Are you considering starting an affiliate program for your business? Perfect then! This article is just for you.
If you’ve researched the subject, you probably know by now that an affiliate program has quite a few moving parts. It can all get overwhelmingly fast, from onboarding affiliates to tracking referrals to paying out affiliates. Really fast.
So choosing the right tool to power your affiliate program can make the difference between a great experience and a dreadful one, between a successful and unsuccessful one.
This is where SliceWP comes into play. Let’s find out how!
An Overview of SliceWP Plugin
If this is your first time hearing about SliceWP, just know that it is arguably one of the best affiliate plugins built specifically for WordPress-powered businesses.
Because it is a WordPress plugin, it connects deeply to WordPress and to eCommerce plugins that are built specifically for WordPress (WooCommerce and Paid Memberships Pro, for example. You’ll learn more about the supported plugins below.), making it far more versatile and integrated than a SaaS alternative.
Two huge benefits are apparent right away:
- With SliceWP, you can manage your affiliate program from the comfort of your WordPress dashboard. You have your eCommerce tools and affiliate program in the same interface, making managing your business far easier. Switching between multiple browser tabs is a thing of the past.
- Because you can add your affiliate portal (discussed in-depth below) directly into your theme, your affiliates will have an overall better experience. All of your branding will be right there, and your affiliates will feel comfortable because they are already used to your website.
Besides these two benefits, though, there’s a lot more that SliceWP can offer you. Let’s dive deeper into the plugin’s features and explore how they can help you build the affiliate program to grow your business.
SliceWP Plugin vs AffiliateWP
SliceWP is often compared with AffiliateWP since they are popular WordPress affiliate plugins. Here is a quick comparison that helps you understand their key differences!
| Feature | SliceWP | AffiliateWP |
| Price | More affordable | More expensive |
| Ease of Use | User-friendly and quick setup | Wide range of features |
| Integrations | Integrates with popular WordPress ecommerce platforms | One-click integrations with many popular WordPress plugins |
| Affiliate Management | Unlimited affiliates, affiliate approval process, auto-created affiliate area | Unlimited affiliates, high level of flexibility |
| Commission Rates | Supports percentage-based and fixed commissions | Customizable commission rates |
| Tracking | Automatically tracks commissions and visits | Built-in referral tracking integrations |
| Notifications | Automatic email notifications about commissions | Customizable email notifications |
| Payouts | Easy creation of affiliate payouts | Automatic PayPal payouts |
Key Features of SliceWP
Let’s now take a closer look at some of the key features that make SliceWP such a powerful plugin for creating and managing an affiliate program on your WordPress site.
1. Swift Setup
There are a lot of aspects you need to take into account when starting an affiliate program. Setting up your program can be a daunting task and is usually the hardest part mentally for a business owner.
Luckily, SliceWP comes with a step-by-step setup wizard that guides you through the main settings for your program. Going from the first step to the last takes just a couple of minutes. By the end of it, you will have the referral tracking, affiliate portal, email notifications, and integration with the eCommerce plugin you’re using all set up and ready to go.
SliceWP will also prepopulate all the other settings, so you have everything up and running.
And lastly, if you want to fine-tune any aspect of your affiliate program, you can change all the settings at any time. SliceWP comes with what is arguably one of the best thought-out admin interfaces in a WordPress plugin, so you will have an easy time managing your affiliate program.
2. Affiliate Portal
An affiliate program is nothing without affiliates. The success of your program relies on the success of your affiliate partners.
The team behind SliceWP knows this very well, so the plugin is packed with features geared toward your affiliates, all packaged into the affiliate portal.
The affiliate portal consists of several pages created specifically for your affiliates, with the two main ones being:
- The affiliate registration page, where users can sign-up for your affiliate program via a customizable form. Yes, you can configure the fields users must complete to be eligible for your program.
- The affiliate account page, where your affiliates can log in and analyze their performance. Besides this, your partners can quickly grab their affiliate referral link, generate custom ones (if they need to promote a certain product or page), copy or download the creative assets you’ve put at their disposal, view their payouts, and edit their profile. All from this single page.
3. Commission Rules
Whether you wish to reward your affiliates with a fixed rate or a percentage from the sale, SliceWP has you covered.
But this is just the beginning.
With SliceWP, you have a handful of commission rules that offer you a high level of flexibility and allow you to set up your affiliate program the way you want to:
- Recurring commissions: If you’re a subscription-based business, you can reward your affiliates for the recurring orders that come in for a subscription (not just for the initial referral of that subscription). You can also limit the number of recurring orders to which this rule should be applied. Do you want to reward affiliates only for the first 6 subscription payments? You can do it.
- Lifetime commissions: Want to reward your affiliates for all future purchases a referred customer makes? You can do just that. When you activate the lifetime commissions feature, referred customers are automatically linked on checkout to the affiliate that referred them. When this customer makes other purchases in the future, the linked affiliate will get rewarded a commission.
- Multi-level: Want to go beyond a single-level structure? You can do this with the multi-level affiliates feature. With this, your affiliates can recruit other affiliates and build their own network. When these recruited affiliates refer a sale, they and the affiliate that recruited them will earn a commission.
The best part of the above rules? You can customize them either globally or per affiliate, or both.
For example, you can offer recurring or lifetime commissions for all of your affiliates with a simple turn of a switch. But, if you have an affiliate that you wish to offer more, you can change the rule just for them.
Similarly, if you want to reward recurring or lifetime commissions to just a few affiliates, you can turn the global feature off but enable it only for them.
The choice is yours.
