If you don’t yet have access to the Amazon API or if you’ve lost your access – simply switch AmaLinks Pro® into No-API mode to add Amazon affiliate links without the API! In your WordPress menu, go to AmaLinks Pro® > Settings and check the box to switch to No-API mode then click the Save Changes button.
How Does AmaLinks Pro® No-API Mode Work?
AmaLinks Pro® simply assists you in creating Site Stripe links and helps you insert those links into your Posts/Pages. Furthermore, AmaLinks Pro® No-API mode allows you to create and insert some of our more advanced link types, like CTA Buttons, Showcase Boxes, and Product Comparison Tables – despite not having access to the API!
Here’s how it works… When you click the button, within AmaLinks Pro®, to search Amazon – a new window opens up with the Amazon homepage open and the Site Stripe bar across the top. You simply search Amazon for your product or ASIN, use the Site Stripe bar to create your link type, then copy/paste that link into AmaLinks Pro®, per the on-page instructions.
Can’t you do this without AmaLinks Pro®?
For text and image links – yes you can do this without AmaLinks Pro®. But with AmaLinks Pro® – you can also create higher converting CTA Buttons, Showcase Boxes, and Product Comparison Tables using Site Stripe links to pull in images and make sure your links are being properly attributed to the API.
How to Use Site Stripe Links within AmaLinks Pro®
Note: For these examples (and screenshots) – I am using the Classic Editor. You can do the same thing in the Block ‘Gutenberg’ Editor with just a slightly different workflow.
Below, you will find step-by-step instructions for each link type. This is a bit of a manual process – but once you get the hang of it you will be able to create these link types quite quickly. For each link type – you simply start out by clicking the AmaLinks Pro® button at the top of your editor (in Classic Editor) or select the appropriate No-API block type if you are using the Block ‘Gutenberg’ Editor.
IMPORTANT: You MUST be logged in to your Amazon Associates account (in a separate window) for the Site Stripe bar to show up on your Amazon search results pages.
How To Insert No-API Images
Step 1: Insert your product search term or ASIN then hit enter or click the Search button
Step 2:
Amazon will open in a new window. If you used a search term (instead of an ASIN), select the product that you want to promote on Amazon and click over to the product page. You will see the Site Stripe bar across the top of the product page (again – you MUST be logged in to Amazon Associates for the Site Stripe bar to appear).
Step 3:
Go back to the window with your Post/Page editor that still has AmaLinks Pro® open. Select your link type from the AmaLinks Pro® interface. In this case – we are selecting the Insert Image button (this step is not necessary in the Block ‘Gutenberg’ Editor)
Step 4:
Go back to the window with your product page on Amazon. In the Site Stripe bar – click on the Image link and then select your size (we suggest you always select Large and you can always resize it smaller within WordPress). Site Stripe will generate a link code in the box below. Copy that code.
Step 5:
Go back to the window with your Post/Page editor that still has AmaLinks Pro® open. Paste in the code that you copied and then click the button to go to Step 3.
Step 6:
Preview your image. Choose alignment and select your links settings then click the button to Insert Image Link.
And here is what the image looks like in the Post editor after you insert it…
What if the ‘Large’ image from Site Stripe isn’t large enough?
Want a much larger image than the largest one that Site Stripe provides? No worries! We know a simple little trick to pull in a larger image from Amazon.
For whatever reason – it seems the largest image size that Amazon provides in Site Stripe is 250 pixels wide. Here is how you can pull in the exact same image in a larger size. In the code that Amazon provides, find the number right after Format=_SL… and change that number to whatever width you want your image to be (we suggest you start with 500).
In this example, I simply replaced the number 160 with 500 and here is what the image now looks like in my Post editor…
Update: No-API Images in the Block ‘Gutenberg’ Editor
Due to complications – we have temporarily disabled the Image link type ONLY for No-API users who are using the Block ‘Gutenberg’ Editor. Not to worry though… you actually don’t even need AmaLinks Pro® to insert No-API Amazon images into WordPress in the Block Editor. It’s actually really simple. After you find your image code via SiteStripe on Amazon, follow these simple instructions…
- Step 1: Click the 3-dot menu in the upper right corner of the Block editor
- Step 2: Click the ‘Code editor’ link to switch from Visual editor over to the Code editor
- Step 3: Paste in your Image link code from Amazon SiteStripe
- Step 4: Click the ‘Exit code editor’ link to switch back to the Visual editor
Once you are back to the visual editor – you will see that it actually inserts the image as a ‘Classic block’. You can now edit the image just as you would in the Classic editor. You can set the alignment, drag to resize, change the URL it links to, set the Alt text, or even add a caption!
Note: If you choose to resize this image, remember to only size down – as sizing up will distort/blur the image slightly. If you want to start with a larger image – see the instructions above to manually change one number in the Amazon SiteStripe link code.
