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Wordpress Link Management

Filed Under Favorite Plugins

Do you promote affiliate programs on your blog? If you do, I have a tip for you today on Wordpress link management.

As I read blogs, I see a lot of people linking from their content straight through to the product they are promoting, via their affiliate link.

If you have a small blog with little content, that’s okay. But, if you are linking through to affiliate products on multiple blog posts, especially the same product on multiple blog posts, you are potentially setting yourself up for a lot of work.

What happens if the product you are promoting changes? What if the affiliate program, or link changes? What if the website shuts down? You could be left with a lot of outgoing affiliate links that are worthless.

It’s happened to me. I had links to a product I was promoting in several blog posts. By following one of those links one day, I discovered the site was now being directed to a totally different and unrelated product. I found a similar product to replace the original product, but had to review each blog post, find each link and change each link – what a pain that was!

I decided I would never do that again, and had to find a way to better manage my Wordpress links.

I knew I could create files on my domain that contained redirect code with my affiliate link. Then, if I needed to make a product change I could just change the affiliate link in that redirect page. I could just make one change in that file and not have to change each post.

But, since I was using Wordpress it seemed to make sense to find a solution within Wordpress instead of creating numerous redirect files.

I needed a good Wordpress link management plugin. The great thing about Wordpress is you can find plugins for about anything you need to do. I found a great, simple to use link management plugin – GoCodes.

Once the GoCodes plugin is installed, you give the link a name, and the URL you want it directed to. Following is an example of a GoCodes link.

http://followlist.com/blog/go/bloggingtothebank

That link takes you to a how to make money blogging product. If that product disappears, becomes obsolete, or if I just feel like promoting a different product, I change the URL in the GoCodes settings and those links point to the new product.

The GoCodes Wordpress link management plugin is slightly difficult to install because you have to add some code to your .htaccess file. The GoCodes plugin ReadMe file explains how to make that change, and it’s not difficult.

The GoCodes Wordpress link manager also allows you to track clicks on your redirected links. This can help you determine which products are converting well, and which products are not. If a product is not converting, simply replace it with a new product in GoCodes.

There may also be another benefit to using a link management plugin like GoCodes. Instead of the outgoing links in your content going to an outside affiliate site, the links are actually pointing back to your domain. It would seem that this would benefit your blog in the eyes of the search engines. I don’t have any evidence to support this, but I am sure it hasn’t hurt my search engine ranking.

I now use GoCodes on all of my outgoing links in my blog posts. I have learned the hard way to manage my Wordpress links so that I can make link changes in one place within Wordpress instead of having to make changes in several blog posts.

I suggest you start using GoCodes, or some similar Wordpress link management plugin, today – before you create a ton of time consuming work for yourself somewhere do the road.

Share and Enjoy:

Comments

101 Responses to “Wordpress Link Management”

Jim from Top List on April 20th, 2009 12:10 am

What an insanely great plug-in! I am currently doing as you use to do–ALL MANUAL. Thanks for the tip!
ken from Sushi on April 20th, 2009 12:52 pm

I’ve been using gocodes for a while now and all I can say is wow! I don’t know how I’ve been able to work without it.
Insolvency Practitioner on April 22nd, 2009 4:24 am

I like the looks of this Plugin. Are you the primary source for this? I see from your personal site that this is packaged into a product. Is it the same plugin? Or the lite version?
Luke from Corner Sofas on April 22nd, 2009 5:25 pm

I never heard of Gocodes.

Link cloaking and management. I’m 100% in agreement to use some kind of centralized system.

I’ve found it hard to make a definitive decision on whether I should set that up per site, or setup and individual redirect domain somewhere.

I guess per site is the best balance of risk-containment and convenience.
cars for sale on April 22nd, 2009 8:16 pm

Oh what a brilliant wordpress addon this could be, nice
Terry from Lab Coat on April 23rd, 2009 2:25 am

I’m thinking about using WP on a new blog and any extra income with affiliate marketing would be great. Using this plug-in would not be that bad either.

