This post contains affiliate links. For more information, visit my disclosure page.
In this resource page I would like to share with you some essential affiliate marketing tools for beginners that have personally helped me build a profitable affiliate website.
These tools are used by many other successful affiliate marketers as well, I'm sure you're going to build successful affiliate marketing campaigns if you make use of these amazing affiliate marketing tools.
Are You a Newbie on a Tight Budget?
Then you want to jump to the section where I show you the perfect starter package for newbies!
This package is a set of tools you need to build a full-time income from affiliate marketing by using only the essential affiliate marketing tools.
When you make enough money you obviously want to invest in more advanced affiliate marketing tools to scale your business and earn more money!
Without that out of the way, let's get into the post!
Here's how I structured this resource page make sure you use this quick navigation menu to quickly navigate this post!
Get Started with Affiliate Marketing Training
1) Wealthy Affiliate
If you want to get started with Affiliate marketing and you're a beginner Wealthy Affiliate is the major affiliate marketing tool you will ever need.
Wealthy Affiliate is NOT just a tool because it's a huge affiliate marketing resource organized into small biteable step by step affiliate marketing lessons and videos that are just perfect for newbies.
Within Wealthy Affiliate, you will find lots of great affiliate marketing tools which are going to allow you to build a profitable affiliate marketing website.
So Wealthy Affiliate in a few words is:
- An Affiliate Marketing training
- A set of affiliate marketing tools
- A community full of successful affiliate marketers
- Live affiliate marketing webinars
- & more.
So Wealthy Affiliate is a one in all affiliate marketing suite that is designed for newbies to build a full-time affiliate marketing business.
That's why it's my #1 recommended affiliate marketing training and resource.
Thanks to WA you can get free affiliate marketing lessons and videos just to get a taste of how the training is like and if it's for you.
Pricing: $0 Starter Membership, Premium Membership: $19 first month, $49 the following months, Yearly Premium Membership $359, Black friday 49% discount: $299/Year
Website Builder & Hosting
2) SiteRubix
If you did not build your affiliate website yet, then you need to check out Siterubix.
Siterubix is a website builder tool and also a hosting service.
What makes Siterubix stand out from other site builders and hosting services is their ridiculously easy to use website builder.
You can build your own WordPress website with a few clicks literally.
Just watch this quick video below to see how you can build your own website with Siterubix.
Siterubix is what I have used to build this site that you're reading right now which brings me over 1000 visitors per day and makes me some good affiliate commissions.
If you want to start a profitable affiliate website like mine you can build it below by using Siterubix!
I'd like to point out that if you're a Wealthy Affiliate member, Siterubix is included in your membership!
Pricing: $49/Month at Wealthy Affiliate
Keyword Research Tools
3) Jaaxy
If you want to earn affiliate commissions you need traffic and if you want traffic you want to target the right keywords that will bring you targeted traffic.
That's why one of the most essential affiliate marketing tools you will ever need is a good keyword research tool.
I personally use Jaaxy because it's SO easy to use and it's NOT complicated as most keyword research tools online.
Jaaxy allows you to easily find keywords that:
- Bring lots of monthly searches
- Have low competition
Thanks to Jaaxy I can easily find amazing profitable keywords which will bring me traffic that eventually will translate into high affiliate commissions.
I highly recommend you to put Jaaxy as one of your major affiliate marketing tools especially if you're a beginner looking for a straightforward keyword tool!
You can give Jaaxy a try by typing a keyword below!
Pricing: light plan is included at Wealthy Affiliate. pro plan: $49/Month
4) Keywords Everywhere
While Jaaxy is my main keyword tool I also use Keywords Everywhere which is a browser extention which shows me valuable data as I type keywords on Google.
This will allow me to quickly see how much traffic and competition a keyword has before I go type it into Jaaxy.
When I find a promising keyword I just go to double check it into Jaaxy.
Keywords Everywhere is free to use so make sure you install it it's really useful.
Here's how it looks like:
Pricing: Free
Premium WordPress Plugins
5) Thrive Themes
It's no secret that a successful affiliate marketing website needs a really good theme that looks professional and that is not slow.