How To Insert No-API Showcases
Step 1:
Same as Step 1 for images (above)
Step 2:
Same as Step 2 for images (above)
Step 3:
Same as Step 3 for images (above), except this time we are selecting the ‘Product Showcases’ button
Step 4:
This is where you get to build your Showcase Box! Choose which showcase layout you would like to use and enter your Amazon affiliate link you obtained from SiteStripe:
Next you can edit any part of the showcase. It’s all self-explanatory as shown in the image below.
Note: Be sure to insert your Amazon Affiliate Product Link in the box at the top – this is the link that the CTA button will be attached to.
Tip: For the title – simply copy/paste the exact title from the Amazon listing and/or edit to say whatever you want.
Tip: For the bullet point (custom text) – simply copy/paste the bullet points from the Amazon listing (if available). This is the exact same information that is available in the API.
Q: Should I worry about duplicate content penalties if I copy/paste the exact text from the Amazon listing?
A: Amazon would not make this data available in the API if they didn’t intend for it to be used on other sites. Will Google penalize you for this? I can’t answer that – but I doubt it. If you are really concerned that you might be flagged by Google for duplicate content – then you can certainly change up the text to make it say whatever you want.
Tip: For the image – use the Large image that is available in Site Stripe. You can also experiment with different sizes based on your own preferences.
Step 5:
Preview your Showcase Box. Choose alignment and select your links settings then click the button to Insert Shortcode.
Important: You CAN NOT use the ‘Add to Cart’ function with No-API links. You might still see the setting for ‘Add to Cart’ on the bottom of this page. DO NOT check the ‘Add to Cart’ box – as this will cause a conflict and make your links unclickable.
Here is what my example No-API Showcase Box looks like on the live preview page…
How To Insert No-API Call-to-Action Buttons
Step 1:
Same as Step 1 for images (above)
Step 2:
Same as Step 2 for images (above)
Step 3:
Same as Step 3 for images (above), except this time we are selecting the ‘CTA Button’ button
Step 4:
Choose your CTA button type, edit the button text, add your affiliate link.
Now you can create/edit/choose any CTA button and style that you want for your Amazon Affiliate Custom CSS Buttons.
If you are unfamiliar with how to use the CTA Button editor – please revisit our Getting Started page and scroll down to the video under the heading, How to Create or Edit Custom CTA Buttons
Step 5: Preview your CTA Button. Choose alignment and select your links settings then click the button to Insert Shortcode.
Important: You CAN NOT use the ‘Add to Cart’ function with No-API links. You might still see the setting for ‘Add to Cart’ on the bottom of this page. DO NOT check the ‘Add to Cart’ box – as this will cause a conflict and make your links unclickable.
How To Insert No-API Product Comparison Tables
Step 1:
Same as Step 1 for images (above)
Step 2:
Same as Step 2 for images (above)
Step 3:
Same as Step 3 for images (above), except this time we are selecting the ‘Table Builder’ button
Step 4:
Click button to Add Table or select an existing table to edit.
Note: Tables created in API mode cannot be edited in No-API mode and vice versa
Step 5:
Add a product to your first row. First – connect the row to your Amazon affiliate link by copy/pasting a Site Stripe text link into the location shown below. This step is extremely important. This connects your CTA button and any other column you make clickable to your affiliate link.
Step 6: Add product image to row.
Go to your window with your Amazon listing and copy the Site Stripe image code. You can experiment with different sizes. We find that the medium Site Stripe image works well for most tables.
Note: you can adjust the image size manually by changing the number that is attached to the SL in the Site Stripe image code. Example: medium images have SL160 in the middle of the image code. Change the 160 to adjust the image size if you wish.
Step 7: Add or change all other text elements in the table.
Hover over any section to add or edit text. Change headings if you wish. Add or remove columns. The possibilities here are limitless! Copy/paste some info from the Amazon listing (like the Title).
Important: You CAN NOT use the ‘Add to Cart’ function with No-API links. You will see the setting for ‘Add to Cart’ in the left side Link Settings menu. DO NOT check the ‘Add to Cart’ box – as this will cause a conflict and make your links unclickable.
Step 8: Save table and then insert into editor.
Very important – you MUST hit the Save Table button BEFORE inserting into your editor.
The No-API Table Builder works very similarly to the API driven Table Builder – except that you must manually insert all of the data yourself. To learn more about the Table Builder and it’s settings and how to set responsive settings – please visit this page and watch the Table Builder tutorial videos.
Switching Between API mode and No-API Mode
There are a few things you should know about going between modes.
I lost my Product Advertising API access, what happens to all of my links?
First off, since you are using AmaLinks Pro® you don’t have to worry. If you have text links, image links or CTA buttons – the HTML or shortcode will still load as usual and they will keep working as expected.
If you have product showcases that use the API – everything will still load except the image & price – leaving your site visitor with a nice-looking functional product box. This is called graceful degradation. Although some things will not load, your users will still get a nice experience.
If you are using the table builder, any price or image columns will not load the product data and your site visitors can still use the rest of the table as usual.
