Installing AffiliateBang
From AffiliateBang Wiki
Contents |
Getting Started
A few notes about Amazon:
Due to recent changes in the Amazon Associate program, you will need to obtain your own secret code and access ID. This is fairly simple to do. After you have installed AffiliateBang, as detailed below:
- Go to http://aws.amazon.com and click on Create an AWS Account in the upper right hand corner.
- After you have done this, there should be a link called Access Identifiers under the Your Account dropdown.
- Copy the access ID from that page, go to your AffiliateBang admin area and paste that into the access ID box under Amazon Settings. Click on the Show link under Your Secret Access Key and paste that into the Secret Code box.
More details about the section Amazon Settings will be covered later in these instructions
Amazon Terms
Before starting to build your store, it is important to note two terms unique to Amazon:
ASIN: Amazon Standard Identification Number or Amazon Standard Item Number. A product number created by Amazon to identify each item within the Amazon system. ASINs usually contain at least one letter, while browse nodes only consist of numbers.
Browse Nodes: Browse nodes (or nodes) are codes for Amazon’s categories. There are browse nodes for parent categories, such as Apparel (1036592), Automotive (15684181) and (Books 283155) as well as child nodes that represent all subcategories within a parent node.. Amazon.com uses browse nodes for all major categories displayed on their site. More is covered in Configuring AffiliateBang.
Installing
Uploading
Once you have downloaded AffiliateBang, you will need to unzip the file before you can upload it to your host. Open the downloaded file in your preferred zip program (such as WinZip) and unzip it to your desktop or some other easy to remember location.
You should now have a folder named AffiliateBang in your chosen location. You will want to upload everything within that folder to your host. If you want your store to be at http://www.mysite.com/shop, for example, you will have to create a new directory on your host called shop and upload all the files and folders to there. Otherwise, you will be uploading your home directory as usual.
First Login
Once you have uploaded all the files, open your browser and go to the URL where you have installed it. For example: http://mystore.com, http://mystore.com/shop.
Since you have just uploaded a fresh install of AffiliateBang, you will then be asked some details about your new store:
Username: This can be anything. It is suggested that you not use "admin" or your store's URL here.
Password: This should be easy to remember, but difficult to guess. You will not be able to recover the password if you forget it, but you can reset the password and create a new one.
Store URL: This will be http://mystore.com or http://mystore.com/shop. Do not put a trailing slash (/) at the end.
Essential Configuration
Now that you have setup the login information, click on Store Settings under Basic Options. Put in your store name, your store description, then click "submit" at the bottom of the page. (The rest of the settings on this page will be covered later.)
Adding Themes
The next step is to add a theme. AffiliateBang comes bundled with a number of themes already, but you will no doubt want to make your store look as unique as possible. One easy way is to go to http://WordPress.org and pick out something you find suitable on a temporary basis. Or, if you already have your perfect theme picked out, you can add it as well.
For most people, adding a theme to AffiliateBang takes just a few clicks.
- Find the zip file of the theme you like (themes with two or three columns work best)
- Right click on the "Download" link
- Choose "Copy Link Location"
- Go to your AffiliateBang admin panel
- Click on "Install Extras" under "Basic Options"
- Right click and paste in the copied URL and click Submit and the theme will automatically be installed for you.
If your website host does not allow this, or if the link to the theme is not a .ZIP file then follow this alternate method:
- Right click on the "Download" link
- Choose "Save Link As..."
- Save it to your computer
- Go to your AffiliateBang admin panel
- Click on "Install Extras" under "Basic Options"
- Click on "Browse" next to the "Upload zip file" area
- Choose the theme from your computer
- Click "Submit"
There are two types to upload, "Theme" or "Plugin", set by default to "Theme", You can add custom AffiliateBang plugins as they are developed. Please note that some older WordPress themes are not compatible with your AffiliateBang store.
