AAWP is a WordPress affiliate marketing plugin for Amazon Associates. But what does it do, how does it work, and will it help earn you more money? This review explains exactly that.
Let’s go.
Getting Started with AAWP
To download the plugin, head to AAWP’s website and click “Get Started.”
#1. Choose Your Plan
After clicking “Get Started”, you’ll land on their pricing page where you’ll select your plan. You can choose from four different pricing tiers based on the number of sites you have (more on that later).
Once you select your plan, you’ll enter your payment information and billing details then click “Purchase.”
Sidenote: Before purchasing, you must confirm you have valid API keys otherwise you’ll be unable to use the plugin.
To get your API keys, head to your Amazon Associates account Tools > Product Advertising API:
Then, scroll down to “Manage Your Credentials” to get your API keys (or to add credentials):
#2. Download the AAWP Plugin
Once you download the plugin, head to your WordPress dashboard Plugins > Add New:
Then, click “Upload Plugin” (This will be the aawp.zip file you already downloaded).
Next, select “Choose File” to upload from your computer then click “Install Now.”
#3. Activate
Once you’ve installed the plugin, click the “Activate” link. If you don’t see it, return to Plugins and activate it there (since mine is already activated, it gave me the option to “Deactivate” the plugin):
Configuring Your AAWP Plugin
Once you’ve activated the plugin, you’ll need to configure it under “Settings.” You should now see AAWP in your side menu bar inside the WordPress dashboard. Go ahead and click “AAWP.”
#4. Enter Your AAWP License
Here’s where you’ll enter the license key issued to you by AAWP upon purchasing. Enter it into the field, then click “Verify”:
#5. Connect to the Amazon Product Advertising API
Enter your API keys in this area. You’ll need four things to complete this section:
- Your Amazon Associate tracking ID
- Your API key
- The Secret key
- The country associated with your Amazon affiliate account
Then, scroll down and click “Save Changes.”
Sidenote: If you get traffic from other than the U.S., tick the “Multiple Stores” box beneath where you entered your tracking ID. This will let you earn from AAWP’s geo-targeting feature.
Tick the box:
Once you’ve entered tracking IDs from your other countries, enable the geo-targeting functionality in your Functions tab:
This will bring you to your Functions tab. Now, check the box to activate it.
You’ll need to sign up again for any additional country you have an affiliate tracking ID for.
Sidenote: Amazon’s standalone tool, OneLink, handles sending foreign visitors to their local Amazon store. You don’t need to do anything for this to work except sign up for each country’s Associates program for each country you get traffic from.
You can find this information in Google Analytics by heading to Audience > Geo > Location:
Then sign up for the programs where it makes sense.
If your site relies on Amazon commissions, AAWP is an affiliate marketing WordPress plugin built for the Associates program. Get up-to-date product info, flexible shortcodes, and customizable designs. Fully equipped with a 30-day money-back guarantee and direct contact through email or live chat.
#6. Specify Your General Settings
Here you can further customize your AAWP plugin, including enabling or adjusting your site’s:
- Shortcode display (i.e., amazon or aawp)
- Cache duration
- Click tracking
- Affiliate disclaimer
#7. Customize Your Outputs
This section lets you get even more detailed with how your displays appear to your website visitors, including:
- Product titles
- Thumbnail sizing and configuration
- Star ratings
- Advertised price
- Call-to-action (CTA) button
- Custom CSS
#8. Specify Your Functions Settings
You can choose things to customize here including:
- Text links (e.g., displaying the Amazon icon or cart icons after single links. You can also enable Visitor Notices and Geotargeting)
- Product box styles and templates
- Best Seller and New Releases styles templates
- Access the Table Builder
Using the Amazon Affiliate WordPress Plugin (Features)
A few handy ways you can use AAWP to spruce up your product displays and promote your affiliate offers.
Creating Comparison Tables
One of the most popular features with affiliate marketers is comparison tables. Here’s a primer on a basic setup with AAWP.
First, head to AAWP > Tables > Add New:
Once inside, you’ll see three things you can do:
- Title your table
- Add select number of rows
- Add products (you can either add by ASIN or search Amazon for products in AAWP)
After giving your table a title, you’ll add rows. Here’s where you’ll decide what info to include in your comparison table. Try starting with basic customization of a:
- Thumbnail
- Title
- Price
- “Buy Now” button
To customize your table rows, click the caret:
Then, select from the dropdown menu:
Here’s what it’ll look like on the backend:
To add your products, either search by ASIN or click “Search for Products”:
Clicking “Search for Products” takes you to Amazon’s website where you can find whichever affiliate product you need:
For example, if you were creating a table featuring three investing books, and wanted to include one about Warren Buffett, enter “Warren Buffett” into the search box:
Having the ability to search products directly inside Amazon without having to leave your WordPress dashboard is a HUGE help here.
