WordPress Amazon Associate now supports multiple locales!

Yesterday, 11-20-2010 we released version 1.2 of the WordPress Amazon Associate plugin. This release was a major milestone to the plugin as it know supports multiple locales. This means that individuals that have associate ids for multiple amazon locales can insert them all into the plugin. In addition we integrated ip2nation support so that Geo Localization is available if desired to render amazon links per the amazon locale of the visitors country.

We release that everyone may not be an associate for every locale, so we give you the ability to disable locales. This allows you full control over your content and maximizes your returns from the Amazon Associate network. To get the latest version of the plugin you can update through your WordPress admin or download it here.

Stay tuned, as many new features are currently in development.

Comments & Questions

  1. I have been using your plugin for quite some time and it has worked great, but when I was making updates on my site today, I noticed that the carasol widgets I have in a couple of my posts are missing. I tried updating the code, but even when doing that nothing shows up in the preview mode. I have not changed anything on my site other than updating plugins as needed. Do you know what the problem could be?

  2. I can’t get my plugin to work with my theme. It causes my slider to display incorrectly. Any ideas to make it work with this theme, I love my site design and your plugin.

    1. Christy, what functionality of the plugin is not working with your theme? I need further details to assist with resolution.

  3. Matthew, I emailed you through this site, so not sure why it didn’t go through. I found several other pages where Amazon links have changed to text and I’m emailing to the address you posted. Sorry I meant to respond sooner but have been sidetracked past week…

    1. Matthew, just wondering if you got my email? If not I can resend. Thanks!

      1. Michael, I got your email and as it turns out not all products are supported by the API. I’m currently reviewing what options are available to ensure that links to unsupported products still function however it isn’t going to be a quick fix.

        1. Matthew,

          Okay just keep me posted on what you discover.

          Thanks!

          Michael

  4. Hello, I tried using your plugin. Everything works great except for one thing. I’m having difficulty getting the price to show. It is just blank.

    1. Hi Ronald, please share the content (ShortCode, etc) that is not working correctly for you so I can review. Not all products have the same information returned from the Amazon Product API and I may need to update the code appropriately.

  5. Matthew,

    Kudos on your great plugin. Had a question; I’m noticing some of my amazon image links are missing (only text is shown). I just did the new update. Could that be an issue, or does that come from Amazon’s end?

    Majority still are visible, but I’m perplexed on the rest?

    Thanks!

    Michael

    1. Michael, The new version didn’t change any code with the products. Can you send me your page content from the editor via email? I can run some tests on it from my test environment and see if there is a bug.

      Thanks,
      Matthew J. Denton

      1. Matthew,

        Thanks for your reply! Well last night I deleted the broken links and put up new ones, so I don’t have an example. Most were MP3’s. Do those links expire? I had trouble with the Blu-ray for ‘Batman Begins’ as well.

        If I see any more pop up I’ll send them to you asap.

        Thanks!

        Michael

        1. Matthew I just found another one pop up again. Emailing it to you shortly.

          Thanks!

          Michael

          1. Michael, did you send the content to matt@mdbitz.com or a different email address?

  6. Hi Matthew

    Hoping you can help me out! Have just installed, entered AWS & Secret keys (copy & pasted) but have error msg:

    “Warning: Quick Links and Product Searches are disabled. To enable please enter your valid AWS Access and Secret Keys”

    Have checked and they are valid, any ideas?

    Many thanks!
    Claire

    1. Hi Claire, did you click the validate button? If so it should display a valid message. Once you get the valid message save your configurations and the error should go away. If you still get the above message send me a screen shot of the settings page.

  7. Hi Matthew,

    I’ve just discovered your great plugin. I just have one question. How do I know that that my affiliate ID has been successfully set. There is no box in the Settings page which asks for one’s affiliate ID. I have entered entered both my AWS access and Secret keys but I keep getting the following message:

    Validate Credentials: InValid
    Code: InvalidClientTokenId

    Message:
    The AWS Access Key Id you provided does not exist in our records.

    Please advise as to how I can get my credentials validated and my affiliate ID properly set.

    Many thanks!

