9 Best WordPress Affiliate Plugins For Affiliate Marketers

Let me give a quick look at what Affiliate marketing is and how it works before listing out the best WordPress Affiliate Plugins.

In simple words, you advertise and promote a product or service on your blog or website, with every visitor that you bring to them, and who actively buys the product or service will fetch you a share of the revenue generated or a standard fixed price will be offered.

These affiliate campaigns depend on the success of the following network: the merchant, the publisher and the customer.

If you are thinking of linking up one or the other affiliate marketing programs on your blog or website, then you will find the following five free plug-ins working efficiently on your WordPress blogging platform.

 

 

If you are new to Aff. marketing, here are some posts that will help you to get started:

• How to Join Dreamhost Affiliate program
• How to join Hostgator Affiliate Program
• How to create Affiliate links for Amazon

These are some basic affiliate plugins for WordPress, and we will cover advanced Clickbank WordPress plugins and Amazon affiliate plugin in another post.

Free & useful WordPress Affiliate Plugins

1. Thirsty Affiliates

This is the first plugin that I would recommend as this is well-maintained and offers more features than any other affiliate link Cloaker plugin for WordPress.

The plugin is free to download & use, one just need to pay for add-ons or bundles. There are many great add-ons that any affiliate marketers would like including me & you. Especially Geolocation & Google link tracking is great for every user.

2. Pretty Link Lite

This plug-in is a shrink, track and shares any URL on the Internet from your WordPress website like creating shortened domains for Twitter.

The advantage of using this plug-in in WordPress is that you will be able to experiment with using your domain names, unlike the traditional domain names that the internet URL shortening widgets do so. Some of the features that are worth mentioning will include clean and simple URLs, track the number of hits and unique hits per link, intuitive JAVA/AJAX admin user interface and much more.

Overall, this is a clean, friendly and simple to use the plug-in for a creating a creative URL shortening app.

 3: EasyAzon – Perfect Affiliate plugin for Amazon Affiliate marketers

If you are one of those affiliate marketers who is using Amazon affiliate program to monetize your blog, EasyAzon plugin is the perfect affiliate plugin for your WordPress blog.

This plugin is a powerful all in one solution for your WordPress blog that offers following features:

• You can add links to Amazon Affiliate program right from your WordPress dashboard.
• Link localization: If a user is coming from U.K, he will be automatically redirected to Amazon U.K. store. This way you won’t miss out on your commission.
• EasyAzon let you add ‘Add to cart” feature, which will let your reader directly add the product into their cart. This feature also increases the chances of getting paid for sale by 30 more days.

I’m a huge fan of this plugin Link localization feature that let me increase my affiliate sales by 286%.

4. WP Auto Affiliate Links

 

This plug-in when incorporated into your WordPress blogging platform, you will find them provide you with a back-end interface to add affiliate links and also associate keywords to them for being detected by the web crawlers.

This will also help in getting listed in a search engine during a keyword search. This works by displaying the affiliate link, whenever you add or mention the desired keyword in your post.

5. SkimLinks

SkimLinks is one of that ad network, which quickly let you add affiliate links in your blog post. It usually automatically links the keywords that can be monetized with affiliate links, and if any customer buys the product it will make money for you via Skimlinks.

Especially, if you are a tech blogger and linking to app store links or Amazon store link.This plugin will help you to make money out of them.

The Plug-In aids in monetizing the contents that you post on your blog, it converts the texts into affiliate links by working behind the scene. You need to sign up for Skimlinks here.

Some of the features that are very useful will include the easiness in installation, earn from your RSS feed, increase the click through rates and thereby drive more traffic and visitors to your blog. SkimLinks Affiliate Marketing tool is a hard worker behind scenes of affiliate marketing.

Here are few more affiliate plugins for WordPress

6. Amazon links engine:

 

Recommended for anyone who is using Amazon affiliate program or iTunes affiliate program. You should mix this with Geni.us to increase your earning.

