Whether you are a blogger just getting started with affiliate marketing or looking to increase the income you are already earning, this list of the best […]
Whether you are a blogger just getting started with affiliate marketing or looking to increase the income you are already earning, this list of the best affiliate marketing tools for bloggers will help you make more in less time from your affiliate marketing strategy. These tools work with your WordPress site to help with your content creation, social media presence, and, of course, affiliate sales.
PrettyLinks
PrettyLinks is a free WordPress plugin that allows you to turn your affiliate links into short, simple links using your own domain. Simply install and activate the plugin in your WordPress dashboard. Then copy your affiliate link into the form and set the link you want to use.
For example, a ShareASale link may look something like this:
https://shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=XXXXXX-XXXX&XXXXX&urlink=&afftrack=
With PrettyLinks you could turn that link into something like this:
https://apogeeagency.com/prettylinks
This makes sharing your links on your social media platforms much easier and it even gives you statistics on the clicks you receive. It also makes it easy to change your link as you only have to change it in one place and all of the links immediately update.
With PrettyLinks Pro (approx $99 per year) you can then set keywords for your link and PrettyLinks will automatically attach that link to that keyword throughout your entire WordPress site.
For instance, if you are in our Neato Robotics affiliate program, you could set the keyword “vacuum” in the Keyword Replacement Tool and every time the word “vacuum” appears on your site would automatically link to your Neato Robotics affiliate link via your PrettyLinks.
Note: You can NOT use this for Amazon links – but you can use it for all of the Apogee-managed programs as well as most other networks. Be sure to check the terms of service or with your affiliate marketing program manager to make sure.
LinkWhisper
LinkWhisper is a paid WordPress plugin that makes interlinking your content a breeze. LinkWhisper scans the content of your site to show link suggestions for relevant, related content right within the blog post editor. With one click you can automatically insert the link or you can customize the link and or text easily within the editor.
LinkWhisper also monitors your links to notify you of broken links, orphaned content, and 404 errors. You can also set up Auto Linking to automatically link any keyword to a link that you set within your WordPress dashboard.
This is similar to PrettyLinks listed above – but does not make a shortened, easy-to-share link. This is why if you are a personal blogger with a social presence I recommend using both plugins. However, if you are only concerned with search and do not need an easy-to-share link, LinkWhisper is all you need.
LinkWhisper can also connect to Google Search Console to set target keywords that you are trying to link for and will suggest the most relevant links for your articles in relation to those keywords. LinkWhisper also works with plugins such as Yoast SEO, Rank Math, and All In One SEO to pull in the target keywords from those plugins for a seamless workflow.
Lastly, if you have more than one website, you can connect those sites by verifying the connection in each dashboard and LinkWhisper will suggest links between the sites based on relevant keywords.
LinkWhisper is an annual subscription for about $79 a year.
KeySearch
KeySearch is a robust SEO tool without the hefty price tag like its competitors. KeySearch offers a handful of tools that will help you to create and optimize the best long-form content for search. The web-based software has more than a dozen tools, but the most useful are the Keyword Research Tool, Explorer Tool, and Competitive Analysis.
The Keyword Research Tool gives the average monthly volume, competition score, SERP Analysis, and a list of related keywords to help you choose the best terms for your content. It also pulls in the links from the front page of the searched term so you can quickly see who the “competition” would be for that term. It also lists suggested related terms which can be super helpful with content creation.
The KeySearch Explorer Tool lets you take a closer look at your own website as well as any competitor's websites that you want to view. This is a powerful tool for seeing what keywords your site is already ranking for and finding keywords to target that others are ranking for in your niche.
The KeySearch Competitor Analysis Tool has several features including a Page Analyzer that will take a look at an individual page to grade on SEO metrics such as internal links, alt text, text/HTML ratio, usability, speed, and more. These are all important factors to the health of your site overall.
KeySearch is a paid plan subscription that starts at $20 for 200 keyword searches per month.
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO is a simple tool that can assist you in optimizing your content for search engine optimization. The free version of the Yoast SEO plugin sits on your WordPress site and scans your content looking for metrics such as keyword density, alt tags, and more. Yoast SEO also lets you customize your SEO Title and Meta Description quickly and easily.
The one thing to note about Yoast SEO is that simply “getting a green light” does not mean that you will rank for that keyword or phrase. It is important to do your keyword research before beginning any post, and simply use Yoast SEO as a checklist of sorts to make sure you optimize your post for SEO.
Yoast SEO is one of the best free tools, and while there are some benefits to upgrading to Yoast Premium, the free plan is generally all you need.
Canva
Canva is a must for any digital marketer – but especially for successful affiliate marketers. Canva makes it easy to create professional designs in seconds for your blog, email list, and social media posts. There are plenty of tools out there for graphic design, but Canva is far superior in usability and offerings.
