I am just starting up a new website. It is going to be about programming, well basically scripting. It's from a beginners point of view teaching someone who knows almost nothing. I will be able to show people exactly what I have learned in my journey through HTML, PHP, and MySQL, at least what I know. And keep updating as I learn.

What I was wondering about the Amazon Associats Program is, how customizable is it? I want to be able to have programming books on my site, but I don't know if Amazon just puts 'whatever' on your site, or if you get to chose. Can you place your ads where you want on the page? I just would like to know more before I really get extremly involved in my site, because I would like to include Amazon, if I can do what I want with it.

So if anyone has had any experience with this program, can you let me know about it. And I guess it would be a neat idea to earn a little money, which may be my motivation, but also a good idea to let people know what books are out there too. But what kind of money can be made with the associates program? I know not alot, but I am just curious.

 

 

 

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The Amazon Associates Program is pretty good. I use it at VW One and Handy PHP!

The program offer several ad options right out of the box so to speak but even more options if you tap directly into their database.

The standard options are Amazon Banners, Amazon Search, Amazon Categories, Random Item Based On Keyword, Direct Link, Buy It Now, and various methods of Text Links.

They also offer e-store solutions and are working on a content based ad generator much like Adsense I believe.

They offer direct access to their XML database where you can literally build whatever type of ads you want if you know how to do some programming.

I need to finish up a script that pulls information aboutevery book for a keyword and adds it to my link database. Kind of got sidetracked on that one.

The commission is multilevel so the more you refer, the higher your comission rate. It doesn't cost anything to give i a try and Amazon isn't nearly as fussy as Adsense so you don't have to worry about getting booted out just because your site isn't finished or has too little traffic. Might as well give it a try.

Hope this helps.

 

 

 

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So in order to have specific books listed on my site, I would have to know XML? Is that what you mean? From the sounds of what you said though, I might be able to get something like regular programming books in general, just not the specific ones I wanted. I will look into it. Especially if they are not picky about the amount of traffic to your site.

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Oh no, you can display various sized ads by item number. For example, if you has a list of reccommended books that you wanted to show ads for, you can build a direct item link ad which actually earns you about a half a percent better commission.

Th standard ad generation system is very versital and I think would probably suit all of your needs. The only time you would really want to use the XML option is if you had special needs. If you wanted to have featured pages automatically generated on your website with detailed information, you could do that with XML. If all you need is 120 X 240 sized banners, then you can simply use the ad build system they provide.

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