ThirstyAffiliates is one of the best affiliate link management solutions that you can opt for your WordPress website. As there are so many tasks that you need to manage when it comes to affiliate marketing, ThirstyAffiliates is here to smoothen the process. When you have understood what is ThirstyAffiliates, the next thing marketers need to know is how to use ThirstyAffiliates for link management.
Affiliate marketers promote multiple products and solutions to their target audience. To get better efficiency, they need software that helps them in getting better results. One of the solutions is by using affiliate link management tools. As they help in blocking the link, branding it, and shortening the URL structure length.
ThirstyAffiliates comes in handy. As they offer a free and premium version that is suitable for entry to an advanced affiliate marketer. It offers multiple features for link management to boost the affiliate marketing conversion process.
Page Contents
How to use ThirstyAffiliates WordPress plugin?
This section has been divided into sub-components so that it will be easy for you to understand. There are multiple use cases of using the ThirstyAffiliates plugin for the affiliate marketing process. First and foremost we need to start by installing the ThirstyAffiliates plugin for the WordPress website.
Installing ThirstyAffiliates plugin
There are two ways of installing a thirsty affiliate plugin. One is through by installing the plugin directly from the WordPress plugins store and the second method is by getting the plugin through the official website. In this section, I will be discussing the steps that you can use from the WordPress plugin Store.
1. You need to log in to your WordPress backend panel and proceed to the plugin section which is located on the left menu.
2. When you go to the plugins section, you need to search for ThirstyAffiliates by typing the brand name in the search section. Kindly note that you should not get confused with other plugins as ThirstyAffiliates is the only one that you need to go for.
3. When you notice the ThirstyAffiliates official logo on the plugin name, you need to hit the install now button. The plugin will start to get installed on your WordPress website and then it will be redirected for you to activate the plugin.
Configuring the settings of the ThirstyAffiliates plugin
When you successfully install and activate the ThirstyAffiliates plugin. Now you need to configure the settings of the application.
Setting the prefix
Firstly you need to select the link prefix to the ‘recommend’. This prefix appears on the affiliate link whenever you add to your WordPress website. This option is found under the general settings.
The URL prefix is important to boost the branding of the affiliate link that you used. It also helps and builds credibility and instantly connects with your target audience.
Categorizing the link
Categorizing is helpful when you are using multiple affiliate links on your website. This feature comes in handy when an affiliate marketer is promoting tons of products and services across the website.
You need to hit the checkbox of the show link category in the URL. This will start reflecting the category structure for all the affiliate links that you add with the plugin.
Adding no-follow script
There is a great need for adding a no-follow script tag for all the affiliate links that you promote. As you know that the search engine hates when you promote the same link across your website, this is one of the major reasons that affiliate marketers need to add a No-follow script for affiliate links.
The second option that you find when adding a no-follow script is opening the link in a new tab. This feature also needs to be checked when you are configuring the settings of the plugin.
Both the features are helpful when it comes to enhancing the user experience as well as gain benefits in optimizing Search Engines. After configuring all the settings, you need to click the save changes button.
Creating affiliate links using thirsty affiliate WordPress plugin
After successfully configuring all the settings of the plugin. Now it’s time to create an affiliate link for your promotion purpose.
The process to do is very simple, you need to proceed to the ‘add new’ option that you find on the left menu below the affiliate links. When you click the add new button, a new window opens where you find several fields such as the link name, destination URL, attach images, and auto-link keywords.
Link name
The link name is the product or service that you are going to promote on your WordPress website. When you use the brand name of the affiliate marketing program that you are going to promote, it will help in recognizing your visitors to know what the link is all about.
Destination URL
In this section, you need to insert the affiliate link that is given by the affiliate marketing program. Usually, the URL is very lengthy and hard to remember. With this section, the URL gets shortened and it automatically adds the no-follow and opens the link in a new window.
Autolink keywords
This feature is essential when it comes to the affiliate marketer who has hundreds of thousands of products on their website. You need to visit the auto-link keywords and insert the keywords that you want to target the affiliate link program for. And with the given keywords, the thirsty affiliate plugin will automatically add links for the given anchor text.
When you configure the auto-link keywords, please do a cross-check before you finalize the process. Sometimes the affiliate links can get embedded into the improper anchor text. You need to use this function carefully and configure the auto-link keywords to exclude the heading tag affiliate link insertion.
Adding the affiliate links on blog posts and pages
By now, you are all set by configuring all the WordPress plugin settings. The next thing that you need to do is create a new blog post or a web page from the WordPress backend panel.
1. When you create a new blog post or webpage, in the editor you will find an affiliate link icon. You need to click it and then it gets redirected to the gallery of affiliate links that you have.
2. You can add the affiliate link in the form of shortcode, URL, or embedded within the image. Choose the convenient method of adding your affiliate link.
3. Select the relevant affiliate link by using the search bar provided by ThirstyAffiliates.
And now you are done with adding the affiliate link on your WordPress blog or the page.
Checking insights of your affiliate links
ThirstyAffiliates provides you a dashboard filled with metrics to track the performance of your affiliate link campaign. These analytics metrics are essential when it comes to managing the affiliate links with respect to the products and solutions that you promote.
The statistics that you notice when you check the insights section of the ThirstyAffiliates WordPress plugin is:
- The best performing affiliate link categories
- Total number of clicks received on the affiliate link
- Date filter
- Selecting the type of affiliate link
ThirstyAffiliates also allows you to extract the report in various formats by using the import or export tool.
Conclusion
When you look at the overview process of how to use ThirstyAffiliates WordPress plugin, the steps are very simple. The only thing that you need to be aware of is the way you manage the affiliate links and create a new one for your WordPress website.
If you are serious about your affiliate marketing business, then ThirstyAffiliates is a must required WordPress plugin that you need to have
Let me know your opinions of using ThirstyAffiliates in the comment section below.