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Selecting the right link management and cloaking tool for your affiliate marketing efforts is crucial for streamlining your operations and enhancing your marketing strategies.
ThirstyAffiliates has established itself as a trusted solution, with over 400,000 downloads. It's known for its reliability and comprehensive feature set, making it a favorite among seasoned marketers.
On the flip side, Lasso represents the newcomer, designed to address the evolving needs of modern affiliate marketers with its fresh approach and features.
In this piece, we’re putting them head to head. We'll dive into the features, user experience, customer support, and pricing of each plugin. Our aim? To equip you with the insights needed to choose the tool that best complements your affiliate marketing objectives.
Introducing ThirstyAffiliates
ThirstyAffiliates revolutionizes the affiliate marketing toolkit for WordPress users, blending powerful link management with innovative engagement features.
This plugin simplifies the often daunting task of managing affiliate links. It allows users to quickly turn long URLs into short, branded versions, making your links cleaner and protecting your commissions from being compromised at the same time.
ThirstyAffiliates saves you a ton of time too. It streamlines the process of inserting affiliate links directly into content, freeing up more time for creative work and reducing the hassle of manual link management.
The plugin raises the bar even further with the introduction of newer features: Product Displays and ThirstyPay™.
With Product Displays, you can create visually appealing showcases for affiliate products directly in your content, making them a natural part of your site’s look.
ThirstyPay™, on the other hand, is geared towards creators looking to sell their own products or content. It simplifies the sales process with customizable payment links, making the purchase journey smooth for your customers.
Couple all that with ThirstyAffiliates' powerful analytics and click tracking, and you've got a comprehensive toolkit that not only simplifies affiliate marketing but also injects it with a dose of innovation to marketing your products.
Introducing Lasso
Lasso positions itself as a strong contender in the WordPress affiliate marketing plugin space. It's aimed at affiliate marketers and bloggers, offering a suite of features that mirror those found in well-established plugins like ThirstyAffiliates.
Echoing ThirstyAffiliates, Lasso places a strong emphasis on enhancing the functionality and aesthetic appeal of affiliate links. Moreover, it steps into similar territory with the ability to create engaging product displays.
Where Lasso adds a unique touch is in its knack for keeping an eye on Amazon links. It's on the lookout for broken links or products hitting the out-of-stock status, similar to how ThirstyAffiliates keeps your links in check, ensuring your affiliate game stays strong.
In essence, Lasso offers a familiar yet distinct experience for managing affiliate links, providing a user-friendly and versatile tool in the competitive landscape of affiliate marketing plugins.
ThirstyAffiliates vs Lasso (Features, Ease of Use, and Pricing)
Choosing between ThirstyAffiliates and Lasso might hinge on each plugin's unique features and their potential to boost your affiliate revenue.
Yet, there's more to consider than just the capabilities on paper. Likely, you're also weighing factors such as user-friendliness, support quality, and pricing models in your decision-making process.
We've taken these considerations into account for you. Let's begin by examining how these two plugins stack up in terms of their features.
ThirstyAffiliates vs Lasso: Features
Both ThirstyAffiliates and Lasso are designed with features that streamline the process of managing affiliate links, but they each have their own strengths.
Let's start off by taking a closer look at what each plugin offers feature-wise. Keep in mind: that it's important to consider how each plugin's specific functionalities support your marketing strategy.