    1. Gloria:

      The message you are receiving means that the AWS Access Key you entered is invalid. Please make sure you copied the values correctly and that there are no extra spaces. If you send me the access/secret keys via email to (matt@mdbitz.com) I can test them out and ensure that it isn’t due to server settings.

  8. Hi there, great plugin but a tiny problem.

    It seems to be adding links to this CSS file to my pages:

    http://z-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/browser-scripts/uk-site-wide-css-beacon/site-wide-8168710091._V1_.css

    This CSS file, in turn, includes this line which has been messing up my layout:

    body{margin:0 8px!important}

    I’ve worked around it by tweaking my own CSS file, but wonder what this amazon CSS file is used for – all the elements the plugin puts on my site are in iframes where this css file wouldn’t apply.

    Could we have the option of suppressing it?

    1. This css file is pulled in for Product Preview functionality and I’ll see about adding an additional option to suppress the file import.

      Thanks for pointing this out to me.

  9. Hi Matthew!

    Trying to install the MP3 Clips Widget. The Amazon page say “Add to my Page” and copy to website. I can’t seem to find where to do this? I can add one widget but only on one page. The widget player should be next to each individual album review. Not working at all… Please, please help. Thank you!

    1. Bill:

      The WPAA Plugin allows you to integrate the different Amazon Widgets directly into your WordPress page. You can do so by either the Plugin Manager in your site’s WordPress Admin or you can use the “a” Amazon editor button in the post/page editor. The widgets and controls allow you to select all appropriate settings of the widgets and add them to your site.

  10. I installed the plugin BUT I dont have the SETTINGS option.!!!!!!!!!!!111

    1. In the WordPress Admin screen look for WP – Amazon. All settings are found in that option.

  11. Dear friend, my name is Romi Saputra, I have install this plugin into my wordpress, but how to set my amazon affiliate id in this plugin? thank you

    1. Romi, when you access your wordpress admin panel you should see a menu option called WP – Amazon. If you open that item and select “Settings” you will be able to set your affiliate id.

  12. Dear Friends, Just uploaded plugin. Could you advise if this adds a “nofollow” to each of the amazon links. I looked but don’t see any “nofollow” item in the url.

    Blessings

    Tony

    1. Tony how are you creating the amazon links. If you are using ShortCode by default it will add rel=”nofollow” to the links. Please let me know the exact functionality you are using so I can verify I did not overlook any areas it is needed.

  13. Hello,

    I have a site http://www.sauderdesks.net and I’m trying to get the Amazon Plugin to center on my sidebar instead of being on the left. Would anyone care to help me out? Thanks.

  14. Once logged in as Admin, and I enable “Enable Locale Viewing for Administrators” how view content as if from another country?

    Thanks !

    John

    1. John, when you enable “Locale Viewing for Administrators” in the Admin options the plugin will set the locale to the selected “view as” locale when you view a page of your website when logged in as an Administrator. There is a bug with WordPress where this feature does not work for all users. I have it as a to-do to modify the plugin to correct the bug in a future release.

  15. I’ve enabled the Amazon Associate Filter, however, from what I can tell (trying a proxy from the UK), links are not getting updated.

    There are four static links to Amazon products on the right sidebar, each is 125×125, you’ll see each is a link to a book on Amazon.

    Any ideas?

    Thank you.

    John

  16. Hello,

    My name is Scot and I have been using this plugin for about 6 months will no problems then I updated it and now i receive the following error:

    Fatal error: Call to a member function set() on a non-object in /home/mikelbro/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-amazon-associate/AmazonProduct.php on line 119

    upon looking at your pervious support tickets i turned off all of my plugins and turn on only WPAA and i still receive the fatal error. Any ideas on this?

    Thanks
    Scott

    1. Hello,

      Sorry to reply to my own comment but I have a new problem. Through a series of deleting the plugin and uploading. I have now got the fatal error to stop but i now have a new problem.

      I have the current plugin running on the current version of wp. On the WordPress Amazon Associate: Settings page I have the following two messages appearing:

      Success: Settings successfully updated.

