Affiliate Marketing Tools For Beginners

Here’s a list of the best and highly recommended affiliate marketing tools for beginners. All the tools and resources I’m going to mention are the things that I use to take my business to the next level and make my workflow a whole lot easier.

This is the stuff that you must have to make sure that you maximize your profits as much as possible. None of these are a maybe they’re all must-haves.

Affiliate marketing by far the best way for beginners to start an online business. While that’s a good thing, it means that there’s a lot of people who’re doing it so making it work can be a bit tough. So you need tools that will make your journey a lot easier, safe guard your success and get ahead of the competition and dominate your niche or market.

This is a great affiliate marketing tools and resources list for bloggers, shopify users, wordpress and online business owners who want to maximize profits.

1. Flippa

Flippa is an online marketplace where people buy and sell websites, domains and apps. It’s popular for flipping (buying and selling) websites. If you’re just getting started in your affiliate marketing journey then Flippa will be the best place to do your research.

Go to Flippa, create a free account then check out the businesses that just got sold. Those businesses sold because their doing a lot of things right. So that makes your research 10x easier and helps you avoid a lot of guess work. This will help you understand your market even better.

Check out businesses that are in the niche (category) that you’re interested in or if you’re not sure which niche you want to go into then browse flippa to get ideas.

Read the full information about each website and you’ll find a lot of stuff you can implement in your business. Spend at least 2 hours checking different websites and take notes. Take notes of content ideas, traffic sources, monetizing strategies, design and marketing.

If I was starting an online business from scratch, flippa would be my first stop for research.

Flippa: https://flippa.com

2. SEMRush

While we’re still on the topic of research, SEMRush is the best tool for finding out what are the most popular and profitable topics in your niche. Find out exactly where popular websites and blogs get their traffic in your niche. 

SEMRush will let you know the number of visitors each website gets, where they get it from and how they’re getting the traffic. The secret to becoming successful in any niche is to know where the audience spend their time then go there and get the traffic.

When you know where your audience spend their time you avoid guessing if a lot of traffic comes from social media, search engines, advertising etc. SEMRush helps you avoid wasting time and money. You simply put 5+ popular websites in your niche, find out where they’re getting their traffic and simply replicate.

If their using Ads you find out what type of Ads are working best for them. If they use social media you find out which platform they're using and what type of content works best for them and many more.

Even the Ebay SEO team uses SEMRush, so get SEMRush to make sure your marketing is a whole lot easier, spy on your competition, save money and avoid any guess work.

Get a 7 Days trial from this URL: http://mailpreneur.com/semrush

3. Ahrefs

When you're doing your research and you find out that your competitors get their traffic from search engines such as Google, Bing and Yahoo, then Ahrefs is the best tool you need to use to get ahead of your competition.

Ahrefs will help you find referring domains pointing to your competitors’ websites and use them to your advantage.

Ahrefs helps you understand why certain websites in your niche show up high in search engines and what you need to do to beat them and be at the top.

Search engines are the best traffic you can get online because someone is really searching to solve a problem and if you can position yourself right you’ll definitely have great success in affiliate marketing.

So even if you find out that your competitors don’t use search engines to drive traffic then you can use Ahrefs to see what they’re doing wrong or missing then optimize your website for SEO to maximize profits and attract a lot of visitors.

Look at it this way, would you prefer to give your affiliate links to people who’re looking for the product you’re promoting or go out there to convince people who don’t want it?

Simple right? That’s why search engine traffic is the best. So get Ahrefs to increase your affiliate sales.

Ahrefs: https://ahrefs.com

4. Domain

Getting a domain name has a lot of advantages for online business owners. It helps you look professional and trustworthy in your market.

No one is going to trust a free subdomain from blogger.com or WIX.

It also makes it easier for people to remember your website. You automatically become a brand and people love brands.

You’ll also be able to cloak your affiliate links. Affiliate links are usually long and don’t look trustworthy. You can avoid that by using your domain to cloak (hide) your affiliate links.

