I’ve always found linking to appropriate affiliate programs to be one of the more tedious things about blogging. Mostly because it’s a pain to remember individual links or go retrieve them. I have quite the .htaccess file from making manual links to affiliate products, but it’s getting dull.

So one of the things I’m working on these days is figuring out which plugin will make my life simplest for linking to affiliate products. I can remember an awful lot of links, as I make them logical, but remembering to add them in does not always happen.

Free Option

GoCodes

This one is pretty simple. Rather like using TinyURL and similar services, but you have more control. Once installed, you manage your URLs by entering a key and where you want the link to redirect to. Rather like what I do now in .htaccess, but the list might be easier to look through. Plus you don’t have to upload a new file every time you add a new link.

On the other hand, it’s not automatic. You have to add in the link to the post. This simplifies things somewhat, but still requires me to remember that I ought to be putting in a link.

Paid Options

WordPress Link Cloak

This is more advanced than GoCodes, and will automatically replace the keywords and phrases of your choice with 301 redirected links to the pages of your choosing. It also limits how many times replacements are made in posts, so you aren’t overdoing it.

This sounds really nice for sites where you mention products a lot. I don’t, even though I probably should.

Wp Affiliate Elite

Does much the same as Link Cloak. However, I see that they offer link tracking as well, so you know if your links are getting clicked at all. That’s some valuable data.

It also allows you to add in the “nofollow” attribute. Affiliate links don’t need to be followed by the search engines. There’s no benefit to your site, and in most cases none to the site you’re linking to. Adding the “nofollow” attribute is something that makes good sense to me.

It also allows for the maximum number of replacements in a post for a given keyword. Once again, you need this as you may use the same phrase over and over in a post. You really don’t want to overdo the links most of the time. It just gets to looking bad.

So Which Will I Try?

I’m thinking Wp Affiliate Elite. Price looks good. Features look good. The only reason I haven’t bought it yet is that I need a bit of time to get things settled around here with baby Selene. If by any chance I don’t like it, I don’t want to run out of time for returns, or to forget that I bought it in the first place, which at this point I could easily do.

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Disclosure: I often review or mention products for which I may receive compensation in the form of affiliate commissions. All opinions are my own.