4. Deeply Integrated
SliceWP is one of the most integrations-rich affiliate plugins for WordPress. It brings the advanced features needed to run a successful affiliate program to businesses powered by a wide range of eCommerce WordPress plugins.
If your business is running on one of the following plugins, SliceWP has you covered:
- WooCommerce
- Easy Digital Downloads
- Paid Memberships Pro
- Restrict Content Pro
- Paid Member Subscriptions
- MemberPress
- GetPaid
- Studiocart
Besides integrating with all of the above eCommerce plugins, SliceWP also integrates with Gravity Forms and Ninja Forms so that you can track referral leads. If you wish to reward your affiliates with a commission per each referred lead, or if you simply want to track affiliate referred leads, you can do just that.
But there’s even more.
To help you keep your affiliates in the loop, SliceWP integrates directly with Mailchimp, MailerLite, and ConvertKit, allowing your affiliates to subscribe to your mailing list when signing up to your program.
And finally, if you need even more connectivity with other WordPress plugins or apps that your business relies on, SliceWP integrates with WP Fusion and AutomatorWP.
5. Streamlined Payouts
Once you have referred sales coming in and commissions generated for the referring affiliates, it’s time to pay these affiliates.
With SliceWP, the payout process is streamlined. Whether you wish to pay your affiliates via bank transfers, PayPal, or store credit, the plugin does the heavy lifting for you.
If you’re using PayPal to run parts of your business, you can enable the Payouts feature and connect your account to SliceWP. Once you’ve done this, paying affiliates in bulk via PayPal is a matter of just a few clicks.
You can also do this if you’d rather reward your affiliates with virtual store credit, which they can use to purchase from you at a discounted rate. SliceWP comes with a built-in virtual wall for your affiliates. However, I do have to mention that this particular feature is only available for WooCommerce-powered stores for now.
6. Real-Time Reports
Seeing referral sales come in is nice, but knowing who sent you those sales and what methods they used is crucial for the future of your affiliate program.
The goal is to maximize each affiliate’s performance. Unfortunately, without hard data to analyze the performance of your affiliates, you’ll have a hard time doing this.
With SliceWP, you have all the data you need to make informed decisions at your fingertips.
You can analyze everything from affiliate commissions to revenue, visits, and more from your WordPress dashboard.
Pricing Plans of SliceWP Plugin
SliceWP is one of the few premium WordPress plugins that offers all features in one license.
When you purchase a SliceWP license, you will get every feature the plugin offers without losing time comparing features and price packages.
SliceWP is priced at $169/year for a single site license. If you need to install the plugin on more websites, you also have a $259/year option, which allows you to activate the plugin on up to 10 websites.
All purchases are risk-free, with a 30-day money-back guarantee, access to detailed documentation, and top-notch support.
And if we’re talking about risk-free, SliceWP also comes with a core lite plugin that is completely free. Even though it’s “lite”, the free plugin comes with all the basic functionality you need to run a simple affiliate program.
If you’re looking to get started, this is the perfect way of doing it.
Pros and Cons of SliceWP Plugin
SliceWP is a powerful affiliate plugin offering many features and benefits. However, like any tool, it also has its pros and cons. Let’s take a closer look at them.
Pros
- No middleman, manage affiliate program directly from WordPress dashboard.
- Integrates with popular WordPress eCommerce solutions.
- Offers a wide range of features for running a successful affiliate program.
Cons
- Possible limitations or compatibility issues depending on specific needs and setup.
System Requirements of SliceWP
If your server can run WordPress, it should have no difficulties running SliceWP. It is also advisable to ensure that you have the latest version of WordPress installed for optimal compatibility.
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Install and Activate SliceWP Plugin
Starting with the core plugin is quick and straightforward. Here’s how:
1. Firstly, navigate to your WordPress admin > Plugins > Add New.
2. Then, in the “Search plugins” field, type “slicewp” and wait for WordPress to return the plugin.
3. Once SliceWP is displayed, click the “Install Now” button.
4. Then, click “Activate” once the plugin has finished installing.
5. Lastly, run through the “Setup Wizard” to configure your affiliate program.
Install SliceWP Pro License
Once you’re ready to start with SliceWP Pro, here’s what you need to do:
- Firstly, purchase a SliceWP Pro license from the website.
- Then, navigate to your SliceWP account > File Downloads (tab) and download the SliceWP Pro plugin to your computer. The Pro plugin is an extension of the core plugin, so make sure you keep the core plugin active.
- Then, navigate to your WordPress admin > Plugins > Add New > Upload Plugin.
- Select the .zip file you downloaded from your account and click the Install Now button.
- Lastly, once the plugin is installed, Activate it. You can find all Pro features in SliceWP > Add-ons.
Summary
When it comes to affiliate plugins for WordPress, SliceWP is as close as you can get to a complete solution.
From a customizable affiliate onboarding experience, flexible commission rules, powerful statistics, and a great affiliate and admin user experience, it has every feature you need to build a successful affiliate program.
Besides the actual plugin, you can also access detailed documentation and high-quality customer support if you need help.
And with over 5000 businesses already running their affiliate program on SliceWP, you can put all your doubts to rest and know that you are in safe hands.
Mansoor Ahmed Khan
Been in content marketing since 2014, and I still get a kick out of creating stories that resonate with the target audience and drive results. At Cloudways by DigitalOcean (a leading cloud hosting company, btw!), I lead a dream team of content creators. Together, we brainstorm, write, and churn out awesome content across all the channels: blogs, social media, emails, you name it! You can reach out to me at [email protected].
