As a niche site creator and enthusiast, I’ve been focused lately on building out Amazon affiliate sites. Amazon sites are so much fun to create for several reasons. One of the main reasons being that it is so easy to find profitable niches and products to promote. Another reason that I love to build Amazon sites is because of the awesome tools that are available that make building out these types of sites on WordPress extremely easy.
There are a couple of tools on my “must-have” list when it comes to creating Amazon affiliate sites. And previously, a specific theme did not make that list. I usually just used either a free theme or one of my Genesis themes and used several plugins to add different functionality for my Amazon review sites. But after using the Ultimate Azon Theme for several months now (on a few of my sites) – there is now a specific theme on my “must-have” list for building Amazon sites.
The Ultimate Azon Theme is so powerful and so easy to customize and set up. You won’t even believe how easy it is to create beautiful, professional looking Amazon review sites with all the bells and whistles. I am going to show you exactly what I mean in this extensive review post. But just telling you that it is awesome wouldn’t quite do it justice. So, I’m also going to show you one of my sites that uses this theme!
Starting Out The Dumb Way
I gotta tell you… When I started out building niche sites, around the time that I started this blog (just over 3 years ago), I insisted on doing everything the “dumb” way. Meaning I refused to buy any tools, plugins or themes. I wanted to prove that I could make money with niche sites using only things that were available to use for free. My niche sites sucked back then and I made very little money with them.
My internet marketing and niche site income took off only after I started purchasing and using some of the tools, plugins and themes that were available. You see, these tools etc. are usually developed by other niche site creators who are trying to make things easier and better for themselves. Not only did I get those same benefits myself when I started buying these tools etc., but I also started to see results (income)!
My “Must-Haves” for Amazon Sites
Here is my short and simple list of tools, plugins and themes that I wouldn’t build an Amazon site without…
- Long Tail Pro – the market standard when it comes to keyword research tools
- AmaSuite – easily find products to promote using Amazon stats and metrics (explained in detail in this post)
- EasyAzon – absolute MUST HAVE plugin for inserting Amazon affiliate links and images into WordPress
- Ultimate Azon Theme – you’re about to see why in the rest of this review post!
Combining Long Tail Pro and AmaSuite helps me find niches and products to promote, as well as limitless keywords to create articles around for my sites. Using the Ultimate Azon Theme along with the EasyAzon plugin enables me to create beautifully functional sites and get increased conversions.
The Ultimate Azon WordPress Theme
First – a little back story on the theme and how it came about. Dave Nicosia is the mastermind and developer behind The Ultimate Azon WordPress theme. I first “met” Dave in a Google+ Niche Site Community where we were both active. Later, we were invited to a private Facebook Group where we remain active today with a few other like-minded niche site creators and internet marketers.
Dave was kind enough to show me one of his niche sites one day – and I was completely blown away! He had told me that he was a WordPress developer and that he created the theme that his niche site was on by himself from scratch. After giving Dave all kinds of praise and feedback on his theme – he later revealed to me and the rest of our private mastermind group that he was going to develop that theme into something that he could sell and offer to other Amazon niche site creators.
Dave kept us all up to date as he spent countless hours upon hours upon hours developing and creating this theme throughout all of last summer. Just like me, Dave does all of his internet marketing stuff as a side hustle while continuing to hold down a full-time day job. Dave really sacrificed a lot last summer while he spent the time necessary to develop this theme.
Maybe I Helped A Little
Although I won’t take any credit for the development of this awesome theme (Dave is the true mastermind behind it), I would like to share how I was involved. If you are already a niche site creator yourself, put yourself in my shoes as I tell you about this.
Imagine that you could have any feature you wanted put into a custom developed WordPress theme, built specifically for Amazon sites.Click To TweetThat’s pretty much what I got with this theme. You see, Dave had asked for input from our private mastermind group and I jumped on the opportunity to put in my requests. Everything I asked for – Dave included in the theme! A few examples of things that I asked for include:
- Complete color and font customization with unlimited color-picker functionality
- every single section, font, button, etc is 100% adjustable and customizeable
- really easy to change colors with cool add-ons available like gradient colors and drop shadow effects
- Compatibility with EasyAzon – 100%
- you would think that EasyAzon would work just fine with any theme – but after you see what this theme can do, you’ll see why it had to be developed and designed specifically to be compatible
When Dave had his theme fully functional and ready to share – he gave me a copy in return for my input and feedback. I gladly ran an extensive beta test with it on one of my sites and ended up starting a massive email thread with Dave. We emailed back and forth and worked out some of the bugs and Dave was also kind enough to put in a few more of my suggestions.
