Aislemark documentation

Aislemark is a WordPress theme for an Amazon-style shopping site. It lists Amazon Associates affiliate products and lets outside sellers open stores and sell their own items, paying you a listing fee and/or a commission. No plugins are needed.

1. Getting started

1. Go to Appearance > Themes > Add New > Upload Theme, choose aislemark.zip and click Install, then switch the theme on.
2. On switch-on the theme creates its pages (Deals, Wishlist, Sell, Seller dashboard, Checkout, Sign in, Seller store, About, Contact, Privacy, Terms, Affiliate disclosure), its database tables, the Seller role and a footer menu.
3. Open Aislemark > Welcome and follow the checklist.
4. Go to Settings > Permalinks and click Save once, so product and department addresses work.
5. Optional: Aislemark > Sample data adds 288 sample products and 3 sample sellers so you can see the store filled in.

Requirements: WordPress 6.2 or newer, PHP 7.4 or newer, HTTPS (needed by Stripe and PayPal).

2. Pages and menus

The home page shows the store (hero, departments, deals, best sellers, marketplace items, new arrivals and recently viewed). The department bar under the header lists your top-level departments automatically; anything you put in the Primary menu is added after them. The Footer menu fills the "About" column.

The theme pages use page templates (Page Attributes > Template). If you delete one, go to Aislemark > Welcome and click Recreate missing pages.

3. Affiliate products (manual mode)

1. Go to Aislemark > Settings > Affiliate and enter your Associates tracking ID (for example yourstore-20) and your Amazon store domain.
2. Go to Products > Add product. Enter the title and description, set a featured image (your own photo, or a photo you have the right to use), and pick a department.
3. In the Product details box choose Affiliate, paste the product link (or just the ASIN), and optionally brand, star score, review count and a deal label.

How links work:

• Your tracking ID is added to every Amazon link (tag=), replacing any other tag.
• Buttons go through /?amk_go=ID so the click is counted, then redirect to Amazon.
• Links carry rel="sponsored nofollow noopener" and open in a new tab (you can switch the new tab off).
• Without the API there is no price; the button reads See price (you can change it to e.g. View deal).
• The affiliate disclosure is shown site-wide in the footer, on the shop and on every product page. Edit its text or switch it off under Settings > Affiliate.

Amazon does not allow you to copy their product photos or prices by hand. In manual mode use your own photos and do not type prices in; prices appear only with the API (below).

4. CSV import

Go to Aislemark > Import products, click Download a sample CSV, fill it in with a spreadsheet, save as CSV (UTF-8) and upload it.

Rows whose ASIN or link already exists update that product instead of adding a copy. Up to 5,000 rows per file.

5. Product Advertising API 5.0 (optional automatic mode)

1. Amazon gives API access once your Associates account has qualifying sales. Create keys in Associates Central > Tools > Product Advertising API.
2. Go to Aislemark > Settings > Product Advertising API: switch it on, paste the Access key and Secret key, pick the marketplace and the refresh interval. The secret is never shown again after saving.
3. Go to Aislemark > Import products and enter up to 10 ASINs, or keywords, and a department.

• Imported items store title, brand, photos, price and list price with the time they were fetched.
• Prices refresh on a schedule (WP-Cron, every 1 to 24 hours as you choose). Refresh prices now runs it at once.
• Prices show with "Price as of [date time]" and the standard Amazon notice on hover. A price older than 24 hours is hidden automatically and the button falls back to See price.

How this was tested: the API code was tested only against mocked responses (the request signing against the published AWS Signature V4 test vector, and GetItems/SearchItems parsing against sample JSON fed in through WordPress's pre_http_request filter). It has not been run against Amazon's live API, because that needs an Associates account with API access. If the first live import shows an error, the message from Amazon is displayed on the Import screen; common causes are new keys (allow up to 48 hours), the wrong marketplace, or an account without API access yet.

