Amazon Hacks

by Bausch, Paul

• ISBN13: 9780596005429
• ISBN10: 0596005423
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-08-01
• Publisher: Oreilly & Associates Inc

Summary

With this collection of tips and tools in Amazon Hacks, users can get the most out of Amazon.com, whether they're avid Amazon shoppers, Amazon Associates developing online storefronts, sellers listing products for sale on Amazon.com, or programmers building applications based on the rich Amazon Web Services API.

Author Biography

1. Paul Bausch

   Paul Bausch is an accomplished web application developer, and is the co-creator of the popular weblog software Blogger. Among his recent applications is BookWatch, a site that scans weblogs for book mentions, analyzes them to find the most frequently mentioned books, and uses the Amazon API to display the results. Paul is also an accomplished writer, and is the co-author of We Blog: Publishing Online with Weblogs, published by Wiley.

Table of Contents

Credits	ix
Foreword	xiii
Preface	xv
Browsing and Searching	1	(30)
Introduction: Amazon Product Pages	1	(4)
Find a Product's ASIN	5	(2)
Find a CD's ASIN with the UPC	7	(1)
Jump to a Product Using Its ASIN	8	(1)
Create Shorter URLs	9	(1)
Link Directly to Product Images	10	(3)
Switch to a Text-Only Amazon	13	(1)
Take Amazon Anywhere	14	(1)
Browse and Search Categories with Browse Nodes	15	(4)
Power-Search for Books	19	(2)
Search Amazon from the IE Address Bar	21	(2)
Search Amazon from Any Web Page in IE	23	(2)
Add an Amazon Sidebar Search to Mozilla	25	(6)
Controlling Your Information	31	(32)
Understand Identity at Amazon	31	(4)
Fine-Tune Your Recommendations	35	(3)
Enable 1-Click Buying	38	(1)
Set Up a Group Account	39	(2)
Create an ``About You'' Area	41	(2)
Create a Wish List	43	(3)
Add Items to a Wish List Remotely	46	(1)
Add Multiple Items to a Wish List at Once	46	(3)
Organize Your Wish List by Priority	49	(4)
Set Email and Messages Preferences	53	(1)
Get Movie Showtimes	54	(2)
Create an Amazon Event Reminder	56	(1)
Create Several Birthday Reminders at Once	57	(4)
Best Practices for Your Amazon Account	61	(2)
Participating in the Amazon Community	63	(47)
Introduction: Community Features	63	(2)
Accessing Community Features	65	(1)
Write a Review	66	(2)
Link Directly to Reviews of a Product	68	(2)
Post a Review from a Remote Site	70	(2)
Add Pop-up Amazon Reviews to Your Web Site	72	(2)
Send an Email Alert if a Review Is Added to a Product	74	(3)
Sort Books by Average Customer Rating	77	(1)
Sort Your Recommendations by Average Customer Rating	78	(3)
Scrape Product Reviews	81	(1)
Publish Your Amazon Reviews on Your Site	82	(2)
Share the Love (and Savings!) with Your Friends	84	(2)
Create a Guide	86	(2)
Post a Guide Remotely	88	(1)
Add Product Advice Remotely	89	(2)
Scrape Customer Advice	91	(2)
Create a Listmania! List	93	(2)
Gather Your Friends on Amazon	95	(1)
Gather Your Friends' Amazon IDs	96	(2)
Get Purchase Circle Products with Screen Scraping	98	(2)
Find Purchase Circles by Zip Code	100	(2)
Track the Ranks of Books Over Time	102	(2)
Group Conversations About Books	104	(3)
Add a ``Currently Reading'' List to Your Web Site	107	(3)
Selling Through Amazon	110	(32)
Introduction: Understanding Amazon's Sales Programs	110	(5)
Sell a Book with Amazon Marketplace	115	(3)
Speed Up the Listing Process	118	(1)
List Several Items for Sale at Once	119	(4)
Sell What People Want	123	(3)
Scope Out the Marketplace Competition	126	(2)
List Your Items for Sale on Your Web Site	128	(4)
Put an Item Up for Bid at Amazon Auctions	132	(1)
Get (and Keep!) a Good Seller Rating	133	(2)
Collect Donations from Your Web Site with the Honor System	135	(5)
Show the Progress of Your Honor System Fund on Your Site	140	(2)
Associates Program	142	(47)
Introduction: Make Money by Linking to Amazon	142	(3)
Build Associate Links	145	(4)
Sell Items from Your Site	149	(2)
Sell Items with Pop-up Windows	151	(3)
Create Banner Ads for Your Site	154	(3)
Rotate Through Several Keyword Banners on Your Site	157	(3)
Add an Amazon Search Box to Your Site	160	(1)
Show Amazon Search Results on Your Site	161	(7)
Create an Online Store	168	(3)
Donate to Charities Through Associate Links	171	(1)
Format a Review for Your Site	172	(1)
Create Amazon Associate Links on Your Movable Type Weblog	173	(2)
Simplify Amazon Associate Links in Your Blosxom Weblog	175	(2)
Add an Amazon Box to Your Site	177	(2)
Deep Linking to Amazon's Mobile Device Pages	179	(4)
Measure Your Associate Sales	183	(2)
Publish Your Associate Sales Statistics on Your Site	185	(3)
Associates Program Best Practices	188	(1)
Amazon Web Services	189	(80)
Introduction: What Are Web Services?	189	(2)
Why Expose an API?	191	(1)
What You Need	191	(1)
What You Can Do	192	(1)
Making Requests	193	(1)
The RESTful Way: XML/HTTP	194	(2)
SOAP Web Services	196	(1)
Working With Responses	197	(2)
View XML Responses in a Browser	199	(1)
Embed Product Details into a Web Page with PHP	200	(2)
Program AWS with PHP	202	(2)
Program AWS with Python	204	(2)
Program AWS with Perl	206	(2)
Loop Around the 10-Result Limit	208	(2)
Program XML/HTTP with VBScript	210	(2)
Transform AWS Results to HTML with XSLT	212	(3)
Work Around Products Without Images	215	(2)
Syndicate a List of Books with RSS	217	(6)
Import Data Directly into Excel	223	(7)
Program AWS with SOAP and VB.NET	230	(2)
Program AWS with SOAP::Lite and Perl	232	(2)
Program AWS with NuSOAP and PHP	234	(1)
Create a Wireless Wish List	235	(3)
Make Product Titles Shorter	238	(1)
Encode Text for URLs	239	(1)
Cache Amazon Images Locally	240	(2)
Cache AWS Responses Locally	242	(3)
Create an Amazon AIM Bot	245	(3)
Compare International Sales	248	(3)
Program AWS with Mozilla	251	(7)
Search or Browse Amazon with Watson	258	(3)
Add Cover Art to Your Digital Music Collection	261	(2)
Using All Consuming's SOAP and REST Interfaces	263	(6)
Index	269