Best WordPress Plugins for Affiliate Marketers (2023)
Installing plugins can help you advance your campaign, track your links, and grow your business faster. This is because plugins bring additional functionality to your website, such as capturing new visitors, building an email list, shortening links, launching multiple ads, and more. Check out this list of the top-rated WordPress plugins. Maybe a few of them will be useful for your affiliate campaign!
Best Plugins for Email Marketing
The first step to building strong connections with your audience is to start and grow an email list. The following WordPress plugins will support affiliate marketers in the collection of visitors’ email addresses, which will help convert visitors to customers.
Popups by OptinMonster
OptinMonster is the ultimate tool for lead generation and conversion. It features an intuitive form builder that allows you to create and customize beautiful popups so visitors remain on your website longer. Here is what you get with OptinMonster:
- A wide range of responsive templates: Popups and side-bar forms, exit-intent popups, floating headers and footers, scroll-triggered boxes, etc.
- The opportunity to add video, social icons, images, and social media buttons.
- Compatibility with any email marketing service.
- An opportunity to target visitors depending on their location and behavior on your website.
- A/B tests and statistics that help determine highly effective forms.
- The MonsterLinks tool to keep your content up to date.
- Optinmonster claims to be the number one most popular popup-builder plugin.
The plugin is compatible with WordPress Version 4.7.0 and higher.
Viral Signup
This WordPress affiliate plugin allows you to build a signup form based on the specific needs of your campaign. Options include a simple form to collect emails, a form that incentivizes customers to share the link and to refer friends and connections, as well as a form for scarcity-based campaigns with limited available spaces. Here are other features of the plugin:
- Four different modes for highly effective campaigns.
- The option to add email addresses to a built-in list and customize that list for users who bring in referrals.
- The ability to protect your email list from errors by prohibiting multiple registrations for a single user.
Customizable forms. - The ability to share any links with users.
The number of signups depends on the plugin version. To have more than 50 signups, you’ll need to buy a Pro plan. It will also allow you to create unlimited forms and an email list, integrate tools such as Mailchimp and Getresponse, and offer different design options.
Viral SIgnup is compatible with WordPress 4.3 and higher, and has been tested up to Version 5.3.
WPForms
WPForms is a drag-and-drop form creator with predesigned responsive templates that one can use without any training. This platform also claims to be the fastest WordPress contact form builder available online.
You can build almost any type of online forms, including signup, payment, feedback, donation, surveys, and more. In addition, all forms are mobile-responsive and look nice on all devices, including desktop or mobile. Here are some more features:
- A built-in library of over 100 templates with customization options.
- Integration with tools, such as MailChimp, AWeber, GetResponse, and other programs.
- An upload feature that allows subscribers to attach files.
- Spam protection.
- Dynamic forms that adjust based on the answers provided by users.
- Fully responsive forms for desktop, mobile, and tablet devices.
- An instant form notification feature that will allow you to quickly respond to new leads.
- A collection of payments and donations.
WPForms is compatible with WordPress 5.2 and higher, and it has been tested up to Version 5.6. It is also possible to purchase a premium plan.
E-Commerce Tools
The following WordPress plugins are suitable mainly for e-commerce affiliate programs, such as Amazon. These tools will help you build links right in your editor, show a quick product preview, add items to a wish list, and more.
YITH WooCommerce
This is a family of plugins for e-commerce websites. Most YITH WooCommerce plugins are available for WordPress 4.0 and higher, and have been tested up to Version 6.3.1. Here are some of the best YITH tools for affiliates:
- Wishlist: Allows clients to add products to a wish list, which can then be shared on social media or via links.
- Ajax Product Filter: Allows clients to apply relevant filters to display the products they are looking for.
- Compare: Displays the products you like on a single table and compares them to help you find the best options.
- Zoom Magnifier: Allows clients to zoom in on product images.
- Quick View: Opens a product preview without leaving the page.
- Order Tracking: Allows you to check the shipping details right on the website and to receive a notification if necessary.
- Add-Ons: Allows you to add and customize unlimited blocks of options for all products on your blog or a specific category.
- Subscription: Allows you to market your products and services with a subscription plan and manage payments.
Manage Affiliate Links
Links are the foundation of any affiliate campaign’s success, so using one of the following tools is a must for managing affiliate links on WordPress. It allows you to shorten your links to make them more attractive, insert links automatically in your content, change link statuses, and more.
URL Shortener
URL Shortener Pro helps you shorten links to make them easy to remember and boost social media shares. The plugin is free and requires no coding skills or multi-level settings. It allows you to insert your own textual information into the URL and hide the affiliate marker.
In addition, it’s possible to automatically link specific keywords in all your articles to short URLs. You’ll always know how many users clicked on your short link. The rel=”nofollow” option also prevents web crawlers from following your links, which helps avoid problems on Google.
The plugin is compatible with WordPress 5.6 and higher, and has been tested up to Version 7.2. For affiliate partners who work with Travelpayouts, there is a free alternative: the built-in URL shortener found in your Travelpayouts’ account.
By using this tool, in just a few clicks, you can create a short affiliate URL with your brand name and ID included (without any technical parameters). Simply open the “Link Generator” tool in the selected program and fill in the required fields. You can find tips on how to shorten links in the tool update review.
