Ghostscripter AWS

nevetS

Mar 19th 2005, 10:13 pm

You can set up your own categories from Amazon Nodes or by search terms. You can sell anything that you can sell through AWS - meaning stuff from sellers that haven't agreed to publish on AWS and give commissions is unsellable. They tell me there is a feature coming out in 5.0 to filter out unavailable products. There is a shopping cart built into GhostScripter so people don't need to leave your site except to check out. (and no amazon pop up to add to cart). 5.0alpha does used items, but it is still unstable.

GTech

Mar 19th 2005, 10:21 pm

The admin control panel allows you to add your own categories. I hand entered all the categories on my sites (see sig). Basically, I kept a browser on Amazon's site in the category, and copied each node over to make the category.

5.0alpha also has a setting where it will automatically get all the sub categories of a category. Not sure when they are going to release 5.0. I started working with it, but I had enough issues with it to hold off. The way it is now, on third party products, it still shows unavailable in the description, but when you click on the product, it will show new/used options from third parties. If they don't change that, I plan on re-writing that code so that if third party is available, it shows in the products list of a category.

It's a good software product, well worth the $110 for the source version. To add additional stores on separate domains, he charges $10.00 per additional store.

getsum80

Mar 20th 2005, 12:06 am

So i can make up my own categories like say Quickilver T-shirts and just choose quicksilver t-shirt products that i find on amazon?
Thanks
sorry i am not tech at all yet

nevetS

Mar 20th 2005, 1:04 am

Yes...

You can do a "search category" so your search would be quicksilver t-shirts and the products would be the results.

You can then add products individually to that category if you see some that don't come up in your results. Or you can alternatively add an empty category and add products individually.

They have a demo up there that you can play with. http://demo.ghostscripter.com/amazon/adm/ (login/password: demo/demo)

You can't add custom categories in the demo, I don't think, but you can see the interface.

Juls

Mar 20th 2005, 1:54 am

I thought ghostscriper was down? Or is there another way to get a membership or purchase scripts?

GTech

Mar 20th 2005, 2:04 am

I believe they just took the front page offline. Their product page is still up:

http://www.ghostscripter.com/amazon_shop.php

nevetS

Mar 20th 2005, 2:37 am

yeah. I e-mailed them about it. They are redesigning their site right now and hope to have a new one up soon. For now, you can purchase from the product page without a problem. I did it the other day. Support is via e-mail as their forum is down. I e-mailed them and they got back to me within a day.

I was also looking at this script: http://www.c3scripts.com/amazon/index.html - in the same price range, if you are concerned.

getsum80

Mar 20th 2005, 12:07 pm

does ghostscripter work on linux web sever?

nevetS

Mar 20th 2005, 2:46 pm

yes, it does. I don't think there is anything OS specific in there, but I know for sure it works with Linux/apache/php.

TechEvangelist

Mar 20th 2005, 3:43 pm

I bought the Ghostscripter script last week, but have not had too much time to play with it yet. I've e-mailed Craig at Ghostscripter about documentation, but have not seen a response as yet.

GTech and nevetS, it looks like both of you have some experience with this system. Do you know if there is any documentation or basic instructions available? The Admin area of the program tells you that you will find it in the Members area of the Web site, but the Members area is pretty sparse.

Also, did anyone install the new version? If so, how stable is it? GTech, it sounds like you found some issues.

GTech

Mar 20th 2005, 4:08 pm

I've never seen documentation. I don't think there is any, other than the install instructions. Out of the box, it's fairly easy to setup and very simple to use, IMHO. Customizing it was not easy. It took me a while to get into the code and see how things were working, working with the template files, etc.