      Warning: Quick Links and Product Searches are disabled. To enable please enter your valid AWS Access and Secret Keys

      The warning is weird as I have Valid credentials. I have deleted them and entered them once again to ensure correctness. Any ideas what could be happening here?

      Thanks
      Scott Whittle

      1. Scott sorry for taking so long to reply I have been tied up in work and other matters leaving little time to work on the plugin. Can you let me know what locales you have set so I can look into the Credential Validation logic.

        1. Matthew,

          I totally understand. Thanks for answering. This is becoming stranger and stranger. I just looked at the blog and now I am getting the fatal error again:

          Fatal error: Call to a member function set() on a non-object in /home/mikelbro/public_html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-amazon-associate/AmazonProduct.php on line 119

          I guess we still have to deal with this first. What do you need from me?

          thanks
          scott

        2. Matthew ,

          Are you able to help me with this? My site is down at this time due to this plugin. Help me please.

          Scott

          1. Scott, I’m looking at the code and I think i have found the issue will send you the details on how to resolve shortly.

        3. Matthew,

          It works perfect now. Thanks for your help.

          SW Whittle

      2. I am seeing exactly the same problem Worse though, it’s causing any page with Amazon links to display no content at all -a 500 error. Could you please publish the fix you came up with for the other Scott?

  17. Why cannot I see this plugin on Wp? I have installed it on one of my website but when I am trying to search it to install it on the second one I just cannot find this plugin. Any specific reason?

    1. Hi, the plugin was un-listed due to previously mentioned reasons. As of yesterday evening it is once again listed on WordPress.org

  18. Hi Matthew,
    thank you for your plugin. I’m trying it out and like it very much. Easy to use, selfexplaining. I have two questions:

    1. How can i get rid of the target”_blank”?

    2. Is there any way to mask links? I would rather have a link to example.com/id_xyz instead of http://www.amazon?xyz&ref=mysite
    Or does it work with other plugins which mask link=

    1. Stefan:

      Sorry for not getting back to you sooner, I’ve been tied up with other matters unfortunately.

      1) use the target ShortCode Property to set it to the value you want e.g [amazon_link target=”_self” /]

      2) Not currently. I have the masking capability as a very low priority item for a future enhancement. In my opinion there is no reason to mask urls to other websites as it is misleading to visitors. Depending on how other plugins work if they have set their filter to run after the shortcode has been parsed then they could mask the outputted links.

  19. I’m getting an error on my homepage if i activate Amazon plugin

    Fatal error: Call to a member function isSuccess() on a non-object in /hermes/bosweb/web152/b1528/ipg.watchersnplayerscom/watchersnplayerscom/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-amazon-associate/AmazonProduct.php on line 101

    1. Hi, what other plugins are you utilizing on your website as there appears to be a conflict.

  20. Hi Again Matt:

    I got some help from a friend. When I use your plugin from the HTML tab it does not work.

    When I use it from the “Visual” tab it does; therein lays the problem: User error.

    I’m sure you get that all the time…

    Happy Fourth!

    Catherine

    1. Catherine, sorry couldn’t respond to you sooner I was on a business trip and didn’t have time to check my sites as usual. The plugin should work for both the HTML and Visual editor, I’ll review and find out what the issue is.

    2. Catherine:

      I took a look at the code and thank you for pointing this issue out to me. During the last update of the Quick Links module I failed to update the code to grab the selection from the text area. I’ve updated the code and it will be included in the next version of the plugin.

  21. Hi Matt:

    I am having the identical problem that I had the last time I contacted you. Apparently, there is something seriously wrong – somewhere. The plug-in is replacing my words (that I highlight in order to insert the Amazon product hyperlink) with the title of the book/DVD, etc. For example, “Colombo” became “Just One More Thing” the title of his biography.

    The following 2 paragraphs were copied directly out of my post from the HTML tab:

    Most movie and stage actors who are considered talented by today’s standards usually have their audiences captivated and unable to tell the difference between what is improvised and what is scripted. In 1995, Terry Gross, host of National Public Radio’s Fresh Air interviewed actor [amazon_link id=”0786719397″ target=”_blank” ]Just One More Thing[/amazon_link], who addressed improvisation and [amazon_link id=”1575250128″ target=”_blank” ]The Great Acting Teachers and Their Methods (Career Development Series)[/amazon_link].