The Ultimate Azon Theme In Action
And this is the part of this post that we’ve all been waiting for. The part where I reveal one of my niche sites. I’m about to share the link with you. But before I do, I want to direct your attention to a few main areas on the site. First, take notice of the look and feel (which is 100% mobile responsive) that I customized myself and ended up changing several times over the last few months. I even made several changes just a few days ago, knowing that I would be sharing it with this audience.
But lots of themes can be customized to look however you want. Here are a few of the things I want you to see that differentiate this theme from all the rest…
- Comparison chart – click the link in the main navigation menu
- Product slider – on the homepage in the 3rd sub-section
- Dragon Drop tool – on the homepage at the very bottom
Now head on over to my site – Real Miter Saw Reviews – and take a look for yourself! Make sure you come back to this post though. I haven’t even told you the best parts yet, about what really makes the Ultimate Azon Theme so great. But if you’ve seen enough, go ahead and pick up a copy of the theme for yourself by clicking any link or button in this post that leads to the sales page.
The Real Power Within The Ultimate Azon Theme
Now that you’ve seen the customizeable comparison chart(s), the product slider and the Dragon Drop (drag and drop) tool – I have to show you how easy it is to create those and place them anywhere you want within your site.
Okay – most everybody knows how to create Posts and Pages within WordPress. And you can do exactly that with the Ultimate Azon Theme, just like on any other site. But the way you create Amazon review posts is a little bit different. Instead of creating a Post or a Page for reviews, I click on the menu option in my WordPress dashboard called Miter Saws (the one with the dollar $ sign next to it).
“How did this menu item get there?,” you ask… Let me show you. In the Ultimate Azon menu there is a Product Settings section to setup my main product and specifications. This is one of the very first things I do after installing this theme on a new site.
Name the Product and Insert Specs
Simply insert your main product name (singular and plural), turn on or off a few of the default selections, and insert as many custom specs as you want. For example, on this site I could have put in specs like: blade size, bevel, sliding, weight, power, etc. But in my case, I chose to just keep it simple with this site.
Below the main product settings section, there are also options to add a few more related products. For example, I could add Miter Saw Stand(s) or Miter Saw Dust Hood(s) if I wanted to write extensive review posts on those products as well on this site.
Add Reviews
To add miter saw reviews, I simply hover or click on Miter Saws in the main WordPress menu and click Add New. The following screenshot shows you the Ultimate Azon options available when adding review posts.
Pardon the slight distortion on that screenshot in a few spots. But you can see all that is available. Notice the detailed instructions and suggestions in every single place that you need to insert information. It’s really hard to screw anything up on this theme with such detailed instructions all over the place.
Creating and Adding Tables, Sliders & DragonDrop Tools
After putting in just a little bit of extra work upfront, and harnessing the power of the Ultimate Azon Theme – this step is super simple! To create tables, sliders and DragonDrop tools – simply select the products you want in each from a drop-down menu.
Adding a table, slider or DragonDrop tool to any post, page or review is even easier. Simply click the button at the top of the editor screen to access this screen…
As you can see – it can’t possibly get any easier to add these interactive elements to your Amazon review sites. And all of the tables, sliders and Dragon Drop tools are completely customizeable. For this reason alone, this theme is worth every penny that it costs. But there’s more…
The Unique Dragon Drop Feature
The Dragon Drop tool is one element included in this theme that is really unique and differentiates it from any other theme. Dave only recently added this feature in the latest update for the theme (all future updates are always free after you buy). I’ve never seen anything like this on any other Amazon site that I’ve ever come across. Almost all Amazon sites have tables. Only some have product sliders. And very few have drag & drop tools. Until now.
Sales for the Ultimate Azon Theme are starting to pick up as more and more people learn about it (Dave told me). Which means more and more sites are going to include these awesome elements. Don’t get left behind!
The only way to add a unique drag & drop tool to your Amazon Affiliate site is with the Ultimate Azon Theme.Click To TweetNote: Since the Dragon Drop tool was only recently added, you don’t see it as a title in any of the menu options. You only see it after you click on the Add Slider/Table button on any of your editor screens as seen in the screenshot above.
More Benefits Included with The Ultimate Azon Theme
This pretty much concludes the detailed part of my review. I’ve explained the most important features (in my opinion) included in the Ultimate Azon Theme. But there is so much more. I’ll list out a few of the features here and then you can visit the sales page if you want to learn more about them in detail.