Finally, choose your three books, confirm your selections and you’ll be set:
Once you’re done, copy the shortcode into your WordPress draft:
Here’s how it’ll appear inside your post:
And here’s what your readers will see:
That’s a basic comparison table setup. There is lots more you can do. For further info on how you can customize your tables and overwrite specific elements, head here.
Sidenote: To locate the ASIN, scroll down the page until you come across “product information.”
Adding Text Links
Using those same three books from above, let’s add a text link to our post. To do this, we’ll still need to add shortcode to our WordPress draft.
AAWP has a few shortcode snippets you can use. For a standard text link, the formula looks like this:
- [ amazon link = ASIN /]
So, using the Warren Buffett book example from above, you’d enter the ASIN for that book along with the shortcode directly into your WordPress draft:
But, that doesn’t help you determine which link that is in your draft. To make it easier to identify your affiliate links inside your posts, AAWP lets you add another attribute so your links are apparent to you.
You can add the “title= “” attribute and then type your product title.
So, [ amazon link = ASIN title= product name / ] would like this in your post:
Here’s what that looks like on the frontend:
You can also head to Settings > Functions > Links to add things like the Amazon icon displaying after your text links:
There’s a suite of extended functionality in the “Functions” tab to explore. Here’s how that Amazon icon appears in your post:
Read this detailed breakdown from AAWP about all the ways you can use text links.
Adding all of this shortcode for a text link felt a bit clunky. An easier way could be to add links the way you normally would inside WordPress.
Product Boxes
Inserting product boxes requires this unique shortcode snippet:
- [ Amazon box= “ASIN” ]
So, if you wanted to showcase a product that way, you’d enter this into your text editor:
Then, AAWP pulls the data from the Amazon API and adds it to the product box letting it display like this to your readers:
If you want to add multiple product boxes, you’ll include multiple ASINs. So, your shortcode formula would look like this: [ amazon box = “ASIN 1, ASIN 2” ]
Here’s how two single product boxes display:
You can do loads of customization in the “Functions” and “Output” tabs. For example, you can change the background color from light to dark:
Or things like hiding the Amazon Prime logo or change button colors in the “Outputs” tab.
One drawback I encountered was being unable to search for products inside the plugin the way you can when creating a table. It appears you have to search Amazon’s site to do this.
Head here for more details on the different ways you can customize your product boxes.
Bestsellers and New Releases
You can also create Bestseller lists and New Releases lists. Say you wanted to showcase the top three best-selling kitchen scales in the “Kitchen and Dining” category.
You’d use the shortcode formula:
- [ amazon bestseller = kitchen scale items =3 ]
So, in your post it’d be:
And here’s how it’ll display:
You can read more about creating and customizing bestsellers and new releases here.
Tip: If you want to display products horizontally, be sure to tick the “List” template:
AAWP also has four templates to choose from when creating product boxes which you can see here:
- Single product boxes
- Grids
- Tables
- Lists
Widgets
You can choose to include widgets in your site’s footer or sidebar. Head to Appearance > Widgets in your dashboard.
Then, select the one you want with a user-friendly drag and drop feature to either the footer or sidebar area.
AAWP Pricing
You can find the plugin’s pricing by clicking “Pricing” on the home page. There are four different plans to choose from, including:
- Personal €49 (includes 1 site)
- Plus €129 (includes 3 sites)
- Pro €249 (includes 10 sites)
- Ultimate €399 (25 sites)
Its website lists prices in Euros so it runs from 58 USD to 473 USD. All plans include free customer support, plugin updates, and bill annually.
AAWP Resources
There is a substantial amount of material to help you get started using the plugin for your Amazon affiliate website.
Education and Help Docs
You can find documentation from inside your AAWP plugin under “Support.” Head to the right side of your screen and click “Documentation” to access their extensive catalog.
To find questions on their website, type your query into the search field. Try the term “starting with aawp.”
You can also access their chat feature or email them with questions.
AAWP Alternatives
If you’re not sold on AAWP, we also built an affiliate marketing plugin that’s worth a look. 👇
Lasso
Lasso is a plugin created by affiliate marketers for affiliate marketers. However, unlike AAWP, it works with every affiliate program, not just Amazon.
