Do you have a digital download or e-commerce website on WordPress? Do you want to increase your sales and profits?
If so, you should consider adding an affiliate program to your WordPress store . Especially if you have digital products, integrating an affiliate program can bring unexpected benefits to your product marketing strategy.
Especially on WordPress, it’s very easy to start your own affiliate program. There are many * WordPress affiliate marketing plugins * on the market that can integrate with all popular WordPress e-commerce solutions (such as Easy Digital Downloads , WooCommerce , MemberPress , MemberMouse , etc.).
AffiliateWP is the most popular plugin for adding an affiliate program to your digital WordPress store .
I tested this plugin by creating an affiliate program with Easy Digital Downloads and it worked perfectly * (and continues to work) *.
In this tutorial, I will show you how to integrate an affiliate program into your WordPress store using the AffiliateWP plugin.
There are a few other options besides AffiliateWP, but I like this one the best because of its functionality and how well it integrates with all the popular (and upcoming) WordPress products.
Important Tips:
- AffiliateWP and WPAffiliate are two different products. (Don't buy the wrong one.)
Pricing:
When I was choosing an affiliate solution for my WordPress website, pricing was a major factor I considered.
AffiliateWP is only $99 for a single website (1-year license), and you can use its free or paid plugins to extend its functionality . I recommend making a list of plugins you need and don’t buy any you don’t, as the costs can quickly add up.
First, you need to get the AffiliateWP plugin from the official website .
Now that you have the plugin, follow **all the steps below to **seamlessly integrate your new affiliate program.
How to set up AffiliateWP affiliate marketing plugin:
- Download the plugin from your Members dashboard and install it on your WordPress site.
- Activate the plugin.
- On the left sidebar, you will notice a menu option for ‘AffilateWP’.
- Click Affiliates > Settings and enter your license key.
(You can retrieve your license key from your AffiliateWP account dashboard.)
- After activating your license, configure the settings of your affiliate marketing control panel. You can customize it according to your needs.
I recommend that you set your cookie time to 30-45 days as this is standard practice and very affiliate-friendly.
- Now click on the Integration tab at the top and select the plugin you are using for your WordPress store.
- Click Save Changes.
- Now, click on the “Email” tab at the top. Here you can configure settings related to affiliate emails. You can customize this section to suit your branding and needs (… start by adding your logo).
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Tip: *Personalize your affiliate marketing emails to make them feel that you value them. Build a good relationship with your affiliate marketers so that you can create specific marketing campaigns for each member individually in the future.
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Click the "Other" tab at the top. Here you can configure some important settings, such as:
- Allow affiliates to automatically register
- Automatic approval or manual approval
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Make sure the following check boxes are selected:
- Check this box if you want AffiliateWP to completely ignore referrals with a total amount of zero. This is useful for multi-priced products that start with a zero amount, or when a discount is used that results in a zero amount. Please note: If a visit has a zero referral amount after this setting is enabled, the visit will be considered a non-conversion.
Once that’s done, your affiliate program is almost ready to launch…
Creative Staff:
One of the best features of the AffiliateWP plugin is “Creatives”.
The Creative feature allows you to provide images to your affiliates so they can promote your products through banner ads. This feature is great because your affiliates don't have to create the images themselves.
More ready-made creatives make it easier for affiliates to promote your products.
Administrator view:
Here are some screenshots of the admin dashboard:
Member Dashboard:
The AffiliateWP plugin automatically creates a page called “Affiliate Area” and adds the shortcode to display the dashboard.
You can change the login page by adding the default shortcode to any page.
- (See the help page for more information.)
The default management dashboard area for your affiliate program is: http://www.domain.com/affiliate-area
Enable registration:
You need to enable user registration in WordPress , which you can do by:
- Settings > General and click the “Enable User Registration” box.
This way, new members can register for an account.
Other useful features:
- General or specific discount coupons -
- You can create discount coupon codes and tie them to specific affiliates or all affiliates.
- Affiliate commissions for specific products-
- You can set custom commission rates for certain products.
- Customized commissions for affiliates -
- You can offer * higher commissions to super affiliates who bring in more sales . *
- Export Affiliate List to Email -
- You can send your affiliates’ contact information to CovertKit, Aweber, or any other email marketing service. (Note: You may need to purchase a paid add-on for your specific email service.)
Don’t forget to check out AffiliateWP add-ons to find some more interesting features that you can incorporate into your program.
Conclusion: Is AffiliateWP Worth Your Money?
Currently, most stores built on WordPress use the AffiliateWP plugin, so it doesn’t seem groundbreaking to recommend it.
The only thing you need to decide is whether you want to host your own affiliate program , or if you want to use a hosted solution like ShareASale or iDevAffiliate .
I tested the integration of the AffilaiteWP plugin with Easy Digital Downloads here and it worked very smoothly. This is probably because both products are from the same developer.
The quality of the plugins and the quality of the support are both top notch.
The low price of $99 can at least help anyone get started with an affiliate program.
In short, as an “affiliate marketing tracking software” for WordPress, AffiliateWP is an ideal choice.
Order AffiliateWP WordPress plugin
More AffiliateWP Resources:
- List of Free Add-ons
- Free add-ons on the official website
- Andrew's Free Plugins (similar to above, but with fewer unique plugins)
Please share your reviews and experiences with AffiliateWP. If you are using it and have some suggestions or tips, please share them with us in the comments section.
If you found this tutorial useful, please share it with your blogger and WordPress developer friends on Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus!
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