After 15 years as a professional WordPress webmaster, I‘ve tried all the best affiliate marketing plugins and tools to boost commissions. In this guide, I‘ll share my top recommendations to help you succeed with affiliate marketing.
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1. Pretty Links
With over 200,000+ active installs, Pretty Links is my top choice for managing affiliate links in WordPress.
Here‘s why you need Pretty Links:
- Create custom URLs to shorten ugly affiliate links
- Cloak or redirect affiliate links to hide the source
- Enable auto-linking based on keywords to save time inserting links
- View click reports to see which links get the most clicks
For example, you can shorten an affiliate link from this:
https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1331&u=1115808&m=41388&urllink=&afftrack=To something neat like this:
https://yourdomain.com/affiliate1 Much better for sharing your affiliate links on social media, email, and guest posts!
2. ThirstyAffiliates
ThirstyAffiliates is a top WordPress affiliate link plugin with over 40,000 active installations.
It makes managing affiliate links a breeze:
- Quickly insert affiliate links into your posts and pages
- Automatically insert links based on keywords
- Organize links into categories for easy management
- View click and performance data for each link
For example, you can set up auto-links so anytime you mention a keyword like "blue host", it automatically links to your Bluehost affiliate link.
3. MonsterInsights
With over 5 million active installs, MonsterInsights is the most popular Google Analytics plugin for WordPress.
Here are some of the useful features for affiliate marketers:
- Track clicks and conversions on affiliate links
- See your top referral sources driving affiliate sales
- Identify your highest converting landing pages
- Get actionable insights into your traffic and audience
For example, you can see exactly which blog posts are generating the most affiliate commissions in MonsterInsights.
4. OptinMonster
OptinMonster is my go-to tool for boosting conversions with popups, exit-intent forms, floating bars and more.
With over 1 million active installs, OptinMonster can help you:
- Grow your email list with conversion-optimized optin forms
- Reduce exit rates by capturing visitors before they leave
- Increase commissions by promoting affiliate offers in optin forms
- Improve conversions by targeting specific pages, posts, and audiences
For example, you can display targeted affiliate promotions in exit-intent popups to get last-minute conversions from abandoning visitors.
5. RafflePress
If you want to grow your audience and promote affiliate products, RafflePress is the best WordPress giveaway and contest plugin.
Key features:
- Create viral giveaways to drive traffic and buzz
- Grow your email list by collecting entries
- Increase social shares with giveaways
- Promote affiliate products as prizes
For example, you can run a giveaway offering a free drone as the prize, with the drone coming from an Amazon affiliate link.
6. AffiliateWP
AffiliateWP enables you to create a full-featured affiliate program right within your WordPress site.
Here are some powerful features:
- Track affiliate clicks, sales, and payments
- Have unlimited affiliates promote your products
- Easy affiliate management with dashboard and reports
- Automatic referral links and affiliate signup
- Integrates with payment systems like Stripe, PayPal, etc
For example, a fitness site can use AffiliateWP so their fans can join as affiliates and earn commissions for promoting their online courses and memberships.
7. WP RSS Aggregator
WP RSS Aggregator is the best way to auto-publish affiliate content from other sites on your WordPress blog.
It allows you to:
- Import RSS feeds from affiliate networks
- Curate and customize the auto-imported posts
- Add your own original commentary
- Benefit from automatic syndication of affiliate content
For example, you can auto-import product reviews from your Amazon affiliate feed, and then write additional tips and recommendations to make the content unique.
8. SEMrush
SEMrush provides advanced SEO and competitor research tools to accelerate your affiliate sites.
It can help you:
- Find profitable affiliate keywords and niches
- Research competitors using the same affiliate programs
- Analyze competitors‘ top organic traffic sources
- Identify affiliate opportunities by spying on competitors
- Track keyword rankings so you can beat competitors
For example, you can use SEMrush to see what keywords and affiliate programs your top competitors are ranking for, and model their success.
9. Constant Contact
For email marketing, I recommend Constant Contact based on my experience with over 5,000 small business clients.
Constant Contact helps you:
- Design beautiful, professional email newsletters
- Build your mailing list with opt-in forms
- Drive traffic and sales through email promotions
- Track opens, clicks, and purchases from emails
- Increase affiliate commissions with targeted promotions
For example, you can promote affiliate products in your email newsletters with trackable links, and monitor the EPC (earnings per click) to see which ones convert best.
10. Ad Inserter
If you want to monetize your site with display ads in addition to affiliate links, Ad Inserter is an excellent WordPress plugin.
It enables you to:
- Place banners and ads easily without coding
- Insert affiliate ads on headers, sidebars, feed, etc
- Target ads by country, page type, post/page ID, etc
- Track impressions and clicks for each ad unit
- Limit number of ad impressions per user
For example, you can use Ad Inserter to add Google AdSense banners along with affiliate link text ads to maximize your earnings.
So there you have it – my top 10 affiliate marketing tools for WordPress based on real-world experience! Let me know if you have any other questions.
