7 best affIliate marketing tools (Free and Paid)
Affiliate marketing is a business model that involves getting paid for referring customers to product owners.
Much like every business,there are a few tools that make affIliate marketing a lot easier.These tools enable you to spend less time creating content and still make as much affIliate revenue.
This article covers all the tools you need to utilise to make recurring affIliate revenue.
1.AffIliate dashboards
The most important tip to running a successful online business is to ensure that it is data driven.
Accurate metrics and relevant statistical data must be used to ensure that you can effectively improve on your strengths and know which steps to take next.
Affiliate marketing,being a business model,is not left out in this.
And the best way to closely monitor your affIliate marketing business is to make use of an affiliate dashboard.
These dashboards enable you to aggregate and track all your affIliate links from one place.
They also enable you to simultaneously track impressions and clicks made on your affIliate link.
These dashboards are there to enable you to track which blog posts or social posts were effective in enabling you to drive traffic as well as which ad agency did the magic.
With an affiliate dashboard,you can easily pinpoint what strategy you should continue with as well as which strategy or platform you should do away with.
I recommend Affiliate to enable you to build your affIliate dashboard.The platform allows you to effectively track all your affIliate links from one place as well as provide you with the relevant data you can take advantage of to succeed.
2.A URL shortener
URL shorteners are great and really important affIliate marketing tools.If they weren’t,companies that provide them wouldn’t have been making so much money.
URL shorteners enable you to ensure that your affIliate links look as attractive and as click worthy as possible.
These URL shorteners also enable you to track the shortened affIliate links.
They enable you to view briefly how your links are performing.
You can start shortening your affIliate links with open tools like Bitly or plugins like Betterlinks.
3.A website tracker
Among all the metrics you need to track is the volume of traffic sent to your affIliate website.
Since the volume of traffic to your affIliate link is directly influenced by the volume of traffic to your website,your website traffic volume is a very important data to track.
You can easily track your website’s traffic volume with Google analytics.A software developed by Google itself to enable website owners to monitor their search presence as well as the number of visitors to their site.
You can get Google analytics installed on your website easily by installing the Google’s site kit plugin.The plugin comes along with everything Google has to offer to website owners as well as everything you need to rank your website on google.
Another useful website tracker is the Monster insights plugin.
The plugin gives you deeper insight as to which of your posts/pages is responsible for most of your traffic,the volume of traffic your site is getting,the source of your traffic,the country from which most of traffic comes in,the source of your traffic,the device most of your visitors are making use,the bounce rate on your site as well as the average amount of time each user spends on the site.
4.Landing page builders
Landing pages are important for successful affIliate marketing particularly if you want to make use of only PPC advertising and other forms of paid promotions to grow your affIliate marketing business.
These landing pages help serve as a bridge between the page the potential customer is coming from and the page from which they can actually purchase the product.
These landing pages are often used to tell the referred user more about the product or to collect the referred user’s email address.
Here are some of the best landing page builders on the web:
5.SEO tools
SEO is an integral part of affIliate marketing and is one aspect affIliate marketers cannot afford to ignore.
Recurring traffic each month to your affIliate website and ultimately your affIliate link is directly influenced by your search presence and your authority online which is why your site SEO is really important.
If you hope to make affIliate revenue organically you should always optimise your content to show up when searches are made.
Here are some of the SEO tools you will need:
A keyword tool
Keyword tools like Ahrefs help keep you up-to-date on what people are searching for,how often they search it as well as what terms they use when searching.
These keyword tools enable you to ensure that your content can actually grab the right amount of traffic from search engines.
If you leverage mostly YouTube for affIliate marketing,you can also make use of Ahrefs for youtube.
However, Ahrefs keyword tool is a premium tool that starts at $99/month(The YouTube version is completely free).It is the most comprehensive keyword explorer on the web and is the best for SEO.
However,if you’re on a budget,you can make use of free ones like Wordstream keyword tool.
An SEO plugin
This one is only for those that run affIliate websites.If you don’t have one you can create one here.
SEO plugins are there to help you know whether you have fully optimised your posts for search engines.
While keyword tools enable you to know which keywords you should place in your posts,SEO plugins enable you to know how often you should place the keywords,where you should place them as well as the number of internal or external links that will work great with your post.
I recommend All-in-one SEO plugin.The plugin enables you to know where to place your keywords and optimise your posts for search engines.The post has a free version that you could make use of and also a pro version.You can switch to pro if you like the plugin and want to make use of other advanced features.
6.Image editing software
Images play a vital role in affIliate marketing especially for those who intend to leverage pinterest for affIliate marketing.
Images are known to help grab the attention of human beings and send a direct message.
If you have tried to use images before,I am sure you can confirm that you cannot afford to use just any image,but a high quality attractive one.
Here are some of the software that can help you achieve this:
Pexels:Pexels is a great location from which you can lift high definition images and place them in your blog post.
Vexels:A poster creating software that enables you to send a direct message with the images.It’s great for pinterest.
Canva:The number 1 image editing software online and the best tool you can make use of to create images that you can use anywhere.
7.Video editing software
Most people prefer watching videos to reading text.Videos are always more eye catching, entertaining and fun filled.This is basically why youtube has grown so rapidly and is able to maintain daily engagement.
Videos are rapidly replacing written text and to maintain your relevance online,you must switch to the use of videos as well.
To create really nice videos that will ensure conversion,you will have to make use of really nice video creation software.
I recommend Biteable or Invideo for short and simple videos (Instagram, Pinterest and TikTok) and animaker for long tutorial videos(YouTube).
However,if you want to create live streams and videos where you actually appear,you can make use of streaming software like Streamyard.
8.AI writing software
Although articles are slowly losing their influence online,they aren’t completely dead yet.And until they are completely done away with,we must continue to maximise them to realise affIliate revenue.
Without a doubt,articles are still great for affIliate marketing.If they weren’t,I wouldn’t have put together this article.
Writing articles is a great way for a lot of introverts to make affIliate revenue without having to show their face.
Since most of us are not born writers like Shakespeare or Ernest Hemingway,there are a few tools that we can make use of to enable us to write just as well.
A good example of which is Jasper.io.The ai writing software enables you to write high quality lengthy articles.
The tool basically helps you complete sentences, automatically add definitions as well as provide starter templates for any article you want to write.They simply take.most of the weight off you and give you a chance to express your creativity.
Grammarly is another tool that is important to writers.The tool enables you to automatically detect and correct all the grammatical and spelling errors in your posts.
With grammarly,all your posts are going to be as smooth and as professional as possible.
Surfer seo is also a great tool you can make use of while writing articles.
Keyword explorers let you know which keywords to use,SEO plugins let you know where you should include them while surfer seo lets you know how many times you should include them in order to have your article rank on Google.
