As Affiliate Marketers, we are building a business online. There are many aspects to this business and it helps a great deal if we have the proper tools.

We can’t just build a website and expect it to get traffic without implementing things like SEO and keyword research. So I have put together a list of the top 5 Affiliate Marketing tools that are a must-have for any Affiliate Marketer.

AFFILIATE DISCLOSURE: By clicking the affiliate links on this page I may earn a small commission from Wealthy Affiliate, SEMRUSH, Techsmith, Screencast-o-Matic, or Grammarly (at no cost to you). Should you use these links, I appreciate your support! Click here for the full disclosure.

Keyword Research

Keyword research is always at the top of my list. Why? Because without keywords helping to generate relevant content for your niche, to have no organic traffic, and would likely have a hard time getting traffic from Pay Per Click as well.

There are few very good keyword research tools out there, so I will give to the top two on my list.

SEMRUSH

SEMRUSH is a SaaS (Software as a Service) platform that delivers not only keyword research, but a complete suite of 30 different tools that help to manage your online business. With tools ranging from Keyword Research to Social Media Tracking, SEMRUSH has it all. Pricing starts at $99.95/mo. for their Pro version. You can read my full SEMRUSH review here.

Jaaxy

Jaaxy is one of my favorite tools for Keyword Research. Created for Affiliate Marketers by the same guys who bring to Wealthy Affiliate. Jaaxy is a keyword research tool created for Affiliate Marketers by Affiliate Marketers. Jaaxy shines as a keyword and niche research tool rolled into one.

With many features such as Search Analysis and Site Rankings, Jaaxy is a quality Keyword Research tool. Pricing starts at $49/mo for Jaaxy Pro. However, if you are a Wealthy Affiliate premium member, to get Jaaxy Lite for Free. And you can, of course, sign up for a Free starter membership Jaaxy as well. You can read my full review of Jaaxy here.

Website SEO

Second, on my list is Website SEO. With a website that is not SEO Optimized, it would be very hard to get any rankings at all in the search engines. Website SEO also forms the foundation of your SEO strategy. This is why is it second on my list of the top 5 Affiliate Marketing tools. No rankings equals no traffic. Not organic anyways.

Most Affiliate Marketers use WordPress as their hosting platform. Not just because it is free, but it requires virtually no technical skills to get a WordPress Website up and running. And there are themes and plugins for just about everything, including eCommerce. Many are also free. Currently, the WordPress platform makes up about 30% of all websites. That’s a sizable chunk.

For website SEO on WordPress, my top plugins are All in one SEO and Yoast SEO. These two plugins are the top contenders in the WordPress world. You’re going to end up using one or the other. In my opinion, they both offer all the features you’ll likely need with their free versions.

You’ll also find that both offer basically the same set of core functions. There are a few differences with some more advanced features such as On-page Content Analysis which is only offered in Yoast, but then All in One SEO offers a wider range of Social Media options. You’ll also find the Premium version of All in One SEO is much cheaper in the long run as to can use it on an unlimited number of sites, where Yoast only gives to one site for their Premium version which is priced with $10 of All in One SEO’s premium version.

Grammar And Spell Check

Grammar and spelling are enormously important in your website content. They are relevant to every niche and every website. You’re not going to gain a lot of trust from your readers if to can’t tell the difference between There, They’re, and Their. Your audience notices these grammatical errors and it doesn’t make your website content look professional.

Have to ever run across a website that looks like it was written by a Chinese college student who only had one English class? Yea, to don’t hang around that site very long.

Truth be told, many of us (myself included) didn’t make very good grades in English class, and tend to make a multitude of grammatical and spelling errors with every article we write. To the rescue are free online grammar and spell checkers. Thank goodness someone created these things!

You can find a lot of free and paid grammar and spell checker tools on the internet. Many, if not most, require to copy and paste your article text into an online tool that does the dirty work. I don’t know about to, but that is one step too many for me.

That is why I absolutely love Grammarly! Grammarly can integrate with Google Chrome web browser, Microsoft Office, and Windows. What that means is that to can grammar and spell-check your WordPress articles on the fly, right from the WordPress Editor. The same is true if to prefer to write in Microsoft Word. So no more copy and paste!

