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There was a time when affiliate marketing was categorized only as a side hustle. Now, it is one of the most competitive fields in the online space – with an earning potential that now runs into 6-figures and more.
If you are setting out as an affiliate marketer, there is a long list of aspects that you need to get right. After all, it is virtually impossible to check each and every page and post manually to ensure that all your links and promotions are up to date.
For those in search of a better alternative to this dilemma, Lasso can be an ideal solution. It hosts a number of extremely useful features that will address the pain points that affiliate marketers face.
In this Lasso review, we weigh up whether the plugin actually matches its popularity.
What can Lasso do?
Simply put, Lasso is a WordPress plugin dedicated to affiliate marketing. It features numerous attributes that lets you:
- Change the product display with several themes
- Manage all your affiliate links
- Boost your Affiliate link CTRs
- Optimize your content
- Fix broken affiliate links
Altogether, Lasso claims to offer invaluable assistance in most aspects of affiliate marketing. Its wide array of tools are designed specifically to shoulder the cumbersome manual processes of your online businesses.
Features of Lasso
Succeeding in affiliate marketing is about gaining your visitors’ trust. Your content needs to be convincing and compelling enough for them to consider the product. Every feature of Lasso aims to do precisely that, through its suite of tools.
Customize the Link Displays
Though you might be running an affiliate business, you might not want to make it too obvious. Instead, you should create a site that offers valuable content and integrates affiliate links into them.
As such, what you need first is to create a page layout that will instantly impress your readers. And it starts right from how you display your products. Using Lasso, you can include any number of links on your site. Crucially, you can import your affiliate links by merely clicking on the Lasso icon from your WordPress editor.
The best part of Lasso is the option to include dynamic affiliate link displays. There are six themes offered by default, from which you can choose your preferred layout by the look of how your products are displayed on your page.
Users can include details such as the title, description, a buy button, and an image that will make the arrangement of the product/service more visually appealing to your readers. Furthermore, all these themes are responsive so that they will perform equally well on mobile devices too.
Add featured Attributes
When you display multiple links on your site, you might want to recommend or feature one product in particular. Lasso allows you to add a badge to a display box, where you can add your own customized text.
It will encourage readers to click on that product first if it’s one that you want to promote the most.
Find More Affiliate Opportunities
As Lasso advertises, there could be a lot more affiliate opportunities hiding in your page that you are not aware of.
As a result, its tool will convert any such links or keywords into affiliate URLs, without you having to do it manually.
Creating Custom URLs With Lasso
This feature, where you can create and manage your own custom affiliate URLs, is easily one of Lasso’s most praised elements. You can do this directly by selecting the “Add New URL” button from the Lasso dashboard.
You will then be directed to a page where you can add all necessary details such as the product name, description, price, and destination URL. Keep in mind that if you are creating these URLs for any affiliate programs, Lasso will fill this in for you automatically. Lasso even has an extensive list of over 600 affiliate programs that you can take advantage of.
Here, you will notice that there are a few customizable options. You can choose:
- Whether you want to open the link in a separate tab
- Whether to keep in ‘nofollow; or ‘dofollow’ links
However, as you are aware, WordPress already has many of these features embedded. So it is up to you whether to use the Lasso tool for this or go directly with WordPress.
Monetizing Existing Links
This feature is truly unique to Lasso. Once you start monetizing your links, you might have to revisit them in order to make any changes. Lasso allows you to find old links that do not bring you any profit and turn them into active affiliate links.
You can find a list of all the affiliate links on your site directly from the “Contents” button of the Lasso dashboard. You can then proceed to choose any link you want to update and replace it.
Lasso will show you suggestions for affiliate links, so all you need to do is click on the one that suits you. The link will automatically replace the previous one and will henceforth be monetized.
Rather than having to identify similar products or find monetizing links for the same product. Lasso virtually eliminates most of the steps in between. This works best when you have the same link used in multiple posts, so you do not have to visit every article and update them.