WP-Cron runs when people visit the site. On a quiet site, add a real cron job: */15 * * * * wget -q -O - https://example.com/wp-cron.php?doing_wp_cron >/dev/null

6. Marketplace sellers

1. Settings > Sellers: switch the marketplace on, choose whether new sellers and new listings need approval, and set the listing fee, commission % and minimum payout.
2. Sellers sign up on the Sell page (store name, account, payout email). If approval is on, they appear under Aislemark > Sellers & listings for you to approve or reject; they are emailed either way.
3. Approved sellers use the front-end Seller dashboard: Listings, Add listing (title, description, price, was-price, stock, brand, shipping note, department, up to 5 photos), Orders (mark shipped with tracking), Earnings and Store settings. Sellers are kept out of wp-admin.
4. New and edited listings wait for your approval if listing approval is on.

The listing fee is taken from the seller's balance the first time each listing goes live.

7. Stripe and PayPal checkout

Only marketplace items are sold on your site; affiliate items are bought on Amazon.

Stripe

1. In the Stripe dashboard copy the Publishable key and Secret key (use the pk_test_/sk_test_ keys first).
2. Paste them in Settings > Payments.

Buyers are sent to Stripe Checkout and back to the receipt page; the theme confirms the payment with Stripe before marking the order paid.

PayPal

1. At developer.paypal.com create an app and copy the Client ID and Secret.
2. Paste them in Settings > Payments and leave Sandbox ticked while testing.

Buyers approve on PayPal and the payment is captured when they return.

Test mode

With Test checkout on and no keys saved, each gateway completes the order instantly with no money moving, and orders are marked "test". Switch it off before going live. Demo mode always uses test mode.

When an order is paid: stock goes down, the sale and your commission are written to the seller's ledger, and the buyer, seller and you are emailed.

8. Earnings and payouts

All buyer payments go to your Stripe/PayPal account. Aislemark > Earnings & payouts lists each seller's balance (sales minus commission and listing fees minus payouts). When a balance passes the minimum, pay the seller yourself (PayPal, bank transfer), then click Record payout so it is written to the ledger. Sellers see the same history on their Earnings tab.

9. Store features

• Departments (Products > Departments); the home page shows each one with a photo from its first product.
• Search with department picker; filters for source (partner retailers or marketplace), star score, price (marketplace items), deals; sorting by reviews, stars, newest and price.
• Product page with gallery, star score, buy box, related items and recently viewed.
• Wishlist and recently viewed are kept in the shopper's browser; no account needed.
• Deals page lists everything marked as a deal.
• Star scores and review counts are product data you enter (or import); the theme does not collect reviews.

10. Traffic stats

Aislemark > Traffic shows product views and outbound affiliate clicks for the last 7, 30 or 90 days, a daily chart and the top products. Known bots are ignored. No cookies are set for stats. You can switch tracking off under Settings > Store.

11. Look and feel

Logo: Appearance > Customize > Site Identity. Accent and header colors, default light or dark mode, footer text and currency: Aislemark > Settings > Store. Shoppers can switch light/dark with the moon button; their choice is remembered.

12. Sample data

Aislemark > Sample data adds 288 fictional affiliate products in 12 departments (links go to Amazon search pages with your tag) and 3 sample sellers with 6 priced items each and a few sample orders. Remove sample data deletes all of it, including the sample sellers, their ledger rows and the sample images, and leaves your own content alone.

13. Demo mode

Demo mode (Settings > Demo) is for showing the store to others. It adds a demo bar with one-click logins for a sample shopper and a sample seller; demo accounts cannot save changes, and checkout always runs in test mode. Switch it off on a real store; the demo accounts are removed.

14. Associates rules checklist

• Keep the disclosure switched on and add a Privacy page that mentions affiliate links.
• Do not type in prices by hand or copy Amazon photos; use the API for prices and photos.
• Do not use the theme's links in emails or offline materials.
• Read the current Associates Program Operating Agreement for your country; rules change.

15. FAQ and troubleshooting

Product pages show "Not found". Go to Settings > Permalinks and click Save.

No prices are shown. That is normal without the API. With the API, check the last refresh time; prices older than 24 hours are hidden.

Emails do not arrive. Use an SMTP service; many hosts block PHP mail.

Stripe order stays "pending". The buyer closed the tab before returning. Check the payment in Stripe, then mark it in Aislemark > Orders.

Can I use a different affiliate program? Yes. Paste any link; the tag is only added to Amazon links.

16. Support

Email admin@007aj.com with your WordPress and PHP versions and a description or screenshot of the problem.