ThirstyAffiliates Review: Is It the Right Affiliate Link Management Plugin for You?

Are you an affiliate marketer looking for a way to streamline your link management, protect your commissions, and gain deeper insights into your performance? If so, you’ve probably come across ThirstyAffiliates, a popular WordPress plugin designed to help you manage your affiliate links more efficiently. In this review, we’ll delve into the features, benefits, and drawbacks of ThirstyAffiliates to help you decide if it’s the right tool for your needs.

What is ThirstyAffiliates?

ThirstyAffiliates is a WordPress plugin designed to simplify the process of managing and optimizing affiliate links. It allows users to cloak long, complex affiliate URLs with branded, user-friendly links. Beyond link cloaking, ThirstyAffiliates offers a suite of features to help affiliate marketers organize, track, and monetize their links. It is aimed at bloggers using WordPress, but can be used by any affiliate marketer using WordPress as their CMS.

Key Features and Benefits

ThirstyAffiliates comes packed with a variety of features, designed to enhance your affiliate marketing efforts. Here are some of the most notable:

• Link Cloaking and Shortening: ThirstyAffiliates allows you to replace long, complex affiliate URLs with shorter, branded links. This makes your links more trustworthy and easier to share on social media. The plugin uses a /recommends/ prefix by default, but this can be changed.
• Centralized Link Management: The plugin provides a central dashboard where you can manage all your affiliate links. This means that if an affiliate link changes, you only need to update it once in ThirstyAffiliates, and the changes will be reflected across all your existing placements.
• Categorization: You can organize your affiliate links into hierarchical categories. This helps you to quickly find the right link. For example, you could place all Amazon links into an “Amazon” category, or all software links into a “Software” category.
• Automatic Keyword Linking: This feature allows you to automatically add affiliate links to specific keywords or phrases throughout your website. This is useful for monetizing your existing content.
• Smart Uncloaking: ThirstyAffiliates provides a smart uncloaking feature that automatically uncloaks Amazon affiliate links to comply with Amazon’s terms of service. This ensures you can still use ThirstyAffiliates with Amazon affiliate links while remaining compliant.
• Geolocation Targeting: With this feature, you can redirect visitors to different URLs based on their geographical location. For example, you can send UK customers to the .co.uk version of a website, and US customers to the .com version.
• Link Scheduling: You can schedule links to go live at a specific date and time. This is useful for time-sensitive promotions. You can also add an expiration date to create a sense of urgency.
• Built-in Reporting: ThirstyAffiliates tracks every click on your affiliate links, providing you with reports so you can explore how much your links have been clicked. It also provides data on clicks by category, performance over time, and geolocation data.
• 404 Error Checking: The plugin automatically checks your affiliate links for 404 errors. If a broken link is detected, it will notify you so that you can fix it quickly.
• Link Insertion: ThirstyAffiliates adds a “TA” button to the WordPress editor for easy insertion of affiliate links. You can search for a link by name and quickly insert it into your content. There is also a quick add button to add links on the fly while you are writing.
• Image Integration: You can add images to your affiliate links. These images can be inserted into your content easily.
• CSV Import/Export: The plugin supports importing and exporting links via CSV, which is useful for managing links across multiple sites.
• 3rd Party Link Importing: ThirstyAffiliates allows you to import affiliate links from third party APIs like Amazon Product Advertising API.

ThirstyAffiliates Pro

While the free version of ThirstyAffiliates provides basic functionality, the Pro add-on unlocks more advanced features and is where the real value of the plugin lies. Some of the features offered by the Pro add-on include:

• Advanced Statistics Reports: In addition to basic reports, the Pro version offers advanced reporting features such as performance by category, 24-hour performance, and geolocation reports.
• Product Displays: The Pro version allows you to create beautifully styled and responsive product displays for your affiliate links.
• Automatic Affiliate Disclosure: This feature adds an affiliate disclaimer automatically.
• Link Event Notifications: The Pro version allows you to set up email notifications for significant link events, like when they reach a certain amount of clicks.
• High-Speed HTAccess Redirect: This feature loads affiliate link redirects into your htaccess file for faster redirecting.
• ThirstyPay™: The pro version includes a feature called ThirstyPay™, which allows you to create branded checkout links via Stripe for direct one-click purchases.
• No Transaction Fees: ThirstyPay™ links come with no added payment processing fees for pro users. Free users are charged a 3% fee per transaction.