7. iTunes link engine:

Same as above but only for iTunes affiliate program.

8. Floating banner ad rotator with tracking:

This is a free WordPress plugin which let you rotate ads at the footer of your website. Also, let you track the clicks, which is useful to find which one of your affiliate ad is performing well. You can use image + link or HTML tag to add banners.

9. SEO Smart link:

I have written about SEO Smart link in detail earlier. Using this plugin, you can auto-link any word with a link. Also works with links in your RSS feeds & comment section. Very useful to get more affiliate sales.

A good free alternative us auto affiliate links plugin. On paper, it looks great, but I haven’t tested it yet. If you try this plugin, come back & share your views.

Auto link generator iTunes: Useful for bloggers who are part of iTunes affiliate program. Makes it easy to search & add links from WordPress dashboard.

• Amazon auto links:
• Onebox: Seems useful to increase your affiliate clicks. You can try it on your medium performing page to see the effect.

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10 New “Must Have” Skills for Digital Marketers

 

It was a great experience and one of the highlights of my marketing career so far, but it also got me thinking about something.

What should universities be teaching kids to prepare them for a career as a digital marketers?

Back when I was in school from 2001 to 2005, this wasn’t something professors were even thinking about. We learned about the basics of marketing, how to conduct market research, and the importance of customer-experience marketing.

But we didn’t talk about anything digital because it hadn’t yet burst onto the scene (keep in mind that during this time, Facebook still required .edu email addresses to get access to their network).

So what should universities be teaching students and what skills do students need in order to prepare themselves for a career in digital marketing?

The list below is my take on some of the top skills students should be learning while in school so they can be ready to contribute right away when joining a digital marketing team.

#1: Writing and Copywriting

The first thing students should be learning is how to write clearly and persuasively.

Clear communication is important for being able to explain your ideas and concepts to developers, designers, and other team members.

If you have trouble writing clearly, then you’re going to have trouble communicating your ideas and getting things done.

Writing skills are also important for writing blog posts and website content, something more and more digital marketers are being asked to do.

And since writing website content is something any digital marketer may get asked to write at some point, it’s also important to pick up basic copywriting skills so you know how to write persuasively and how to get people to take the action you want them to take.

Some resources I recommend for improving one’s writing skills include but are not limited to:

• Writing with Style by John R. Trimble
• Ogilvy on Advertising by David Ogilvy
• The Adweek Copywriting Handbook by Joseph Sugarman
• Marketing Bullets by Gary Bencivenga
• The Copyblogger Blog

In addition to these resources, I recommend reading voraciously, as reading is known to improve writing as well or more than reading about writing or even practicing to write.

 

#2: WordPress

Have you noticed that people still list Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint as skills on their resume? That drives me a bit crazy.

At this point, you’re expected to know how to use Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint if you grew up at any point after the 1970s. It’s not something that makes you stand out and really should be standard at this point.

If you don’t know how to use Microsoft Office, then that’s when we have a problem.

More importantly, WordPress, to me, is the new Microsoft Word when it comes to relevant skills for digital marketers. Not only do you need to know how to write a post in Word, but you also need to know how to upload it and schedule it in WordPress.

Yes, I understand that not everyone who graduates college will know how to use WordPress, but at this point, it’s much more impressive to be able to say you know how to use WordPress than it is to say you know how to use Word.

 

#3: Photo Editing

In addition to being able to write well and being able to upload your writing to WordPress, it’s also important to have some basic photo editing skills. I’m not saying that everyone needs to become a full-fledged designer, but even understanding the basics of Photoshop can go a long way.

Let’s say, for example, that you upload a blog post to your company blog and need to include an image. Do you know how to use image editing sites like Picmonkey to take a screenshot and resize it for the post?

Do you know how to use Photoshop to edit the photo slightly so that it will look better and make your post stand out more? Can you add captions to an image to draw readers’ attention to key parts of the screenshot or photo?