    Falk, who was known for his portrayal of the “rumpled” detective [amazon_link id=”1932009949″ target=”_blank” ]The Columbo Collection[/amazon_link], died at 83-years old on June 23, 2011 and Gross re-aired his interview on June 27, 2011. She asked Falk about the long association that he had with the actor and director [amazon_link id=”0571201571″ target=”_blank” ]Cassavetes on Cassavetes[/amazon_link] (1929 – 1989) which began with the film [amazon_link id=”B0024FAG2Q” target=”_blank” ]Husbands (Extended Cut)[/amazon_link] released in 1970. Falk told this story about Cassavetes’ expectations of method acting:
    Here is how they are supposed to read:

    Most movie and stage actors who are considered talented by today’s standards usually have their audiences captivated and unable to tell the difference between what is improvised and what is scripted. In 1995, Terry Gross, host of National Public Radio’s Fresh Air interviewed actor Peter Falk, who addressed improvisation and method acting.

    Falk, who was known for his portrayal of the “rumpled” detective Columbo, died at 83-years old on June 23, 2011 and Gross re-aired his interview on June 27, 2011. She asked Falk about the long association that he had with the actor and director John Cassavetes (1929 – 1989) which began with the film Husbands released in 1970. Falk told this story about Cassavetes’ expectations of method acting:

    Do you have any idea what is wrong here? I am baffled as to why it is happening randomly as well. It only occurs on new posts that I am working on in the draft mode. The older posts all appear normal and function normally as well.

    Just so you know I did not install the new version of WordPress 3.14.

    Thanks,

    Catherine

  22. I seem to be having some problem.
    When editing a post, the Amazon widgets pop up as a 404 for my own site. The Amazon quick links seems to give no results for the search.
    On the widgets page, I get the same results if I try to preview a widget (4o4 error from my site). In this case, I can still place the widget on a sidebar and it does show correct on page.

    1. James:

      Do you have a caching/redirect plugin enabled on your website? I ask in that the plugin makes use of a servlet.php script that is in the plugin directory to handle AJAX requests to get products and display the previews. When I access the locale of the servlet script I see the 404 error page.

      If possible please let me know what plugins you are using or any special configurations you have and I’ll debug further.

  23. Is there any reason you can think of that the WordPress Amazon Associate plugin widgets will not work with the Duotive three theme sidebars?

    If you wouldn’t mind contacting the Duotive guys at duotive@yahoo.com and see if you can nail down whats causing the frustration. I would certainly appreciate it as it stands the widgets do not work with the sidebars. they have looked and cant seem to solve it.

    1. Hi, I can take a quick look at the theme styling for you.

      If you put a widget in the sidebar and send me the source code for the rendered page I can load it up locally and debug. I’ll also contact the Duotive theme owners and see if they don’t mind giving me a copy of the theme so I can test it out with the plugin.

      1. Thanks.
        Here’s a page with the widget loaded in the sidebar.

        http://www.bargainsatoz.com/725/the-perfect-phone-for-seniors/

        If you need anything else let me know.

        Thanks again

        1. Hi, I looked over your page and found the underlying issue.

          For some reason the mootools inclusion is causing the Amazon JavaScript to error out. If the mootools include is moved into the header than the widgets in the sidebar function as expected.

          <script type='text/javascript' src='http://www.bargainsatoz.com/wp-content/themes/duotive-three/js/mootools.js'></script>

          I do not know what functionality in the theme is using mootools so you will need to verify that no other functionality is broken by moving the script include.

          Also once the script is moved the widgets won’t display nicely until you modify the theme css.

          #sidebar div {
          padding:19px;
          }

          The above css causes every div in the sidebar to have a 19px padding adding additional spacing inside the amazon widgets.