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How Does It Work?

The process of using ThirstyAffiliates is quite simple:

1. Install and Activate the Plugin: After purchasing the plugin, install and activate it on your WordPress website.
2. Add Affiliate Links: Go to the “Affiliate Links” section in your WordPress dashboard and click “Add New”. Enter your destination URL (your affiliate link) and a title for the link.
3. Customize Your Links: You can customize your links by choosing a link prefix, adding the nofollow attribute, opening the target URL in a new tab, and adding a link category. You can also configure other settings in the plugin’s settings.
4. Add Links to Content: Use the “TA” button in your WordPress editor to search for and add your affiliate links to your content.

Pricing

ThirstyAffiliates offers a free version, but most of the features discussed in this review are part of the paid Pro add-on. The Pro version is offered as an annual subscription and comes in three tiers:

• Basic: $249 per year (for one site).
• Plus: $374 per year (for up to 5 sites).
• Advanced: $499 per year (for up to 10 sites).

The plans come with a 14-day money-back guarantee.

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Pros and Cons

Here’s a quick breakdown of the advantages and disadvantages of ThirstyAffiliates:

Pros:

• Easy to use: The plugin is designed to be user-friendly and easy to navigate, even for beginners.
• Time-saving: The plugin helps you to save time by automating tasks such as adding links and updating them.
• Organized: ThirstyAffiliates helps you keep your affiliate links organized, especially if you work with many partners.
• Increased Revenue: By cloaking and managing affiliate links effectively, ThirstyAffiliates helps you increase your affiliate revenue.
• Revenue Visibility: The advanced analytics help you understand which articles are driving revenue, and what is and isn’t working.
• Commission Protection: The link cloaking and redirection features help you to protect your commission from theft.
• Compliance: Smart uncloaking makes it possible to comply with affiliate program requirements, such as Amazon’s terms of service.
• Advanced Features: The Pro version has many advanced features such as automatic keyword linking, geolocation targeting, and advanced reports.

Cons:

• WordPress Only: ThirstyAffiliates is strictly a WordPress plugin. If you have a website that is not built on WordPress, you won’t be able to use it.
• Reporting Limitations: The reporting feature is not as comprehensive as some may desire. You may have to export data to a spreadsheet for deeper analysis.
• Annual Subscription: There is no monthly subscription option. You must buy an annual subscription to access the plugin.

Who Should Use ThirstyAffiliates?

ThirstyAffiliates is suitable for a variety of users, including:

• Bloggers and Vloggers: ThirstyAffiliates is ideal for bloggers and vloggers who are serious about growing their affiliate revenue.
• Affiliate Marketers: The plugin is beneficial for affiliate marketers who want to manage their affiliate links effectively.
• Website Owners: Anyone with a WordPress website who wants to monetize it through affiliate marketing will find ThirstyAffiliates useful.
• Amazon Affiliates: The smart uncloaking feature makes the plugin ideal for Amazon affiliates who want to comply with Amazon’s rules and still get all the reporting benefits that come with ThirstyAffiliates.
• Multi-Site Owners: ThirstyAffiliates has plans for users with multiple sites, allowing you to use the plugin on up to 10 websites.

Alternatives

There are several alternatives to ThirstyAffiliates on the market. Here are a few:

• Lasso: Lasso is a polished alternative with many features but is more expensive.
• Pretty Links: Pretty Links is another affiliate link management plugin for WordPress.
• Affilimate.com: Affilimate is a cloud based platform with many features, but is also more expensive.

Compared to these alternatives, ThirstyAffiliates is a more affordable solution.

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Conclusion

ThirstyAffiliates is a powerful and user-friendly plugin that simplifies the complex task of affiliate link management. With features like link cloaking, automatic keyword linking, and detailed reporting, it is a valuable tool for any serious affiliate marketer. While the free version is a good place to start, the Pro add-on is where the plugin truly shines, offering advanced features that can significantly impact your affiliate revenue. If you’re a WordPress user looking to optimize your affiliate marketing efforts, ThirstyAffiliates is definitely worth considering.
By using the plugin, you can protect your affiliate commissions, easily manage your affiliate links in one central dashboard and gain detailed insights into which links are performing the best. Whether you are a beginner or an experienced affiliate marketer, ThirstyAffiliates has something to offer.
Disclaimer: Some of the links in this review may be affiliate links. We only recommend products and services we’ve personally used and stand behind.