by With a complete WordPress website up and running, you probably hunted for opportunities to monetize content. Many tutorials will make the sparkling promise that recommending products and getting customers buy them through your referral links is a bomb way to get cash flowing in. And so you pour hours after hours just to develop an affiliate marketing strategy, not knowing it’s actually more complex than what you thought.
Visitor count may be at an all time high for your website, but alas. You keep wondering why nobody’s clicking on those links. Luckily, there is a simple solution for your low conversion rates.
In this guide, allow me to introduce you to affiliate plugins. As an upgrade to your plain boring links, these tools help you integrate product boxes and comparison tables with attention-grabbing buttons. Trust me. Without these, I would never have increased my Amazon sales by up to 40%.
Plugins are my trusted buddies for years! Since 2011, it helped me earn more than 218,500 USD as an Amazon affiliate.
Join me in exploring the best WordPress plugins for Amazon affiliates, and find out which ones are my favorite. As early as now, let me warn you never to use the Amazon Associates Link Builder plugin developed by Amazon itself! You will only be stressed out by this underdeveloped tool full of bugs.
Contents
1. Amazon Affiliate WordPress Plugin (AAWP)
Amazon Affiliate WordPress Plugin (AAWP) is a tool I have been using since 2016, and it never disappoints. Thank German developer Florian Daugalies for its fast and beginner-friendly set up process. I found it so easy to integrate Amazon products into my website in the form of individual product boxes, bestseller lists, and comparison tables.
You don’t have to worry about outdated product information, since this tool automatically updates ratings, prices, and even availability at Prime. It also gives you quick data on the date of the last update by displaying it below boxes or tables. What’s more, you can set up aesthetic buttons and widgets without breaking a sweat! Their standard templates are already nicely designed, hardly requiring additional adjustments.
If you’re skeptical about data protection, you’d be pleased to know that AAWP can be used without storing personal data of users. The product images can also be delivered through a data protection proxy in the settings, which means that no IP addresses of users are ever stored on Amazon servers.
You can enjoy all these benefits at the price of 42.62 USD (VAT inclusive) in the first year of subscription. The 50% discount on license renewals make it even more attractive for long term use!
2. Amazon Simple Admin (ASA 1)
For those running on a tight budget, you might want to consider Amazon Simple Admin (ASA 1). Having used it since 2011, I can confidently recommend this as by far one of the best WordPress plugins for Amazon affiliates for free. Brought to us by German developer Timo Reith, this tool enables you to embed Amazon products in widgets, posts or pages.
What I love the most about ASA 1 is that you can change how products are displayed using templates. With so-called placeholders (which you include in the template together with HTML code), you can integrate a variety of different Amazon product data including:
- Product designation
- Price
- Product pictures in different sizes
- Customer ratings
- Number of offers available at Amazon
- The Amazon logo
- Product description
3. Amazon Simple Affiliate (ASA 2 Pro)
While ASA 1 is amazing by itself, this WordPress plugin has a premium version in the form of Amazon Simple Affiliate (ASA 2 Pro). By paying 59 USD (exclusive of VAT) in the first year, you get these additional features:
- A better system to manage templates
- Support for HTTPS
- Creation of bestseller lists
- Logical operators in templates
- The possibility to use more than one tracking ID for templates
I know, it’s significantly more expensive than AAWP. But similarly, it offers a 30% discount for license renewals. The price difference seems reasonable, since ASA 2 Pro offers more customization options for templates and a wider range of functions than AAWP. In terms of data protection, it can also be used without storing personal data and IP address of users.
But to be fair with AAWP, setting up this plugin can be more complex. Its default templates also aren’t that fancy and requires more time for adjustments. AAWP is therefore more suitable for beginners, while ASA 2 Pro is best for advanced users.
Talking from experience, ASA 2 Pro’s main selling point is its repository that lists all the Amazon products you have integrated with the plugin. It’s a very easy way to check which products are still available and which are not. Lucky for you busy bees, there’ll be no more need for periodic manual checks.
I also like that you can select what customer reviews to display. Simply customize the templates directly in WordPress, and viola. You can easily hide all the rants and bad testimonies.
