55 7+ Best Affiliate Marketing Tools [Beginners List] - Freedom to Ascend

July 20

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7+ Best Affiliate Marketing Tools [Beginners List]

By Hanson Cheng

July 20, 2023


  • minute read
  • Imagine living the life of your dreams by selling other people’s products.

    That’s the lucrative opportunity affiliate marketing gives you. But to do it well and maximize earnings, you need the right tools. They’ll make your marketing easier and more efficient.

    In this post, I will give you the best affiliate marketing tools for beginners. 

    Let’s dive in.

    What Are the Best Affiliate Marketing Tools?

    There are countless affiliate marketing tools for bloggers and online business owners available on the market today.

    Here’s a quick overview of the affiliate marketing tools we will cover.

    1. 1
      Siteground — best for shared WordPress hosting for anyone who wants to build a secure and blazingly fast website for their online business.
    2. 2
      Thrive Themes  â€” the most popular software provider of everything serious marketers need to build stunning, high-converting websites from scratch.
    3. 3
      SurferSEO  â€” a well-liked content optimization tool for bloggers, affiliate marketers, and digital content creators who desire to dominate the SERPs.
    4. 4
      Thrive Leads  â€” the best all-in-one list-building solution for online marketers and digital agencies that want to increase on-site conversions for themselves or their clients.
    5. 5
      Active Campaign  â€” the number one automation platform for eCommerce and B2B brands that desire to give their customers a delightful customer experience.
    6. 6
      Ahrefs  â€” a prominent comprehensive SEO tool with robust features for all online enterprises that need a complete SEO solution.
    7. 7
      Thirsty Affiliates  â€” the foremost link cloaking tool bloggers and affiliate marketers use to supercharge their affiliate marketing.

    Overview     

    Trusted by 2,000000 users, Siteground is the holy grail of website hosting for all your WordPress sites.

    They have won many awards for their rock-solid security, super-fast speeds, and prompt five-star support.

    Granted, they are not the cheapest website host around, but they are superb at what they do, so you will get every penny’s worth.

    Highlights

    • Friendly Site Tools for intuitive management of your site files, emails, databases, backups, DNS zones, and more.
    • Super Cacher for three levels of dynamic caching to increase the number of hits your site can handle and spectacularly boost loading speed.
    • Fast Server Monitoring that checks server status and auto-fixes any issues on your site every 0,5 seconds besides 24/7 human monitoring.
    • Award-winning Support for dazzlingly fast support to fix any issues you might have via three channels: phone (with an actual human, not a robot), live chat, and tickets.
    • Free Shopping Cart Install for quick setup of your favorite shopping carts such as WooCommerce, Magento, and PrestaShop—on the house.
    • Ship Site To Client that empowers agencies, developers, and designers to build and ship client websites from their accounts.

    As for cost, Siteground pricing has three plans.

    StartUp starts at $6,99 per month while Grow Big costs $6,99. Finally, Go Geek will set you back $14,99.

    Bottom Line

    Siteground is a great fit for any blogger, affiliate marketer, or agency that wants a dependable website host.

    So if you’ve been let down by an erratic hosting company in the past, try Siteground risk-free because they have a 30-day money-back guarantee.

    Overview

    Thrives Themes’s mission is to build conversion-focused websites.

    Through their advanced ever-increasing array of nice-looking WordPress themes and plugins, they turn misfiring sites into sleek lead-gen machines.

    They are the gold standard for SEO-friendly WordPress themes and plugins solutions.

    Highlights

    • Drag-and-Drop Editor to empower you to build your WordPress sites without breaking a sweat.
    • Thrive Theme Builder to help you build the website of your dreams and make your designer friends gasp in astonishment.
    • 300+ Landing Page Templates to make attractive landing pages that convert in minutes yourself without hiring a pricey designer.
    • Thrive Ovation to display thrilling conversion-boosting testimonials so people trust your authority.
    • Thrive Optimize so you test all your critical pages and use the data insights to optimize for growth.
    • Thrive Ultimatum to drive your conversions through the roof leverage scarcity marketing and FOMO triggers like countdown timers.
    • Sales Funnel Builder to enable you to build a lucrative funnel to sell your products and services on autopilot.