I just hope I can handle the installation part. And yeah, KeywordLuv rocks too!
Laser Cutting Adelaide on April 23rd, 2009 9:13 am

Can I select it to only apply affiliate links on certain URL’s?
marlboro coupons on April 23rd, 2009 4:41 pm

Thank you so much for sharing the useful thoughts via such kind of nice blog.I did learned a lot by stopping by here today. Keep posting in near future as well:)
Website Design on April 24th, 2009 10:30 am

gocodes is an excellent option.I have used it and it has impressed me a lot.
Rose from Legal Articles on April 25th, 2009 3:06 pm

I’ve bookmarked this page ‘coz I’ll be reading this again and again. Thank you for the useful tip on links!
Payday advance online on April 25th, 2009 11:29 pm

Thanks for explaining a few things I wasn’t understanding.
Wisp on April 26th, 2009 11:47 am

Good addon, I was doing this jobs by hands, but now I can use your help
Thanks, partner.
Promotional Products on April 27th, 2009 2:24 am

I’ve had the same thing happen to me and it can be very frustrating. Managing your backlinks is very necessary to help with the promotion of you service/product.
Kinexus Internet Ltd on April 27th, 2009 7:47 am

I always found good quality info from this site! There are so many knowledgeable info and it is assisted me lot to understand this topic very clearly.

Thanks for your feedback!
Miami Web Design on April 27th, 2009 10:51 am

Great plugin I was never aware of such plugin . I was not good with redirect pages but I hope that this plugin will definitely solve lot of problems for me
Harold from Turn Key Rentals In Arizona on April 28th, 2009 2:08 am

This is kinda like ninja affiliate plugin and PLG from Filsaime – And with PLG you still have to edit the linked text so would this do it at the keyword level? Thanks for this going to install it now and find out.
Mark Wright from E-Commerce Business Solutions on April 28th, 2009 6:40 am

This is really a good post. My comment here? Thanks for the great post. A blog owner will be appreciated if a visitor write valuable comment and you are able for this.
d5000 on April 29th, 2009 10:49 am

I think the best way for seo is link. so link management is important to manage website in network
tom from d5000 on April 29th, 2009 10:51 am

I think the best way for seo is link. so link management is important to manage website in network this is good addon
Felix K from Computers Cases on April 30th, 2009 11:36 am

A very useful and valuable article for the blog.
Bali Tours on April 30th, 2009 5:09 pm

Thanks for the information. look nice. thanks..
Hicham from Hicham Maged on April 30th, 2009 9:56 pm

This is a very handy plugin for the ‘product-reviews’, and ‘money affiliating’ blogs. I checked the download site and found it compatible with WP 2.7+
Liza from Metal Buildings on May 1st, 2009 9:40 am

Really I like to look these plug in and thanks for sharing nice post and really it is very helpful post.
Prestiti on May 1st, 2009 10:58 am

Sorry my english firstly, i read well but i cant write , So its useful post for me and i bookmarked your blog.
Robert Eckert on May 1st, 2009 2:49 pm

That’s very interesting,but did you know?

It’s a fact: if you want your website to make you money, generate leads or get subscribers you have to advertise in order to drive traffic to it. Of course this is true for any business, but it is absolutely essential for online business.

The problem is that online advertising can cost a fortune and that “fortune” you spend on advertising is eating away at your profits every single month.

Think about it…
Ed Jones from Custom Fit Golf Clubs on May 2nd, 2009 10:01 am

The post looks real good so far. Keep you content updated and I will continue to read.
Anna in Houston on May 2nd, 2009 4:39 pm

this is a great wordpress add on. Thanks for the info look forward to reading something else from you.
Konkurrencer on May 3rd, 2009 1:50 pm

This is very helpful to all WordPress bloggers who like to monetize their sites. I will definitely try this one of these days.
Sohan on May 4th, 2009 8:03 am

Thanks for this tips. I did not understand previously . I will bookmark it for future.
murfresboro real estate on May 5th, 2009 5:02 am

Those kind of plugins are always helpful, especially in wordpress. Wordpress is a great blogging platform and if you don’t know css and html, plugins are a must. Thanks for sharing
Van Rental on May 7th, 2009 5:49 pm

Link management has been causing me some problems in wordpress. i hope you have solved my issues
Karlonia from loan sharks online on May 10th, 2009 6:08 pm

This looks like a pretty good idea — I happen to have one of those blogs where I have linked to many affiliate products from various posts scattered throughout the site. Although I have not caught any dead links yet, some of the posts are old enough now that I probably need to go back and check them for any necessary changes.
Nuneaton Web Design on May 10th, 2009 8:51 pm

A few years ago, I had the same problem and wrote myself a PHP script to handle redirects. Like you say, it’s great for both making global changes and click analysis.