ThirstyAffiliates Features
- Shorten and Brand Affiliate Links: Transform unwieldy affiliate URLs into concise, branded links. By shortening and customizing these links, you enhance their appeal and trustworthiness, encouraging more clicks and improving the overall user experience. READ >> What's the Difference Between Link Cloaking and Link Management
- Product Displays: Elevate the visual appeal of your affiliate links with custom product displays. This feature allows you to craft attractive showcases for your affiliate products directly within your content. You can customize these displays with product information, images, and buy buttons, all designed to blend seamlessly with your site's aesthetic. READ >> See the Difference! Introducing NEW Affiliate Product Displays by ThirstyAffiliates
- Autolink Keywords: This powerful feature streamlines your affiliate marketing efforts by allowing you to pre-define specific keywords that, when detected in your content, are automatically turned into affiliate links. This means less manual linking and more time for content creation. SEE >> Autolink Support Doc
- Smart Uncloaking: For affiliates who work with networks requiring link visibility, like Amazon, uncloaking is a game-changer. It temporarily reveals the original affiliate URL during a site visit to comply with such affiliate programs' terms of service, balancing compliance with conversion optimization. READ >> How to Unlock Amazon Affiliate Links
- Geolocation Redirects: Cater to a global audience with ease. ThirstyAffiliates' Geolocations feature enables you to redirect visitors to different destination URLs based on their geographical location. This ensures that your audience reaches the most relevant pages, potentially boosting your conversion rates. SEE >> Geolocation Support Doc
- Proactive Link Checker and Fixer: Maintain the integrity of your affiliate links with this proactive tool that regularly checks your links for any issues such as breaks or outdated URLs. It alerts you to problems so you can fix them promptly, ensuring your affiliate links are always active and ready to earn. READ >> How Broken Links Can Damage Your Affiliate Marketing Efforts (& How to Fix Them)
- CSV Import/Export: Manage your affiliate links en masse with the CSV Import/Export feature. This functionality allows for the bulk import or export of your affiliate links via CSV files, making link management more efficient and less time-consuming. SEE >> How to Import Your Affiliate Links Support Doc >>
- Amazon API Importing: For Amazon affiliates, this feature simplifies the process of finding and importing products to promote. By connecting directly with Amazon's Product Advertising API, it allows you to search for, select, and import products right into your WordPress site with ease, streamlining your affiliate workflow. SEE >> How To Retrieve Your Amazon Product Advertising API Access Key Support Doc
- NEW ThirstyPay™: Streamline the purchasing process of YOUW OWN products with ThirstyPay. Create customized payment links that guide customers through a more personalized and frictionless checkout experience. ThirstyPay simplifies the transaction process, making it as smooth as possible for your customers from the point of interest to the final purchase. READ >> How to Unlock More Revenue from Your Content with ThirstyPay™
This is by no means a comprehensive list of our features. With ThirstyAffiliates, you'll also get access to an automatic affiliate link disclosure, additional redirect types, WooCommerce integrations, and more!
Features: Lasso
- Custom Affiliate Link Ads: This feature supports the inclusion of product display ads for affiliate items, allowing them to integrate within content or web pages. Comparable to ThristyAffialites Product Displays.
- Affiliate Opportunities: Provides a tool for exploring new affiliate programs and linking opportunities, aiming to match your website’s focus with suitable partners.
- Amazon Integrations: Simplifies the addition of affiliate links and the presentation of product information without the need for Amazon API access.
- Amazon Out-of-Stock Detection: Offers automatic notifications when a product linked through an Amazon affiliate connection becomes unavailable, aiding in timely updates or replacements.
- Broken Link Checker: Identifies and highlights any affiliate links that have stopped working correctly, supporting efforts to maintain a seamless user experience. Comparable to ThristyAffialites 404 Link Checker.
- Affiliate Link Groups: Allows users to organize their affiliate links into categorized groups for better management and efficiency. Comparable to ThristyAffialites Link Categories
- Track Clicks with Google Analytics: Integrates with Google Analytics to provide insights into the performance of affiliate links, including revenue generated and user interaction patterns. Comparable to ThristyAffialites Integration with MonsterInsights
- Nofollow/Noindex Links: Includes options to mark affiliate links as “nofollow” or “noindex,” and to choose if links open in a new tab, offering essential control over link behavior and SEO considerations. Comparable to ThristyAffialites Follow/NoFollow Indexing.
ThirstyAffiliates vs Lasso: Ease of Use
The main goal of an affiliate link plugin is to make your workflow more efficient. If using the plugin isn't quick and easy, then manually adding links might not be much more time-consuming.
Therefore, user-friendliness is an essential consideration when weighing up ThirstyAffiliates vs Lasso.
ThirstyAffiliates Ease of Use
ThirstyAffiliates is designed for easy integration into your WordPress dashboard, allowing you to manage your affiliate links without leaving your website's backend.
Getting the hang of ThirstyAffiliates is easy if you’re used to WordPress. Its setup is clear and simple, with everything labeled and easy to find.
You won’t have to sacrifice features for this simplicity, either. Organizing links into categories and setting up automatic keyword linking are simple tasks. That way you can improve your content without needing to be a tech whiz.
