AAWP Review | The Best Amazon Affiliate Plugin I’ve Used

I've earned millions of dollars from Amazon's affiliate program. 

So I have a lot of experience managing Amazon affiliate links, optimizing for conversions, and maintaining Amazon Associates compliance. 

A couple of years ago I switched to a new affiliate plugin- the AAWP (Amazon Affiliate WordPress Plugin).

I had been using EasyAzon since I started in 2016 and I still have a ton of EasyAzon links on my site. 

At the time, EasyAzon was a fairly sophisticated and useful option. 

It was one of the first affiliate plugins that let you manage international Amazon Associate accounts. 

Nowadays, that's pretty standard- but back in 2016, a lot of Amazon affiliates would either lose out on international commissions or jump through hoops to send traffic to the correct Amazon storefront.

What I Used To Do

When I first started publishing Amazon affiliate content, I'd create tons of comparison tables using TablePress and insert EasyAzon shortcodes into them so that they'd look like this: 

The first column contains an EasyAzon image shortcode and the second an EasyAzon link shortcode.

Problems

One recurring problem was that when Amazon products went out of stock, or the product page was deleted, there was no way of knowing.

Plus the product image would disappear- creating an ugly gap on the page or in the table.

So, with hundreds of WordPress posts and tens of thousands of affiliate links, a top page could be hemorrhaging affiliate revenue and you wouldn't even know it. 

Yes, there are some tools now that will scrape your site and let you know which products are out of stock.

But, still, even if you're checking these broken-link reports everyday and making affiliate link fixes, it's a really annoying problem.

The Solution

With AAWP, the single best feature, at least for how I build affiliate sites, is their "Bestseller Lists". 

With a simple shortcode like:

[amazon bestseller="Electric Hospital Beds" items="3" description_items="1" price="hide"]

I get a list of current bestselling items for that keyword:

(All the AAWP content on this page are screenshots: I don't have the plugin installed on NicheFacts.)

The advantage here is that if a product goes out of stock, it's removed from this list and replaced with a bestseller that is in stock. 

That means, all the products in this bestseller listicle are always in stock. 

As well, it only takes a couple seconds to create. 

(Check out some of AAWP's most popular templates)

Customization

Now, you can do a lot of customization with these listicles. 

I like being able to quickly create them on the fly, but if you want to make them a bit more dazzling, the guys over at AuthorityHacker had their tables coded to look like this:

I'm still using the out-of-box bestseller lists and they're converting like crazy: 

It makes content publication a breeze. 

My favorite 1-2 punch is outsourcing content to HireWriters (i.e. 'how to wear a knee brace) and then slapping a "knee brace" best seller list near the top of the page. 

You want these high-converting best seller lists occupying the prime real estate of your page.

Video Overview

The AuthorityHacker guys had their software reviewer put together a handy overview of how to install and use this Amazon affiliate plugin:

Other AAWP Formats

As you can see in the video above, there are a bunch of dynamic AAWP formats you can employ: 

Specific Product Boxes

You can insert a specific product by locating its ASIN number on the product page:

[amazon box="B07XVZD4Z2" template="horizontal"]

Grids

You can insert several ASIN numbers to create a custom grid:

[amazon box="B07XVZD4Z2,B07V8P7286,B07V8P7286" grid="3"]

Tables

A shortcode with just a keyword and a specified item count can produce a quick table:

[amazon bestseller="mainboard" items="3" template="table"]

Buttons

You can create buttons using the ASIN number: 

[amazon fields="ASIN" value="button"]

What I Like

Easy

I like how easy it is to quickly create high-converting, always-in-stock, Amazon bestseller tables. 

Especially with Amazon's recent commission reductions (4/20), it's ultimately cheaper to roll out an AAWP list than have a virtual assistant create a TablePress table with manually inserted affiliate links.

Conversion Optimized

AAWP optimizes their designs for conversion- though you can do your own modifications, AAWP loads fast and looks pretty sleek.

Consistent

There are very few glitches with AAWP. Unlike some other affiliate plugins I've used, I've never had to resort to the AAWP forums to get anything fixed.

Compliant

Of all the Amazon affiliate plugins, the AAWP plugin comes closest to an official Amazon endorsement.

You can see it's listed here as a recommended option. I've also seen a lot of positive anecdotal chatter about its reputation within different Facebook Groups.

What I Don't Like

Wishlist Features

Some small quibbles- it would be cool if there was an AAWP browser extension so you could create AAWP affiliate collateral directly from an Amazon page. 

As it is, you have to plug the ASIN in manually for things like buttons and certain comparison tables.

It would also be interesting to have a 'visual composer' to modify some of the outputs. As is, you can change some things around- button text, button style, etc.

You do need to employ CSS to extensively modify AAWP outputs.

Summing Up

Overall, AAWP has been a fantastic addition to my affiliate tool chest.

It makes it faster and easier to push out high-converting affiliate content while maintaining compliance with the Amazon Associates terms of service.

I am an affiliate for AAWP- so if you purchase it I'll receive a commission at no cost to you.