4. The WooZone (in combination with WooCommerce)
If you fancy building an affiliate site that gives the vibe of an online shop, the WooZone might just be the perfect option. The combination of this 49 USD tool and the free e-commerce plugin WooCommerce allows you to enable product rating, filtering, and sorting.
WooZone is not a supported WordPress plugin, but I just can’t help but still include it in this list of note worthy Amazon affiliate tools. If you want a further upgrade from its wide range of functions, you can also explore dozens of useful WooCommerce extensions.
However, you have to remember that WooCommerce is originally designed for online shops and not for affiliate use. This means that you have to spend more time in adjustments and integrating extensions (e.g. adaptation of button texts, standard sorting functions, tabs, price display or an additional plugin for product comparisons) to get the most out of this plugin combination.
Visitors could also find your loading time to take longer than usual, since usage of WooCommerce means a lot more CCS and JS files in the website. Another word of warning: this plugin is still constantly being updated. New functions come at the price of disabling older ones, so you have to check for display errors and synchronization issues every now and then.
5. affiliatetheme.io
If you’re managing a product-related niche site, you also might find affiliatetheme.io as an awesome choice. To help find the best way to display your product links, this plugin allow you to:
- Filter, sort, and compare products
- Compare prices
- Integrate products via shortcode
- Create landing pages
With the subscription price of 86.31 USD for the first year, it’s a bit more pricey than AAWP and ASA 2 Pro. But like the pricing design of the other two, affiliatetheme.io also offers a 50% discount on license renewals.
Apart from being a great WordPress plugin for Amazon partners, you can also use it for your affiliate networks from eBay, TradeDoubler, affili.net, belboon, ADCELL and several others.
I just love how highly customizable affiliatetheme.io is. Fast loading time. Really simple user interface. Even as a beginner, you can explore an abundance of theme options even with absolutely zero programming skills. But if you still need assistance, you can also count on its support forum for a quick and competent fix.
I personally use this on my niche site outdoor-handys.com, so take a look and make a verdict for affilatetheme.io yourself!
6. FAQ
Still curious about how WordPress plugins for Amazon affiliates work? Check out this section where I shed light to commonly asked questions.
6.1 What is the Amazon PA API?
The Amazon Product Advertising API (PA API) is tool that links you to Amazon’s product database. I doubt that you’ll have the patience to manually check hundreds of listings, so allow it to take care of retrieving the following product data for you:
- Prices
- Availability (in stock, not in stock)
- Prime availability
- Product length, size and weight
- Shipping costs
- Product description
- Sales rank
- Product pictures
Most likely, you need access to the PA API to run your favorite Amazon plugins.
6.2 Why do I need an Amazon plugin at all?
Simply burying a link into your published content is hardly enough. With an Amazon plugin, you can make your affiliate links look more beautiful and visible on your website. Watch your conversion and commission levels sky rocket after an efficiently planned installation!
Believe it or not – using Amazon plugins gave me 30 to 40% higher click rates.
6.3 Do the plugins still work after switching off the Amazon PA API 4.0?
Rest assured, all WordPress plugins I introduced you to will still work after March 9, 2020, when the PA API 4.0 will be switched off. AAWP, ASA 1 and ASA 2 Pro already support the new PA API 5.0, and WooZone does not need the PA API at all.
However, don’t forget to check if it’s necessary to delete your existing API keys and regenerate them once.
6.4 Do the affiliate plugins also work with WordPress.com?
I’m sorry, but I cannot guarantee that. WordPress is very restrictive in allowable plugins, so always check for compatibility issues before subscribing to any.
Take the WooZone for example. Despite its trusted features, it’s on the list of WordPress’ unsupported plugins.
During the first 30 days you have 8650 queries per day at your disposal. The number of your queries after the first 30 days is based on your affiliate turnover of the last 30 days according to the Developer Guide.
6.6 How do I get the API Keys?
You can easily generate the API keys through Affiliate Dashboard under Tools > Product Advertising API > Manage your access data. Don’t worry, you no longer have to create an Amazon AWS account just to do this.
Try not to lose both your Access Key ID and the Secret Access Key! You might need them later. So if you’re quite forgetful, write them down on your journal or save it in your favorite password vault.