I don't recall specific bugs in 5.x alpha. I did have to make a few fixes in the alpha to even get it working. It's been about two months ago, and I've built five websites since then (not pertaining to AWS), so I tend to forget the specifics. My biggest complaint (and it may not be a complaint with the code, just the way ECS is) is that for third party products, in the general product listing of a node, a third party product will show "not available" but if you click on the product link, it then shows an option to buy new/used from a third party. People are not going to know to do that. If it's not taken care of, I plan to rewrite it to see if a third party product is available and override that "not available" message.

getsum80

Mar 20th 2005, 5:19 pm

Can i pay smeone to install for me if i buy ?

GTech

Mar 20th 2005, 5:26 pm

If they don't offer the service getsum, I'll have some time mid-week to install. PM me for details.

Juls

Mar 20th 2005, 6:48 pm

so is it recommended as the best aws script?

this one mentioned http://www.c3scripts.com/amazon/index.html offers a multi-site license vs. ghostscripter single site license and the obvious difference of php vs perl/cgi.

I would love to hear your opinions about it.

GTech

Mar 20th 2005, 7:17 pm

Best is always subjective. It was best for me, because I needed:

1) PHP/mySQL solution
2) Something that I could modify with my own design.
3) A shopping cart built-in.

Putting number 1 and 3 together, there were not many choices. I wanted to create a store front and after weeks of searching off/on, I kept going back to GS. I've seen some AWS sites that I would love to know what script they were using, but was never any way to tell. Most likely custom ECS coding.

I wanted PHP because I know PHP (to a degree) vs Perl, and I've heard Perl is more resource intensive than PHP.

When I contacted Craig at GS about additional licenses, he said they were $10 for additional licenses, which was very reasonable to me.

Juls

Mar 20th 2005, 7:45 pm

definitely sounds good. ya the additional $10/site is nothing. :-)

heh 90% sold.... now just need to figure out what i want to do.. ;-)

getsum80

Mar 20th 2005, 8:08 pm

http://www.c3scripts.com/amazon/index.html

the above one doesnt let you add to your shopping cart and continue shopping does it

like when u go to a product it just says buy now from amazon compared to ghost where u only go to amazon when you are ready to check out
Am i right ?

nevetS

Mar 20th 2005, 8:32 pm

Here is the documentation. It's a little light, but the script is self explanatory for the most part.

http://www.ghostscripter.com/manuals/manual.php?PID=15

GTech - looks like you and I were in the same boat. The only thing I didn't like about that c3 script is the lack of a shopping cart. It does the "add to amazon shopping cart", but with so many pop up blockers out there, I didn't want to have to deal with the common question of "how do I buy anything".

I have a problem with the "Not available" thing as well. I'm just getting started, so I'm thinking about creating custom categories and coming up with a list of ASINs on my own. Craig says there is a filter in the 5.0 version coming out, but it was shaky enough that I'm going to use 4.x for now.

The mod-rewrite was a bit of a problem in 5.0 and I want to use mod-rewrite.
My cached pages were still a little slow in 5.0 - could be a permissions issue, but I didn't troubleshoot it much before I moved to 4.x.
There are now "buy it now" links, so you have to put those in the templates yourself if you want.
Auto-Add deals and hot items didn't work in 5.0
Version Check does not show version in 5.0
A few files have invalid file names in 5.0 (spaces or & symbols) - which is not too difficult to fix, but a PITA when you are trying to upload the whole site.
The mode sort in 5.0 didn't have a valid list. (maybe it was empty, that's just what my note says)
Bug report link goes to a dead site right now in both versions, but they are in the middle of a re-design, so we just have to be patient.

I started to ask for a refund, but then I realized that most of my problems were 5.0 specific. (I'm always trying to use the latest stuff). I don't know of any other PHP/MySql option with a shopping cart. I was going to roll my own, but it's worth $100 to save myself weeks of time.

Juls

Mar 20th 2005, 8:39 pm

getsum80, you are correct. ghostscripter aws script incorporates the new aws features which allows you to add products to your own shopping cart before checking out through amazon.com. the other script just forwards you right away to amazon per product. so based on this comparison the ghostscripter version is better.