All of these are super basic photo editing skills that every digital marketer needs to master, which means Photoshop is not just a tool for designers—it’s something every marketing student should be taught and learn to become proficient at.

I’m not expecting that digital marketers will learn to design websites and ads themselves. I’m simply stating that a little Photoshop experience can go a long way for today’s marketing professionals.

 

#4: HTML

HTML is another skill that digital marketers should pick up because you need to know HTML well enough to format a blog post correctly or to fix a formatting issue on an email you’re sending out.

Again, it’s not expected that digital marketers will code an entire website, but they do need to know the basics of HTML so they can change a link color when needed or to resize a photo or video to fit within a blog frame.

HTML is also something that marketers can pick up on the job, but it would be even better for marketers to learn HTML in school so they’re ready to hit the ground running once they get hired.

 

#5: MailChimp

MailChimp (or other email management tools like Constant Contact and GetResponse) is another important skill for digital marketers.

The reason is that most businesses use an email management software of some sort. Whether it’s MailChimp, InfusionSoft, or Aweber, everyone in marketing is building and managing email lists through a thrid-party software platform of some sort.

This means that the more students know about services like MailChimp, the more they more prepared they’ll be.

Like I mentioned above, Microsoft Word is a skill that’s absolutely necessary, but platforms like MailChimp are the new Microsoft Word when it comes to standing out and showing an organization you have the skills it takes to succeed as a digital marketer.

 

#6: Google AdWords Advertising

Another important tool for digital marketers is Google AdWords.

AdWords makes it easy to reach customers and to drive targeted traffic. It can get expensive pretty quickly, but it’s also one of the most reliable ways to drive traffic, get leads, and generate sales.

AdWords is also incredibly complicated which means nobody expects a new college graduate to be an expert the minute they walk in the door.

But the more you know about AdWords, the better prepared you’ll be to manage a campaign if needed or to direct someone who is managing your campaign.

Honestly, I’d go so far as to say that schools would be smart to get all of their students AdWords certified before they graduate. This would help their students to stand out.

 

#7: Facebook Advertising

The next important skill is learning how to run Facebook ads and how to effectively leverage social media marketing.

Facebook ads are important because they’re a great way to drive target traffic, much like Google AdWords.

The targeting options are super powerful, and the creative provides an even better branding exposure as compared to AdWords.

But it takes a while to learn the basics of Facebook advertising. You have to learn how to target your ads, how to test your copy and creative, etc. Any and all lessons students can learn about Facebook ads will help them on their road to success.

 

#8: Social Media Marketing

Another very important skill is social media marketing, which is different from running a Facebook ad campaign.

Instead of paying to show an ad, you use social media marketing to engage with customers and prospective customers, to share content, and to interact with people in your target market before they’re ready to become a customer.

This means that learning how to manage a Facebook page and how to run a Twitter account are valuable skills as a starting point for learning what you need to do to run a full-scale social media marketing campaign.

Why?

Because social media marketing requires a platform fluency more than any other type of platform.

If you don’t understand how Facebook or Twitter work, then you won’t know how to interact with people and how to share your content in a way that fits into the network versus spamming and annoying people.

Thus, picking up a fluency on relevant social networks is a very valid skill to pick up before joining a marketing team.

 

#9: Search Engine Optimization

Learning the basics of search engine optimization (SEO) is yet another important skill for digital marketers.

Not every marketer is expected to become an SEO expert, but it is important to understand how SEO works so you can leverage its benefit for your organization.

This means you need to know about things like title tags, meta descriptions, keyword density, and link anchor text and how they affect your organic search rankings.

 

#10: Conversion Rate Optimization

Last, but certainly not least, is understanding the basics of conversion rate optimization (CRO).

CRO, in case you don’t already know, is the art and science of testing different versions of a page or pages to see which version convinces the most people to take the action you want them to take.

