ThirstyAffiliates

Are you looking for a ThirstyAffiliates review to help you decide whether it’s the right affiliate link management plugin for you?

Behind-the-scenes, we use this tool on WPBeginner to add affiliate links to our articles. We currently have over 2,000 affiliate URLs across different categories like WordPress hosting, plugins, themes, email marketing, VOIP, and project management.

Despite this, ThirstyAffiliates has helped us organize, track, and manage all those links, and we’re adding more each week!

In this ThirstyAffiliates review, we’re putting this first-hand experience to good use, and exploring the plugin’s features, support, and pricing. By the end of this ThirstyAffiliates review, you’ll know if it’s the right affiliate link management plugin for you.

What is ThirstyAffiliates?

Many people try to avoid affiliate links, or even see these long, unfamiliar URLs as suspicious or spammy. With that in mind, smart affiliate marketers choose to cloak their affiliate links.

ThirstyAffiliates is an affiliate management plugin that allows you to replace ugly affiliate URLs with branded links. This can make your links seem more trustworthy, which encourages shoppers to click on them.

In addition to link cloaking, ThirstyAffiliates makes it easier to manage your affiliate URLs. In fact, it provides a central location where you can register, track, and update all your affiliate links directly in the WordPress dashboard.

It also comes with features designed to help you grow a successful online business, including tracking clicks in Google Analytics and scheduling your affiliate links in advance.

If you’re just getting started or want to experiment with affiliate marketing before committing to a premium plugin, then you can download a lite version of ThirstyAffiliates.

This free plugin allows you to cloak as many links as you want. You can also set up 301, 302, or 307 redirects, and monitor how visitors are engaging with these links.

However, the premium ThirstyAffiliates plugin unlocks more advanced features that promise to boost your conversion rates. This includes auto-linking keywords, geolocation targeting, and a built-in link checker.

ThirstyAffiliates Review: The Right Affiliate Link Management Plugin for You?

An affiliate management plugin can help your monitor, manage, and track all your affiliate URLs with ease. This leaves you free to focus on more important tasks, such as growing your online business.

The right plugin will also have powerful link cloaking and shortening features, so you can create shorter links that are easier to share. With that said, let’s see whether ThirstyAffiliates is the right affiliate link management plugin for your WordPress website.

1. Cloak Your Affiliate URLs

Link cloaking is where you replace complicated affiliate URLs with user-friendly alternatives. These links are often easier to share on social media, and make your links look more trustworthy by hiding obvious affiliate IDs or tracking codes.

Hiding your affiliate ID also makes it more difficult for malicious third parties to hijack your links and steal your commissions.

ThirstyAffiliates can cloak your links automatically. To start, you can choose a link prefix that it’ll use before the link slug.

For example, if you select ‘Recommends’ as the link prefix, then your cloaked links will look like this: http://www.example.com/recommends/link-name

Another option is to create a custom link prefix.

Simply select ‘Custom’ in the plugin’s settings and then type in the link prefix you want to use.

In the plugin’s settings, you can also add the nofollow attribute, open the target URL in a new tab, add a link category to the URL, and configure other important settings.

With that done, simply add your affiliate URLs to ThirstyAffiliates, and it’ll create a cloaked link based on your settings.

If you’re not happy with the default link, then you can override these global settings for individual links.

For example, you can change the nofollow attribute, use a different redirect type, or pass a unique query string to the destination URL.

2. Organize Your Links Using Categories

If you have lots of affiliate links or work with many different partners, then it’s important to group related links together.

ThirstyAffiliates supports categories, which work in a similar way to post and page categories.

Even better, ThistyAffiliates displays these categories in its main dashboard.

This can help you quickly find the link you want to use, even if you have a ton of affiliate URLs.

3. Smart Uncloaking

Are you an Amazon Associate?

If you use Amazon affiliate links, then it’s important to note that the Amazon Associates Program doesn’t allow any kind of redirection including link cloaking. If you ignore this rule, then you may get banned from their affiliate program.

With that in mind, ThirstyAffiliates has a smart uncloaking feature. Simply add all your Amazon Associate links to the same category, and then enable automatic clink uncloaking for that entire category.

With that done, ThirstyAffiliates will uncloak all your Amazon links automatically. If you’re creating an Amazon Affiliate Store using WordPress, then this is a must-have feature.

You can also uncloak specific links, which is useful if you’re not using categories on your site.

4. Automatic Keyword Linking

It’s easy to overlook an opportunity to add affiliate links to your posts. This is also a big problem if you run a multi-author WordPress blog or have guest bloggers, as these writers may be unfamiliar with your affiliate links.

To help you out, ThirstyAffiliates can auto-link keywords or phrases for you. This means it’ll scan all your content and add an affiliate link every time it discovers a matching keyword.