That's why I use Thrive Themes because their themes look VERY good and simple without any gimmicks.
What I like about Thrive Themes is they are designed to increase conversions.
If you have a standard WordPress theme on your affiliate site you really want to check out Thrive Themes to enhance your website look and also performance.
You can easily boost your affiliate commissions by just installing a theme from Thrive theme which is going to be a great tool to take your affiliate business to the next level!
Pricing: Thrive Themes are realising a new Themes builder (I'll update this when they release the prices)
6) Thrive Architect
I use Thrive Architect to write all my blog posts and affiliate marketing reviews and I simply love it.
Thrive Architect is a page builder and blog post editor that replaces the standard WordPress editor.
With Thrive Architect you have the freedom to add any element you want into your blog post.
On top of that, Thrive Architect allows you to write amazing content that looks really good on all devices.
I highly recommend you to add Thrive Architect to your affiliate marketing toolset because you're NOT going to regret it.
If you want to stop publishing boring content and give life to your blog posts you definitely want to check out Thrive Architect!
Pricing: Single License: $67 one-time payment
7) Thrive Comments
Thrive Comments is another essential affiliate marketing tool for my website.
This premium WordPress plugin replaces the regular WordPress comments system and adds amazing features like:
- Allows members to vote or down vote comments (boosts engagements)
- Automatically add affiliate links when certain words are typed.
- Redirects commenters to other pages
- Make the comment section look great on mobile devices
These amazing features have allowed me to dramatically get more comments to my site and also increase affiliate sales.
That's why I think Thrive Comments is another must have affiliate marketing tool!
On top of that, it's NOT even expensive, have a look below.
Pricing: 1 License Pack: $39 One-time fee
8) Clickfunnels
To be honest with you Clickfunnels is a tool that I don't use anymore, I used it once because I was really curious to try it as lots of people love it.
When I used it for a month I fell in love with it but I stopped using it because I found cheaper alternatives.
Clickfunnels is an affiliate marketing software that allows you to EASILY create profitable affiliate marketing sales funnels.
If you want to create a sales funnel without headaches you really need to check out Clickfunnels.
Keep in mind that this software is NOT cheap but if your affiliate business is generating for you a good income then you must try Clickfunnels.
Check out the prices below and don't miss their free 14 days trial!
Pricing: Startup-$97 per month, Full Suite – $297 per month
Affiliate Networks & Programs
9) Panthera Network
As an affiliate marketer you want to earn high commissions by promoting affiliate products that will make you a good income.
That's why you need to sign up for some good affiliate programs and networks.
One of the best affiliate networks that I really love is called Panthera Network.
Since my blog is in the make money online niche I promote lots of surveys and work from home websites.
So instead of signing up for each survey and get paid from multiple sites I just use Panthera Network which is a network where I find tons of surveys like Swagbucks and Inboxdollars.
I can promote as many surveys and offers as I want and get paid from one network which is Panthera Network.
If you're in the make money online niche, Panthera Network is a must and I prefer it over Maxbounty as the pay is higher and they have more offers to promote.
Pricing: free
10) Amazon Affiliate Program
Amazon is a great affiliate program for people that want to promote physical products.
If you have a niche site then Amazon is a great affiliate program where you can find millions of physical products to promote.
The Amazon affiliate program is free to join.
Pricing: free
11) Rakuten Marketing (Udemy)
Another affiliate program I like is called Rakuten Marketing, I use this affiliate marketing program because it allows me to promote digital courses from Udemy.
You know Udemy is a popular platform where you can find tons of courses, these courses sell like hotcakes that's why I love promoting relevant Udemy courses on my website.
In order to promote the Udemy courses, you must sign up as an affiliate on the Rakuten Marketing website.
Pricing: free
12) Clickbank
Clickbank is a great digital products marketplace where you can promote lots of digital products.
Sometimes I do promote some Clickbank products related to my niche because the affiliate commissions are good.
But I make sure to only promote good products because there are many scammers within the Clickbank marketplace that make money selling half baked digital products.
Pricing: free
Advertising Networks (Display Ads on Your Site)
13) Mediavine
Mediavine is a really amazing advertising network.
I have tried many advertising networks in the past but they literally pay you peanuts.