Essentially, you create two versions for a single page, and then run a scientific A/B test to see which version is the most effective.

This means you need to understand both your customers and basic principles of web design, user experience, and copywriting. In addition, you also need to know how to learn more about your actual customers by conducting surveys, using on-site surveys, and utilizing user tests and customer interviews.

CRO might actually be one of the most important skills for digital marketers to understand and may also be the least studied at this point in time.

 

Wrapping It Up

In the end, it isn’t about becoming an expert in all of these topics. Yes, some digital marketers will become experts in one area or another, but most need a general understanding of all these skills to boost their value.

The good news is an interest in digital marketing and a desire to learn is the most important characteristic for someone who wants to become a successful digital marketer.

Even if you don’t learn these skills in school, you can learn them on the job and become proficient in a short amount of time.

If you are looking to stand out in the interview process, don’t expect Microsoft Word or Powerpoint to do the trick. Today’s marketers need to pick up as many skills as possible.

 

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Most Effective WordPress SEO Plugins

Many of us usually ignore and overlook SEO plugin because we settle for vis-à-vis. Though this is okay, it is of essentiality that we heighten SEO plugins to cater to the needs of the business and to suit to the requirements of the websites. You will find in this article the most effective WordPress SEO plugins together with a brief description of each.

A priority that you should remember is to ensure that there is one main SEO plugin. Many people have more than one—and this is not really effective. Experts are of the idea that one SEO plugin will provide you with the optimal result.

• SEO Yoast. A free SEO plugin that you can easily access and manoeuvre for your site optimization. It features easy Meta title and summaries.

• All In One SEO Pack. An SEO plugin effective for newbies. Though it is not as edgy as the SEO Yoast, this plugin nevertheless has special features like adding custom HTML, synching with Google Analytics and the likes for your site optimization.

• SEO Smartlinks. As the word suggests, it promotes smart linking by instructing you how, what and where to put the links of keywords and phrases etc., on your site.

• Disqus Comment System. A plugin which specializes on comments. Technically, it makes your blog easily accessible to readers and commenters alike for it aids in building a comment system that is user-friendly yet blogger savvy.

• Sharexy. A plugin that offers extra features favoured by artists. So, if you have a site that is artistically inclined, this plugin suits you.

• Yet Another Related Posts (by Yoast). A plugin that literally stands for its name. This plugin allows posting related posts at the end of every article in your site. This is for convenience for you and for your audience. More so, this is to keep your readers updated to your posts in your websites.

• Google Site Verification Plugin. A basic plugin that ensures your site is Google-verified—so companies can be assured of your legitimacy.

• Broken Link Checker. Another basic plugin that guarantees your site do not have any broken link on Google for your convenience when you need to update the same.

• SEO Friendly Images. A basic plugin that aids in your photos optimization in your website. Basically it categorizes automatically and captions your photos correspondingly.

• SEO Rank Reporter. This SEO plugin monitors the rivalry. It is important that you know where you stand and how your competitors are playing in the field—and this plugin makes it all easy and convenient for you. In just a click, you will be reported with a graph presentation.

• WP No Category Base. This SEO plugin basically safeguards your URL structure and makes sure that there are no backlogs whatsoever. Moreover, it polishes your permalinks to optimize search engine results.

Basically, these are the most effective SEO plugins therein. For your own good, you can try it out so you can tell which suits for your website and which are not. SEO plugins are not really technically hard to understand rather it is easy to gauge and learn. So, take time and you will see that it is worth it to invest in SEO plugins.

WordPress SEO Tools for yor Website

WordPress SEO Tools

Many of us usually ignore and overlook WordPress SEO Tools because we settle for vis-à-vis. Though this is okay, it is of essentiality that we heighten WordPress SEO Tools to cater to the needs of the business and to suit to the requirements of the websites.

You will find in this article the most effective WordPress SEO Tools together with a brief description of each.