Amazon Hacks

Amazon Hacks

by Paul Bausch
Released August 2003
Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ISBN: 9780596005429

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Book description

Amazon Hacks is a collection of tips and tools for getting the most out of Amazon.com, whether you're an avid Amazon shopper, Amazon Associate developing your online storefront and honing your recommendations for better linking and more referral fees, seller listing your own products for sale on Amazon.com, or a programmer building your own application on the foundation provided by the rich Amazon Web Services API. Shoppers will learn how to make the most of Amazon.com's deep functionality and become part of the Amazon community, maintain wishlists, tune recommendations, "share the love" with friends and family, etc. Amazon Associates will find tips for how best to list their titles, how to promote their offerings by fine tuning search criteria and related titles information, and even how to make their store fronts more attractive. And the real power users will use the Amazon API to build Amazon-enabled applications, create store fronts and populate them with items to be picked, packed and shipped by Amazon. And just about anyone can become a seller on Amazon.com, listing items, deciding on pricing, and fulfilling orders for products new and used.

Table of contents

  1. Amazon Hacks
    1. Credits
      1. About the Author
      2. Contributors
      3. Acknowledgments
    2. Foreword
    3. Preface
      1. Why Amazon Hacks?
      2. How This Book Is Organized
      3. How to Use This Book
      4. Conventions Used in This Book
      5. How to Contact Us
      6. Got a Hack?
    4. 1. Browsing and Searching
      1. Hacks #1-12
      2. Amazon Product Pages
      3. Find a Product’s ASIN
      4. Find a CD’s ASIN with the UPC
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      5. Jump to a Product Using Its ASIN
      6. Create Shorter URLs
      7. Link Directly to Product Images
      8. Switch to a Text-Only Amazon
      9. Take Amazon Anywhere
      10. Browse and Search Categories with Browse Nodes
        1. Finding Browse Node IDs
        2. Perform a Keyword Search Within a Browse Node
        3. Find Every Item Within a Browse Node
        4. Sort Your Browse Node Search Results
      11. Power-Search for Books
        1. Advanced Search
        2. Power Search
        3. Power Search URLs
      12. Search Amazon from the IE Address Bar
        1. Setting It Up
        2. Running the Hack
        3. Hacking the Hack
      13. Search Amazon from Any Web Page in IE
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      14. Add an Amazon Sidebar Search to Mozilla
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
    5. 2. Controlling Your Information
      1. Hacks #13-26
      2. Understand Identity at Amazon
        1. Create an Account
        2. Understanding Login Status
        3. Signing In and Out
        4. Closing an Account
      3. Fine-Tune Your Recommendations
        1. Recommendations Wizard
        2. Rate Items in Your Amazon History
        3. Add and Rate Items That You Didn’t Purchase at Amazon
      4. Enable 1-Click Buying
      5. Set Up a Group Account
      6. Create an “About You” Area
        1. Controlling Who Sees What
        2. Adding a Picture of Yourself
      7. Create a Wish List
        1. Finding Your Wish List ID
        2. Recommendations Based on Wish List Items
        3. Deleting Your Wish List
      8. Add Items to a Wish List Remotely
      9. Add Multiple Items to a Wish List at Once
        1. What You Need
        2. The Code
        3. Running the Hack
      10. Organize Your Wish List by Priority
        1. Ranking Your Wish List
        2. How It Works
        3. Handling Deletions and Additions
        4. Running It Yourself
      11. Set Email and Messages Preferences
      12. Get Movie Showtimes
      13. Create an Amazon Event Reminder
      14. Create Several Birthday Reminders at Once
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
        3. Hacking the Hack
      15. Best Practices for Your Amazon Account
    6. 3. Participating in the Amazon Community
      1. Hacks #27-48
      2. Community Features
      3. Accessing Community Features
        1. Accessing Through Web Services
        2. Accessing Through Screen Scraping
      4. Write a Review
      5. Link Directly to Reviews of a Product
      6. Post a Review from a Remote Site
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      7. Add Pop-up Amazon Reviews to Your Web Site