I can confirm that having links pointing your own domain name does create a favourable impression with search engines. I have my script (and my personal suite of tools) on a private domain that has virtually no content (just a login box) and it has a pagerank of 2 based solely on the backlinks. I also get quite a few visits from people that have found the website in search engines when searching for keywords related to the things I am promoting.

Daniel
Lee from Surviving Infidelity on May 11th, 2009 2:58 am

I’m loving this plugin. You’re right, changing the access file was a bit of a pain (mostly because I don’t mess with code any more than I absolutely have to, so I don’t really know what I’m doing ). But once it’s up and running, this takes a whole lot of work out of managing affiliate links.

One minor caution… the plugin may not play nice with some WP themes. I use FlexxTheme on one of my WP blogs, and when I installed the plugin, it froze my rotating headers. I deactivated and reactivated it, though, and it worked fine…

Thanks for the great post!

Lee
Czerwona from Pozycjonowanie Poznan on May 12th, 2009 11:32 am

Great tips. I thought you will write another posts about “related posts” plugin but hiding affiliate links could work well for me.
Mike from PPC Kahuna Review on May 12th, 2009 8:37 pm

Nice post. I’m going to have to check this plugin out. I had been adding redirects to my htaccess file, but this seems potentially easier to do.
Sales Engineer on May 13th, 2009 9:23 pm

That’s a brilliant time saver. I just had to modify my links across 70 EzineArticle pieces the total process took days, so I appreciate the centralised technique you describe.
Mike from Unrestricted PLR Software on May 13th, 2009 11:42 pm

That is a great tip Mike. You also need to make sure you manage your links in any ebooks or PDF reports you put out.

I distributed an ebook with an affiliate link in it. When that affiliate product went away, I had hundreds of links that went nowhere. Now I follow a similar strategy to yours, so that I control the link in the PDF. Then I can change the destination link as needed.
Jenny from cheap ugg boots on May 14th, 2009 7:33 am

great tool for social media as well search engine marketing….must be very helpful for improving PR as well …thanks for sharing
Casino University on May 14th, 2009 7:35 am

Wow, and I thought there was no solution for this. I just had to spend couple of hours to make changes when something happens with affiliates but now I can do that in few seconds.

Great and thanks
aditya from Sunshine coast web design on May 15th, 2009 7:13 am

Great plugin.
It is useful for all the blooger to manage there link.
Thanks for sharing.
Steve from Best Budget Products on May 15th, 2009 6:01 pm

This is going to be my favorite plug in of all. This works just awesome!
lee from copter game on May 16th, 2009 3:04 am

Great blog! I had to do this recently with one of my affiliates but I handled it a little bit differently. I simply built a page about the type of product and wrote a brief explanation of it. Then I pointed all the links I controlled to that page…and that page to the affiliate. So now I can also work on seo for the page on my site to possibly bring in searchers for the affiliate product in addition to those who see links or banners around my site.
Anna food catering on May 16th, 2009 5:58 am

If Gocodes plugin converts all outgoing links pointing back to your domain. Its really a great plugin.
BingoJive.com - All Things Bingo on May 16th, 2009 9:12 am

dofollow plugin for WordPress lets you remove the evil nofollow attribute from your comments.
Tim from Best Bluetooth Headset on May 17th, 2009 2:46 pm

Ah, this links plugin would save me a lot of time. Is there one though where I do not need to modify the code?
bingomatic.co.uk Online on May 18th, 2009 4:31 am

great blog, thanks for information about dofollow. its helpful for all the blogger to use their link.
Online Bingo Community on May 18th, 2009 10:56 am

I can confirm that having links pointing your own domain name does create a favourable impression with search engines.
Online Bingo Galaxy on May 19th, 2009 4:14 am

I really don’t know of this before. I simply built a page about the type of product and wrote a brief explanation of it. thanks for post.
Lenny from Star Wars Toys on May 19th, 2009 11:14 pm

Plugin it is good but it seems to me it is something “solid” I usually one php-file, for example:

partner.php?id=

inside:

<?php
$id = isset ( $_GET["id"] ) ? $_GET["id"] : “”;
switch ( $id ) {
case “”:
header ( “Location: here_it_is_affiliate_linkg” )
break;
….
}
?>

That’s all.
Kathleen Walter on May 20th, 2009 3:07 am

It’s very late so I’ve bookmarked this post so I can come back and set up my blogs with this excellent plug-in

Thanks
Ben on May 20th, 2009 3:24 pm

Hi

Thanks for a great list of Wordpress plugins. I use around 15 on my blog, I try to keep it to the minimum and only use plugins which benefit my site.

