Discover the 15 best affiliate marketing tools that I use on every website that I own. Learn why I like them, what they offer, and how to use them yourself
So you’ve decided to monetize your blog through affiliate marketing, and you’ve chosen an affiliate network that’s right for you, your blog topic, and your audience.
And that affiliate network offers you all kinds of “creatives” you can use to promote products and services that you’re willing to stand behind. There text links, and banner, and widgets oh my. Now the question that remains is “what are you going to do with all of it?”
It’s easy to pack your blog full of ads, but that’s necessarily going to roll over well with your readers.
You’re going to need to keep a few things in mind so that you don’t disrupt user experience and lose the traffic that it possible for you to become a successful blogger and affiliate marketer in the first place.
Well, depending on what your blog topic is and the range of products you’re promoting as an affiliate marketer, you have a couple different options.
Before we dive in too deep into the tools themselves, it is important to understand the level of support and tools that each individual platform will likely give you to work with.
Now, just about every affiliate program will offer you text links, and these are great to put in the body of your posts. The only catch is that the affiliate program you belong will probably have to have an array of products for it to be worth your time.
For example, if I have a travel blog and I join the affiliate program for a travel site, then I’ll be able to get text links for hotels and flights no matter what I’m blogging about. Whether I’m blogging about the Top 10 Caribbean resorts or a new tourist attraction in NYC, I can name drop a few different airlines and hotels that my readers might want to consider if they’re planning such a trip.
If you’re promoting a more narrow range of products on your blog, however, you might find text links less useful. For example, if I only blog about iPhone Apps, I can’t reasonably link to a site that discount iPhones in every post. For starters, it will suggest that I’m suggesting that that page is the most relevant page for iPhones, and that will erode my credibility as an authority blogger. Furthermore, it will look kind of ridiculous that have the same keywords as a hyperlink all the time.
Flash and GIF banners are a bit more straightforward in their implementation. Basically as long as you don’t plaster them all over your site, and keep them in places that are appropriate for a blog ad, you can’t go wrong.
In addition to the usual header and sidebar banner place, however, blogs offer you a couple other options. For instance, you can place an affiliate banner between the text and the comment section of a post. First, banners there won’t clog up your index page. Second, the users that will see them are the engaged ones who have already clicked through to the individual post. This way, you can make sure that active (rather than passive) users see your banners, without eroding the user-experience of your index page.
Another place to, er, place affiliate banners is in your RSS feed. The advantage of RSS ads is two fold. First, the readers that are going to see it are the regulars that subscribe to your feed. This means that they already enjoy and trust your content, and are that much more likely to defer to your recommendation.
More importantly, because an RSS feed is void of all design elements, a banner stands out that much more. Your readers, then, are bound to notice them. Consequently, if you’ve been doing your job of maintaining their trust and showing them products that are relevant to your content, your RSS affiliate ads should convert relatively well.
These little pieces of javascript are often great for geo-targeting users and rotating product features. Consquently, they’re perfect for you sidebar.
Instead of using your sidebar real estate on regular flash or GIF affiliate ads, consider widgets. These often rotate products everytime the page refreshes, and will show your readers products based on their geographic location.
Provided you’ve joined an affiliate program that has a wider range of product offers that are relevant to your content, then, widgets can be effectively way to keep your sidebar looking fresh. This dynamic affiliate marketing tool will help prevent your trusting readers from going banner blind, and keep and eye on real estate other than the post content.
Keep in mind...
Now remember, the trick to being a successful affiliate blogger is tied up with why bloggers can make such affiliates in the first place: you have an established rapport of trust with the community that you’ve built around your content.
So when you’re considering where to put what affiliate marketing tools where, you have to keep it clean. You have to respect that community and its experience. If you try to spam them with affiliate links, you just end up spamming your own site, and before you know it, your readers are gone and you haven’t made a dime.
Rather, approach affiliate blogging as you would a good friend. As an affiliate blogger, you must always think relationships before sales. Make the products you promote add value to the relationship you have with your community instead of sapping value from it.
We’ve included an overview of our top picks below. For detailed information on each pick, scroll down.
Let’s review the top 15 affiliate marketing tools.
The tools in this area help to create your blog or website.
WordPress is an excellent option for affiliate marketers who are ready to invest the time to learn a new platform. You can build out any customized options required over time.
Overall, it’s relatively easy. There is a learning curve, though.
WordPress is free. You’ll need to invest in hosting with companies like Bluehost or Siteground.
WordPress is an excellent option for affiliate marketers ready to invest the time to learn a new platform.
You can build out any customized options required over time.
If you are a newer affiliate marketer who wants to invest less time in website creation, consider Wix. It has templates that are high quality and customizable to fit your needs.
No, Wix is easy to use.
If you’re a newer affiliate marketer who wants to invest less time in website creation, consider Wix.
The templates are high quality and customizable to fit your needs.
Use chatbot tools to communicate with your website visitors.
