From Classroom Project to Real Product: The Origin Story of AffiliCart

The Spark That Started It All

A few semesters ago, I was teaching an entrepreneurship class and working with a team building trypursueit.com.

Their idea was (and still is) brilliant: visitors answer 12 simple questions in a personality assessment. The site then reveals their primary and secondary hobby predisposition and recommends hobbies that could become lifelong passions.

To make the recommendations practical, the site suggests real products that support those hobbies — everything from photography gear and woodworking tools to birdwatching binoculars and crafting supplies. Their main revenue stream? Amazon Associates.

The students quickly discovered the same problem every Amazon affiliate faces:

• They could write compelling hobby guides and product suggestions.
• But once a reader clicked a single affiliate link, they were gone.
• Readers would buy one item (if any) and never return to see the full set of tools, accessories, or related products needed to actually pursue the hobby.

High bounce rates. Low average order values. Frustrated students.

Building the First Version for the PursueIt Team

I decided to build them a better solution.

What started as a weekend side project became a simple internal tool that let the team:

• Add multiple Amazon products to a real on-site shopping cart
• Let visitors select exact sizes, colors, or variants directly on the site
• Send readers to Amazon with a complete, pre-loaded cart and their affiliate tag attached

The results were immediate. Readers exploring a recommended hobby (like photography or woodworking) could now add a full starter kit to their cart without leaving the PursueIt site. They stayed longer, added more items, and completed more purchases.

The team loved it. Their mock store felt professional and user-friendly.

The "Kingsford Charcoal" Moment

Then I realized this wasn't just a one-off tool for one student project.

The same problem existed for thousands of Amazon Associates — especially those in hobby, fashion, home, and gear niches.

It reminded me of the classic story of Kingsford Charcoal.

Henry Ford's factories generated huge amounts of hardwood scraps while building Model T cars. Instead of wasting them, his team turned the offcuts into charcoal briquettes. What began as a solution to factory waste became its own massively successful business.

I had done something similar. A piece of software built to help my students at trypursueit.com had much broader appeal.

So I polished it, expanded the features, and turned it into a public product: AffiliCart.

From Classroom Tool to Independent Plugin

Today, AffiliCart gives any Amazon Associates creator the same powerful shopping experience I first built for the PursueIt team:

• A persistent, real shopping cart that works across your entire site
• Auto-tagging for every Amazon link
• On-site product variants (XS–XXXL, shoe sizes, pants measurements, custom options) in Pro
• One-click checkout with the full cart pre-loaded on Amazon

What began as a classroom experiment is now helping creators in many niches turn single-product clicks into complete, higher-value orders.

Why This Story Matters

AffiliCart didn't come from a big company or venture-backed team. It came from real students trying to build something meaningful, a teacher looking for a better way, and the decision to take a useful classroom tool and give it to the wider creator community.

I'm still building it in public, listening to feedback, and improving it based on how people actually use it.

Ready to Try the Same Experience?

Whether you run a hobby-focused site like PursueIt, a fashion blog, or any Amazon Associates project, AffiliCart Light is completely free and ready to use today.

Download AffiliCart Light for Free →

I'd love to hear how it works for your site — especially if you're a teacher, student, or fellow indie creator.

From a classroom at trypursueit.com to a public plugin… the journey is just getting started.