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      8. Send an Email Alert if a Review Is Added to a Product
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      9. Sort Books by Average Customer Rating
        1. Sorting Search Results
        2. Sorting Web Services Queries
      10. Sort Your Recommendations by Average Customer Rating
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      11. Scrape Product Reviews
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      12. Publish Your Amazon Reviews on Your Site
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      13. Share the Love (and Savings!) with Your Friends
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      14. Create a Guide
      15. Post a Guide Remotely
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      16. Add Product Advice Remotely
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      17. Scrape Customer Advice
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      18. Create a Listmania! List
      19. Gather Your Friends on Amazon
      20. Gather Your Friends’ Amazon IDs
        1. Linking Directly to Community Features
        2. The Code
        3. Running the Hack
      21. Get Purchase Circle Products with Screen Scraping
        1. Finding Purchase Circle IDs
        2. The Code
        3. Running the Hack
        4. Hacking the Hack
      22. Find Purchase Circles by Zip Code
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      23. Track the Ranks of Books Over Time
        1. Using JungleScan.com
      24. Group Conversations About Books
        1. What Makes Grouping Conversations Possible
        2. Features at All Consuming
      25. Add a “Currently Reading” List to Your Web Site
        1. Setting Up Your Book List
        2. The Code
        3. The Results
        4. Viewing Your Bookosphere
    7. 4. Selling Through Amazon
      1. Hacks #49-58
      2. Understanding Amazon’s Sales Programs
        1. Marketplace
        2. Pro-Merchant Subscription
        3. zShops
        4. Auctions
        5. Advantage Program
        6. Honor System
        7. Fees and Services Roundup
      3. Sell a Book with Amazon Marketplace
        1. Select the Condition
        2. Set the Sales Price and Shipping Information
        3. Set Your Marketplace Payment Information
        4. Confirm the Listing
        5. Ship the Book
      4. Speed Up the Listing Process
        1. Jump Directly to the Listing Page
        2. Set Your Zip Code
      5. List Several Items for Sale at Once
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
        3. Uploading the File
      6. Sell What People Want
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      7. Scope Out the Marketplace Competition
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      8. List Your Items for Sale on Your Web Site
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
        3. Hacking the Hack
        4. Add a Co-Branded Checkout
      9. Put an Item Up for Bid at Amazon Auctions
      10. Get (and Keep!) a Good Seller Rating
      11. Collect Donations from Your Web Site with the Honor System
        1. Customize Your PayPage
        2. Create a Quick-Click Donation Link
        3. Create a Paybox
      12. Show the Progress of Your Honor System Fund on Your Site
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
        3. Hacking the Hack
    8. 5. Associates Program
      1. Hacks #59-75
      2. Make Money by Linking to Amazon
        1. How It Works
        2. What You Need
      3. Build Associate Links
        1. Link to the Amazon Home Page
        2. Link to Individual Products
        3. Bypass the Similar Items Page
        4. Link to Search Results or Product Categories
          1. Keyword Search
          2. Specific Product Categories
        5. Link to Any Amazon Page
      4. Sell Items from Your Site
        1. Add to Cart Button
        2. Add to Wish List or Registry Button
      5. Sell Items with Pop-up Windows
        1. The Code
      6. Create Banner Ads for Your Site
        1. Product Recommendation Banners
        2. Customize Product Recommendation Banners
        3. Add the Product Recommendation Banners to Your Site
      7. Rotate Through Several Keyword Banners on Your Site
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      8. Add an Amazon Search Box to Your Site
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      9. Show Amazon Search Results on Your Site
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
        3. Keep the Search Results Local with JavaScript
