I was playing around with Amazon’s associates page this weekend and I discovered aStore.  Before I explain aStore, I should briefly discuss the Amazon associates program.  Basically it is a way for Amazon to promote its products on other web pages besides just amazon.com.  If an associates page displays a banner or product that the reader clicks on and the subsequently buys something, the associate receives a (very small) commission.  Unfortunately, Amazon’s commissions start at 4%, so it is almost not even worth bothering with.  The percentage can increase as sales increase, but it is measly.  Other associate programs pay more but have significantly fewer compelling products to promote.

Now back to aStore.  Basically it is a way for an associate to create a store full of their favorite products for their site.  Amazon’s Internet marketing is pretty sophisticated so I should not have been surprised by aStore, but it was cool how easy it was to peruse the products, create categories and then create my associates store.

In my amazon store, I created three categories, all baby-related: ”Before Baby Arrives”, “Zero to Six Months” and “Six Months to One Year.”  Then, I filled each category with the products we have used and recommend for each age group.

For example, with “Before Baby Arrives”, Andy and I literally brainstormed everything we either had or wished we had had before I went to the hospital to have Belén.  It is more-or-less comprehensive except for clothes, a crib and a changing table…those obvious things that tastes are very personal.  I did add newborn onesies and newborn jammies because those were things we did not have enough of before we went to the hospital.  Everything was “0 – 3 months” and too big for even a big newborn.  It is already hard to imagine that she was ever so small…I digress.  ”Three to Six Months” were products from that time period.  Then “Six Months to One Year” is a work in progress as we are still figuring that out.  The significant difference for this age group is that now she cares about eating solids and toys!!

Oh and I created a widget for the sidebar that displays a few of the products in the store as well as links to the store.

So, while these are the products we could not live without and highly recommend, I want to be completely transparent that if you do select either the Store tab or the ad in the sidebar and then buy something, I make some serious money.  Kidding.  I make a buck or two, if that.

I actually started the project which led to the aStore as a blog entry where I wanted to list out all of the “must have” products as we are already starting to forget the details of the early days and want documentation for hypothetical baby #2.  The Amazon aStore interface was so easy that I quickly ditched the blog entry and went for the store instead.

The intent is for it to be useful to you if you are having or will soon have a baby and also for us so we can refresh our memories, when needed.  If we make a couple of bucks from amazon in the progress, cool, it will offset the costs of hosting the blog.

Please let me know if you have any questions about this.  Also, if you know of products we should add, I would be interested in that as well as there is no way to try out all of the baby-related products.

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