Hey there! Are you looking to step up your affiliate game in WordPress?
As an experienced webmaster myself, I know exactly how tedious yet important it is to insert affiliate links consistently.
After 15 years in this business, I‘ve learned a few tricks to automate this process and 10X affiliate earnings. I‘m thrilled to share them with you today!
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Affiliate Marketing is Exploding
First, let‘s get some context on the growing affiliate industry:
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Global affiliate marketing spend is projected to reach $8.2 billion by 2022, according to Accelerize.
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Top affiliate programs like Amazon Associates, ShareASale, Clickbank, and Rakuten Advertising drive over $12 billion in annual sales combined.
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Over 80% of brands now run some form of an affiliate program, with 15-30% annual growth projected.
Clearly, affiliate marketing is hugely popular both among merchants and publishers. As an online business owner, you definitely want a slice of this pie!
Driving qualified referral traffic can make up a significant chunk of your overall revenue. Professional blogs like Wirecutter, Penny Hoarder, and ThisOnlineWorld depend on affiliates as their primary monetization method.
But to maximize your earnings, you need to be diligent about inserting properly optimized affiliate links consistently across all your content.
This is where auto-linking your keywords comes in handy!
Why You Need Automatic Affiliate Links
According to industry experts like Miles Beckler, automatically inserting affiliate links provides several benefits:
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Saves you tons of time – No more manually linking products post after post!
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Increases earnings from existing content – Auto-link old posts to earn from long-tail traffic. Backlinks to old content can still generate commissions.
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Helps you scale your affiliate reach – Focus on creating great content while your links get added automatically in the background.
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Captures forgotten opportunities – You‘re bound to miss manually adding some links. Auto-linking ensures everything gets linked.
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Boosts income from RSS traffic – Auto-links work in feeds allowing you to monetize users who don‘t visit your site.
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Deters scrapers – Scraped RSS content still contains affiliate links earning you commissions.
A study by Awin found that auto-linking increased affiliate earnings by an average of 15% for most publishers. The additional income you can make from automation and reduced missed links is very significant.
Now let‘s explore some great ways to auto-link affiliate keywords in WordPress.
Method 1: Auto-Linking with ThirstyAffiliates
ThirstyAffiliates is my personal favorite affiliate plugin for WordPress. I‘ve used it on all my sites for years to manage links efficiently.
The Pro version has a super useful auto-link feature that makes the linking process completely hands-off. Here‘s how to set it up:
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Install and activate ThirstyAffiliates, then enter your license key.
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In Autolinker settings, limit link frequency, enable across site, etc.
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Create cloaked affiliate links and add your chosen keywords.
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Save each link. Keywords will now automatically link!
I like ThirstyAffiliates because it gives granular control over the auto-linking behavior:
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Limit keyword frequency – You can limit each keyword to be linked to just once or twice per post to prevent over-optimization.
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Vary link placement – The plugin will randomly place links in different positions in paragraphs to make it look natural.
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Enable sitewide – Auto-links can be applied across your entire site or limited to only posts and pages.
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Add links in RSS feeds – Ensures affiliate links appear in your RSS feed and get picked up by scrapers.
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Track cloaked links – ThirstyAffiliates lets you easily track traffic and conversions for each auto-linked affiliate link with just a few clicks.
Their support team is also fantastic and helped me optimize my affiliate strategy.
Method 2: Auto-linking with Pretty Links
Pretty Links is another great choice used by sites like Copyblogger to manage affiliates.
It has an auto-link feature that works seamlessly:
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Install Pretty Links, activate the Pro license.
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Create shortened, cloaked affiliate links.
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On the Pro tab, add keywords to auto-link with your cloaked URL.
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Configure max links per post, nofollow, etc under Replacements.
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Updated links will now automatically link matching keywords!
The key advantage of Pretty Links lies in its link cloaking abilities:
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Custom slugs – You can shorten ugly affiliate URLs into clean, short links like yoursite.com/product-name.
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301 redirects – Pretty Links uses permanent 301 redirects for all cloaked affiliate links ensuring SEO safety.
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Link tracking – Pretty Links makes it easy to see clicks and conversions for each auto-linked affiliate link.
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Link data exports – You can export reports on clicks, commissions, geolocation, and more.
Both Pretty Links and ThirstyAffiliates integrate easily with top affiliate networks. Overall, I find ThirstyAffiliates quicker to set up and more user-friendly.
Pro Tips to Boost Your Affiliate Earnings
Here are some pro tips from my experience to help you further maximize earnings from auto-linking keywords:
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Be selective with keywords – Only use tightly relevant keywords referring directly to a product or service.
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Limit to 1-2 links per post – Don‘t go overboard. Follow recommended frequency limits.
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Make links open in new tabs – So clicks don‘t bounce readers from your content.
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Always add nofollow – To indicate auto-generated nature of links.
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Focus on product pages – Avoid linking on non-product pages like About Us or Contact.
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Manually link brand/product mentions – For natural integration, don‘t just rely on keywords.
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Review reports frequently – Check top earning links and optimize your affiliate strategy.
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Stay up-to-date – Follow new product releases and update keywords accordingly.
Automated affiliate links are a game-changer for earning more from your content. Implement them right and watch your commissions skyrocket!
I hope this guide helps you take full advantage of automatic linking in WordPress. Let me know if you have any other questions!