;-)

nevetS

Mar 20th 2005, 8:43 pm

Excellent thread by the way. Good to meet some other users out there :) All in all I'm pretty happy with it. I'm working on templating now.

Juls

Mar 20th 2005, 9:02 pm

nevetS, when did you buy your script from them? are you just starting out with it? I am new to the whole affiliate thing, so this will be a first for me. I run my own stores so this will be interesting. ;-)

nevetS

Mar 20th 2005, 11:41 pm

March 16th. I'm about as noob as noob gets.

Juls

Mar 21st 2005, 12:17 am

lol well good luck with it.

TechEvangelist

Mar 21st 2005, 4:37 am

Great information, nevetS and GTech. I can now do a lot less preliminary head scratching and dig into it. I bought my copy about the same time as nevetS, but have been side-tracked with other projects. Perhaps I can go after it later this week.

getsum80

Mar 21st 2005, 12:13 pm

I'm trying toload products but it says currently unavaiable but it is available on amazon.com
i pretty much want to carry items here
http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html/104-3738001-5105521?node=3489431

Juls

Mar 21st 2005, 12:46 pm

is this a common thing? where some products / nodes are not availavle via AWS?

what do you guys think about http://www.browsenodes.com/? this is what i use but does anyone else know of a better way to find nodes and node ids?

getsum80

Mar 21st 2005, 12:59 pm

I want to carry thse products under the apparel node 1036682
the brand is Hurley
how would i go about doing this with ghost

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search.html/sr=41-286/qid=1111438420/ref=sr_41_286_/104-3738001-5105521?%5Fencoding=UTF8&field-launch-date=-1y&node=1036682&index=apparel&field-availability=-1&merchant=&showall=1&brand=Hurley

nevetS

Mar 21st 2005, 1:28 pm

I've seen this problem as well...

The thing is that not all vendors who sell through amazon.com allow purchases through affiliates. There is no easy way to filter them out currently, but there is something coming along in 5.0- quoting an e-mail from craig...

From me: 2) No Availability - no easy way to filter unavailable products out.

From GS Sales: 2) Unavailable filter is coming in the new version, this was not listed in the specifications or any way implied that it was part of the script.

Juls

Mar 21st 2005, 1:31 pm

heh ya that is what i thought. the only way to make sure it is available is to what? check it via through aws and not try to add products directly found on amazon?

is so, then this is a great site/tool http://www.browsenodes.com

:-)

getsum80

Mar 21st 2005, 1:36 pm

most the nodes on browsenodes.com im looking for dont work such as surf brands like quicksilver
when does version 5 come out ?
im not able to add any products that i want to so far so this ghost thing is becoming quite usleless for me

getsum80

Mar 21st 2005, 1:47 pm

is there a list of vendors that allow purchases through affiliates

nevetS

Mar 21st 2005, 2:00 pm

I found a list of vendors, but not a list of those who allow purchases.

If you use the beta, you can select "buy used" and the right price will come up, but I'm not sure if you will actually get a commission from it.

I think that most if not all of the "amazon marketplace" people sell through affiliates, but the big brands like Pea in the Pod, Quicksilver, etc. don't.

Now, keep in mind that I'm a noob. Now that I think about it, I believe what I read was they don't allow certain data to be passed through AWS, so you still might get commissions from direct links, but you end up being shy on data.

getsum80

Mar 21st 2005, 3:15 pm

Al list of vendors that allowed purchases would be amazing as i havent found one yet has goods related to what i want to have on my site

tpn87

Nov 21st 2005, 8:05 pm

I am interested in buying this script or one like it. Are you folks still happy with it and would you reccomend it, or has something better come along?

Thanks!

GTech

Nov 21st 2005, 8:16 pm

I am still using it. They went through a time when the owner had some personal troubles of some sort and had to bow out, leaving little desired for support. About a month ago, they added new support staff and have answered every email I've sent within 24 hours.