  24. Matthew,
    great plugin, I’ve also been reading your code to learn techniques for my own stuff.

    One thing I’ve noticed on Amazon is that there are redirections for certain countries.

    e.g. http://www.amazon.at and http://www.amazon.dk

    I’ve not tried all countries so I suspect that some of the other smaller european countries might have a redirect

    http://www.amazon.es redirects to a kind of generic page.

    http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/gateway-eu

    Cheers,

    Andy

    1. Andy, thanks for that heads up about the locale redirects. I’ll have to try some other country codes so I can update my Geo-Locale module to match Amazons.

  25. Hi Matthew
    Great Plugin!
    Haven’t found any info on how to use the containers. I’d like to write a bit of custom css to align the images left. Do you have any info on how to do that somewhere?
    Thanks!
    Edward

    1. Edward, sorry about the lack of documentation. I haven’t found the time to get it all updated. Below is a short example of using the container and container_class properties to float the enhanced ads and can be applied to amazon_image ShortCode as well.

      [amazon_enhanced asin="B0032Z751C" ... container="div" /]

      Will output the enhanced ad wrapped in div tags

      <div>...</div>

      The container_class adds a css class to the container element for styling purposes

      [amazon_enhanced asin="B0032Z751C" container="div" container_class="float-left" /]

      This will modify the output to:
      <div class="float-left" >...</div>

      Of course for this to work you need to have the css class “float-left” defined in your website’s css.

  26. Hello: After I updated this plug-in, I can no longer add hyperlinks to my posts. The entire name of the book replaces my text. So, for example, I mentioned the city “Detroit” in my post and wanted a book about Detroit to show in the popup box when hovering over the word “Detroit.” The plugin replaced the word “Detroit” with the name of the book: “Detroit Then and Now.” I am dead in the water.

    1. Catherine: The plugin shouldn’t be modifying the post content. If possible can you please send me the text from the wordpress editor screen for the post/page. I’ll run it locally to determine why the above is occurring on your site.

      Thanks, Matthew

      1. Hi Matthew: I apologize for not writing back sooner. My IT guy believes all the problems I have had with WordPress were caused by my hosting site that uses Linux. I waited out all the frustration and tried things again tonight and it seems to be working just fine. I am learning as I go and it has been challenging. You are a terrific widget owner because you get back to people so quickly! Thanks so much. Catherine

        1. I’m glad to hear that the plugin is working for you again. Please let me know if you have further issues or have any questions.

  27. Hi,
    I’ve made sure a products ASIN is availble in .com, .co.uk and .de but I’m not using a widget. Instead I use a static link and have tried 2 varieties.
    The first one I put without my affiliate ID and the second is a link generated by amazon including my ID.

    Geo localization is enabled as well as the Associate filter.

    The first link without my ID gets my ID appended but it’s always the primary one no matter if my IP is from a different region.

    The second link which already had my .com ID doesn’t change the ID while I access the site from Germany for example.

    Am I doing it wrong or is it simply not possible using your plugin?

    Thanks for your time and kind regards,

    1. Walter, currently Geo localization works only with links created through the use of Shortcode [amazon_link …]. I developed the plugin this way so that it can be confirmed the product exists in a given location before outputting the link. I’m in the process of building out Geo localization for static links, as you have outlined above, that will be available in version 1.6.0.

      I’m hoping to have this completed shortly depending on how busy I am with work and etc this coming week.

      > Matthew

      1. Thanks for your fast reply.

        I’ll be patiently waiting for the update 🙂

      2. Just updated to the new version. It’s excellent!
        This isn’t available as a standalone script anywhere, is it?

        1. Not at the moment. What features do you want separated out and what platform do you want to use it with?

        2. I’d be speaking for myself here.
          I only work with the so called static links. Sometimes selected manually through the Amazon websites but more often request the AWS XML through a PHP script and generate pages as well as constructing static links with that information. Signing a request for AWS is hard enough as it is.

          I don’t use a platform for building websites, if that’s what you meant. Basically the sites are custom made with the help of home made software. A stand alone script with a few variables to edit could easily be included.

          As I mentioned above, I am speaking for myself and the geo location feature for static links is what I’d request to be separated.

          I think it would be quite handy for developers and think you’ve got a winner with your script.

  28. Good evening! I just updated to 1.5.2 and all of my images/amazon listing just “floated” to the top of all posts. I rolled back to 1.5.1 and they went back to where they were placed originally.