Here’s an example of a cloaked link vs a naked affiliate link:

Uncloaked: https://26739mcl18f2imd1ies23p0w1t.hop.clickbank.net/

Cloaked: https://yourdomain.com/cb-university

The cloaked link looks professional, trustworthy and easy to remember. People will even think it’s one of the pages on your website so there’s a higher chance they’ll click it.

Domain names are even cheap, they start from $0.99 to around $2.99 per year. I get my domains from Namecheap, get a discount by using this URL: http://mailpreneur.com/namecheap-discount

5. Hosting

This will depend on how you want to do your affiliate marketing. I use hosting so that I can be able to do blog posts like this one to offer value in the marketplace. Blogs are a really powerful tool that is why most (if not all) big businesses have blogs.

A blog or website can be used to drive tons of traffic to your offers and build trust before hammering people with affiliate links.

Search engines also prefer to rank blogs higher in the search results as compared to any other page on the web. Blogs always rank higher if they’re optimized right. Try it, go to Google and search for anything. 99% of the time you'll find a blog post.

A blog also helps you position yourself as an expert in your industry. You get to develop a community with a blog and engage with your audience.

I can go on the whole day about why you need a blog but you’ll need a place to host the blog. That’s where hosting companies come in.

There’s a lot of hosting companies out there. I’ve switched hosting companies over 4 times since 2009 and Namecheap is treating me right as compared to all the other hosts I’ve been with. You can check them out here: http://mailpreneur.com/namecheap-shared-hosting-discount

I love real-time support and don’t have time to call and wait on the phone or send emails. When I need help with something I need it to be solved right away that’s why I love Namecheap hosting. If you already have a high traffic site then check out their VPS packages here: http://mailpreneur.com/namecheap-vps-discount

6. Grammarly

Since affiliate marketing can be done from anywhere in the world that means for most people English is not their first language so getting the grammar right can be a horror.

We all know about the war between “You’re” and “Your” or “Lose” and “Loose”.

This happens even if English is your first language and you’re just in a rush.

Grammarly makes sure that everything you type is clear, effective and mistake-free. The best part is that it works on a lot of platforms such as Gmail, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and nearly anywhere else you write on the web.

Especially if you choose to add a blog to your affiliate marketing arsenal then this tool is a must-have. You don’t want to send people to blog posts that are full of grammatical errors.

So make sure that you add Grammarly to your affiliate marketing tools it will help you to stay professional at all times.

Grammarly: https://www.grammarly.com

7. Clickfunnels

If you want to maximize profits as an affiliate marketer then you’ll need to build sales funnels.

Since everyone and their mother is promoting the same affiliate products you’re promoting you need to be different and standout from the rest of the crowd.

Affiliate marketing sales funnels are the best way to do that.

When you send your traffic straight to an affiliate link there’s a higher chance they won’t make the purchase and you lose them forever.

But with a sales funnel you get to capture their contact information and market different products to them. In order to capture their information you’ll need to offer them a free gift, use an optin page to capture their information then send them to a Thank you page to give them the free gift. 

This is how a typical affiliate marketing sales funnel looks like:

Traffic Source >> Optin Page >> Thank You Page >> Email Marketing

Clickfunnels is the best and easy way to build a sales funnel. They also have a lot of templates you can use to promote your affiliate offers. So add Clickfunnels to your affiliate marketing tools to make sure that you maximize your profits.

Get a 14 Days Trial from this link to see how powerful Clickfunnels can be for you affiliate business: http://mailpreneur.com/clickfunnels

8. Autoresponder

In order to save the email addresses and any other information you ask for in your optin pages you need to use an autoresponder.

An autoresponder also helps you to automate your affiliate marketing campaigns. With both Clickfunnels and an autoresponder your audience will get the free gift and marketing emails automatically. You only set up your marketing campaign once and it runs even when you’re asleep or even on vacation.

