# Managing Affiliates

> **TL;DR:** Register affiliate partners with a name, website, and domain. Link Manager Pro auto-links that domain's URLs in your content and tracks clicks per affiliate. You set default link attributes and view per-partner analytics.

Register affiliate partners, configure auto-linking for affiliate URLs, and track affiliate performance.

Go to **Link Manager → Affiliates** to open the affiliate list. Use the search bar to find partners by site name, domain, affiliate link, or keywords.

## Affiliate Fields

Each affiliate partner supports the following fields:

| Field | Description |
|-------|-------------|
| **Site Name** | Required. A recognizable label for this partner (e.g., "Amazon", "Bluehost"). Max 100 characters. |
| **Affiliate Link** | Required. The full affiliate URL pattern (e.g., `https://amazon.com/?tag=myid-20`). |
| **Domain** | Auto-extracted from the affiliate link. Strips `www.` prefix. Must be unique across all affiliates. |
| **Redirect Type** | The HTTP redirect code for this affiliate's masked links. Options: 301 (default), 302, 307. |
| **Keywords** | Comma-separated keywords for auto-linking in post content. |
| **Enable Auto-Linking** | Toggle to activate keyword auto-linking for this affiliate. |
| **Auto-Link Priority** | Controls which entry wins when keywords overlap. Range: 0–100. Default: 10. Lower number = higher priority. |
| **Attributes** | Toggles for `nofollow`, `noopener`, `noreferrer`, and `sponsored` rel attributes. Default: `nofollow` and `noopener` are on. |
| **UTM Parameters** | Optional tracking values appended during redirect: utm_source, utm_medium, utm_campaign, utm_term, utm_content. Max 200 characters each. |

## Creating an Affiliate Partner

1. Go to **Link Manager → Affiliates**.
2. Click **New Partner**.
3. Enter the **Site Name** — a recognizable label for this partner.
4. Enter the **Affiliate Link** — the full affiliate URL. The plugin automatically extracts the domain from this URL.
5. Select a **Redirect Type** (default: 301).
6. Configure **Link Attributes** — toggle nofollow, noopener, noreferrer, or sponsored as needed.
7. Add **Keywords** for auto-linking. Separate multiple keywords with commas.
8. Toggle **Enable Auto-Linking** on if you want keywords in post content to link to this affiliate automatically.
9. Set **Auto-Link Priority** (default: 10) if multiple affiliates share overlapping keywords.
10. Add **UTM Parameters** to append campaign tracking values to the affiliate URL.
11. Click **Register Partner**.

## Key Behaviors

### Domain Uniqueness

Two affiliates cannot share the same domain. The plugin enforces this by extracting and deduplicating domains from affiliate link URLs. If you try to register a second affiliate with a matching domain, validation fails.

### Automatic UTM and Attribute Inheritance

When a visitor clicks any masked link whose destination matches an affiliate's domain, the plugin appends that affiliate's UTM parameters to the redirect URL. When auto-linking inserts an affiliate's keywords into post content, the plugin applies the affiliate's rel attributes (`nofollow`, `noopener`, etc.) to the generated link. You do not need to set these values manually on each link.

### Automatic Pretty Link Creation

When you save an affiliate, the plugin automatically creates a pretty link (masked redirect) for the affiliate URL. This ensures auto-linked keywords point to a masked URL rather than the raw affiliate URL.

### Click Tracking

Each affiliate tracks its own click count. When a visitor clicks any masked link whose destination matches the affiliate's domain, the affiliate's click count increments.

## Editing an Affiliate

1. Go to **Link Manager → Affiliates**.
2. Click the **edit icon** on the affiliate you want to modify.
3. Update any fields.
4. Click **Update Partner**.

## Deleting an Affiliate

1. Go to **Link Manager → Affiliates**.
2. Click the **trash icon** on the affiliate you want to remove.
3. Confirm the deletion in the popup.

> **Warning:** Deleting an affiliate removes the partner record. Review any auto-linked content that references this affiliate.

## Affiliate Auto-Linking

Affiliate auto-linking works the same way as link auto-linking, but uses the affiliate's pretty link as the destination.

### How It Works

1. You add keywords to an affiliate and enable auto-linking.
2. The plugin creates a pretty link for the affiliate URL.
3. When WordPress renders a post, the plugin scans the content for keyword matches.
4. Matched keywords are replaced with links pointing to the affiliate's pretty link.
5. The plugin respects all global auto-linking settings: case sensitivity, max replacements per keyword, max links per page, excluded headings, and applicable post types.

### Priority Resolution

When a keyword matches both a link and an affiliate, the affiliate always wins regardless of priority values. The **Auto-Link Priority** value resolves conflicts within the same type — affiliate vs. affiliate or link vs. link. Lower numbers take priority.

### Best Practices

- Use specific, multi-word keywords: "WordPress managed hosting" instead of "hosting".
- Check a few posts after setup to verify keywords link correctly.
- Monitor affiliate reports to measure click-through performance.
- Avoid single-word keywords that appear frequently — this leads to excessive link insertion.

## Affiliate Report

Click an affiliate row to open the affiliate report. The report provides the same structure as the per-link report, aggregated across all links matching the affiliate's domain:

- **Summary:** total clicks, unique clicks, qualified clicks
- **Device distribution:** Desktop, Mobile, Tablet, Other
- **Operating system:** Windows, macOS, iOS, Android, Linux, Other
- **Country breakdown:** visitor countries
- **Referrer domains:** traffic sources
- **Clicks over time:** time-series chart with date range selection
- **Recent activity:** paginated list of recent click events

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**Step-by-step guides:**
- [How to Manage Affiliate Links](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/manage-affiliate-links)
- [How to Add FTC Disclosure](https://docs.linkmanagerpro.com/guides/ftc-affiliate-disclosure)