      10. Create an Online Store
      11. Donate to Charities Through Associate Links
      12. Format a Review for Your Site
      13. Create Amazon Associate Links on Your Movable Type Weblog
      14. Simplify Amazon Associate Links in Your Blosxom Weblog
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
        3. See Also
      15. Add an Amazon Box to Your Site
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      16. Deep Linking to Amazon’s Mobile Device Pages
        1. Product Detail Paths
        2. Search Results Paths
        3. Assembling the URLs
      17. Measure Your Associate Sales
        1. Earnings
        2. Traffic
        3. Link Performance
      18. Publish Your Associate Sales Statistics on Your Site
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      19. Associates Program Best Practices
    9. 6. Amazon Web Services
      1. Hacks #76-100
      2. What Are Web Services?
      3. Why Expose an API?
      4. What You Need
      5. What You Can Do
      6. Making Requests
      7. The RESTful Way: XML/HTTP
        1. Required Variables
        2. Search Variables
          1. Product Searches
          2. Amazon Features Searches
          3. Special Searches
        3. Support Variables
        4. Putting the URLs Together
      8. SOAP Web Services
      9. Working With Responses
        1. XML Parsers and XPath
        2. Lite Response and Heavy Response
      10. View XML Responses in a Browser
      11. Embed Product Details into a Web Page with PHP
        1. What You Need
        2. The Code
        3. Running the Hack
      12. Program AWS with PHP
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      13. Program AWS with Python
        1. What You Need
        2. The Code
        3. Running the Hack
        4. Hacking the Hack
      14. Program AWS with Perl
        1. What You Need
        2. The Code
        3. Running the Hack
      15. Loop Around the 10-Result Limit
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
        3. Hacking the Hack
      16. Program XML/HTTP with VBScript
        1. What You Need
        2. The Code
        3. Running the Hack
      17. Transform AWS Results to HTML with XSLT
        1. The Code
      18. Work Around Products Without Images
        1. What You Need
        2. The Code
        3. Running the Hack
      19. Syndicate a List of Books with RSS
        1. What You Need
        2. The Code
        3. Running the Hack
      20. Import Data Directly into Excel
        1. What You Need
        2. The Code
          1. Getting the Data
          2. Transforming the Data
          3. Importing the Data
        3. Running the Hack
        4. Hacking the Hack
          1. Making the Query Dynamic
          2. Using Different Data
          3. Graphing Results
      21. Program AWS with SOAP and VB.NET
        1. What You Need
        2. The Code
        3. Running the Hack
      22. Program AWS with SOAP::Lite and Perl
        1. What You Need
        2. The Code
        3. Running the Hack
      23. Program AWS with NuSOAP and PHP
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      24. Create a Wireless Wish List
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      25. Make Product Titles Shorter
        1. The Code
      26. Encode Text for URLs
        1. The Code
      27. Cache Amazon Images Locally
        1. The Code
      28. Cache AWS Responses Locally
        1. Cache in Memory with ASP
        2. Cache to Disk with Perl
      29. Create an Amazon AIM Bot
        1. What You Need
        2. The Code
        3. Running the Hack
      30. Compare International Sales
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      31. Program AWS with Mozilla
        1. The Code
        2. Running the Hack
      32. Search or Browse Amazon with Watson
        1. Integrate with Other Tools
        2. How It Works
      33. Add Cover Art to Your Digital Music Collection
      34. Using All Consuming’s SOAP and REST Interfaces
        1. The SOAP Code
          1. Most Mentioned Lists
          2. Personal Book Lists
          3. Book Metadata and Weblog Mentions
          4. Friends and Recommendations
        2. The REST Code
          1. Most-Mentioned Lists
          2. Personal Book Lists
          3. Book Metadata and Weblog Mentions
          4. Friends and Recommendations
        3. Running the Hack
        4. Hacking the Hack
    10. Index
    11. Colophon

Product information

  • Title: Amazon Hacks
  • Author(s): Paul Bausch
  • Release date: August 2003
  • Publisher(s): O'Reilly Media, Inc.
  • ISBN: 9780596005429