- Extensive options panel with several preset themes and over 70 possible style customization options
- Amazon link localization – earn money from international traffic (if you don’t already use this in EasyAzon)
- Responsive design – your site will look good and function on any device
- Advanced link tracking – built in link click tracking using Google Tag Manager
- Built in SEO options – designed to work with WordPress SEO by Yoast
Eliminates Unnecessary Plugins
One of my favorite things about this theme is that it eliminates your need to install unnecessary plugins that slow down your site. The number one culprit being the Table plugins that you will no longer need when you upgrade to the Ultimate Azon Theme. You also won’t need a separate plugin to insert your Google Analytics code – there is a place for that within the theme. All this and much more that I’m sure I am forgetting to mention.
Not Just for Amazon Sites
Although most people who purchase this theme will probably be using it for Amazon Affiliate sites – this would also be a great theme for any affiliate type website. For example, say I built a site that reviews web hosting services. This theme would be perfect! Simply insert my high-paying hosting affiliate links instead of Amazon links and build out the site in the same manner. Imagine how awesome it would be to compare hosting options with a drag & drop tool!
Low Cost and High Value
I know I already said that a few different things were the best part of this theme. But this might trump them all – the cost. As of the time I am writing this post, Dave is selling this highly valuable and incredible theme for a regular price of only $47. Included in that price is the following:
- Unlimited site license – use this theme on as many sites as you want (other themes typically charge more for multi-site licesnses)
- Lifetime theme updates and upgrades – free theme improvements for life (other custom themes like this will typically try to charge you again when they come out with major upgraded versions)
- Access to members area and support forum – all issues and questions taken care of here
- 60 day money back guarantee – if you don’t like it, get a full refund (you won’t need this feature)
Important Update (10/6/2015)
Comparison Tools from this Theme Now Available in Separate Plugin!
Do you love the comparison tools offered within this theme but aren’t sure you want to ditch your current theme? Well, Dave (the developer for this theme) has heard this request loud and clear. So he created a stand-alone plugin which offers you the ability to create these beautiful, responsive and interactive comparison tools and display them on almost ANY WordPress site!
Introducing WP ComPEAR!
Listed here are some of the features offered in WP ComPEAR…
- Custom product specs for each comparison tool (image, title, description, size, color, star rating, etc.)
- Comparison tables – sortable and responsive
- Product sliders – customize to show as many (or as few) products as you want
- Drag and Drop tool – drag text or images into comparison boxes
- NOT JUST FOR AMAZON SITES! – you can compare literally anything on your site with these tools
Bottom line: If you are starting a brand new site – I highly suggest you start out with the Ultimate Azon Theme. But if you already have an existing site and you like your theme and you want to take advantage of these awesome comparison tools – then this new plugin is plugin is perfect for you! Take a quick peek at the sales page to see demo’s of these features in action.
Added Bonus
And just for the heck of it, whether you buy the theme or not, I’ll throw in my FREE Guide – a PDF that shows you how to produce content for Amazon Affiliate sites. Just click the button below and I’ll email that right over to you.
FREE Guide – Producing Content for Amazon Niche Sites
Note: All links within this post that lead to the Ultimate Azon WordPress Theme sales page (or the NEW WP ComPEAR sales page) are affiliate links. I will receive a commission if you purchase via any of these links. I Thank You in advance and hope that you got a ton of value out of this extensive review post that I wrote. – Good Day! Matthew Allen
Image Credits
“computer” by Plymouth District Library via Flickr
All “Ultimate Azon WordPress Theme” images and logos courtesy of Dave Nicosia
Matthew Allen
Great post, thank you! Are you physically dealing with the products you sell on Amazon? I am in Australia so I’d prefer not to be physically dealing with products sold mostly in the US.
Hi Matt, would you care to elaborate a bit on how your sample site performs? My concern is that it actually looks a bit dated – it feels to me as if it was developed 5-6 years ago in terms of its overall design, structure, etc. It does not quite convince me as a credible source. Mind you, my comments have nothing to do with the actual content, just the overall design. As such, I wonder if people actually take the desired action and move from your site to Amazon.
Marcin – not much to elaborate on at the moment. Not quite ranking on page one for the main keywords. Traffic is usually around 30 to 50 visitors per day and only a few random sales are made per month. Since this site is public now – I’m sure I’ll be talking about it more on the blog in the future. I’ll discuss conversions at some point after I start ranking better and getting more traffic.
About the design… ouch! 5-6 years ago?! Lol. I actually think it looks pretty good. But then again, I structured it the way it is. I am responsible for that. As stated in my review – Ultimate Azon is completely customizeable. Colors, fonts, layouts, sizes – everything can be easily changed. I wanted to keep it clean, simple and crisp. This way it looks great on any mobile device as well. Most of my niche sites get nearly half of their traffic these days on mobile. So responsiveness is a top priority for me – and this theme covers that. Which is partly why I kept just a text header rather than a header image – more easily responsive. Again – simple, crisp and clean. Similar to the formerly popular Niche Website Theme (by Spencer Haws and Chris Guthrie) – but this one is mobile responsive and better with all the added built-in functionality for Amazon stuff.
