Like many just getting started with affiliate marketing, making money while sleeping probably was your motivation to get started in it. You’ve seen the influencers and how their lives completely changed by being their own boss- they’re living the American Dream. Yet, in order to taste this life, you need to gear up with the right affiliate tools. We have been affiliates and we have worked with affiliate marketers for nearly two decades. So we came across a few affiliate tools which we list here.
But most things in life with big rewards come with a lot of hard work and being an affiliate is no exception. Like almost all marketers, you have long hours and wear many hats starting from launching to scaling up on successful campaigns.
That’s why using the best tools and resources is crucial to managing your campaigns in the most efficient way possible.
Now I know what you’re thinking– “I’ve seen blog posts with a bunch of useful tools”, but take a minute and think if it’s possible to make them work together.
You might’ve seen them presented as individual entities but in this post and the next one coming up, I’m going to show you how you can make them work to save you time and lift conversions.
To start, here are the top tools and resources for affiliates:
Forums & Communities
Forums are places to exchange tips, questions and hacks with people that understand affiliate marketing.
The best part about is that no matter what vertical you’re in, level of expertise, or have a question on, everybody tries to take a part in forums. If you’re a serious affiliate, it’s a must to check in on a regular basis to get the industry’s temperature.
WarriorForum
Affiliatefix
StackThatMoney Forum
WickedFire
CPAHero
Landing Page Builders
Building solid landing pages, running AB tests is part of the daily routine of any successful affiliate. As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago in a blog about how Call To Action can impact your campaigns, there’s no “magic” formula to do it, but there are cardinal rules, proven tactics and strategies to guarantee the best chances of success.
Beyond the fact that you need the right affiliate tools to perform your job, those companies provide amazing insights, tips, and resources that can be worth a lot!
Regardless the tactics you’ll apply, if you decide to rotate and create landing pages, a landing page builder is a must in your toolbox.
News and Updates
Knowing what’s going on can give you a good idea of what is trending no matter what vertical you’re in. Reading up on the latest tips and developments is a great way to remain up to date in a fast-changing industry.
Conferences
It goes without saying that conferences are fun and unforgettable. Sure the free drinks and parties are great, but beyond that there’s greater value that keeps me coming back to them.
Meeting people face to face that you only talked to by e-mail, establishing connections, and watching speeches from the leaders in the industry makes the trip worth it every time.
Yes, you could easily remain in contact with people via Skype and email, but it’s always best to get to know someone in the flesh. So if you’re looking to create relationships and expand your knowledge, these are the conferences that you “must” go to.
Affiliate Summit
Affiliate World
Free Creative Tools
Having a designer to make creatives can be expensive, especially if you’re running multiple campaigns with different offers. That’s why free and user-friendly creative tools can help you make elements from banners, infographic, to CTA buttons for landing pages.
Canva
Coverr
Venngage
PiktoChart
Veezzle
Pexels
Marketing Tools
knowing what marketing tools are actually useful specifically for affiliate marketers can be tough because there are so many.
Even if you find a tool that is exactly for your vertical, there could be another one out there that works even better. The point is that without a marketing platform to promote an offer in the most effective way possible, you won’t get the most out of your traffic.
MailChimp
WhatRunsWhere
BoxofAds
SEMRush
Buffer
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How To Optimize Your Campaigns- Make Them Work Together
Probably the most important thing you’ll find is to constantly keep yourself updated with the latest tools and resources to maximize your ROI.
I’m not saying one is better than the other in fact, all tools and resources have their own unique function. Most of the time, it matters how you use them to get results in quick and easy manner.
How can you use tools that have different functions to create a synchronized flow?
One word- Integrations. Many if not all of the tools on this list have them with each other, which means your managing campaigns can be quicker and more profitable. It’s crazy but too many marketers don’t take advantage of them, but hey, use it to your advantage. All it takes is three steps:
- Create a flow– Seeing what integrations work together and think about how you can make it work to your advantage.
- Integrate– Integrate the tools in your flow.
- Develop a strategy– Develop a strategy to make managing your campaigns easier and efficient.
Let’s use Instapage, MailChimp, and Facebook as an example of an integrations flow. Starting with Instapage you’re able to automatically transfer all your hard earned leads to MailChimp.
Now you can take the list and sync it with Facebook Audience Insights so you can re-target the leads as they optin.
Bam! You just saved yourself a few hours of frustration just because you clicked the integration button on each of those.
So think about it, have you been taking advantage of integrations? How much time have you been spending manually transferring information over to other platforms? What does it cost you when running a campaign?
Next week, I’ll show you a flow with AdeSpresso and other tools to maximize your time and ROI with TrackingDesk.