Mediavine pays REALLY well, I really can make money with little traffic thanks to this amazing ad network.
I'm not hyping it up to make you join Mediavine under my link or something.
Mediavine does NOT even have an affiliate program I just want you to know how amazing and serious they are.
They have a great support team that is always available to support you.
I know I'm using so many superlatives but I just love Mediavine.
If you want to sign up for Mediavine your blog must get at least 25,000 sessions per month on Google Analytics.
I signed up because my site does bring more than 25,000 sessions and that's the best thing I did.
If you want to add an extra income beside your affiliate commissions you really want to go sign up for Mediavine!
Pricing: free
14) WordPress Ad Manager
If you want to show ads on your site then you must use WordPress Ad Manager because this WordPress plugin allows you to easily add banners and ads whenever you want.
If you want to have the freedom to add ads inside your content, before or after your content this plugin gives you the freedom to do so.
Pricing: free
Essential SEO tools & Plugins
15) Google Search Console
One of the most essential affiliate marketing tools that any affiliate marketer must have is Google Search Console.
I see many affiliate marketers make this mistake of not using Google Search Console because they don't know its benefits.
GSC allows you to index your website and blog posts faster and it also gives you gold data to use to increase your affiliate website's performance in the search results.
It's also useful when it comes to notifying you when there are technical errors on your site.
So not using Google Search Console is a big mistake.
Pricing: free
16) All In One SEO
If you want to make sure you affiliate website ranks high on Google then you definitely want to install the All in One SEO plugin.
If you're a newbie when it comes to SEO but you want a tool that will make your affiliate marketing campaigns get results then this plugin will give you the right SEO setup to rank higher.
All in one SEO will allow to add SEO friendly meta titles and descriptions and also create sitemaps that the search engines use to index your website.
Here's a good guide that shows you how to use All in one SEO.
Pricing: free
17) Google Analytics
If you don't track your affiliate website's performance and stats it's like throwing arrows in the dark.
Google Analytics is an essential affiliate marketing tool to increase your affiliate income by studying your visitors and how they behave with your website.
Pricing: free
18) Moz Domain Authority
As an affiliate marketer you must know what is the domain authority of your website and your competitors websites.
Domain Authority (aka DA) is a metric that Google and other search engines use to rank your site, the more DA you have the more rankings you will get.
If you have no idea what Domain Authority is, it's really time to familiarize yourself with it.
Once you do you want to install the MOZ domain authority toolbar which you right in your browser the domain authority any site you visit.
This is one of the most useful affiliate marketing tools you need.
Pricing: free
19) Copyscape
Copyscape is an amazing tool that allows you to scan your affiliate marketing content and make sure it's 100% unique.
You know any copied content is a no-no for Google so if you want to get the Google love you want to make sure your content is unique.
I like to use Copyscape because sometimes I buy articles from writers and I like to use Copyscape to make sure it's unique and plagiarism free.
Pricing: free
Essential Email Marketing Tools
20) Aweber
Here's another super useful affiliate marketing tool that any serious affiliate marketer should NOT live without.
If you're NOT using email marketing then you're missing out on tons of money, email marketing allows you to sell 10x times more without being spammy or creepy!
Aweber is an amazing tool that will enable you to send email messages to your subscribers so easily.
As a newbie, you will appreciate Aweber because it makes email marketing a breeze!
You literally just have to drag & drop thanks to Aweber!
Pricing: $19/month
21) Thrive Leads
Since email marketing is profitable and an essential part of affiliate marketing you want to do your best to get as many email subscribers as you can.
The more subscribers you have the more money you're going to earn.
That's why I use Thrive Leads which is an amazing premium WordPress plugin which helps you create AMAZING and high converting optin forms, slides, pop ups and more.
All the pop ups or sliders you see on my site are from Thrive Leads.
This is a really good affiliate marketing tool that you should invest in and it only costs a small one time fee! Really good investement!
Pricing: One-time fee: $67
Stock Photos & Graphics Tools
22) Free Stock Photos Resources
To make your affiliate content look stunning you want to use stock photos because they are make your blog posts and reviews look more professional.
You don't have to be a photographer to add great photos to your site!
