RSS Mashups are really the way to go with making money online. Unfortunately, not many people know how to do mashups. Luckily for me, I have quite a bit of freetime available to experiment and learn.
A few days ago on CyberCoder.net, David wrote a post titled, Amazon Mashups. In this post he explains how you can tap into Amazon’s RSS Feeds and embed your associate ID into the URL to get credit for the clicks. However, the typical way to do this would be to use a program called MagPie RSS. Unfortunately, like a lot of open source programs, the level of support is a little less to be desired.
The bottom line is this… you are a blogger and not a programmer. However, to keep up with the pace of the Internet, somehow and someway you have to tap into the RSS mashup technology.
The good news is you can do this all with WordPress! In the above video you will learn how you can easily syndicate Amazon RSS feeds with your associate ID embedded into the URL using your WordPress RSS Widgets.
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Also Try Searching: Amazon Associates ID, Make Money Online, RSS Mashups, WordPress RSS Widgets
Date/Time: 12-14-2007 05:16:11 Comment #7453
Appreciate the post. I have been staying away from mashups because I couldn’t seem to get my head around the programming end of things but using an Amazon rss feed should really do the trick.
I am having a bit of trouble getting my widget to appear. Not sure what that problem is but once I get it figured out I am definitely using this tip.
thanks again Garry.
Date/Time: 12-14-2007 05:33:57 Comment #7454
Thanks for the link Garry, I may give it a try though I never had good luck with amazon or ebay before
Date/Time: 12-14-2007 11:18:31 Comment #7464
James,
Your theme, Soloss, should be widgets ready. I just downloaded it and if you open your sidebar.php file an look at line #93 you will see this:
< ?php if ( !function_exists('dynamic_sidebar')
|| !dynamic_sidebar(1) ) : ?>
This means that you can use Widget. Unless you have removed this from your sidebar.php file, you should have no trouble displaying the Amazon feed. If you have modified your theme and hacked it up a little bit, you might have created a problem. You can always try downloading the theme again and uploading it. Be sure to rename it to something different so you don’t erase your existing one.
Date/Time: 12-14-2007 11:48:02 Comment #7468
Garry, Nice spinoff on the Amazon Mashup.
I still like the complete page, but you make a great point about being bloggers and programmers. And that widget is about as easy as it can be to get a nice little mashup complete with Affiliate ID.
I have not posted about this yet, but here is another nice way to do it. Look at the top of this page Amazon Mashup, there is a marquee style rotating object, that is the same thing with Affiliate ID. It can be built with a wizard at the Google Code page using the RSS address you make with your Affiliate ID.
Date/Time: 12-14-2007 11:56:11 Comment #7469
Thanks for the input Garry.
I know my sidebars work because I can use other widgets but I just can’t seem to get the rss widget to work.
I have modified this template and made a few messes along the way. I have the same template on a new domain I just purchased this morning so I will try it there and see if it works.
Keep the great tips coming.
Date/Time: 12-14-2007 12:21:01 Comment #7471
You are welcome…
Try doing what you said… as well as going back to your original blog and putting a different feed in there for testing… if the other feed doesn’t work then the problem is not with Amazon but with your WordPress blog.
Try using http://www.garryconn.com/feed/rss2/ and see what happens.
Date/Time: 12-14-2007 12:26:44 Comment #7472
@ David,
Yes!! I noticed that last night as I was recording the video. That does look pretty cool. You can actually see it in the video too.
Date/Time: 12-14-2007 17:57:06 Comment #7483
Interesting sneak-in
-Mike
Date/Time: 12-15-2007 06:26:15 Comment #7508
My feed worked fine this morning, just won’t work yesterday. Very strange. I may have kept on working after my brain told me to shut down for the day.
Question: I may have missed it but I can not seem to find the way to get the exact feed I want. I am sure you were going to show us in the video but if you did I went right past it, three times. Like I said I perhaps should have called it quits for the day.
I really want a feed from the Amazon category that shows ‘computer & internet’ audio books.
BTW: I appreciate your help
Date/Time: 12-19-2007 03:55:46 Comment #7633
IMHO, PeachRSS blows Magpie out of the water. Magpie is an old standard that’s not being maintained. Peach is a truly awesome open API that anybody with basic PHP skills can heavily manipluate.
Date/Time: 12-20-2007 07:01:47 Comment #7663
-Code4Gold, I will certainly give PeachRSS a shot, but I think a key to MagpieRSS is that it is included in Wordpress, and for the non-programmer that is essential to keeping the learning curve to a minimum.
I just downloaded PeachRSS and I will say, if it works, I would have used it a long time ago just based on the footprint!
Date/Time: 12-24-2007 05:25:33 Comment #7741
Excellent video
Thanks
Date/Time: 12-24-2007 05:58:57 Comment #7742
A number of people who first start out with blogging, contemplate whether they should get their feet wet by using Google’s no cost Blogger service or get started with a WordPress blog on their own domain. Wordpress is an unbelievably powerful tool for the online business owner to make money. Thanks for providing great information.
Date/Time: 2-23-2008 08:47:39 Comment #11786
interesting video thanks