Ease of Use: Lasso
Lasso operates differently from ThirstyAffiliates by hosting its affiliate features on its website, meaning not all functionalities are accessible directly through the WordPress dashboard.
Instead, Lasso provides a separate, standalone dashboard. While it offers a sleek and user-friendly interface for tracking your links, exploring new affiliate opportunities, and analyzing performance data, it requires a shift away from WordPress to manage these tasks.
While Lasso's setup is pretty and easy to get around, if you're just starting out or love the simplicity of sticking to WordPress, this back-and-forth could get a tad tiresome.
Basically, if you're all about keeping things streamlined in WordPress, having to hop between platforms for Lasso might not be your cup of tea.
ThirstyAffiliates vs Lasso: Customer Support
If you're new to using an affiliate link plugin, you will likely need some help or guidance along the way. That's where customer support services can make all the difference.
Here's how ThirstyAffiliates and Lasso compare in all the important areas.
ThirstyAffiliates Customer Support
At ThirstyAffiliates, we're equipped with a ticketed support system for those moments when you need a hand with our plugin. Just drop us a ticket, and one of our team members will be on it, aiming to get back to you within 24-48 hours.
We're big on self-help too. We've put together an extensive Knowledge Base, constantly updated with new customer queries, thorough documentation, and helpful guides. Chances are, the answer you're seeking is already there.
Our online documentation is always available and might just have the fix you need, saving you the time of waiting for a response from our support team. It's a quick and easy way to solve most issues on your own, but we're here if you need that extra bit of assistance.
Lasso Customer Support
Lasso claims to be “responsive, receptive to feedback, and always available to help”. The company features an online chat, yet that chat gave us a four-hour wait time when we attempted to use it:
The Lasso website also features a Help Center. This support hub answers many questions like FAQs and billing inquiries.
ThirstyAffiliates vs Lasso: Pricing
Finally, we've come to the big question: How much do these affiliate link tools cost?
For a lot of beginners just starting out in affiliate marketing, there's not a ton of cash to splash around, which is why how much you're going to spend is super important.
Let's wrap up by breaking down the pricing of these plugins.
How Much Does ThirstyAffiliates Cost?
Starting an affiliate business often means tight budgets, but as your audience and sales expand, so might your ambitions to scale up your website or even manage multiple sites. ThirstyAffiliates caters to marketers at all levels with 3 distinct packages:
Prices kick off at $249 annually for a single site. Ready to grow to five sites? That's $374 a year. For those aiming higher, our ten-site package is $499 annually. The flexibility to apply our plugin across multiple sites is a significant benefit for scaling your affiliate operations.
Additionally, we understand the importance of peace of mind, which is why we offer a 14-day money-back guarantee with our premium packages. You can even use our free plugin to try out the basic features and get a feel for how they work.
How Much Does Lasso Cost?
Lasso also offers 3 plan options, with their top-tier plan being customizable:
The entry-level Essential package is priced at $39 per month, totaling $468 a year (considerably more expensive than even our 10-site ThirstyAffiliates plan). Their Advanced plan, still only accommodating 3 websites, comes at a staggering $99 a month, summing up to a whopping $1,188 annually.
However, Lasso does offer a 30-day money-back guarantee.
Conclusion
The ThirstyAffiliates plugin stands as a reliable option with a solid track record. Although Lasso introduces some compelling features, it's worth noting that many of these are already part of ThirstyAffiliates’ offerings.
ThirstyAffiliates is designed to seamlessly fit into your WordPress workflow, allowing for easy link cloaking, insertion into content, and performance tracking. What's more, it comes at a more budget-friendly price point than Lasso, making it a highly accessible solution for your affiliate marketing needs.
Do you have any questions about whether ThirstyAffiliates or Lasso is better for your affiliate business? Let us know in the comments section below!
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I thought this article was helpful. My one question is, does Thirsty Affiliates offer a feature that notifies you when an amazon product is out of stock? For me, this is an issue I am trying to rectify.
Nice and useful content.
Thirsty Affiliates sounds like the better platform. It’s cheaper, still easy to use within the WordPress control panel, and the link cloaking feature is awesome.
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I have been using TA for some years now, and in general very happy with it’s performance. Pricing is fair too, comparing to how much work is saved. I can only recommend this plugin.