    Thrive Themes costs $19 a month charged as a $588 one-off payment.

    The best part?

    This simple Thrive Themes pricing strategy covers usage on up to 25 websites and unlimited updates as long as you remain their customer.


    Bottom Line

    Frazzled by duct taping your various online marketing pieces?

    Thrive Themes have the answer.

    Their all-in-one marketing suite gives you everything you need to run a thriving online hustle, whether it’s a store, affiliate marketing, or selling services.

    Overview

    Surfer SEO is a best-in-class content optimization software.

    Based on a super-smart AI editor, the tool helps you write outstanding content that shows up on the front pages of Google when people search for topics related to what you sell.

    You can also analyze the SERPs and do keyword research using the tool’s handy features.

    Highlights

    • SERP Analyzer gives you an x-ray vision of the top-ranking competitor pages and shows you exactly what you should do to knock them off their perch.
    • Content Editor that makes content optimization fun through the interactive editor that shows you which keywords to make your content competitive.
    • Keyword Research to help you quickly discover new keywords, topic-related questions, and topical segments to boost your content’s visibility.
    • SEO Audit to audit landing pages, optimize non-performing blog posts, and compile a list of what’s working and what isn’t.
    • Keyword Surfer, a free SEO extension for Google Chrome that helps users to uncover search data and perform keyword research via a Google search.
    • NLP Analysis to find out if the sentiment of related keywords is positive or negative.

    The Surfer SEO pricing model follows the typical three plans pattern.

    Their Basic Plan costs $59 a month, while the Pro Plan costs $99. For the Business Plan, you must fork out $199.


    Bottom Line

    Surfer SEO gives SEOs, marketers, and content creators an easy-to-follow content recipe for higher rankings.

    Anyone with elementary SEO knowledge can benefit from its impressive array of features and make their content more visible in search engines.

    Overview

    You know your email list is your most prized possession when building an online business, right?

    Thrive Leads is your complete all-in-one list-building solution. 

    They have a wide range of features and modern opt-in forms to help you build your list faster than you thought possible. Thrive Leads is part of the Thrive Suite of plugins and only works on sites that run on WordPress.

    Highlights

    • Design & Deploy for creating and publishing every type of conversion-friendly opt-in form you can think of using a single plugin.
    • Advanced Targeting to enable you to show laser-targeted offers to your visitors based on specific posts, categories, and tags for a huge conversion lift.
    • Actionable Reports & Insights to keep tabs on key performance metrics and see where your best leads are coming from. 
    • A/B Testing Engine for you to gauge the performance of your forms, do more of what’s working, and improve what isn’t.
    • All-in-one Lead Generation that merges the best conversion and list building strategies like countdown timers, slide-in forms, and more into one plugin.
    • Integrates with all major email marketing services like Aweber, Get Response, MailChimp, and InfusionSoft so you can use it with your favorite ESP. 

    Wondering how much Thrive Leads costs?

    Well, $30 per month is all you need.

    Remember, buying the plugin also gives you access to the rest of the plugins in the packed Thrive Suite.

    This is a pretty good deal if you ask me.


    Bottom Line

    If you are an affiliate marketer or your business model relies on getting lots of traffic, then Thrive Leads is a must-have.

    It’ll help you get repeat visitors and build relationships with them fast.

    Overview

    Active Campaign is a renowned customer experience automation software.

    They fuse email marketing, marketing automation, sales automation, and CRM tools to help you create smooth, superduper customer experiences across channels.

    The software gives you back your time through smart automation. Connect with your customers while you snooze.

    Highlights

    • Reach & Engage your prospects and leads through messages that match where they are in the buyer’s journey.
    • Nurture & Educate your audience by giving tailored guidance through event tracking, dynamic and predictive content.
    • Convert & Close site visitors with timely calls to action that entice them to take the next action that sucks them into a deeper relationship with you. 
    • Support & Grow your audience through SMS, conversations, and predictive sending so they get what they need when they need it.
    • One-on-one Training for personalized onboarding and a helping hand whenever you need it.
    • Pre-built Automation Recipes that suit the most common marketing scenarios you will ever meet, so you save time and don’t build from scratch. 
    • Sales Automation that merges your CRM, email, and sales automation so you manage all your pipelines and always follow up at the perfect moment.

