just signed up for you should enable localisation. This will target the Amazon links to Amazon stores local to your site visitors.
In the Amazon Link > Settings page at the top of the Localisation Options Section there is a button to Install the ip2nation database, click on this should install the database on your WordPress installation. Once this is done ensure the ‘Localise Amazon Link’ option is selected.
Thats it!
Note: Periodically the ip2nation database is updated and you need to check the Amazon Link options page to see if you need to re-install it.