WP Links
This plugin is one of the top-rated tools for managing your links. It allows you to control external and internal icons, link statuses, the manner in which a link opens (in a new tab/window), etc. These features are especially important for website optimization. You can also add user-generated content and sponsored values.
Here are some other features of WP Links:
- Set proper attributes for all published links to get the most SEO juice out of them that you can.
- Check whether your links have a correct REL tag and are not broken or misleading.
- Get detailed reports to have a bigger view.
- Send a warning each time a visitor clicks on an external link.
WP Links is compatible with WordPress 4.2 and higher, and has been tested up to Version 7.2.
Auto Affiliate Links
Auto Affiliate Links will automatically insert affiliate links into your content once your post has been published. In addition, you can do all of that manually from the plugin menu on your dashboard. It is compatible with many tools, such as Amazon, Clickbank, Shareasale, Ebay, and Best Buy. Some other options include:
- Hide links.
- Select the page for placing links.
- Set nofollow or dofollow status.
- Limit the number of links per post.
- Get 100 keywords from your content.
The plugin offers a free plan, as well as several PRO memberships. It is available for WordPress 3.5 and higher, and has been tested up to Version 6.2.
Manage Ads
Ads are an important tool for many affiliate marketers. To make the best of your ad campaign, use one of the following tools to help create banners, display them properly, and manage your promotions.
Google Analytics Dashboard Plugin
This is one of the most popular tools for integrating Google Analytics into WordPress. It features a dashboard that you’ll see right in the editor to easily track your campaign. The plugin filters the data and only shows the most important stats:
- Audience Report: Shows demographics, device types, and other metrics about your website visitors.
- Behavior Report: Controls the way people find and interact with your blog.
- Content Report: Provides insights on which posts get the most attention from your audience.
- E-Commerce Report: Allows you to analyze sales metrics, such as revenue, conversion, etc.
- Forms Report: Summarizes the conversion rate and helps improve your signup forms.
You can also resort to custom dimensions to access advanced tracking. The plugin is available for WordPress 4.8.0 and higher, and has been tested up to Version 5.6.
AdRotate
This plugin is available for WordPress 4.9 and higher, and has been tested up to Version 5.7.4. AdRotate helps create banner ads and track how many people have clicked on them.
The free plugin comes with continual updates and support. You can create your own ad from scratch or take it from sources such as Google AdSense, Media.net, Google Ad Manager, and many others. Here is what you can do with AdRotate:
- Set an expiration date for each ad.
- Display several banners simultaneously.
- Choose any size for your ad.
- Monitor your ad’s effectiveness with the analytics features.
- Remove inefficient ads automatically.
- Buy AdRotate Pro for advanced functionality.
Best Plugins for SEO
The following plugins ensure that your website is friendly for search engines and can rank high enough. They are useful regardless of the type of website you run (personal blog, e-commerce, etc.) and are suitable for both beginners and professional webmasters alike.
SEOPress
SEOPress is a great plugin for increasing your blog’s traffic through SEO. Here are the main features of the tool:
- Increasing search traffic.
- Boosting social shares on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.
- Generating custom HTML and XML sitemaps.
- Managing meta tags for every page and post.
- Integrating applications, such as WooCommerce, Multilingual Press, and WPML.
- SEOPress PRO will make your work more effective by automatically creating SEO titles and meta descriptions with the help of AI.
SEOPress is compatible with WordPress Version 5.0, and has been tested up to Version 7.2.
Yoast SEO
Yoast SEO focuses on attracting traffic from search engines like Google or Bing as well as various social networks. Yoast SEO claims to be the most popular SEO plugin for WordPress websites. The plugin comes offers several useful functions:
- Checking the keyword number and placement in your content.
- Optimizing content with relevant keywords.
- Providing links to related posts.
- Adding schema.org code.
- Editing snippets.
This plugin helps you avoid duplicate content and provides content analysis to reveal whether the keywords you use correspond to your post. In addition, it displays the webpage preview to see how everything will look on social media platforms.
With a Yoast SEO Premium account, you can receive updates and new features faster than other users, increase your traffic from Google and social networks, and also get access to Yoast SEO Academy. Yoast SEO is available for WordPress 6.2, and has been tested up to Version 7.2.5.
Manage Your Affiliate Campaigns and Links
The following examples of WordPress affiliate plugins are all-in-one platforms that you can use to handle various aspects of your affiliate campaign, such as checking reports, moderating signups, launching promotions, and more.
Thirsty Affiliates
This plugin is designed for webmasters who want to join the affiliate marketing field and promote products on their WordPress website. Basically, Thirsty Affiliates allows you to manage your affiliate links and track their performance, as well as:
- Shorten links and insert them into your content.
- Track clicks.
- Change the link status to nofollow.
- Store data.
- Delete outdated links automatically.
- Customize plugin functionality and use only the necessary functions.
The Pro versions allow you to connect multiple websites, create automated keyword linking, set geographic redirects, and more. This plugin is compatible with WordPress 5.0 and higher, and has been tested up to Version 5.6.
Which WordPress Affiliate Plugin Should You Choose ?
WordPress affiliate marketing will be a piece of cake once you take advantage of affiliate plugins. There are all-in-one solutions that cover various aspects of promotion as well as dedicated tools for growing email lists, shortening links, and so on. In order to choose the best plugin for your specific needs, think about the aspects of your campaign that need improvement and test a few options to find the best one.