That’s the beauty of running an online business. You have freedom of location, which means you can make money from anywhere in the world. So with an autoresponder you get to make passive income on autopilot.

When you have a blog you also have to understand that 75% of your website visitors will never come back to your blog so it’s better to capture their emails. You'll need to have an autoresponder to save those emails then email them whenever you have a new blog post or affiliate offer to promote. 

The autoresponder I’ve been using for almost a decade now is Getresponse.

Get a free 30 Days Trial using this link: http://mailpreneur.com/getresponse-trial

9. ClickMagick

If you’re going to be doing affiliate marketing then you’ll need to cloak your links. The safest, cheap and most reliable way to cloak your links is through ClickMagick.

With ClickMagick you’re able to cloack links, track traffic, do split testing and retargeting.

You also protect yourself from click-fraud. Hackers are everywhere and they can steal your commissions. ClickMagick monitors your links and protects you from link-fraud. Even when you buy traffic you make sure that the person you're buying traffic from is not sending bots to your offers.

Others have sneaky ways to eliminate competition, they’ll send bots to your links and you’ll be surprised why you got 2000 clicks but no sales then you quit affiliate marketing because you’ll obviously think it doesn’t work.

But most importantly you need to track everything. ClickMagick helps you track your entire sales funnel. See what people do from the traffic source, optin page up to the sale. If they don’t buy you get to see what might have stopped them and fix it.

Tracking is very important for your affiliate marketing business. It will help you convert a lot of people. It helps you determine what works and find out what is killing your conversions.

In the past few years this was known as an advanced technique but it’s getting hard to convert people into buyers these days so it’s a must-have tool.

In the past it required a lot of coding and hiring experts to do it so it was expensive but ClickMagick has come a long way and each day their making this process a breeze. This will give you an unfair advantage over your competition. 

Use this link to get a 14 Days trial from ClickMagick: http://mailpreneur.com/clickmagick-trial

10. SSL Certificate

Another good addition to your affiliate marketing tool is an SSL Certificate. An SSL certificate adds credibility to your online business.

All the core functions of your website are encrypted, your data and information will be safe from hackers. Your audience will also feel safe when browsing your website which builds trust with your audience, it also helps you look professional.

An SSL certificate also helps you rank better in Google search results. Google is now giving websites with an SSL certificate an upper hand.

It makes perfect sense, Google is just avoiding scammers because they know that getting an SSL certificate requires you to validate your information with the SSL provider and prove that you're a real human being.

So get an SSL certificate to secure your website’s data and information. Also make your audience feel safe when browsing your website especially when they’re giving you their information in your optin pages.

An SSL is very cheap, especially now because it has a high demand. Even if you think you don't need an SSL certificate just do it to make sure that your visitors browse your website safely and secured. 

Here’s a discount link where you can find an SSL for $7 for 2 years: http://mailpreneur.com/namecheap-ssl

11. BackupBuddy

If you’re going to be building a blog (which I highly recommend) then you’re going to need a backup tool. I’ve never lost any data or an entire website in my experience.

However, I’ve heard stories of people who lost their entire businesses because they simply didn’t create backups.

I’ve had an experience whereby the server I was using to host my website CRASHED. Luckily there was a backup, the server’s kvm_img file wasn’t corrupted but the website was down for 4 days and a lot of money was lost.

Since then I keep all backups on my computer, if anything happens I simply upload the backup and the website is up and running in less than 5 minutes.

I use BackupBuddy for all my backups because it's very easy and requires to technical knowledge. 

Get BackupBuddy on this URL: http://mailpreneur.com/backupbuddy

12. W3 Total Cache

Speed is another thing that can mess up your business. People don’t like a slow website. No one is going to wait 8 seconds for a website to load.

Google also gives websites that load faster an upper hand in their search results. So make sure that you give people the information they want as quick as possible.

Using a cache plugin such as W3 Total Cache helps you make your website load faster.

