WP Zon Builder is a heavyweight contender in the WordPress plugins for Amazon competition. It boasts a powerful set of features. Its user interface feels very intuitive and user friendly.
Ease of Use and Installation
Installing this plugin is pretty simple. You download the zip folder from the members area and upload it to the plugins folder of your WordPress directory. Then you’ll have to open up a file called config.php where you’re required to enter your license key. Unfortunately, you’re required to have ionCube support in your web server. If you don’t, you’ll have to go through the hassle of requesting the author of the plugin to send you an unencrypted version of the plugin.
As for ease of use, this plugin scores pretty highly. The menus are clearly and sensibly labeled. Each settings page is easy to navigate because the pages use smooth JavaScript effects.
Support and Documentation
It’s true that the plugin’s interface is well designed, but is that an excuse not to provide a detailed user manual? Maybe. You can figure your way around the plugin by playing with it a bit. If you come across something you don’t understand, the developer makes his email available in the support page of the plugin’s website.
There are a few video guides and tutorials that you’d be able to dig up from the product’s blog. There’s also the main overview video which can be found on the homepage of the plugin. Finally, you can check out the FAQ page, which I think is pretty useful.
Search and Bulk Import
WP Zon Builder has very powerful product search and filtering abilities. It lets you select a category from Amazon, specify a browse node or enter a search keyword and use filtering options like minimum price, maximum price, customer ratings, customer reviews, and image availability. Then it pulls all matching products from Amazon.com. Now you can starting adding products to the queue. Once you’ve filled up your queue, you can go to the Post Products screen to have them added to your WordPress Amazon store.
Automatic Scheduled Product Posting
WP Zon Builder supports automatic scheduled posting. You can enter a date range and WP Zon Builder will spread out your product posts across the period you specified. Each post with a date earlier than the current date will appear instantly. Posts with future dates will appear as scheduled posts in the WordPress admin panel and they will automatically be posted once the current date reaches the post date.
Inline Single Product Import
WP Zon Builder is pretty useful at inserting Amazon products manually. Take a look at this screenshot of the WordPress post edit with WP Zon Builder installed.
View this screenshot in a full window
Do you see the various settings that WP Zon Builder makes available to you?
Template Support
WP Zon Builder allows you to modify the layout of your Amazon store through the template. It ships with three template sets that you can copy and modify. Even though there are no documentation regarding the templates system, any person with a little technical knowledge can probably figure out how it works by simply looking at the included templates.
3rd Party Plugin Integration
WP Zon Builder does a pretty good job with 3rd party plugin integration. It can be integrated with any 3rd party plugin that uses WordPress shortcodes.
Sidebar Widgets
WP Zon Builder ships with several useful sidebar widgets that include the following (among others):
- similar products
- product accessories
- existing posts in a specified category
Caching
WP Zon Builder does cache the imported Amazon data, so you won’t have to make unnecessary calls to Amazon.com. However, you can expire the cached data in order to refresh it periodically.
Click Reporting
You can get sufficient click reporting with WP Zon Builder. The click report includes the date, IP, user agent, ASIN, product title, and destination URL. The log can be purged or exported to an Excel file for further inspection.
SEO Options
When it comes to SEO options, WP Zon Builder is packed! It can:
- force links to Amazon to open in a new window
- make Amazon affiliate links rel=”nofollow”
- integrate with All-in-One SEO Pack
- use URL redirects with a user specified prefix keyword
Pricing, Licensing, and Refund Policy
With WP Zon Builder standard license, you can install it on as many sites you own as you like. For developers and site flippers, WP Zon Builder offers some licensing options. These developer licenses are only valid for a single domain and can be transferred to a buyer as part of a complete website.
You can buy WP Zon Builder risk free as it is backed by a 30 day unconditional money back guarantee.
To check out the price of WP Zon Builder or download it, click here >>
Do you know by any chance if the WPzonbuilder comes with a theme? If it does not, then what theme will be most appropriate for a review theme that will work well with WPzonbuilder? Thanks. By the way, you got a great site with very good information.
James, Yes, currently, the Gazzette for WP Zon Builder theme ships with the plugin. Here’s a demo of it.
Hi MK,
This is my first time to write to you, but i read your stuff all the time!
I was on WP Zon website and googled “review” as you do and once again, in relation to Amazon+WP i arrive at your website.
I have decided it is good karma to buy through your affiliate link. You seem to have a wealth of knowledge on the subject.
I have been learning about affiliate marketing for quite some time now and only actively getting involved now, putting up sites and using affiliate programs.
I just have one question;
I live in Australia, come from Ireland and market to the US and UK. Do i need separate affiliate accounts for Amazon for each of these (and Canada)?
This plugin saves a serious amount of time with manually putting in products!!
Thank you,
Keep up the good work,
You are my trusted Amazon +WP go-to-guy!
Adam F
Hi Adam, Thanks for buying through my link. Much appreciated!
There are 10 Amazon locales and only 9 of those have an associates program. There’s no associates program or an Amazon store specific to Australia.
If you want to market to both the U.S. and the U.K., you’ll need two separate associate accounts. WP Zon Builder supports all Amazon countries.
Some Amazon plugin’s will dynamically refer the visitor to the appropriate locale depending on the visitor’s country. Like, if your site’s visitor is from the U.K., the plugin will use your U.K. affiliate link. If the visitor is from the U.S., the plugin will use your U.S. affiliate link. I’m not sure if WP Zon Builder has this feature or not. If it doesn’t, you may have to build a separate store for each country.
I’m back MK, and I hope you can help me out…
I bought the WP Zon Builder (hope you got the affiliate comm
) and it’s been great. However, I have one question regarding product description text.
As it is, it seems to import the whole product description text as one big text block with no formatting and no line space between paragraphs or bullet points.
Did I miss out on something or you really must edit each Custom Field product description field?
Thanks
Hi Dave! Yep, I did get the commission. Thanks!
Frankly, I’m not sure about product description being grabbed as unformatted text. It’s probably best to contact WP Zon Builder’s support. If they’re unable to solve your issue, or if you just don’t think the software is able to provide enough value, you can easily refund it within 30 days!
I hope you’ll also let us know your opinion on how WP Zon Builder compares with the free Amazon PIP.
As a thank you to MK, just purchased this via MK’s aff link
Looking to populate a new review site quickly (too much products to do manually).
Dave
I bought the plug in some time ago and like it but regret that it has become useless to me as I live in NC. In this state and about 6 others Amazon has killed affiliate accounts and I can’t find a way around that issue. Nothing to do with the quality of the plug-in but buyers should be aware and do a quick google search on the topic.
@Steve, I feel your pain. I unfortunately live in California where the same thing happened toward the end of 2011. But to clarify something, it wasn’t Amazon that killed your affiliate business but your State Government which passed legislation to TAX internet sales in order to engorge your state’s political fund. Read up on it. Do you think Amazon.com or any business would want to lose its affiliate salesmen? Not likely, huh?
Curiously though, here in California (the Communist Capital of the U.S.) the incoming new governor, a Socialist, repealed the law after it got a lot of negative backlash. Go figure.
Great review. I am just in the process of reviewing WP Zon Builder myself. It’s a great little plugin.
By the way, I like how your images expand and you provide the option of the reader viewing in a full window. Is that a plugin that you use to do that?
Hi Paula, Thanks for your kind words. Yes, WP Zon Builder is one of my favorite Amazon plugins for WordPress.
Unfortunately, this image expansion effect I have is not a plugin. It’s something I made.
You should turn it into a plugin. I could do with something like that.
Thank you. That was what I was looking for. Greate work your website. Looks like you can solve many of my problems with your reviews.