Integration with Amazon Associates Program
If the Amazon affiliate program is one of your prime sources of income, then Lasso offers full integration with all its features. By using your API and the tracking code, Lasso can connect Your WordPress site directly to your affiliate account. This means, retrieving any product details and monetizing with links are relatively more straightforward.
Even better, the affiliate links will automatically update themselves every 24 hours, meaning your product pages and prices will always be up-to-date. In case Lasso is unable to check stock levels and do the update for you, the tool will send you an alert.
Lasso can also do geotargeting on your behalf. It will redirect your viewers to their respective local Amazon store, subsequently allowing you to monetize your international readers.
If you are just looking for Amazon integration, also take a look at the AAWP plugin we reviewed previously.
Receive Alerts on Broken Links
There is more than one way that you could be losing money on affiliation efforts – even after you have followed the right set up. For example, your links might be broken, meaning that you will not make any money off it. Another way is that the products have gone out of stock, yet again translating to you losing money.
Lasso detects all these issues and offers working solutions for each. Lasso continuously works in the backdrop to ensure that all your links are working as they are supposed to. Better yet, it does this without affecting the loading speed of your website.
If there are any broken links or products that are out-of-stock, Lasso will instantly send you an alert so you can fix the URL. With Amazon’s integration, you can rest assured that you will be notified if Lasso is unable to perform any updates.
Find out Which Affiliates are Most Lucrative
Through its Click Trading feature, Lasso lets you identify which affiliate programs work the best for you and your online business. The plugin analyzes performance and provides data to understand the links that most resonate with your audience.
You can also assess how your viewers are engaging with each link and use it to improve the customer experience. The integration of analytics makes it a better tool for an affiliate marketer to determine which areas need more improvement to meet the audience’s expectations.
In other words – rather than doing the guesswork, you can clearly strategize your moves based on real-time data.
Create Unique URLs with Link Cloaking
At times, giving out too many details could also encourage your audience to visit the product page separately and order from them directly. Hence, affiliate marketers have been increasingly cloaking their links. This not only hides the destination but also brings in an element uniqueness to your page.
With Lasso, users can now develop a single URL that works for all your affiliates. In case you want to make an update or change it, you need to do it only once. If you’re going to stir things up, you can make them unique enough to be memorable.
Additionally, these links can be tweaked to work well with your social media channels too. You can create links that can easily be shared through other platforms, such as video channels, podcasts, or emails.
The flexibility that Lasso offers applies here as well. You can choose which of the links needs to be shortened if you do not want the same link appearing anywhere. This is essential as some affiliate sites do not offer compliance for cloaked links.
Organize your Affiliates with Link Grouping
Sorting your affiliate links might not be your priority. But, when you are benefiting from multiple affiliate programs, organizing them could save you immense time. Once you start using it, you will realize how timesaving the feature is.
Lasso lets you create unlimited groups to keep your affiliate inventory in order. This makes it easier for you to pick on when you are using them in future articles.
Now, here is where it gets most interesting. As we mentioned before, by using Lasso, marketers can create multiple affiliate links. Additionally, you can also decide whether to display them in a grid or list. You can add, edit, or remove links to the grid or list by a simple drag-and-drop action.
Manage all your Affiliate Links from One Place
One of the most significant advantages of using Lasso is access to manage all your URLs from the single dashboard. Users can search for links with keywords, as they are sorted out with image, name, group, and the number of times it appears on your site.
You can also find out which links are broken or where you can find monetization opportunities from the dashboard itself.
Better Affiliate Management with Plugin Import
Considering all the above benefits, let’s say you decided to join Lasso as a first-time user. In doing so, you do not have to add your old affiliate links and other data manually. Instead, Lasso will automatically import your site’s information from your WordPress affiliate marketing plugins.
Not only will it import the URLs, but Lasso will also give it a new look by adding one of its savvy themes. All of the existing links will merit from the full functionality of Lasso features.
And lastly, if you are not so keen on the Lasso experience, they will generously let you revert the links to your old plugin, too.
Lasso Pricing
Lasso has one of the most uncomplicated pricing plans of affiliate marketing plugins in the market today. It has one package, billed in two ways.
