Credibility is a big deal in the blogging world, especially if you’re trying to make any money. Your readers want to feel like they can trust you, and trust the products you recommend. If you’ve tried making a profit from your blogging efforts, it’s likely you’ve looked into Affiliate Marketing. While Affiliate Marketing is a fantastic way to make a profit from endorsing products and companies, the link format that most use often make readers question your motives, and some assume that affiliate marketers just want to make a buck off whatever products they can. While this is most often not the case, having a plugin that “masks” or disguises your affiliate links can eliminate the apprehension your readers might experience, as well as prevent any “affiliate thieves” from replacing your affiliate codes with their own, profiting off your hard work.

We have whittled down the best affiliate marketing plugins available for WordPress, and the top five (both premium and free) are below.

1. Ninja Affiliate

This may be the best affiliate companion plugin in existence. Not only does it have the ability to manage and cloak your affiliate links, but it also has the ability to track your click sources and group your affiliate links (which you may need to keep organized, considering Ninja Affiliate allows unlimited links). If you’re a niche blogger, you’ll be very happy with the keyword conversion feature, which automatically turns any number of words per post into an affiliate link. For instance, if you’re an affiliate of your hosting company, you can configure Ninja Affiliate to turn the word “hosting” into a cloaked affiliate link each and every time it’s written, or you can limit the number of keywords per page/post as to prevent your posts from looking “spammy.”

Ninja Affiliate is available for $97 and is offered here.

2. Pretty Link

Pretty Link is an affiliate cloaking/redirect plugin that focuses the bulk if it’s ability on tracking. Not only do they allow custom link slugs, offer downloadable reports (CSV) and allow you to track links in email campaigns, but they have integrated a frame-based “PrettyBar” similar to the navigation bar when clicking an external link from Facebook. The PrettyBar stays at the top of the reader’s screen so they may return to your site with ease, or even post the link to Twitter right from the current page. Naturally, though, we’ve saved the best part for last: this plugin is free to use and available here.

There is, however, a Pro version of PrettyLink which allows access to even more features, including a ReTweet button similar to Tweet This, but displays the tweets containing your post as comments on the post page. Also included is a keyword replacement option, similar to the Ninja Affiliate.

PrettyLink Pro is also $97 and available here. Membership includes lifetime updates and unlimited website use (i.e. buy it once, use it on all your blogs!), and a 30 day money back guarantee.

3. WPMarketer

This plugin offers a compact version of the pro options above, simplified for a free plugin. It incorporates the keyword replacement features (including image conversion), and masks links internally. WPMarketer also allows you to establish a limit on converted keywords. You have the ability to create masked affiliate links right from the Edit Post page in your WordPress Dashboard.

WPMarketer is available for free, and located here.

4. WP Affiliate Pro

This plugin is all about support. On top of a 56 day money-back guarantee, they will install the plugin for you, if you’re feeling particularly lazy. On top of that, they offer live chat support and email support, if you experience any issues with their product. It incorporates all of the best features of affiliate plugins; masking, nofollow/dofollow options, control over how many affiliate links are placed on each page, custom link styling, and stable tracking capabilities.

WP Affiliate Pro is available for $97 and can be found here.

5. WP Affiliate Elite

If you’re looking for a decent plugin that will mask your affiliate links, and just keep track of where the links were clicked and where they went – Affiliate Elite is your plugin. As the lowest cost, premium plugin on this list, it offers a solid base for affiliate marketing without too many bells and whistles that will just go unused. If offers a pre-made link styling, tracking capabilities, nofollow/dofollow options, and a 60 day money back guarantee.

WP Affiliate Elite is available for only $47 and can be found here.

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