    For instance, I had many posts set where I have one paragraph of text, have an amazon listing floated left of the second paragraph, and a second amazon listing floated right of the third paragraph. After upgrading, all the amazon widgets were at the top of the post, above all text. Then, after downgrading they went back to beside the text as set.

    Otherwise, I love the plugin and am finding it uber useful!

    1. Cathy, Scott:

      Thanks for bringing this issue right to my attention. While consolidating code in the 1.5.2 release I forgot to check the return value of the AmazonProduct functions. I’ve released version 1.5.3 that has the appropriate return statement instead of echo which was causing the issue you experienced.

      Thanks again,
      > Matthew J. Denton

  29. I am just configuring this plugin for a client of mine, and whilst having display errors on (I always do whilst making my WP themes!) I am getting the following three warnings:

    “Warning: preg_match_all() [function.preg-match-all]: Compilation failed: unrecognized character after (?< at offset 18 in /htdocs/wp-test/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-amazon-associate/WPAA.php on line 299

    Warning: array_unique() [function.array-unique]: The argument should be an array in /htdocs/wp-test/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-amazon-associate/WPAA.php on line 300

    Warning: Invalid argument supplied for foreach() in /htdocs/wp-test/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-amazon-associate/WPAA.php on line 301"

    Also I am getting W3 HTML validation errors because the Amazon Carousel widget is not being output inside of li tags. All of the other plugins I have outputting in my sidebar use li tags; but I can not find where the HTML is being output from to edit it…

    Any help would be greatly received.

    Jon

    1. You can see the error here: http://www.jonwitts.co.uk/wp-test/articles

      1. Disabling the Associate Filter stops the preg_match error from coming through; but it would be nice to be able to use this part too…

        1. Jon:

          Sorry for the delay in responding to your query, I was tied up in a few other items. You are correct that issue is with the regex expressions and some versions of PHP. I’ve done some research and adding a P character in certain locations should fix the error. I’ll do some testing and confirm.

          As for the Carousel Widget it is built to use the $before_widget and $after_widget parameters that are defined by the register_sidebar function.

      2. Jon:

        Took another look at my Widget code and as it turns out I left out the $args extraction when outputting widgets which causes the before_widget, before_title, etc values to not output correctly. I’ll send you the updated plugin in email and see about another release. Got to love bug fixes, I think this one has been here since I created the plugin.

        > Matthew

        1. That’s great Matthew.

          I can confirm that the P added to the regex on line 298 and line 338 of WPAA.php resolves the preg_match_all errors.

          Does the latest plugin version (1.5.4) include the changes for the widget output and the preg_match_all errors?

          Regards

          Jon

        2. OK; I have just updated to version 1.5.4 and it still needs the change to the regex on line 338; after that it works like a dream 😀

  30. Hi,

    I’m looking over your Amazon plugin for a client right now. I like what I see so far.

    2 questions though. I can’t find in the PHP where to change the color of the title inside the carousel widget. Also. Is there a way to disable to disable the Amazon popup when the cursor is over a book? I know that is defeating the purpose a little but my brother, (the client) wants it more for presentation then making money off of selling the books.

    Thanks
    Bryan

    1. Bryan:

      The carousel widget is Amazons and as such only the parameters outlined in the forms are editable. At this time they don’t allow for you to modify the color of the title or turn off product display for items in the widget. I’m looking into developing custom widgets for the plugin in later releases but that is low priority at the moment.

      > Matthew

  31. Hi Mathew,

    I just tried to disable the Omakase widget so that my site authors can’t access that particular widget.

    I did this because I saw no way to set a maximum width for widgets, and the default width of the Omakase exceeds the post width.

    I disabled it in the” Amazon Widgets Settings” but it still shows up in the text editor button for each author.

    It’s not a real problem but I though you might want to know.

    Thanks
    J.D.

  32. Please disregard my previous comment. I was entering the wrong information.

    1. John, can you please elaborate on what you were entering incorrectly. This way if needed I can update the UI to make it more intuitive for other users.