There are many good free stock photography websites where you can get stunning free loyalty imagery.
Here are the top 3 I recommend.
23) Canva
Your affiliate content need some good graphics.
I personally use Canva because it's such a powerful and very easy to use tool to create custom and well designed graphics for your blog posts and social media posts as well.
Canva is free to use and it's a must have tool for bloggers and affiliate marketers.
Pricing: Free
24) Awesome Screenshots
I use Awesome Screenshots to take a screenshot of any website I visit it's a really handy tool that enables you to easily add screenshots to your content.
Awesome screenshots is free to use and it allows you to add arrows, text and many other things to your screenshots to make your posts more engaging.
This is a browser extension that you can install on your Google Chrome or Firefox browser.
Pricing: Free
25) TinyPNG
While graphics and photos are important for your content you want to make sure your photos files are NOT heavy otherwise it will decrease the loading speed of your site.
A slow loading site will irritate your website visitors and also Google!
TinyPNG is a simple easy to use tool that will help you resize your photos and make them lighter!
All you have to do is upload the image you want to resize to TinyPNG and they will do the magic for you!
Pricing: Free
26) Fiverr
Fiverr is my go to site if I'm looking for professional graphics services or for creating a logo for my site or something like that.
You can outsource many things within Fiverr at good prices.
However, I don't recommend you to buy content from Fiverr or SEO services because they might hurt your site!
Pricing: Most Fiverr gigs will cost you less than $10.
Social Media Tools
27) Buffer
In order to get more traffic to your affiliate marketing campaigns you need to be active on social media sites as well.
We all know that it's not a walk in the park to regularly be active on social media especially after you have just spent 7 hours crafting a blog post and publish it.
That's why I love Buffer because from one platform I can share my content on all my social media profiles with just one click.
On top of that, I can schedule out my social media posts which is really time saving.
This is a must have tool for affiliate marketers!
Pricing: free plan: you can add 3 social accounts, Pro plan $19 ou can add 8 social accounts
Affiliate Marketing & SEO Resources
28) Backlinko
If you're into affiliate marketing then SEO is something that you need to constantly learn about and always have the update info about.
On of my favorite SEO resources is Backlinko.com.
The owner of this site Brian Dean really knows what he is talking about when it comes to SEO.
He shares with his readers SEO tips for free that most online gurus would easily charge you thousands of dollars for.
I'm not kidding the SEO knowledge that Brian Deans shares in his blog for free is gold.
29) Neil Patel
Another SEO expert that I respect and admire is called Neil Patel, I'm a regular reader of Neil Patel as well I follow him everywhere on social media, Youtube and I'm also a subscriber to his email newsletter.
If you want to learn the latest SEO techniques and ways to boost your affiliate and online business income you want to visit his site NeilPatel.com.
30) The Smart Passive Income Blog
If you're looking for the best affiliate marketing resource I think it's the Smart Passive Income Blog.
If you're an affiliate marketer that want to take your affiliate marketing business to the next level you definitely want to follow the Smart Passive Income blog.
Because in my opinion Pat Flynn is one of the most successful affiliate marketers I ever know.
31) DotCom Secrets
Another great affiliate marketing resource is this amazing book by Russell Brunson which is going to teach you the secrets of how Russel creates super converting sales funnels.
This book is 100% free you only pay for the shipping.
I highly recommend you to get this free book because it's simply an amazing book where you will learn some golden info!
If you're serious about your affiliate marketing business you definitely don't want to miss this book!
Pricing: Free
Essential Tools to Increase Pagespeed
32) MaxCDN
If you want your affiliate site to make you the highest conversions possible it needs to load fast.
One of the best ways to make your site load fast for all your visitors is to invest in a good CDN (Content Delivery Network) service.
A CDN will deliver your content to your readers based on their location and this is going to make your site faster.
MaxCDN is the best CDN provider I know and on top of that, it's affordable!
Pricing: Basic plan $9/month
33) SiteSpeed Feature by Wealthy Affiliate
If you have built your site with Siterubix and Wealthy Affiliate then you will enjoy some amazing sitespeed features and a caching system that is included in your membership.
