Is there a free WP plugin to turn keywords into affiliate links?

by msafi
15 replies
I want a plugin where I can specify a keyword and have it automatically made into anchor text (hyperlink) for my affiliate link. It would be great if the plugin also had link cloacking abilities. Simply change the direct affiliate link to something like, mywebsite.com/aff/productname/ and have that URL redirect to the affiliate link.

There's this plugin, which costs $97. And in the video they're showing a very old interface of WordPress, so I'm suspecting the plugin isn't properly maintained. And it's way overpriced. Creating a similar plugin would take no more than 2-days from an experienced WP developer.

I'm looking for a free solution.

Anyone?
#affiliate #free #keywords #links #plugin #turn
  • Profile picture of the author timpears
    I know I have seen one before but couldn't remember the name so I went on to Google and searched and it looks like there are lots of them, and I saw some that are free, maybe all of them, I didn't look that long. Just see what you like in this list.

    http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=wordpress+keywords+into+links+free& aq=f&oq=&aqi=
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    Tim Pears

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  • Profile picture of the author MarkWrites
    I've used aLinks on a number of blogs, it's free and fairly simple. It may work for your needs.
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    • Profile picture of the author msafi
      Originally Posted by timpears View Post

      I know I have seen one before but couldn't remember the name so I went on to Google and searched and it looks like there are lots of them, and I saw some that are free, maybe all of them, I didn't look that long. Just see what you like in this list.

      http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=wordpress+keywords+into+links+free& aq=f&oq=&aqi=
      The twentieth hit is this post :-|
      Originally Posted by MarkWrites View Post

      I've used aLinks on a number of blogs, it's free and fairly simple. It may work for your needs.
      Thanks for the recommendation. aLinks even contains built-in analytics! It's very extensive.

      However, it doesn't have cloaking functionality. It seems to be no longer maintained. And it has caused instability problems for some people here.



      Thanks for the recommendations anyway. I may just make my own simple plugin for this purpose.
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      • Profile picture of the author MarkWrites
        Originally Posted by msafi View Post

        Thanks for the recommendation. aLinks even contains built-in analytics! It's very extensive.

        However, it doesn't have cloaking functionality. It seems to be no longer maintained. And it has caused instability problems for some people here.


        I haven't had any problems, but don't use if for affiliate links as much as other internal link building needs.
        Thanks for the recommendations anyway. I may just make my own simple plugin for this purpose.
        If you do make your own... uh, I'd be willing to test drive it.

        Good luck.
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  • Profile picture of the author MemberWing
    I am currently working on plugin that does exactly that:
    - wrap affiliate links around keywords defined by search pattern and even regular expression
    - wrap affiliate links around images
    - cloak affiliate links as you wish
    - google anti-slap features / smart redirects

    All automated.

    PS: just got $70 commission from sale off the site where I testing alpha version of this plugin with anti-slap technology. Nice proof of concept!

    Gleb
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    • Profile picture of the author thecableguy
      If I remember correctly gocodes does something like that and it's free. WordPress › GoCodes WordPress Plugins

      There's a WSO going on for a plugin that's very inexpensive and it post dates the links as well if I remember correctly.

      http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...ore-money.html

      To cloak the link just make a redirect link before you enter it into the plugin. I think gocodes will cloak the links without having to create a redirect.

      Alan
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      • Profile picture of the author msafi
        Originally Posted by MemberWing View Post

        I am currently working on plugin that does exactly that:
        - wrap affiliate links around keywords defined by search pattern and even regular expression
        - wrap affiliate links around images
        - cloak affiliate links as you wish
        - google anti-slap features / smart redirects

        All automated.

        PS: just got $70 commission from sale off the site where I testing alpha version of this plugin with anti-slap technology. Nice proof of concept!

        Gleb
        Hi Gleb,

        I also created my own, but there's a little issue. My plugin takes $content from the_content filter, processes <p> by <p> using an HTML parser and then converts the keywords to hyperlinks. The problem is that it can't tell if the keyword is already a hyperlink, so you could end up with something like this <p><a href="keyword.com"><a href="keyword.com">keyword</a></a>. It gets uglier when the hyperlink is made of multiple words!