      Thanks, Matthew

      1. Matthew, because I didn’t read the screen properly and had never used AWS before I was entering my logon ID and password. It was only seeing your reply to Simon that made me realise where I’d gone wrong.

  33. I’m stuck at trying to set up the plugin. I’ve entered my AWS credentials, which I have double checked and verified, but the plugin keeps insisting they’re not valid. Any suggestions?

  34. After quite some time, I cannot get any Amazon widgets to show up on my page anywhere.

    1. Carl, I’ll need to know more information then that if I’m going to be able to help. Where attempting to add the Widgets through the Widgets admin or was it through ShortCode and did the previews work for you?

  35. hi,

    Do you a video tutorial that explain step by step on how to setup your PLUG IN?

    I’m having hard time to setting up.

    Thanks

    1. Not at the moment, I’m in progress with creating a detailed walkthrough of the installation/setup that I hope to complete shortly.

  36. Hi this is the first time I will try this plug in, In this site how can I the adds from amazon? sorry for bother!

  37. Matt –

    I’m trying to use the Amazon Quick Link feature in the create/edit Posts page. It generates:

    [amazon_enhanced asin=”0452289491″ /] But nothing renders. No luck using the sidebar widgets either, though the plug-in isn’t generating any errors I can see. (Security credentials are Valid.)

    1. Mike, can you send me your post content from the editor. If you are able to insert the ShortCode through the Quick Links feature it shows that everything is functioning correctly and you are able to authenticate with Amazon’s Web Service. Does your theme support ShortCode? In particular you may want to look to see if your theme functions.php file use strip_shortcodes or similar content filters that remove ShortCode from posts/pages.

  38. Trying this plugin with two themed sites and in both cases pages will not load. Have configured amazon correctly & tried turing off perview but no page will load. Using WP 3.1 with PHP 5. Browser immediately crashes on any page

    1. Ian, this is the first time I have heard of the plugin causing browsers to crash. To resolve your issue I’ll need additional information on what features of the plugin you are using. Are you using product links? Widgets? Also from crash do you mean the site won’t render or JavaScript running continuously.

  39. On activation “Parse error: syntax error, unexpected T_STRING, expecting T_OLD_FUNCTION or T_FUNCTION or T_VAR or ‘}’ in /nfs/c01/h15/mnt/5843/domains/uxbooks.com/html/wp-content/plugins/wordpress-amazon-associate/WPAA.php on line 48” only is displayed.

    1. Hi, This means that your server is running PHP4 the plugin requires PHP5

      > Matthew

  40. Is there any way to make the generated links “nofollow”? I understand this is an big issue around Search Engine Optimization and I am probably leaking all sorts of PageRank by using this plugin?

    1. Kashif:

      This has already been identified and will be in the next release. I was hoping to get some additional functionality into it but that is taking a lilttle more time than I thought. I’m doing cleanup and testing of the new version now and hope to have it available soon.

      > Matthew

  41. this is what i see in my dashboard and i do not know how to correct it in the setting page

    WordPress Amazon Associate: Plugin is not configured! Please correct in the settings page

    from simon

    1. Simon:

      To correct the above message you need to enter your Amazon Web Services Access & Secret Key information. This is required for accessing the Amazon Product Advertising API to search for products. You can find your keys under the Account > Access Credentials page of http://aws.amazon.com

  42. I am getting this edit:

    WordPress Amazon Associate: Plugin is not configured! Please correct in the settings page

    I put my aff. id in the top spot and try to save it but it keeps giving me the same message. Before I switched templates I was able to view my amazon ads, but now that I have this new design I can’t even see my amazon favorites anymore. Thanks for any help!

    1. Hi Lisa:

      The error is displayed because you haven’t inserted your Amazon Web Service Credentials. With your Amazon Associate Id entered you can insert Widgets through the plugin but the Amazon Secret & Access Keys are needed to search for and insert product links into your posts. If you don’t have an account with Amazon Web Services you can sign up for one at http://aws.amazon.com/ once you are signed up simply go to Account > Security Credentials and you will find your Access & Secret Keys.