This will save you a ton of time when writing new blog posts. However, ThirstyAffiliates will also scan your older content for matching keywords and phrases. If you’ve already published some content, then this is a quick and easy way to monetize your existing posts.

When you add a new URL in ThirstyAffiliates, simply type in the keywords or phrases that you want to auto-link.

Showing lots of affiliate links on the same page or post isn’t a great user experience. Visitors may find these URLs distracting and annoying, especially if you show the same link over and over again.

Thankfully, you can limit how many times ThirstyAffiliates can add a URL to the same WordPress page or post.

This is useful if you want to use a different limit for each URL.

Another option is setting a global limit in the plugin’s settings.

Here, you can also disable auto-linking on your homepage and archive pages, or disable auto-linking for all pages, or all posts.

For example, sales pages and landing pages often have their own call to action. Affiliate URLs can distract from that CTA, so you may want to disable affiliate links across all your pages.

Content theft is very common online, so you may find that scraping scripts steal articles from your RSS feed. ThirtyAffiliates can combat this problem by enabling auto-linking in your feeds. This means the content thieves will use your affiliate URLs, so you can make money from the people who scrape content from your site.

You may also get some clicks and commission from people who only read your website via RSS readers.

If you do set up auto-linking, then you can track these links in the Link Inserted Scanner. This area lists every page and post where ThirstyAffiliates added a URL, so you can see exactly what’s happening on your WordPress website.

5. Schedule Your Links

By scheduling your links in advance, you can create automated workflows for your affiliate marketing website. Scheduling is also useful if your affiliate partners run sales and other time-sensitive promotions, as it guarantees your campaigns will go live at the right time.

With ThirstyAffiliates, you can set a date and time when your URLs will go live.

You can also use FOMO to increase conversions, by adding an expiration date. This can motivate visitors to act now, rather than risk missing out on an affiliate offer.

If you do schedule your links, then you can create redirects for any visitors who click a URL before it’s active, or after it’s expired.

For example, you might redirect to a custom landing page that explains the promotion has ended, and suggests some alternative products the visitor may want to buy instead.

In this way, you can improve the visitor experience and potentially still get conversions, even if the original link is inactive.

6. Geo Targeting

Sometimes you may want to send visitors to different target URLs, based on their geographical location. For example, you might send your US customers to the .com version of a website, while visitors based in the UK see the .co.uk version instead.

To do this, simply type in the name of the country and then enter the destination URL.

You can add an unlimited number of geolocation URLs to the same ThirstyAffiliates link, so you can provide a great user experience no matter where the visitor is located.

7. Manage Your Links From a Single Location

With ThirstyAffiliates, you can manage all your links from a single location.

If you need to update a link, then simply click its ‘Edit’ link and make your changes.

This can save you a ton of time if you ever need to update a URL. For example, if an affiliate partner changes their link, then you can simply edit that URL once in the WordPress dashboard. ThirstyAffiliates will then redirect to the new target across your entire WordPress blog, so you don’t need to update each page or post individually.

8. Add Affiliate URLs with Ease

By default, every time you mention a product, you’ll need to find and add the correct affiliate link manually. This can take a lot of time and effort, especially as your site grows.

With ThirstyAffiliates, you can add affiliate links with ease. Inside the WordPress content editor, simply click the new ‘TA’ button.

This opens a search bar where you can start typing in the link you want to add.

As you type, ThirstyAffiliates will scan your library for matching affiliate links. When the right URL shows up, simply click to add it to the post or page.

9. Find and Fix 404 Errors

Broken links are bad news for any website, but as an affiliate marketer 404 errors can cost you money. As an affiliate marketer, you need a link management plugin that finds broken links before you start losing revenue.

Every time you add a link, ThirstyAffiliates can check that URL’s health. This means you can verify that each link works before publishing it on your online marketplace or website. In this way, you can avoid 404 errors happening in the first place.

ThirstyAffiliates also has a 404 Checker that scans your site automatically. If it discovers a broken link, then it’ll notify your site admin so they can fix the link as quickly as possible.

You’ll also find information about broken links in the plugin’s ‘404 Checker’ tab.

10. Built-in Reports

It’s important to monitor how your affiliate links are performing. This allows you to see what’s working and not working, so you can adjust your affiliate marketing activities to get more clicks, conversions, and commission.

ThirstyAffiliates has a built-in reporting dashboard that spans multiple tabs. Here, you can see how your affiliate links are performing over hours, days, weeks, months, or even years.

You can also see the total clicks on your different affiliate links and identify your top-performing URLs.

Some links may get more engagement from certain geographical locations. To help you spot these trends, ThirstyAffiliates has a Geolocation Report that tracks link clicks based on the visitor’s location.