- $19 per site, billed monthly
- $190 per year, billed annually,
The later plan essentially gets you two months of Lasso subscription for free. Additionally, you can also try out the software for 14 days as part of a free trial.
However, there is no free plan per-say that gives you ‘limited’ access to its features, meaning that payment details are required. As such, you will have to pay for usage after the trial, but it comes with unlimited affiliate links and full functionalities nonetheless.
Lasso Plugin Benefits
Discover More Money-Making Opportunities
For many marketers, the primary purpose of using Lasso is to identify areas that have the potential to make more money. Since Amazon has recently cut-back its commissions, it is time to look into other affiliate programs that are profitable.
Lasso will not only tell you where you are losing money with outdated links, but it opens doors to several other affiliate programs as well.
Improve Your Site’s Appearance
Yes, WordPress comes with some impressive themes. But, you need more than that to smartly display your affiliate products. Lasso’s themes come in all shapes and sizes – with further customizable options. Display boxes are a wise choice to lure in customers, with an obvious affiliate marketing approach.
Furthermore, these displays do not affect your on-page SEO at all. Any text links that you include come with tags that are in full compliance with Google’s terms.
Automated Product Tracking
This one feature will save you a significant amount of time. As Lasso checks the product pages frequently, it ensures that your posts are always accurate, which will essentially bring you a solid reputation.
Receiving an alert is even more crucial, as it tells you if the plugin has a glitch or the product information needs to be completely revamped.
Tracking Your Performance
Most affiliate marketing products are rather focused on overall performance, rather than measuring it. Although limited, Lasso provides analytics that are most important to track your links. This is incredibly beneficial when you want to target a specific audience or change your marketing approach.
Users can also add their Google Analytics Tracking ID in the Lasso settings so that it will integrate data from clicks on all your posts.
Enhanced User Experience
Affiliate marketing plugins have a reputation for not being beginner-friendly. Lasso scores in this regard. Crucially, the plugin offers one of the best user experiences, with an easy setup and a single dashboard that lets you control the entire affiliate inventory end to end.
Affordable Pricing Plans
Most importantly, you will receive a free trial period, along with access to all its functionalities. Furthermore, there are no restrictions on the number of sites you can use this on.
How Does Lasso Stack up in the Market?
Seasoned affiliate marketers might find that Lasso still has a little room to improve. The product is continually evolving, and new updates are launched periodically.
At the moment, it has very limited customizable options. Most of its choices are limited to its themes and depending on your taste, you might need more flexibility.
If you look more closely, you will find that several features are already available in WordPress. You might need to dig a little deeper, but you might not want to pay extra to avail of the same offerings from Lasso.
When compared to other popular products in the space, Lasso was designed to fill identifiable gaps.
You can easily roll out mass updates and control all the features from a single window. Users do not have to check up on the old articles, and can easily do any upgrades with a few clicks.
Lasso Review: The Verdict?
If you run multiple affiliate sites, Lasso has done a notable job in helping you manage them efficiently. Being an all-in-tool, the plugin makes WordPress marketing more accessible and effective.
It reduces unnecessarily spending time on tedious tasks, which can now be done swiftly through the plugin. The themes can certainly make your page look more elegant, and take out the repetitive, and monotonous look of an affiliate site.
On top of everything else, Lasso gives you a wild card entry with the free trial period. Since the app will automatically import and export your data, you should have no hesitation in testing the provider out as per its 14-day trial.
Ultimately, there is no harm in installing it to see whether the tool meets the needs of you and your online business.
Lasso
Pros
- Great Display Options
- Manage all Affiliate Links from one Place
- Monitors Broken Links
- Full Amazon Integration
- Well Designed & Easy to Use
Cons
- Limited Customization Options
Stay Ahead of the Market with Benzinga Pro!
Want to trade like a pro? Benzinga Pro gives you the edge you need in today's fast-paced markets. Get real-time news, exclusive insights, and powerful tools trusted by professional traders:- Breaking market-moving stories before they hit mainstream media
- Live audio squawk for hands-free market updates
- Advanced stock scanner to spot promising trades
- Expert trade ideas and on-demand support