      > Matthew

  43. I have this installed and configured, but none of my widget ads will render even in preview. Any ideas?

    1. Lynda:

      I did a quick test of the widget preview page of your website and it is showing me the Search Widget. Can you confirm that the following link is not functioning for you? Also what browser are you using so I can confirm that it isn’t browser related.

      Search Widget Preview

  44. I hate to bother you again about my link but I’ve talked to a second person who purchased amazon products by first clicking on my link and who claimed they followed the same procedure that they did before yet I was never credited for either sale. Amazon’s standard reply is that the customer must have done something wrong. I know both purchased successfully before. Also, since the first incident was reported to me nothing has gone through my account. Any thoughts?

    1. Richard: Please go into your WordPress Admin and check your settings for the plugin under WP – Amazon > Settings. I’ve done a few refreshes of your page and it appears to me that you have selected the option to support me (the author) for a percentage of links. I do appreciate the support but I would suggest you lower the percentage to 5 or even 0 if you are not getting any referral links.

  45. Hello!

    I am using WP 3.0.3 and have PHP5 installed. There is no Amazon Associate menu link or any way to customize it. As I run a multi-author review site, I thought this would be perfect but I can’t even set it up 🙁 Please help if you can. I have deleted and reinstalled, activated, deactivated, etc multiple times.

    Thank you

    1. Anna:

      Due to the long name of the plugin I shortened the name of the admin menu link to WPAA – Amazon. This is a top menu navigation in the admin page which you should find at the bottom of all the standard WordPress options.

  46. I’ve heard from one source that has a Mac that he has purchased several items via the blog from the Amazon site yet those purchases have not registered to my account and Amazon says there is no record of them being linked to my account. My account appears to be working for PCs as orders have registered to my account. The Apple user has ordered, then signed in at the shopping cart when prompted. Any suggestions?

    1. Richard:

      Mac vs PC makes no difference to the plugin as it renders the same Amazon HTML/JS independent of the user’s computer. However with that said different browsers can interrupt JavaScript differently. I just did a quick look at your site from my MAC and all links are tagged with your amazon ID.

      Thanks,
      > Matthew

  47. I have an Amazon Search Widget on my Blog that does not properly link me to the program. I don’t have a clue as to what I did wrong. I contacted Amazon and below is their message:

    Greetings from the Amazon Associates Program.

    I have reviewed the Associates link on the web page, “www.pulpdiddyspermutations.com”,
    and I have found that the link is not formatted correctly. Therefore, we are
    unable to track any activity and sales placed via this link.

    I would encourage you to rebuild your link using our tools in Associates Central
    (http://associates.amazon.com). These tools will automatically insert your
    correct Associates ID in the HTML code which allows us to track sales from your
    links. Once you have rebuilt your link, we’ll be happy to test it again for you.
    Just let us know when you’re ready for us to test the link by writing to us
    through our online contact form:

    Any suggestions?
    Thanks,
    Richard

    1. Richard, I took a look, at your website and it is using the default associate tags. Please make sure you go to the WP – Amazon > Settings admin page and input your Associate Tags. This way the plugin will use your associate tags instead of the defaults. Also, it may be good to modify the Search Widget’s default term to a keyword related to your website, which can be done on the Widgets panel.

  48. I have PHP5. No parts of the Amazon Associate Plugin shows on the home page of my blog after I drag the widgets into the sidebar. So, I’ve deactivated the plug.

    1. LeBaron, If you don’t mind can you re-activate the plugin and check if the preview button on the Widgets correctly shows you an Amazon Widget? Also if you could send me the page source (Browser > View > Page Source) for your page that has a widget in the sidebar I can run it locally to determine what the issue is.

      1. I re-activate the plugin and I checked for a preview. But there was none. I know about getting the source code. But how do I sent that to you?

        1. Please send it to my email: matt@mdbitz.com

  49. Amazon Associate Plugin does not work on my blog. I’m using WordPress 3.0.2. Do you think that might have something to do with the plugin not working.

    1. LeBaron. The plugin requires that your server be using PHP5 to function, if you have PHP4 it will not work. If you do have PHP5 I’ll need to know more details on the issue you are experiencing in order to resolve.

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