As you can see below with just a toggle you can enable some amazing site speed magic on your affiliate sites!
34) GTMetrix
If you have no idea how fast or slow your site is then you want to check out GTMetrix to find out what is your speed score.
You will be also given tips & recommendations on how to speed up your site.
GTMetrix is a free amazing tool that you need to add to your affiliate marketing arsenal!
Essential WordPress Plugins & Tools
35) Pretty Links
Pretty Links is an amazing affiliate tracking software that is going to make your affiliate links look beautiful.
We all know how affiliate links are long and have messy numbers and characters, with Pretty Links you can make your affiliate links look short and clean.
You're also able to track your affiliate links clicks which is a plus to download this WordPress Plugin.
Pretty Links is a good alternative to Linktrust which is an expensive affiliate tracking software.
36) Grammarly
Grammarly is one of the tools that I can't live without.
Grammarly allows me to fix my ugly grammar mistakes as I am writing into my notepad, WordPress editor, Messenger or anywhere I type in where Grammarly is enabled.
You know as an affiliate marketer your content should not have a lot of grammatical mistakes.
I know my grammar game is not strong so Grammarly really helps me write content with less grammar issues.
37) Evernote
Since you're an affiliate marketer you need to come up & find lots of keywords ideas to write about.
Since I write a lot of content on my site I need to constantly come up with keyword ideas.
Sometimes I'd be sitting on the train and then a great content idea hit my mind, that's when I pull out my phone and type the content idea into my Evernote app.
Yeah, that's how amazing Evernote is, and as an affiliate marketer I really encourage you to download it it's really useful!
38) Hemmingway
Hemmingway is another great tool I like, so I just need to open the Hemmingway website paste my content and it will highlight any sentences that are hard to read.
It will even give your writing a readability score.
I encourage you to use Hemmingway to make your writing clearer and bold!
39) Broken Links Checker
If your site has tons of broken links then you're going to miss out on lots of traffic and affiliate sales as well.
Google and your visitors hate broken links that's why you need to make sure your website links work properly!
Broken Links Checker is a really good tool that will automatically scan your site and show you all the broken links on your site.
After the scan is done all you have to do is check the links and fix them!
If you have a lot of broken links and you fix them you will surely notice a boost of SEO traffic!
Broken Links Checker, by the way, is a browser extension.
How Much I Spend per Year
Here's how much I spend on the paid affiliate marketing tools that I used for my affiliate marketing websites.
- Domain name ($13.99/year)
- WA Yearly membership (the black Friday deal $299/year)
- Aweber ($336/year)
- Buffer ($150/year)
- MaxCDN ($108/year)
- Thrive Themes Membership ($228/year)
Total expenses per year = $1134,99
Are these expenses worth it?
Of course they are worth it because without them I wouldn't be earning +$2.500 every month!
But keep in mind that I did not start spending $1134,99 a year from day one!
If you're a newbie here's the starters package I recommend you to get started with as you make more money you want to invest in more premium tools to make your life easier.
That's exactly what I did in the beginning!
Recommended Starters Package
So there are the 4 essential & major affiliate marketing tools that any beginner should start with:
- Affiliate Marketing Training
- Help & Support
- Keyword research tool
- A Domain name
Since you're a newbie I recommend you to sign up for a free Wealthy Affiliate membership.
Because it's the same membership that guided me into creating a full-time affiliate website that generates for me a regular income.
You will also find all the major affiliate marketing tools included like the Jaaxy keyword tool, Siterubix hosting, domain name & more.
Grab Your Wealthy Affiliate FREE Membership Now!
Hi Anis, im a newbie to the affliate world and your article has provided a tremendous insight that i have been looking for. I recently joined wealthy affliate and it is one of the best platform i have seen, very educative and easy to use. Your article has provided me with a lot of other platform i can use tp get the best out of this market. Thanks Anis
I’m glad this helped you, thanks for commenting 🙂
Dear Anis,
Great, what an extensive guide indeed! I really appreciate the research you must have done to gather and compile so much valuable information and this is mind-blowing.
Being a full-time blogger for more than 2 years I am unaware of many of the tools you mentioned in your post and I am book marking this post.
