If you’re an affiliate blogger, you’ve probably set up a blog on WordPress, either by taking advantage of the free WordPress blog offer or by installing WordPress on your own domain.
If you have (and I bet you have), then you can take advantage of the power of WordPress plugins to do things you might not think you could do (at least that’s what it was like for me when I first started blogging).
I’ve put together a list of the best WordPress plugins for affiliate bloggers, so you can start using your blog as a souped-up sales machine.
1. Pretty Links
Why this name? Well, simply because thanks to Pretty Links, you can take an ugly link, and turn it into something beautiful (well, at least something readable).
For example (I’m using my own site as an example): myaffiliateprogram.com/myaffiliatelink.com?id=15485 becomes adventures-in-im-land.com/MyRecommendedProgram. Isn’t that nicer? In fact your link looks like a url of your own site.
With the pro version you can also do things like track clicks, automatically link keywords in your posts to your affiliate links, and a few other cool things.
There are other plugins like this one out there, but I have found this one to be the easiest to use and most affordable if you decide to upgrade to the pro version.
2. Thrive Leads
Thrive Leads is a must-have plugin because it allows you to build your list easily, and with no specific technical knowledge.
This plugin allows you to put nicely designed optin forms in the side bar of your blog, within your content, in clickable links, and also allows you to create nicely designed popups of all kinds for your site.
If you’re using your blog to also build your list (as you definitely should be) this is a MUST have plugin!
3. Thrive Ultimatum
Thrive Ultimatum is from the makers of Thrive Leads that I listed above, but has a totally different use.
This plugin allows you to use scarcity in your marketing in really cool ways.
Offering special deals, limited time offers, etc. is a great marketing strategy, and this plugin allows you to use it for the most impact!
4. Social Warfare
For me, Social Warfare is THE must-have plugin for sharing your content on social networks.
Believe me, I have tried many and none of them do all of the things that Social Warfare does.
And the pro version really knocks it out of the park with it’s Pinterest sharing tactics, and other social sharing options.
5. Monster Insights
All successful affiliate bloggers will tell you the same thing: you absolutely MUST know your numbers, and the best way to know them is to use analytics tools.
The problem is that most analytics tools are complicated to use or don’t give you all the data you need.
Monster Insights gives you everything you need and more to see where you’re succeeding or even failing.
6. Raffle Press
Here’s another great tactic to bring in traffic and sales for affiliate bloggers.
Hosting your own social giveaways!
With this tactic you give something away people in your niche REALLY want, they follow the rules and share whatever you want all over the place for “points” or “entries” in order to win what you’re giving away.
This can bring you a ton of traffic!
Until now this has been really hard to do, but with the Raffle Press plugin you can quickly and easily do this for yourself with no “techy” experience!
7. Ad Sanity
As an affiliate blogger you’re not limited to just putting your affiliate links in your content and hoping for your readers to click.
You can also use the real estate on your blog to serve visual ads.
But it’s quite the undertaking if you try to do it yourself. Especially if you’re not “techy”.
With the Ad Sanity plugin you can insert ads anywhere on your blog you want using “widgets”.
These can be ads from ad networks or even your own ads.
If you want to run affiliate offer ads on your blog this is the plugin you need!
8. WP Notification Bars
This is a plugin that is certainly very simple, but also very powerful, and with a great idea behind it.
This plugin allows you to add a notification bar to your site, with custom notifications, which is perfect for notifying people about promotions, encouraging them to go visit other pages on the site, sign up for your newsletter…
It’s super lightweight and easy to use!
9. Contact Form 7
Even if you’re an affiliate marketer you still need a way for your readers to contact you with questions, feedback, and more.
Contact Form 7 is a super easy to use plugin that allows you to create a contact form right on a page from your blog.
You can also create customer forms with other input fields, so you can use this as any type of submission form you want.
10. Rank Math
SEO is a great tactic to employ to get traffic to your blog, but there’s so much that goes into it, that it can seem impossible for you to successfully use SEO.
This plugin allows you to properly setup your blog to use SEO effectively, optimize all of your pages and posts, and so much more.
If you’re going to be using SEO to get traffic then this plugin is a must have!
Rank Math is without a doubt the most complete SEO plugin on the market. You can do so many things with it that it will take you months or even years before you get the hang of it!
11. Subscribe to Comments Reloaded
Getting traffic to your blog is hard enough. This plugin allows you to “recycle” your traffic by bringing them back to your blog.
When anyone comments on one of your blog posts they will be notified of future comments or replies on that post which will bring them back to your blog giving you another opportunity with no extra work to get them clicking on your affiliate links!
A small strategy, but with this simple little plugin why not use it?
12. WP Legal Pages
You absolutely need to set up legal pages on your blog, and this plugin will allow you to create them in a very simple way.
I admit that I’m not too much in favor of this kind of plugin, which will only be used once, but I find it useful to mention it here because it can still save time when you launch your blog.
13. WP Affiliate Disclosure
This isn’t legal advice, but where I live you need to have an affiliate disclosure on any and every post or page that has an affiliate link on it.
The WP Affiliate Disclosure plugin allows you to create an affiliate disclosure one time, and have it posted on every page and post on your blog. You can also turn it off on any page or post you want.
14. Simple Author Box
Another very simple plugin, which will allow to see your head at the end of each of your posts!
This plugin allows you to create an author box that looks great and contains all of your important information and bio on every post on your blog.
15. Facebook Messenger for WordPress
Engaging with your readers is really important. Answering questions from your readers is really important.
So, here’s a plugin that allows you to do that quickly and easily.
The Facebook Messenger for WordPress allows you to have a popup on your blog that people can instantly chat with you via Facebook Messenger.
And here I come to the end of this little guide on the best WordPress plugins for affiliate bloggers.
You’ve also been able to take advantage of some useful tactics to increase traffic to your blog.
You don’t need to use them all: take the time to install them, test them, and select the ones you find most useful and easy to use.
Cupcakes Image by Jeremy Blackwood from Pixabay
Hi! I’m the proud owner of this blog. I started to take an interest in affiliate marketing in 2012, and over the past few years I have decided to take it seriously. My knowledge is not yet infinite, but I learn a little every day and I hope to be able to share with you my passion for this art: to earn money by writing about the things that we love!