I've noted a few new Amazon scripts out in the past few months:

http://www.awscms.com/
http://www.ezaws.com/

I've not tried them, but they both look interesting.

MKInfo

Dec 16th 2005, 8:58 am

I've just bought a "source code" copy and it was very easy to install (although I didnt create an admin user/pass and had to reinstall:rolleyes: )

It looks as though it could be very easy to use but it's frightening the life out of me at the moment!I want to run it using a genre (ie horror,thriller etc) to sell vids,dvds,books etc in that genre so I will be playing around with it over the coming weeks and learning along the way.It's a pity theres no help forum for this although I did see a link to one somewhere but it was down.
As I don't even know what a node is yet I'm hoping it'll all dawn on me eventually:D

Just as an afterthought is there anywhere I can get templates for this?

SEO-MAN

Jan 2nd 2006, 10:18 am

They have put together a Manuel for any help needed.

http://www.ghostscripter.com/manuals/manual.php?PID=14

Haichi

Jan 6th 2006, 11:57 pm

tpn87

Jan 7th 2006, 1:13 pm

Haichi

Jan 7th 2006, 7:11 pm

I ended up buying ghostscripter and had problems with it. After being frustrated with the lack of timely support, I purchased AWSCMS and what a difference. Questions are answered right away and they have a pretty good manual as well in PDF format. :)

I am now testing AWSCMS on a new site but installing was murder for my knowledge level

I contacted sales and they say they will install for me :)

good deal

I installed ghostscripter just fine but no major sales maybe it was my niche
so I will write back once I see results from AWSCMS using a different target niche.

Haichi

Jan 7th 2006, 7:14 pm

MKInfo

Jan 7th 2006, 7:22 pm

I bought ghostscripter Amazon Shop source code too and its not what I'm looking for at all.The site isn't even updated!!!!Dunno if theres a money back thing or you can sell it on.........$110 down the drain :(

GTech

Jan 7th 2006, 7:27 pm

Gtech your sites look so awesome I like how the product urls do not end with php or some stupid number are you getting good results from google traffic and sales?

I wish I could have at least one site that looks and runs that smoothly

Most traffic comes from yahoo/msn. One site I sold last month was just starting to get some good google traffic. It had been up for a year.

It takes a bit to get in and make a new template. But it's worth the time/hassle in the long run. The "out of the box" install is what hundreds of others use, so there is nothing unique.

Amazon earnings, coupled with adsense earnings, do well. Certainly nothing to retire on, but once setup, the most work you have to do is go in and clear the cache once a month (or, on some of my busier sites, once every few days).

Haichi

Jan 7th 2006, 7:34 pm

Most traffic comes from yahoo/msn. One site I sold last month was just starting to get some good google traffic. It had been up for a year.

It takes a bit to get in and make a new template. But it's worth the time/hassle in the long run. The "out of the box" install is what hundreds of others use, so there is nothing unique.

Amazon earnings, coupled with adsense earnings, do well. Certainly nothing to retire on, but once setup, the most work you have to do is go in and clear the cache once a month (or, on some of my busier sites, once every few days).

You should charge $110 just to do for others what you did on your sites
I know I would pay for just the ease of clearing cache and not worry

:p :)

JesterMagic

Jan 13th 2006, 8:45 am

GTech so you feel that adding ad sense is worth it and does not take away to much business?

Also how much traffic do you get on your busier stores?

and for all do people find it worth it to use ppc on there amazon affiliate website? I haven't with such low % payouts.

Most traffic comes from yahoo/msn. One site I sold last month was just starting to get some good google traffic. It had been up for a year.

It takes a bit to get in and make a new template. But it's worth the time/hassle in the long run. The "out of the box" install is what hundreds of others use, so there is nothing unique.

Amazon earnings, coupled with adsense earnings, do well. Certainly nothing to retire on, but once setup, the most work you have to do is go in and clear the cache once a month (or, on some of my busier sites, once every few days).