Why?
Because some of our affiliate sites (including this one) have products that extend beyond Amazon’s scope. For example, you can’t find M1 Finance’s affiliate program on Amazon.
However, we also run sites monetized with Amazon exclusively, so we Built Amazon support into Lasso.
But here’s the thing:
You can use Lasso without needing API keys
Here are three reasons why Lasso’s a nice AAWP alternative.
Earn More from Your Existing Creations
We built this to monetize Listen Money Matters and now we're sharing it with you. If you want to make money online, you need this tool. It's the best plugin you'll ever use, if we do say so ourselves.
Lasso finds more ways for you to make money with your affiliate site. How’s that possible? Let me explain.
But first, a quick story.
A while back we learned we could monetize the budgeting tool
Until Lasso.
After building it, we were able to spot every unmonetized link pointing to
YNAB and monetize them instantly – boosting our conversion rates.
Lasso also locates additional affiliate programs for you to join based on websites you already link to and help you sign up for those programs inside the plugin.
Further Reading:
No API Keys Required
If you’re an Amazon Associate, you don’t need API keys to use Lasso. Just copy and paste any URL into Lasso’s dashboard and it pulls the product title, image, and price automatically.
Further Reading:
A Link Inventory at Your Fingertips
Lasso displays every link across your site in a single dashboard. It also detects if links are broken or out-of-stock. You can also see updates made to your product displays in real-time.
Here’s an example using one of our affiliates, Fundrise, on how you can customize your affiliate link product boxes:
Further Reading:
- How to Create Unique Affiliate Link Displays with Lasso
- The Lasso WordPress Plugin (What Every Blogger Needs This Year)
AAWP FAQs
Is the AAWP Plugin Free?
No, but AAWP offers a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Can the Plugin Be Used with Any Theme?
Yes, AAWP should work with any WordPress theme (free or paid). They also have their own custom theme called NicheWP, designed specifically for Amazon affiliate sites.
How Long Is A License Key Valid for?
License keys are valid for one year starting on your purchase date.
Does AAWP Support Google Accelerated Mobile Pages?
Yes, you will find AMP support for the official AMP plugin, which you can download for free. This can help reduce bounce rates, accelerate your loading times, and improve SEO performance.
Is AAWP Right for You?
If you’re using the Amazon affiliate program to monetize your website, AAWP can help. Here’s a quick recap of what I experienced while testing the plugin with my site.
What’s to Like?
- In-app product search with tables: You don’t need to open a new tab and head to Amazon’s site to grab ASINs or look for products, you can do it from inside the app when creating your tables (although I didn’t notice that same option when adding text links or affiliate links to single product boxes).
- Automatic affiliate link creation: Once you enter your Amazon tracking ID into AAWP’s plugin, it creates every affiliate link for you once you add the ASIN.
- Flexible shortcodes: You can customize things like item numbers, rows, product titles, and descriptions with AAWP’s shortcode functionality.
- Updated listings: AAWP grabs all product details from Amazon’s API which means your listings are current with the most recent prices, images, and descriptions.
- Substantial support documentation: Getting started with a new plugin usually means there will be a learning curve. Without proper documentation, that can be a deal-breaker for many new users (myself included). I did appreciate all of the support pages I found inside the plugin as well as timely replies from their support team.
H4 What’s Not to Like?
- License key issues: Some instances where entering the license key failed to activate AAWP on a person’s site. Usually resulting in cURL error notifications. I know our founder experienced this while testing AAWP himself.
- Need API credits: You can’t use AAWP unless you have API keys from Amazon. If you’re a new Amazon affiliate with no qualifying sales, you can’t use this plugin.
- No affiliate dashboard: I saw no localized dashboard where I could view links in a single location.
- Adding links: It felt a bit clunky having to add shortcode and search for ASINs (especially when adding text links). While you can search for products when creating a comparison table, you can’t do it anyplace else which didn’t make for the best user experience.
Last Words
AAWP is still a great WordPress plugin. It has plenty of features to help you thoughtfully monetize your site and is loaded with customizable options. The added customer support really lends itself to someone just getting started.
The biggest drawbacks for me were that it only works if promoting Amazon products, the interface feels a bit dated, and searching for ASINs got a bit tedious at times (especially when adding simple text links). Explore for yourself to determine whether it’s the right plugin for you.
Curious about what other plugins are available? Read this.