Soldering Practice Kit — Amazon Affiliate Site

A fast, fully SEO-optimized Amazon affiliate site for soldering practice kits, built with Astro. Static output, structured data, live Amazon prices (optional via PA-API), and a one-container deploy to Coolify.

• Stack: Astro 6 · Tailwind CSS v4 · TypeScript
• Output: static HTML (no runtime server) served by nginx
• Monetization: Amazon Associates affiliate links + optional live pricing via Product Advertising API 5.0

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Quick start (local)

npm install
cp .env.example .env      # then fill in your values
npm run dev               # http://localhost:4321
npm run build             # outputs to ./dist
npm run preview           # preview the production build

Without Amazon API keys the site builds from the curated dataset in src/data/products.ts and shows "Check price on Amazon" buttons. Add keys (below) to switch to live prices automatically.

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Configuration (environment variables)

See .env.example. The important ones:

Variable	Required	Purpose
SITE_URL	yes	Canonical URL for SEO / sitemap (no trailing slash)
AMAZON_PARTNER_TAG	yes	Your Associates tag (e.g. yourtag-20) — this is how you earn
AMAZON_ACCESS_KEY	optional	PA-API key — enables live prices
AMAZON_SECRET_KEY	optional	PA-API secret — enables live prices
CONTACT_EMAIL	optional	Address shown on the contact page

Live prices need PA-API access. Amazon only grants Product Advertising API access after your Associates account has made 3 qualifying sales within 180 days. Until then, leave the keys blank — the site works perfectly from curated data and is fully compliant (it never shows a stale price as the current price).

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Deploying to Coolify

This repo includes a production Dockerfile (multi-stage: Node build → nginx) and nginx.conf.

1. Create a new Application in Coolify and point it at this Git repository.
2. Build Pack: select Dockerfile.
3. Port: 80.
4. Environment / Build Variables — add these (mark them as available at build time, since the site is statically generated):
   • SITE_URL = https://solderingpracticekit.com
   • AMAZON_PARTNER_TAG = your tag
   • AMAZON_ACCESS_KEY, AMAZON_SECRET_KEY (optional, once you have PA-API access)
   • CONTACT_EMAIL (optional)
5. Domain: set https://solderingpracticekit.com (you already pointed the domain's NS at Coolify). Coolify will provision HTTPS via Let's Encrypt.
6. Deploy.

Keeping prices fresh (when PA-API is enabled)

Prices are baked in at build time, so to keep them current you redeploy on a schedule. Amazon's terms require prices shown to be no more than 24h old, so a daily rebuild is ideal:

• In Coolify, create a Scheduled Task (cron 0 4 * * *) that triggers a redeploy, or
• Hit the app's deploy webhook from any cron/GitHub Action once a day.

When PA-API is disabled there is nothing to refresh — buttons link straight to Amazon.

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Adding or editing products

Products live in src/data/products.ts — a typed array. Each entry has a real Amazon asin (so affiliate links resolve) plus editorial fields (score, pros/cons, verdict). To add a product:

1. Find its ASIN on Amazon.
2. Add an entry to PRODUCTS following the existing shape (rank controls ordering).
3. Rebuild. A review page is generated automatically at /reviews/<slug>.

Live price/image/availability are layered on top from PA-API when enabled; the editorial content is always the source of truth, so reviews never go stale.

Adding guides (blog content)

Drop a Markdown file in src/content/guides/. Frontmatter schema is defined in src/content.config.ts (title, description, dates, relatedProducts, optional faqs). New guides appear on /guides, in the RSS feed, and in the sitemap automatically.

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Project structure

src/
  config/site.ts        # central config (reads env vars)
  data/products.ts      # curated product catalog (editorial + real ASINs)
  lib/
    amazon/paapi.ts      # native PA-API 5.0 client (AWS SigV4, no SDK)
    amazon/links.ts      # affiliate link builder
    products.ts          # data provider: curated + live merge, with fallback
    seo.ts               # JSON-LD / structured-data builders
  components/            # ProductCard, ComparisonTable, AffiliateButton, FAQ, …
  layouts/BaseLayout.astro
  content/guides/*.md    # SEO articles
  pages/                 # routes (homepage, roundups, /reviews, /guides, legal)
Dockerfile · nginx.conf  # Coolify deploy

SEO features

• Per-page <title>, meta description, canonical URL, Open Graph + Twitter cards
• JSON-LD structured data: Organization, WebSite, Product (+Review), ItemList, BreadcrumbList, FAQPage, Article
• Auto-generated sitemap-index.xml, robots.txt, and /rss.xml
• Fast static pages, prefetching, long-cache hashed assets, lazy-loaded images
• Amazon-compliant affiliate links (rel="sponsored nofollow noopener") and disclosures