Many affiliate marketers use WordPress as the foundation for their websites, making it the standard for building affiliate niche sites. Its key advantage is flexibility, particularly with themes and plugins, which add new functionality and allow for easy customization.
What are WordPress plugins?
WordPress plugins are apps that you can use to add new features and functions to your WordPress website. They work just like the apps on your smartphone.
There are over 60,000 free plugins in the WordPress.org plugin directory, as well as thousands of paid plugins that can be purchased from individual developers and companies.
Plugins can be small and offer just one function, such as adding an image to your sidebar, or they can be quite large and act as their own platforms, such as WordPress ecommerce plugins.
Many plugins with advanced features have their own additional plugins that allow you to extend the functionality of WordPress.
Do you need plugins for WordPress as an affiliate?
Yes, almost always.
WordPress has a very limited range of functions. You can create blogs and simple websites quickly and easily with WordPress, but when it comes to professional projects, WordPress lacks many important features.
But you shouldn't be too hasty. First, you really need to find out which features you need. To do this, you need to launch the website and actively build it. If a functionality is missing, only then should you start looking for a plugin.
Best WordPress plugins for affiliate marketers
There are many plugins for WordPress that help marketers to increase their revenue, improve the website and attract more visitors. Some of the best plugins for marketers that I can recommend are:
ThirstyAffiliates
ThirstyAffiliates makes it easy to manage, track, and cloak affiliate links, increasing your credibility and potentially improving your click-through rates (CTR).
- Link cloaking and shortening to make URLs look more professional.
- Automatic keyword linking for relevant content.
- Geo-targeting for regional affiliate offers.
- Ability to track clicks, conversions, and performance metrics.
- Detailed reporting on how your affiliate links are performing.
Pretty Links
Pretty Links is perfect for affiliate marketers who want to tidy up their links and track how each performs, giving you valuable insights into your marketing efforts.
- Link shortening and redirection.
- Click tracking to monitor the performance of your affiliate links.
- Custom URL slugs (you can name your links for better SEO).
- Geotargeting and A/B split testing for optimizing affiliate links.
WP Review
Lightweight and simple to use, WP Review is ideal for bloggers who need a quick and easy solution for adding ratings and reviews to product posts without too much setup.
- Easily add star ratings and review boxes in posts or pages.
- Supports Google Rich Snippets for SEO (helping reviews show up in search results).
- Add ratings for various criteria such as quality, price, features, etc.
- Customizable styles to match your theme.
- User reviews feature to collect feedback from your visitors.
Statify
Statify is a simple and lightweight plugin that helps you track and display website statistics (page views, referrers, etc.) in a clean and user-friendly dashboard.
- Minimalist design with easy-to-understand statistics, without the bloat of larger analytics platforms.
- Statify does not use third-party tracking scripts or store personal data, making it GDPR compliant.
- Track the number of views for each page/post in real time, giving you immediate insights.
- See where your traffic is coming from by tracking referrals (search engines, social media, etc.).
- View statistics per post or page, making it easy to measure the performance of specific content.
- You can display stats in a widget or a dashboard widget, making it easy to keep track of your site’s performance.
OptinMonster
OptinMonster is a lead generation and conversion optimization plugin for WordPress. It helps you create targeted pop-ups and opt-in forms with exit-intent technology to capture leads, increase email sign-ups, and boost conversions.
- Easily design pop-ups, opt-ins, and landing pages without any coding.
- Display targeted offers to visitors who are about to leave your site, increasing conversions.
- Run A/B tests on pop-ups and forms to find the highest-converting designs and copy.
- Target visitors based on behavior, device, location, referral source, and more for personalized offers.
- Access a wide variety of high-converting, customizable templates for opt-in forms and pop-ups.
- Track and analyze the performance of your campaigns with detailed reports and insights.
Conclusion
WordPress plugins allow you to activate very interesting and important functions on your own website quickly, easily and usually free of charge. Affiliate marketing professionals in particular should pay very close attention to ensuring that all the necessary functions are available.
Many bloggers and website operators don't even know how many visitors come to their website every day, let alone which pages are viewed and which links are clicked on. Installing a simple plugin like Statify gives you a good overview of traffic numbers and site performance.
Try the plugins on the list, and keep an eye out for new developments. The internet and marketing are constantly evolving. Stay up to date by testing new plugins that will make your daily affiliate work easier and enable you to generate more income.