        Originally Posted by alanfukuda View Post

        If I remember correctly gocodes does something like that and it's free. WordPress › GoCodes WordPress Plugins

        There's a WSO going on for a plugin that's very inexpensive and it post dates the links as well if I remember correctly.

        http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...ore-money.html

        To cloak the link just make a redirect link before you enter it into the plugin. I think gocodes will cloak the links without having to create a redirect.

        Alan
        GoCodes just does redirection, no? For redirections, I use the popular WP plugin Redirection. The other plugin in the WSO looks interesting. I wonder if it has a solution for the problem I described to Gleb above.
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        • Profile picture of the author MemberWing
          Hi Mohammed,
          that's why i was wondering about "takes 2 days to create".
          Lots of little things to take care of to do job properly. And some of them are quite time consuming.
          Admin interface could get pretty complex too.

          Gleb

          Originally Posted by msafi View Post

          Hi Gleb,

          I also created my own, but there's a little issue. My plugin takes from the_content filter, processes <p> by <p> using an HTML parser and then converts the keywords to hyperlinks. The problem is that it can't tell if the keyword is already a hyperlink, so you could end up with something like this <p><a href="keyword.com"><a href="keyword.com">keyword</a></a>. It gets uglier when the hyperlink is made of multiple words!
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      • Profile picture of the author LivingCovers
        Originally Posted by alanfukuda View Post

        If I remember correctly gocodes does something like that and it's free. WordPress › GoCodes WordPress Plugins

        There's a WSO going on for a plugin that's very inexpensive and it post dates the links as well if I remember correctly.

        http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...ore-money.html

        To cloak the link just make a redirect link before you enter it into the plugin. I think gocodes will cloak the links without having to create a redirect.

        Alan
        You took the words right out of my mouth, Alan. I've heard some people mention this plugin. Why don't you give it a go? There's also one called wp-affiliate-pro. You can google this and find out more about it's features. It comes with a fee attached though!:rolleyes:

        Regards,

        Olatunde.
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  • Profile picture of the author jasonl70
    I don't know the name of it, but there's a plug-in that can 'cloak' your links and track some basic analytics for them. It's free - I found it on the wordpress site. You could use in it conjunction with the plug-in mentioned above that didn't cloak your links.
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    -Jason

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  • Profile picture of the author MemberWing
    PS: today - you don't want to have any affiliate links or even cloaked affiliate redirects that are visible to Google. That is unless you don't care about your organic rankings.
    Google is officially going after "thin" affiliate sites (mainly reducing organic rankings of).
    Definition of "thin" is up to google of course.
    So unless you have some more countermeasures for that - things need to be a bit more complicated than just pretty redirects to affiliate sites.
    (I am taking care of that in my upcoming plugin)

    Gleb
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  • Profile picture of the author Gail Sober
    Here's the one I used to replace aLinks when it quit working after one of the WP upgrades. So far no problems and I'm running latest WP.

    WordPress › SEO Smart Links WordPress Plugins
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  • Profile picture of the author togdil
    Lots of plugin suggestions here. Maybe I can use some of them if they are free for my next blog which I am planning now.
    Thanks all.
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    • Profile picture of the author msafi
      Originally Posted by MemberWing View Post

      PS: today - you don't want to have any affiliate links or even cloaked affiliate redirects that are visible to Google. That is unless you don't care about your organic rankings.
      Google is officially going after "thin" affiliate sites (mainly reducing organic rankings of).
      Definition of "thin" is up to google of course.
      So unless you have some more countermeasures for that - things need to be a bit more complicated than just pretty redirects to affiliate sites.
      (I am taking care of that in my upcoming plugin)

      Gleb
      I'm happy to hear that Google is cracking down on thin affiliate sites.

      True review sites should provide real value to the reader; shouldn't just be a bunch of links just meant to register cookies.

      Having said that, I think it's gonna be tough for a thin affiliate site to trick Google into not knowing that the links are affiliate.

      Originally Posted by Gail Sober View Post

      Here's the one I used to replace aLinks when it quit working after one of the WP upgrades. So far no problems and I'm running latest WP.

      WordPress › SEO Smart Links WordPress Plugins
      This is fantastic! It's snappy and seems reliable. Since it doesn't have built in cloaking, I'll just use it in conjunction with Redirection.
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