With a paid Canva Pro Membership, you gain access to over 100 million design elements, templates, stock photos, fonts, videos, and more. You can create your own Brand Kit that includes your brand colors, logos, and fonts for super fast designs whether you are on your desktop, smartphone, or tablet.
Canva is the perfect tool for keeping all of your projects together in one place and keeping all of the content you produce with the same, cohesive look. While it is not as important to be “perfectly curated” as it once was, digital marketers know it is important to be recognizable on your social media accounts.
A Canva Pro membership is about $120 per year.
The Block Editor – aka Gutenberg
When Gutenberg hit the Blogosphere in 2018, many Bloggers were resistant to making the change. While there is some learning curve, the WordPress Block Editor is one of the best free tools available for bloggers. The Block Editor makes composing blog posts that bring value to your audience a breeze. Gone are the days of needing to hire coding specialists or fancy designers – you can now create gorgeous, functional posts and pages with just a few clicks.
The WordPress Block Editor is one of the best ways to build an affiliate site because you can very quickly make changes in one place that will automatically change throughout your entire WordPress blog. By creating Reusable Blocks for your affiliate products, discount codes, and promotions, you can quickly insert the blocks into your posts and pages. When you make an edit to a Reusable Block, every block across your site will update, meaning your website visitors will always see the most up-to-date information – helping your conversion rates significantly.
Later
Later is a social media scheduling tool that lets you plan out your social content quickly and easily. With Later you can connect your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Pinterest accounts to organize, schedule, or even auto-publish your content.
The best thing about Later is that you can spend a few hours each month focusing on creating a social media schedule, and then let Later publish the content for you so that you can be sure to have a consistent presence on the social media platforms that you choose. Being consistent is hard – let Later do the hard work for you.
With Later you can set up affiliate campaigns to go live on various platforms to get in front of your target audience and potential customers – even when you are not online. It is a great way to keep the appearance of constant contact with your audience to satisfy the algorithms while giving you a chance to rest.
Later starts at $15 per month for the Starter Plan.
Related Article: How To Use Instagram for Affiliate Marketing
LinkTree
LinkTree is one of the best tools for maximizing your affiliate marketing campaigns on your social media sites. Since platforms like Instagram and TikTok only allow for one link on your bio, LinkTree lets you build a list of links so you can promote all of the things you love and direct your audience to the right links.
One of the key features of LinkTree is simply the ease of use – you add a link, give it a title, and voila! LinkTree keeps your list of links on your own URL that you can use in your Bio as well as any other place it would benefit your marketing efforts.
LinkTree also lets you include thumbnails with your links, redirect your links, and will even give you statistics on link clicks, The paid version of LinkTree will give even more insight into your click activity and can connect with Google Analytics and Zapier to show exactly how much revenue you are making from your LinkTree.
With the paid version starting at just $5 per month, it is no wonder LinkTree is one of the most popular affiliate marketing tools available.
Affluent
Affluent is one of the best-kept secrets in the affiliate marketing industry. Affluent.io connects with over 500 different affiliate networks to bring in metrics such as clicks, sales, conversions, and more! At a glance, you can see all of your affiliate earnings and decide where to focus more of your efforts on the products and services that your audience loves.
You can view performance by date, compare time frames, generate reports, and more. Affluent gives far more detailed information than you may find inside the affiliate marketing software and breaks it down into an easy-to-understand report.
Even if you are a new affiliate marketer, getting started with Affluent can help you keep all of your affiliate marketing income and data organized in one place.
Affluent offers a free plan that lets you connect with up to 10 affiliate networks or programs and up to $5,000 per month in monthly commissions.
FloDesk
The last must-have tool is a reliable email marketing tool to grow and cultivate a mailing list. FloDesk offers basic features like opt-in forms to collect email addresses and templates for creating gorgeous email newsletters, but you also have access to tools like A/B testing, segmenting user groups, email sequence automation, and more.
FloDesk also offers a landing page builder which you can use to grow your mailing list or promote your online store. You can choose from templated landing pages or build your own from scratch using their drag-and-drop editor.
FloDesk automation is a great way to strengthen your relationship with your subscribers. By setting up an email welcome sequence you can guide your audience through your best content and personal stories that resonate and show just how much you have in common.
Even if you do not have a website, social media influencers can benefit from growing a mailing list and staying in touch with your audience without battling algorithms and other creators for your audience's attention.
FloDesk offers one flat fee no matter how large your list grows.
Conclusion
No matter where you are in your affiliate marketing journey, implementing the right tools to ensure you are constantly putting out high-quality content to your audience will help you have better results in less time. These top affiliate marketing tools will help you run your WordPress website and social media strategy in a more efficient and effective way.