Cheers for the post.
Ben
Luksus sommerhus on May 20th, 2009 5:21 pm

Thanks for giving me an idea about Wordpress link management plugin. it really helps me out managing my blog. Now I work on page on my site to those who see links or banners that can be seen in my site.
HendraWuberry from Indonesia Hosting on May 20th, 2009 10:57 pm

Thanks for sharing about Wordpress Link Management, I thinks this one is very important thing, when we want our blog to DoFollow
aditya from Furnished apartments manhattan on May 22nd, 2009 5:48 am

I just come here to refresh myself.And got some useful information about link management.
Thanks for the sharing.
Jim from Top Rap Songs on May 23rd, 2009 3:36 am

I found one called SEO ROI’s Internal Link Building that I really like.

This, and GoCodes, make linking much easier.
Manoj from metal buildings on May 23rd, 2009 10:45 am

I think link building is essential for seo so link management is very important for manage website on network.thanks for information.
Manoj from steel buildings on May 23rd, 2009 10:46 am

I think the best way for seo is link. so link management is important to manage website in network.thanks for information and keep sharing.
vijendra from Furnished apartments manhattan on May 25th, 2009 10:04 am

Hi,
I am recently entered into the internet marketing.That’s why i am searching for this type of information.
I think its a great stuff and very useful information for link management.
Thanks for sharing.
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Paul from Search Engine Optimization Los Angeles on May 28th, 2009 6:07 am

I think this is helpful if you are doing like 5 or more blogs. Having this plugin will help you manage it carefully and easily.
Snv from RC Toys on May 28th, 2009 11:12 am

WordPress plugins always serves the best….to the blogs…the link plugin is the right way for the blogs and also the GoCode link plugin is something great to manage the links….
Snv from Nitro cars on May 29th, 2009 10:47 am

WordPress provide us with the plugins that are always good to use and also it serves better to experience something good…..the links that they are providing are the best to manage the links…….
Quality Web Design on May 29th, 2009 11:04 am

Liked reading this post a lot.Gocodes is a good option.I have tried it myself.
SEOqt from Rom Machine on May 30th, 2009 7:52 am

Excellent I find it.
Snv from Rc nitro on June 1st, 2009 4:19 am

I’ll definitely going to have these plugins on my blog….so as to manage my links….
amy from mold removal on June 1st, 2009 5:13 am

Great find. I used to just make a page with reirect then change that but the plugin sounds like a better idea. Thanks i have to try it.
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vikas from telephone engineer london on June 2nd, 2009 7:07 am

Hi,
The plug ins provided by word press are amazing.
The keywordluv and commentluv plug ins are really helpful for increasing traffic on your blog.
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vaibhav from Sunshine coast web design on June 3rd, 2009 5:38 am

Hi,
Wordpress always gives great plug-in GoCode is one of them.Word press is very useful for all the blogger it make the work lot easier.
Thanks for the sharing.
Snv from seo uk on June 3rd, 2009 12:37 pm

WordPress plugins always serves us with something best….I don’t know much more about the GoCode but it is a Plugin and surely I will going to use it….for my blog…
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Hi,
Wordpress have provide lot of good plug-in.
Which is very useful for all the blogger.
GoCode is one of them.
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Dan from Free Blog Setup on June 9th, 2009 11:56 pm

Thanks I just found out about this plugin, I like you have affiliate links all over and it doe become difficult to manage I will give this a shot.
Professional Graphic Design on June 11th, 2009 11:03 am

Hi,
This is one great post. Yes, it makes a lot of sense to me too. If the things go right, it will be a good knowledge earning and I must add it is a great idea of online business.
Thanks for sharing
Bye
Shaun Dsouza from Turbotax Software on June 13th, 2009 11:54 am

The post is nice.
You are a star!!!! Works perfectly thanks so much.
No problem – glad to comment.
Omi from Logo Design Team Review on June 13th, 2009 12:17 pm

Thanks man for sharing that great tips about this plug in i am bookmarking that page will read again and again just because of something which i don,t understand
Herminy Cherry Capsules on June 14th, 2009 4:57 am