    Active Campaign pricing includes four plans.

    Enterprise, the most expensive of the lot, costs $229 per month. If you want their most popular plan, pay $129.

    Their entry plan is only $9 per month.


    Bottom Line

    If your business is at a stage where customer experience and satisfaction are a priority, Active Campaign is an essential tool in your affiliate marketing software list.

    Whether you run a B2B, eCommerce, or digital business, the software will come in handy.

    Overview

    Ahrefs is the number one all-in-one SEO software on the market.

    Renowned for its user-friendly features, in-depth learning materials, and a passionate, supportive community, the software must be top of your affiliate marketing tools list.

    Ahrefs is your gateway to higher rankings and more traffic.

    Highlights

    • Competitor Analysis helps you analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles and see what you should do to beat them.
    • Keywords Explorer to explore keyword suggestions, analyze SERPs, assess search volumes, and see keyword difficulty scores.
    • Site Audit to view your site’s SEO challenges to overcome and the opportunities to seize.
    • Content Explorer to discover and analyze top-performing content in your niche and also identify content gaps to fill.
    • Rank Tracker to track your Google rankings and judge your performance against your competitors’— get ranking updates on both desktop and mobile.
    • Resources from the Help Center, blog, and academy to help you troubleshoot any problems you face and maximize the use of the software.
    • Original Research so you stay up to date with all the latest SEO tactics and become a savvy search engine marketer.

    Ahrefs’s plans start at $99 per month.

    But if you want to unlock the software’s powerful features, go for their most popular plan at $179. 

    If you are an SEO expert, you can go deeper at $399. They also have an agency plan that costs $999.

    Curious about Ahrefs?

    Then take their service for a spin because they have a 7-day free trial.


    Bottom Line

    Are search engine marketing and organic traffic generation an integral part of your marketing strategy?

    Then your technology stack is incomplete without Ahrefs.

    Overview

    Thirsty Affiliate is a top affiliate link management plugin to help you sell more of your affiliate products.

    Easily beautify ugly default links, insert affiliate links into blog posts and manage all your affiliate links from one place through this useful plugin.

    When you assemble your affiliate marketing tools and resources toolbox, Thirsty Affiliates must be one of your first picks.

    Highlights

    • Link Cloaking to dress up your ugly affiliate links so they look more appealing to potential customers.
    • Link Insertion capability so you insert affiliate links into your blog content and promote your affiliate products.
    • Autolink Keywords by supplying the keywords and let the software work its magic and link your affiliate link automatically.
    • Proactive Link Fixer to make certain your affiliate links are always current.
    • 3rd Party Link Importing allows you to import third-party APIs such as Amazon Products API.
    • Automatic 404 Checker, so you don’t lose a single potential affiliate sale because of an undetected 404 error.
    • CSV Import/Export for simple management of all your affiliate links via CSV import/export across sites.

    Eager to know about Thirsty Affiliates pricing plans?

    For the one-site license, you must pay $49. At the $99 price point, you service five websites. Finally, $149 allows you to use the service on up to ten sites.

    They have an ironclad 14-day refund guarantee so you can try their service with no pressure.


    Bottom Line

    Thirsty Affiliates is a superb option for beginner affiliate marketers. 

    Whenever there’s a discussion about affiliate marketing tools for bloggers, Thirsty Affiliates comes up because it's perfect for bloggers who want to monetize their blogs and deal with many affiliate marketing platforms.

    Affiliate Marketing Tools Make Selling Fun

    That’s it.

    My curated list of the best affiliate marketing tools.

    But getting the list won’t help you one bit. What will make a difference is a thoughtful execution. So don’t let these juicy tips go to waste. 

    Build your affiliate marketing super engine that spits money on autopilot while you sip pina colada.

    Finally, if you want to get started with affiliate marketing without a website, there's also a way to do that.

    Last Updated on July 20, 2023 by Hanson Cheng

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    Hanson Cheng

    About the author

    Living in Portugal with my wife and puppies.
    Scaling online businesses and sharing lessons learned on this website and in our email newsletter.

    Always happy to hear from you, so find me on Instagram if you want to say hi!

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