Does anyone know of a software program that is meant to help you run
an online bookstore of sorts through Amazon? Basically, that allows
you to manage book listing, reviews, pictures of covers, and links to
Amazon's bookstore for purchases to be made there. I don't actually
want to run a bookstore (don't need shopping cart software for
instance), but rather want to run a website with information about
books that facilitates shopping via Amazon (and my getting the
percentage that Amazon pays back when linked for sales).
If there is more than one option, would like to know. |
Request for Question Clarification by
efn-ga
on
15 Jun 2004 18:49 PDT
Hi susank-ga,
With the Amazon Associates program, you can put "buy now from Amazon"
links on your web pages and get a percentage of the sales made through
your links. This is at least part of the answer to your question, but
since you asked for a "software program," I would like to ask you if
information about Amazon Associates is enough. There are many
programs you can use to create web pages, but there may not be one
that is specialized for creating pages to sell books from Amazon. Can
you handle the web page creation and management, or are you also
looking for information about how to do that, or specific software for
that purpose?
--efn
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Clarification of Question by
susank-ga
on
16 Jun 2004 04:12 PDT
I know about the Associates program and have used it before. I also
have web design experience so that is not an issue. Basically, I don't
want to have to design my own database for this purpose, and I want my
staff (non-programmers) to be able to add to and modify listings on
our book page. Ideally, the software would maintain author lists and
contacts, book descriptions, reviews, and facilitate discussions about
the books. I have the programming background that would allow me to
develop all this (and, frankly, in not that much time), but I figure
that a product must already be out there that is customized for this
purpose (not just web development software, but specifically something
designed for maintaining a web page that really promotes discussions
and purchases of books).
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Request for Question Clarification by
hummer-ga
on
16 Jun 2004 15:32 PDT
Hi Susank,
Is this what you have in mind?
Amazon Store Builder:
http://www.esvon.com/pg/products/p_amazon/
Please let us know what you think of this product so we can either
continue researching your question, or post this as an answer.
Thank you,
hummer
|
Clarification of Question by
susank-ga
on
17 Jun 2004 03:18 PDT
Sorry for the delay. I had to go via the example and the admin area.
As far as I can tell, this is not really it - but is definitely on the
right track.
This program does not appear to allow input of much of our own content
- specifically, we want to be able to use our reviewers and conduct
our own discussions, not use the ones fed in from Amazon. I would need
to inspect further, but it looks like it actually chooses the books
that are included from Amazon automatically. We specifically want
software that allows management of our own list of books - specific to
our professional area of expertise (a 'niche' bookstore basically).
Definitely do not want the top 100, etc. from Amazon. However, this
had some neat features (the embedded shopping cart that checked out at
Amazon was pretty neat!).
Their templates also assumed at least some knowledge of html. I am
looking for something that could be used by our lowest end people -
basically would prompt something like this (maybe I need to develop
and sell this!):
What is the isbn of the book you would like to list?
Do you want to include a picture from Amazon?
Do you want to include pricing information?
Do you want to include reviews from Amazon? [no]
Do you want users to be able to post their own reviews to your site?
Enter any informational text that you would like to include:
Thanks for your help in my quest!
I thank you for looking further. I note that in their promotional
material, they said that they clearly implied that there were other
products out there.
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Clarification of Question by
susank-ga
on
22 Jun 2004 04:46 PDT
I don't think anyone is working on this, but I found something
acceptable by contacting Amazon directly. Thank you!
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