Did you know that speed is one of the advantages that helped Google win the search engine race over Yahoo? They were a new company but Yahoo was a snail so everyone switched to Google because it brought results faster.

So don’t underestimate website loading speed, it is very crucial to win your competitors audience.

Get W3 Total Cache from this URL: https://wordpress.org/plugins/w3-total-cache/

Go to youtube and search for “best settings for w3 total cache”, follow the tutorials to maximize the speed of your website. This is not a plug-and-play tool there are certain configurations you need to tweak and a simple youtube search will help you with that.

13. reSmush

Another great way to make sure that your website or blog loads faster is to optimize your images by using a tool such as reSmush.

I’ve tried many different wordpress plugins and reSmush takes the trophy when it comes to optimizing images and making a website load faster.

Simply use 80% compression rate and you should be fine. The great part is that once installed it works automatically in the background. Every time you upload an image on your website reSmush will automatically optimize your image without you lifting a finger.

reSmush: https://resmush.it

14. Yoast SEO

The Yoast SEO tool is the most used SEO tool for wordpress blogs and websites. It helps you optimize your websites for search engines.

It helps you by giving you a score for your pages to see if your pages and blog posts will rank in search engines or not. It also gives you suggestions about how to improve your website or blog so that it will rank higher in search engine results.

You also get to optimize the title tag and description tag which will show up search engines. Optimizing your title and description tag will increase the chance of people clicking on your link both on search engines and social media websites.

This tool will also help you avoid duplicate content on your website. The way wordpress is setup it will have duplicate content which a lot of people don’t know about. So Yoast SEO helps you avoid confusing search engines by using canonical URLs.

Just like the W3 Total Cache plugin you’ll need to do a youtube search to find the best settings because I know most people who’ll be reading this don’t know what canonical is.

Simply search “best yoast seo settings 2019”, follow the tutorial and you should be fine.

Download the Yoast SEO plugin from this URL: https://yoast.com/wordpress/plugins/seo/

15. Jetpack

Jetpack is recommend by big company names such as Bluehost, WordPress and Pressable.

I use it to track website visitors on wordpress, see which pages are being visited the most and which links get the most clicks on my entire website and blog.

This helps me know where to focus my marketing efforts and know which content my audience love the most. This information is helpful for future content ideas.

Knowing what’s going on behind the scenes of your site is key to improving engagement and security.

You can also use Jetpack to design your website, add share buttons, schedule posts for social media, prevent unwanted intrusions with effective brute force attack protection, malware scanning and spam filtering.

It also helps you avoid using Google Analytics for tracking visitors.

All of those features in one plugin helps speed up your website as compared to using too many plugins for different tasks.

Get Jetpack on this URL: http://mailpreneur.com/jetpack

16. Canva

Canva is a great site for people like me who’re not graphic designers but want to create professional graphics for their websites. You can design logos, create thumbnails, featured images and a whole lot more without the need for professional tools such as photoshop.

They have a lot of templates to make things much easier. Simply choose a template and edit it to work for whatever you’re working on.

There’s not much to say about Canva but if you want to look professional you got to use it for graphic stuff unless if you have some good photoshop skills.

Get Canva on this URL: https://canva.com

Conclusion

If you’re a complete beginner then the tools above will help you look more professional and standout from your competitors. If you’re already an expert then the affiliate tools I use and recommend will help you increase your revenue.

As mentioned above, none of these resources are optional they’re all must-haves.

I trust that you found my affiliate marketing tools guide valuable, and I believe it will help you grow your online business and squeeze profits as much as possible. You'll also be ahead of your competitors and have an unfair advantage over them.

Leave your comment below if you have any questions or just to leave a simple Thank you is very much welcome.

See you again soon with another complete guide, no holding back, no fluff or short blog posts that won’t help anyone besides myself.

I’m not hating on anyone’s blog but there’s just too much of that stuff so that’s why I decided to go this route. So browse the blog for more detailed content, leave a comment, share the content and enjoy the rest of your day.