Best WordPress Plugins for Affiliate Websites

Although many love WordPress for its ease of use, an even larger attraction lies in its modularity. Thanks to a massive global audience, thousands of WordPress plugins have emerged, helping website owners to extend functionality in whichever direction, including affiliate marketing.

This, naturally, consists of those who are running Affiliate websites. Affiliate site owners who are running WordPress websites have diverse needs. For example, something more generic would be along the lines of a plugin that helps keep track of website visitor statistics.

In the past, we’ve recommended plugins that all WordPress site owners should install. Today we’ll be taking a closer look at WordPress plugins that would be of more specific use to these websites.

ManageWP Worker

Affiliate site owners often have to manage more than a single WordPress site. However, handling more than one site can lead to lots of time spent simply keeping the app and plugins updated.

While some hosts offer integrated solutions that help with this (for example, the SPanel web hosting control panel comes with SWordPress) - you may need to look for a third-party solution. That’s where ManageWP Worker comes in handy.

ManageWP Worker is an all-in-one WordPress management utility that offers a unified dashboard. From that command point, you can keep your various WordPress sites updated and even streamline the posting of content.

It also comes with support for backups, Google Analytics, performance testing, uptime monitoring, and much more.

Pros

• Streamlined multi-site management
• Security and performance checks
• Database optimization
• Easy user management

Cons

• Over-summarized notifications
• Sometimes pushed beta updates

PrettyLinks

Most affiliate sites will need to handle a fairly large number of affiliate links. It can be a real headache when you’ve embedded these links into hundreds of posts - only to find that some of them change from time to time.

Imagine how many hours of work it would take to change them individually, not to mention what happens if you miss a few. PrettyLinks solves this by acting as a central management point for all your affiliate links.

Essentially, what you’ll be doing is inserting your affiliate link and then converting it to a permanent one of your own. That way, if the affiliate link changes, you only need to make the amendment once from the PrettyLink dashboard. It’s a simple yet powerful solution that can save lots of time and effort.

Pros

• Link beautification and shortening
• Click and hit tracker
• Groupable links for campaigns
• Comprehensive reporting

Cons

• It can be done manually with code
• Few social features

EasyAzon

If you’re working with Amazon for Affiliate income, then you know how complex the system can become - especially as the number of products you target scales up. Instead of worrying in that direction, EasyAzon lets you build content then match it with the right products.

EasyAzon helps you build affiliate links automatically, saving you tons of time monetizing your content. All you need is to set it up once, making sure to include the right tracking ID. Not only does it work on a global scale, but you can target geo-traffic by directing to a relevant Amazon store location as well.

The biggest objection we have to EasyAzon is how crippled the free version is. Given the small commissions that Amazon pays, it can be painful for some to fork out the money to go Pro.

Pros

• Automatic link building & cloaking
• Geolocation targeting
• 90-day cookie validity
• Can use image links

Cons

• The free version relies on shortcode insertion
• Can cause plugin conflicts

OptinMonster

If you’ve been running an affiliate site and racking your brain on how to boost conversions, OptinMonster is the right plugin to help you. It offers features that you can use to boost the products you’re promoting in many ways.

The plugin’s first use is through tools that let you insert more attractive and actionable elements to products. These include unique on-product offers and promos that can be shown to segments of your site visitors.

Once you have everything set up, OptinMonster also has the features that allow you to test the configuration you’ve decided on to see how effective it is - live. Honestly, OptinMonster is perhaps the most comprehensive solution we’ve seen for affiliate sale boosts.

Pros

• Easy to use and very powerful
• Comprehensive display rules
• Visitor segmentation for better targeting
• Excellent community support

Cons

• No way to set campaign durations
• Limited drag-and-drop builder

Popup Maker Pro

We all know that popups can be annoying and, if used incorrectly, can even lead to SERP penalties. However, they are essential and can be a turning point in sales if the right conditions are met, which is where Popup Maker steps in.

Instead of having tons of popups everywhere and praying for the best, PopUp Maker helps you target popup campaigns more strategically. You can set specific conditions for popups and even the duration they will run for.

There’s also a popup editor included for you to craft popups that fits specific use-cases and any theme imaginable. Why settle for a single style when you can “Wow” visitors with your creativity (or force them to read the popup contents).

Pros

• Surgical targeting for popups
• Included popup theme editor
• Run set campaigns
• Mobile responsive popups

Cons

• Forced branding on lower-tier plans
• May cause page slowdowns

Advanced Ads

Ads can be boring, even the most beautifully designed affiliate ads that come from major brands. Why force your visitors to put up with this when you can have spiffy ads that change depending on your needs?

Advanced Ads offers a large number of flexible ad formats that support either your own or code from some affiliate programs like AdSense. It even helps optimize for the best performance with features like Lazy Loading and the ability to work with cached sites.

Affiliate deals are also sometimes time-sensitive, and we get notice ahead of schedule. Instead of staying up to wait and release the promo - simply schedule your ad to run and end on time.

Pros

• Manage limitless ads in multiple formats
• Ad scheduling (start and stop)
• Mobile ad support
• Comprehensive tracking and reporting

Cons

• Limited free version
• It can be difficult to manage

Conclusion

While many of the things these plugins do can certainly be done on your own, having them makes life a lot simpler. Many WordPress plugins follow a freemium model, meaning you can use them for free and pay if you need to access more advanced features.

Even if you pay for a “Pro” version, the amount spent is usually a drop in the ocean compared to the time you’ll save when using one of them. Still, plugins consume resources, so choose the ones you want to use wisely!