You can then use this information to fine-tune your affiliate marketing activities, or even set up geolocation targeting based on these trends.

For more information, we recommend pairing ThirstyAffiliates and Google Analytics. After making this connection, ThirstyAffiliates will send all its data to your Google Analytics profile.

You can even cross-match the information against your Google Analytics data. In this way, you can get a detailed insight into the people who convert, including the devices and operating systems they’re using, and how they arrived on your WordPress site.

To help you get started with Google Analytics, we recommend using MonsterInsights. It is the best analytics solution for WordPress users and allows you to easily install Google Analytics on your website.

MonsterInsights can even show all your ThirstyAffiliates and Google Analytics data inside the WordPress dashboard.

For more on this topic, please see our guide on how to install Google Analytics in WordPress for beginners.

11. Import and Export Links

Sometimes you may want to copy your affiliate URLs to another website, such as a new WordPress blog you’ve just launched. If you’re migrating from a different affiliate management plugin, then you may also want to import your links into ThirstyAffiliates.

Instead of adding each link manually, you can import and export all your URLs as a CSV file. ThirstyAffiliates can create a complete CSV record of all your links, with just a few clicks.

This is also a good option if you want to create a backup of your affiliate URLs, or share this information with other people who don’t have access to your WordPress dashboard.

12. 3rd Party Link Importing

While you can add Amazon affiliate links manually, ThirstyAffiliates allows you to find and import affiliate links using Amazon’s Product Advertising API. This can save you a ton of time and effort, and help you discover new links to promote on your site.

You can also import product images directly from Amazon and automatically add these links to a specific category. For example, you might create an ‘Amazon’ category and then import all your Amazon affiliate links into that category.

13. Professional and Community Support

ThirstyAffiliates makes it easy to replace ugly affiliate URLs with branded links. You can also group your links into categories, to help keep your affiliate marketing activities organized.

However, sometimes you may need some extra help managing your affiliate URLs. If you prefer to research yourself, then ThirstyAffiliates has an in-depth knowledge base.

There’s also a ThrirstyAffiliates blog where you’ll find step-by-step guides covering everything from how to use the plugin’s specific features, right through to general advice on how to get more clicks by promoting old posts.

Even better, you can access these helpful resources no matter whether you download the free ThirstyAffiliates plugin, or buy a premium license.

When it comes to one-to-one support, premium customers can submit a ticket and get a response within 24-48 hours.

ThristyAffiliates Pricing and Plans

If you’re looking for a free affiliate link management plugin, then you can download the lite version of ThirstyAffiliates from the official WordPress repository.

This free plugin has many essential features so you can shorten and cloak your affiliate links, and manage them from a single location. If your affiliate partner doesn’t allow link cloaking, then ThirstyAffiliates even has a smart uncloaking feature.

However, if you want to unlock more advanced features then we recommend upgrading to the premium plugin.

There are 3 premium plans to choose from, and they all include the same advanced affiliate management features. No matter what plan you choose, you can auto-link keywords, check for 404 errors, view advanced reports, target visitors based on their location, and much more.

The major difference is how many sites you can use ThirstyAffiliates on. If you own a single WordPress blog or website, then you can buy a Basic plan for $99.60.

If you own multiple sites, then Plus allows you to use ThirstyAffiliates on up to 5 websites. This is perfect if you want to monetize a portfolio of blogs or WordPress websites.

If you own more than 5 sites, then you’ll need to upgrade to Advanced. For $149.70 per year, you can use ThirstyAffiliates on up to 10 websites. This makes it a good choice for large businesses and enterprise users.

Conclusion: Is ThirstyAffiliates The Right Affiliate Link Management Plugin for You?

After looking at the features, support options, and pricing, we’re confident that ThirstyAffiliates is one of the best affiliate management plugins.

Simply set up your cloaking or shortening rules, and ThirstyAffiliates will convert long, complex, and ugly affiliate links for you. If an affiliate partner doesn’t allow you to cloak their links, then you can uncloak them with just a few clicks.

ThirstyAffiliates can also auto-link keywords, which is perfect if you want to monetize your existing content.

If you own a single website or blog, then Basic has everything you need to get started.

If you own multiple websites, then you can use ThirstyAffiliates Plus on up to 5 sites. Finally, if you have more than 5 blogs or websites, then you’ll need to upgrade to Advanced. This plan allows you to use ThirstyAffiliates on up to 10 websites, so it’s perfect for big businesses and enterprise users.

We hope this ThirstyAffiliates review helped you decide whether it’s the right affiliate link management plugin for your WordPress website. You may also want to learn how to increase your blog traffic, or see our expert pick of the best SEO plugins and tools that you should use.

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