I have downloaded Affilistore few weeks ago, but after running into a problem with installation, I have let it rest until yesterday. The installation glitch was my own fault: improper MySQL configuration. After realizing where the problem was it took me literally 30 minutes to create a website with hundreds of products. But first thing first…
What is Affilistore?
Affilisotre is a website building software that allows you to create and maintain affiliate websites utilizing merchants datafeeds. Both PHP and MySQL are required in order for this site builder to work. While I am still testing the free version, with limited features, I can see myself purchasing the full version in near future.
Installing Affilistore.
Before you will be able to install this software on your server you need to set MySQL database that will be used to store the data. There is no need to create ables, the Affilistore will do it, but you need to create a database and assign the user. When you set and ready to go just run the install.php from the directory to which you have uploaded your Affilistore software. This step will bring you to the following window:
Make sure to provide correct information about MySQL database to avoid errors. The information about your website can be changed and adjusted later but you need to provide it in this step in order to get o step 2 where you have to provide the URL for your data feed. I have used an URL for datafeed hosted remotely on a different server, but you can upload the file onto your own server:
After clicking “step 3” button your browser will show a window where you can match the fields of your datafeed with appropriate tables of your store database, trying to match as many fields as possible. If there are some fields in the database that could not be matched with the fields in your database leave them along and these will not be reflected in your website:
That’s it! You have just created a website with hundreds of products: just like this printer ink store that I created in under 30 minutes.
One particular thing that I like about Affilistore that all the affiliate links are clocked and your visitors are being sent to merchant website via a PHP redirect page: go.php. This is particularly beneficial if you are using CJ merchants datafeeds where your affiliate links look some what ugly.
I wish there was also a way that this website would allow appending SID or other similar variables to your affiliate inks for the purpose of keyword tracking should you chose to dive the traffic to your site through pay par click advertising.
While the Affilistore Pro will set you back £49.99, it’s hard to beat the price of Affilistore Basic– it’s free! Also keep an eye on Affilistore Blog for the latest news and updates.
I currently use this script for my website its really good. I strongly recommend it.
This script is very good for quickly creating a price comparison site out of the box. However, I’ve found it harder to customise than some of the other scripts out there, but I guess that’s the trade-off.
Can you publish a post that shows exactly how to import CJ product feed (step-by-step) with images? It driving me nut to add the feed.
@Tarmizi
I will try to do it… Not sure exactly what your difficulty is. If you are having difficulty to match the fields, I would suggest to open the files in a spreadsheet so you see exactly where does the merchant puts the data. Unfortunately not all the merchants do their datafeeds in exactly the same way some for example do not use short descriptions, others have short and long description exactly the same.
If you would like I can e-mail you and so I can ask you more specific questions about your problem.