Thanks for your feedback man. Although it wasn’t exactly praise and admiration – I do appreciate it!
I’m not really stop my amazon affiliate. I think i want to start again because I still have my amazon affiliate website. It just never create any profit for me, look forward about this.. 🙂
Sounds good Juan. Keep in mind – the theme alone won’t create profit for you. You have to get traffic. But if you have traffic to your Amazon affiliate site – this theme can help you do some cool things very easily.
There is a serious problem with UAT! I bought it a week ago. Even Dave Nicosia’s website is down!! No support
Hi Marcin. To answer your question, the reason it looks a bit outdated is because through my expensive data collection and optimizations when I originally developed the theme, this is what resulted in the highest CTR.
It’s definitely by design. I think the reason is that it gives people a site nice enough to check out and browse and feel comfortable on, but not that awesome so they tend to click the affiliate links more and subconsciously aren’t “attached” to the affiliate website. Having the slightly outdated site helps to nudge them subconsciously to click the links to “move on”. That’s my own insights of course.
In all my tests, this design got people to click on my links MORE than ever and I’ve had numerous customers email me to tell me as soon as they switched to UAT, their CTR’s got better instantly. I’ve even had a few people email me to tell me their CTR’s doubled or tripled. (probably because of how poorly they were set up before switching to UAT)
Every littler thing about the theme was studied and optimized for the highest CTR possible. I’m a professional web developer and I build very high end ($50,000+) WordPress sites for medium to large businesses and run analytics and advanced tracking setups for them as well. Point being I know what I’m doing when it comes to developing WordPress themes! 😉
Now of course you also have to have quality content on your site to get those high CTR’s!
Hi Dave,
it’s reassuring that your design is based on extensive testing, thanks for explaining that. I can relate to that, as I’ve been running very high-end analytics and a/b testing for our ecommerce clients, so data science is very close to my heart :-).
Really good answer Dave. You may want to consider adding this Q&A to your sales page in some form.
Hi Matt, The Mitre saw site looks great but I’m puzzled over the customer reviews – I thought copying almost word for word customer reviews was a big TOS violation? Have you had any problems with this?
Hi Carl – whose TOS are you referring to? No – I have not had problems with this. It’s called ‘curated content’ – and it’s pretty common around the internet. As long as I’m not publishing an entire article of copy & pasted content and trying to pass it off as my own. Every time I use any type of curated content (from Amazon or from any other site) I always state where the content came from and link to the source. It just so happens that my links to the source for review posts like this are also my affiliate links.
It is 100 percent IN VIOLATION of Associate’s TOS. SEE RULE #28
“28. You will not display or otherwise use any of our customer reviews or star ratings, in part or in whole, on your site unless you have obtained a link to that customer review or star rating through the Product Advertising API and you comply with the requirements set forth in the License Agreement.”
You must sign up here https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/gp/advertising/api/detail/main.html if you want to use customer reviews.
hmmmm….
I have become aware of this since my original reply to this question. For this reason – I removed ALL Amazon affiliate tags on this particular site. I no longer have my review posts written this way (on my newer sites). In fact, this particular mitre saw site got penalized by Google awhile back and gets virtually NO traffic. I would have let the site expire – except that I use it as an example to demo the Ultimate Azon Theme…
I also want to point out – that UAT does not use Amazon’s reviews or star rating, but has it’s own built in rating. If you are concerned though, you can simply hide that field from being displayed.
Hello, I recently got Ultimate Azon, and installed yoast as it was a recommended plugin. I noticed you mentioned:
“Built in SEO options – designed to work with WordPress SEO by Yoast.”
But the Theme says if using another SEO plugin, to disable the built-in SEO. Should I disable or keep on? Will it work well with or interfere with yoast, and which one is better if i have to pick one?
Thanks
Definitely use Yoast SEO!! Yes, disable the built-in SEO within the theme and use Yoast. The Yoast SEO plugin does SO many other things that are generally good for your site (like the built-in sitemap generator so you don’t need a separate plugin for that). There are other SEO elements of the Ultimate Azon theme that work in conjunction with Yoast though. For example, at the very bottom of the Ultimate Azon main settings page, there is a button to turn on/off NoFollow for all affiliate links. For sure you want to NoFollow ALL affiliate links. This has been proven to have a positive effect on SEO.
Dave here, author of UAT. I definitely recommend using Yoast SEO and I use it on every one of my own sites. The UAT built in SEO options are only there for those very few who do not want to add an SEO plugin and only need the bare minimum SEO capabilities. Yoast all the way!