Omni Chat is an excellent choice because it can integrate with Shopify, WordPress, and other platforms. The chatbot can also answer common questions, collect leads and make sales.
No, it’s not difficult to use.
However, you may need some time to become familiar with it enough to consider it an easy dashboard to navigate.
Omni Chat is a good chatbot tool for affiliate marketers who want to offer support or sell products on their websites.
BotPenguin is a great chatbot software service for small businesses. We like its forever-free plan and intuitive dashboard. We also appreciate the company’s commitment to customer support.
No, it’s not difficult to use.
You’ll experience an intuitive dashboard.
BotPenguin is a great chatbot software service for small businesses.
We like its forever-free plan and intuitive dashboard. We also appreciate the company’s commitment to customer support.
Select one of the following affiliate marketing software options to track your ad campaigns.
If you are looking for an affiliate marketing tool to help you to track conversions, clicks, and impressions, Voluum is the best option for you.
No, it’s simple to use overall.
Some marketers do need to take time to get used to the interface, however.
Individual plans:
Business plans:
Voluum will help you track conversions, clicks, and impressions.
We also like its heatmap feature and fast reporting.
Affiliate marketers need a strong ad-tracking tool and this is why we highly recommend Everflow. It helps with email campaigns and does a good job with fraud protection.
The software is not difficult to use.
The company provides detailed instructions.
Consider Everflow strongly for ad tracking as an affiliate marketer.
If you are a brand looking for an affiliate tool to help you track the sales and payouts of the affiliates, Osi Affiliate is the best option for you.
Yes, beginners will find the dashboard difficult to navigate.
While pricey for what it does, Osi Affiliate offers a quality solution for brands that need to track affiliates.
Consider using one of the following tools to create your affiliate email marketing campaigns.
Mailchimp is an excellent email affiliate marketing platform because it integrates with a wide range of apps and services and offers detailed analytics to show the performance of your campaigns.
We wouldn’t say it’s hard to use.
However, it’s not as intuitive to use as some competitors.
Mailchimp is a solid tool for affiliate marketers of all experience levels.
Constant Contact offers a good range of features for affiliate marketers. It offers advanced CRM marketing tools and provides A/B testing. It is suitable for both beginners and experienced marketers.
Constant Contact is easy to use.
Constant Contact offers a good range of features for affiliate marketers. It’s a tool we recommend considering.
As an affiliate marketer, getting search engine optimization “right” is critical to your success.
Use one of the following tools to uncover the best keywords to target on your affiliate blog.
Semrush affiliate tool is packed with features like the Keyword Magic Tool, which finds related keywords you won’t often think of when doing a manual search.
While offering a relatively intuitive dashboard, SEMrush takes time to master.
SEMrush is one of the best affiliate marketing tools for uncovering profitable keywords.
Ahrefs is one of the best affiliate marketing tools on the market because it gives detailed insights into the search volume, CPC, and competition for any keyword.
Ahrefs is not difficult to use, but it does require some time to get used to all of the features and options.
Ahrefs is one of the best affiliate marketing tools on the market.
While the pricing can be a bit steep for small affiliates, it’s worth the investment if you’re serious about making money through affiliate marketing.
Placing ads is another way to generate revenue on an affiliate blog.
Consider using one of the following ad networks.
AdThrive is easy to use and offers reliable reporting features. Reports show ad results for desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.
Affiliate marketers who want to use an ad network known for being reliable and easy to work with.
AdThrive is one of the easiest ad networks to use.
Simply sign up for an account and add its code to your blog.
You don’t pay AdThrive. You join for free and then add its code to your website.
AdThrive is easy to use and offers reliable reporting features.
Zeropark is potentially the best affiliate marketing tool for bloggers who want to try something other than AdThrive or Mediavine.
No, Zeropark is not hard to use.
Like AdThrive, you sign up for free to place ads on your website.
Zeropark is potentially the best affiliate marketing tool for bloggers who want to try something other than AdThrive or Mediavine.
As an affiliate marketer, you should look for ways to cut down on the time it takes to create content for your campaigns.
Use the following AI tools to help in this area.
Jasper.ai is a helpful tool for affiliate marketers who want to create content faster. However, you will need to budget a large amount to write a lot of content.
Affiliate marketers who want to speed up the content creation process.
While it’s easy to learn, there is a learning curve that might stump some affiliate marketers.
Jasper.ai is a helpful tool for affiliate marketers who want to create content faster.
However, you will need to budget a large amount to write a lot of content.
You might be better off hiring a freelance writer in that case.
Frase.io is a quality AI tool for affiliate marketers who want better SEO rankings. The content brief builder is especially useful for those who are starting with SEO.
No, Frase.io is not hard to use.
Frase.io is a quality AI tool for affiliate marketers who want better SEO rankings.
The content brief builder is especially useful for those who are starting with SEO.
Now that you know about these affiliate marketing tools, start conducting your research.
Select two or three tools and look into them in greater detail.
Choose which marketing tools make sense for your situation and begin using them.
Get the right tools for starting, scaling, and monetizing your blog.