I’m going to bookmark your blog, because it has very informative content. I will implement all the tips that you mentioned above Wordpress links..
Marry from Third party claims on June 14th, 2009 11:25 am

Yeah I wanna promote affiliate programs on my blog and i will definitely implement all your points that you mentioned above.Thanks for this valuable post..
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Francis from modern sectional sofa on July 6th, 2009 7:07 am

Great post you have shared a valuable information and the plug in is great! The best way to SEO is still the link, it’s very important.
Manolo Blahnik on August 4th, 2009 8:43 am

Great plugin I was never aware of such plugin . I was not good with redirect pages but I hope that this plugin will definitely solve lot of problems for me
Virus Protection on August 8th, 2009 10:19 am

Thanks I just found out about this plugin, I like you have affiliate links all over and it doe become difficult to manage I will give this a shot
vintage t shirts on August 31st, 2009 10:04 am

Hello, thank you for the interesting article. For various reasons I have a wordpress installation where I had to modify the administration pages.
Now I need to change the global time after that comments from an article are automatically closed. I imagine it’s the wp_options table, but I don’t know which variable.But again, no dice. I am sure there is a way to improve the function, but I suppose further investigation is required.
Free Phone Calls on September 25th, 2009 6:26 am

great information here. Also if you use your Wordpress with your own host, then you can upload a directory with a index.php file that has a redirect. This allows for better changing as well.
Jerry from vintage wedding dress on October 6th, 2009 9:06 am

Hi there! I liked your post very much. It is really a great post. You have shared a valuable information and the plug in is great! The best way to SEO is still the link, it’s very important. By the way, thanks for sharing such a nice post with us. Keep on sharing such a great post in future. Best regards for ahead.
Ben nuheat mats on October 9th, 2009 9:28 am

Real splendid work. Me too having a word press blog which I am about to start promoting. Your article provided me a great information. Your information about managing word press links is great. Thanks a lot for the information.
Mc custom built garage on October 9th, 2009 11:49 am

Awesome information. Thanks for the information. Really I badly need the information about managing these word press links. Your information is going to be help me alot. Thanks for the beautiful post.
aspen best ski resorts on October 9th, 2009 12:35 pm

This blog helped me a lot in managing word press links. Also it saved a lot of time. It educated very much. Thanks very much.
thyroid hormone doctors on October 12th, 2009 11:53 am

May be I am one for whom this post is more useful. This information is badly needed for me. I am struggling with the word press links since from last 5 days. This post totally helped me. Thanks a ton to the author.
sample personal statements on October 20th, 2009 3:55 pm

Thanks for providing info about the WordPress link management. I am looking forward to reading more from your blog.
les from Wordpress for Membership Sites on October 29th, 2009 12:56 am

Awesome plugin, i love it. It saves you from having to use external scripts or software, or have a ton of redirect link folders cluttering up your hosting account. Very nice! I welcome anything I can do internally in wordpress, makes things much quicker.
Polish guy on October 30th, 2009 1:36 am

Thanks to you for a really practically useful information in managing my wordpress account!
Thanks for sharing!=))
batteries on December 7th, 2009 11:16 pm

Informative Article!
This is why I love this site! It’s perfect! I had tried migrating a Blogger blog on a free host but never get success. I’m planning on starting my wordpress blog now, and this is just what I needed to get myself started, And this is very useful knowledge.
pc RUSH coupons on December 23rd, 2009 3:06 am

Good to hear such a variety of ideas to gather traffic to our site.Thanks for sharing such a useful information.
Angie from Solid Wood Computer Desk on January 22nd, 2010 11:39 am

I use gocodes on all my sites and it works fantastic. And of course big G cant see it. Thanks
Bill from GenF20 on January 24th, 2010 9:08 am

Besides GoCodes, I would also recommend WP Shadow’s plugin. Just go to his blog at Wp-shadow dot com.

It is similar to GoCodes but I think GoCodes is better. Thanks!
Curtis from Psychiatric Billing on February 2nd, 2010 11:04 am

Thank you very much for showing me the GoCode plug in for Wordpress. I’ve been using the Redirection plug in for that and it does almost the same thing. And you are right that it is a headache when affiliate codes are changed and you don’t have a one click fix.
financial accounting software on March 7th, 2010 9:53 am

I’m planning on starting my wordpress blog now, and this is just what I needed to get myself started, And this is very useful knowledge.

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