Amazon Web Services allow anyone to show up-to-date product lists, including live pricing and availability, on their website. Amazon provide and maintain this backend technology. Developers write programs or scripts that utilise this information and present it in a friendly human readable format. Webmasters can then use these scripts to integrate the details of almost any product sold by Amazon into their web site for their visitors to buy. You as the operator of the website can then receive commissions from any purchases that are initiated from your website. Amazon Product Feeds by MrRat is, in my humble opinion, the best example of a script that utilises these feeds

I am lost - what is this all about

Anyone who operates a web site can link to Amazon sites and receive a commission on any sales that result from visitors who follow those links. Amazon offer a number of tools to help you link to different sections of their site, or to link to specific products.

If you are not an associate then you can sign up at one or more of these locations:

• sign up as an associate of Amazon.com
• sign up as an associate of Amazon.co.uk
• sign up as an associate of Amazon.de
• sign up as an associate of Amazon.ca
• sign up as an associate of Amazon.fr
• sign up as an associate of Amazon.co.jp
  

Associates tools such as Build-a-Link and Amazon Recommends are helpful if you want to build Amazon links quickly and easily. But if you'd like to more deeply integrate Amazon features and content into your Web site, you should check out Amazon Web Services.

Amazon Products Feed - by MrRat

Amazon Products Feed (APF) was created to display a current listing of books or other products on your site, providing links for your visitors to purchase these items from Amazon (.co.uk, .com or .de) using your affiliate code.

The latest version of the script uses version 4 of Amazon's XML feed to provide real-time search results and bestseller listings of almost all of Amazon's products into HTML for seamless integration into your site.

MrRat, the author of Amazon Products Feed, has gone to great trouble with the latest version to implement a system of plug-ins or modification files. These allow a programmer to write additional pieces of code that enhance APF by adding extra functionality.

For webmasters looking to extend add new features or change the way that APF works.

• My APF Mods showcase
  
• Free APF Mods
  
• APF Mods for a fee
• Discuss other Mod file ideas
  
• Offer my custom mod file and custom APF programming services - without wishing to sound boastful I think it is fair to say that I am something of an expert on the workings of APF.
  

• detail the modification system
• provide a tutorial on creating a mod file
• Offer my custom mod file and custom APF services
  

Important APF Sites

The central repository of APF Mod files and Templates - APFmods.com
Latest version of MrRat's script MrRat's Amazon Product Feeds
Help with APF script, Templates and Mods - MrRat's Support Forums