The best thing about Grammarly is that the free version gives most users everything they need, including the integration to Chrome, Windows, and Office. And if to need more, to can sign up for their Pro version for just $12/mo. at the time of this writing. So it’s a win-win no matter which version to need.

Your articles will definitely look and read better with Grammarly in your toolbox. You can read my full review of Grammarly here.

Video – Screen Casting

They used to say a picture was worth a thousand words. Well, these days it’s a Video! Video is quickly becoming one of, if not the top, marketing medium these days. Showing someone how to do something, or how something works by using video is incredibly useful in your marketing strategy.

Software to record your screen, and your face at the same time for that matter, have been around for over a decade. And Affiliate Marketers have been using them for just as long. More recently, however, YouTube has become a big marketing medium. You see people becoming famous on YouTube and making a lot of money at it at the same time. Why? People like video, even more than pictures.

Below are my top two contenders for Screen Recording Software

Screencast-o-Matic

Screencast-o-Matic is at the top of my list for screencasting software. It’s got all the necessary features to need to efficiently record your screen and system sound, as well as adding a secondary video source such as a webcam. It comes with a full-featured editing suite as well. One great feature the Deluxe version has is the ability to take Screen Captures. There is a free version to can try out (Watermarked), but the Deluxe paid version is just $1.50/mo. Paid yearly. For a $18 one year subscription that’s pretty great. You can learn more about Screencast-o-Matic here.

Camtasia

Camtasia has been around for a while and well-liked among Affiliate Marketers. It’s dubbed as the best all in one Screen Recorder and Editor. Although a bit more pricey at a flat $249, it allows you to make professional-quality videos on both Windows and Mac. You can also get a bundle of Camtasia and Snagit (Screen capture) for just $279. Learn more about Camtasia here.

Using video in your articles is a great way to educate your readers on a product and adds real value to your product reviews as well.

Social Media

Our last tool on our top 5 Affiliate Marketing tools list is Social Media. Today, social media is a huge part of our lives. Do to know anyone that doesn’t have a Facebook page or Twitter account? Many of us communicate more on social media than we do on email. Sharing experiences, photos, and other information, it’s how we are connecting with our friends and coworkers.

Social media has also become a great place for Affiliate Marketing as well. Most of us already have a social media following so it is an easy way to reach out to an already established base of people who likely share some same interests that to do.

When using social media you need to apply similar rules as you do with your Affiliate website. You want to share useful information most of the time, and only share or promote a product on about 20% of your social media posts. You don’t want to alienate people by sending promotions all the time.

What social media networks should you use? There are a plethora of social media sites out there today. You’ll only want to pick two or three, as trying to use every social media outlet there is will quickly consume all your time. So, choose two or three and make sure to stay active.

For WordPress there are a number of social media plugins to can use. Sociable is a decent one, but there are others.

Also, note that Google has taken notice of social media on your websites. Sites with social media are becoming well-liked with the search engines. So just adding the ability for users to share your post on social websites is a big plus in more than one way.

There are some additional social media tools worth mentioning. There are a number of social media sharing tools out there today that make coordinating your social media posts easier.

Buffer allows you to create the perfect post for each social network, all in one place. You simply connect your Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or LinkedIn accounts and to can plan and publish content for each of your social media networks. Buffer has free and paid plans depending on what your needs are. For just two or three accounts, the free plan should work for most people.

Hootsuite is another social media management tool. Hootsuite allows you to manage up to 10 social media account with their Pro Plan for just $29/mo. You also get auto scheduling of posts and real-time analytics. Pro also has a free 30-day trial.

Some additional resources on social media include this great discussion on social media management and the GaryVee Content Strategy.

Conclusion

I’ve listed the top 5 Affiliate Marketing tools which I believe are most important in today’s market. We’ve talked about Keyword Research, Website SEO, Grammar/Spellcheckers, Screencasting, and Social Media. These are all key to developing and maintaining an Affiliate Marketing business and should be part of every Affiliate Marketers toolkit. Many of these tools are free or quite inexpensive, and certainly very easy to get access to. 

I hope this article has provided you some insightful and useful information. I’d love to hear from you. Please leave a comment or question below and I’ll get right back to you.

To Your Massive Success,

Michael
AffiliateCash101.com