How I wish I had found your post sooner when I first started my affiliate marketing career! I had to go through the old way of trial and errors. This post can be used as a guide and blueprint for affiliate marketers on the Essential Affiliate Marketing Tools.
Thanks a lot for proving a great value via your post.
Much Success!
Paul
Thanks Paul 🙂
Thank you for spending time compiling the list on what we need to be successful as an affiliate marketer. I have just installed Keywords everywhere 🙂 By the way, how come you don’t like Maxbounty as much? I asked because everyone recommends Maxbounty. I don’t know where to begin, I am missing a lot of features that you mentioned lol Thank you for your honesty on price breakdown, hopefully soon I can afford all your suggestions. Cheers!
It’s not that I don’t like Maxbounty, I just prefer Panthera Network because they have more offers and higher payouts, for example with Maxbounty I remember not being able to find lots of offers that I wanted to promote, another thing I hate about Maxbounty which made me leave them forever is the fact they will kill their links when an advertiser stops working for them which causes lots of broken links.
With Panthera Network when an advertisers leaves they won’t kill the links but redirect to a similar offer, this is something good because you won’t have to fix tons of broken links! Which obviously are going to kill your SEO if you don’t fix them asap.
You are spot on with your selections in this post. I actually make use of some of the tools mentioned in this post and they have helped me a lot in my online business. It is like I am not able to do without some of these tools and just wonder how I would have survived without them.
For example, the first important tool you mentioned was what I started with and it gave me a good start in building my website from scratch and I was able to become familiar with the WordPress interface because of this. Also, I make use of Jaaxy and Keywords everywhere. They have been really beneficial and I have been able to get good keywords by just making use of these two keyword tools.
I am a fan of Brian Dean and I make use of his techniques when I create my post. They have been really helpful and have actually benefited me a lot.
Looks like you’re making use of the same affiliate marketing tools I use! They are really useful Jay!
Hey, Anis, what wonderful, powerful and informative article you have here. I am a Wealthy Affiliate member so far, and my only bigs regret is why I did not found lint five years early. I think WA is the best way for anyone starting building a business online. The community is one of the strong points of WA because we help witch ether 24/7/365 because is people all over the world to do that. The price we pay here is so small compare most the programs outside, and I can tell for sure that WA is legitim, not a scam.
Thank you so much for this amazing post and such great information.
Cheers to your success,
Telma
You’re welcome Telma, thanks for the support! Yes Wealthy Affiliate is an amazing place to start your affiliate marketing business!
Nice article there.i can say with all the experience I have with wealth affiliate it has been great so far.
when I started I don’t have any experience but with the tools in place for beginners this like this
I can say have made many progress over some couple of months of join
Thanks for your comments Ajibola! 🙂
Hi Anis,I have read your article fully and understood that this is a step by step guideline for thirty nine essential affiliate tools which will be very useful for beginners who want to learn affiliate marketing and establish their business. I think these resources are unknown to many people yet. I believe this article is very helpful for me also. I am going to save this article in my bookmark list for later use. Thanks for sharing this helpful guideline.
You’re welcome Mazakapon!
Wow! What an amazing resource you have here. I have bookmarked your post 39 Essential Affiliate Marketing Tools for Beginners because there is so much essential information it will take me some time to really hit each one of these items and really understand it. I also want to be able to reference it again and again because this is all just really good stuff to know. From plugins to stock photos to how to increase page speed, you just cover it all. I have been thinking about starting my own website and I am very interested in your recommendation of Wealthy Affiliate, it looks very interesting and just what I am looking for to teach me the things I need to know for a successful website. Thank you for the information
You’re welcome! Thanks for your encouraging words, let me know what you think about Wealthy Affiliate, I’m sure you’re going to love it 🙂
I am already a member of Wealthy Affiliate which is great, but thanks to your review I picked out some other awesome tools that I could be using like Grammarly and Thrive.
I love the layout of your post. Was this thanks to Thrive Architect, and if so does it do graphics as well. How much does it cost and do you find it worth the price?
Hi Michel, yes I wrote this post by using Thrive Architect and I really love it, it’s simple to add any layout or style you want in your posts to make them look good, and it also adds nice effects to the photos I upload to it!