AffiliateWP - External Referral Links

Plugin · Free

700+ active installs · Rated 3.0/5 · Updated August 27, 2025

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Small companion add-on for AffiliateWP, installed on a separate WordPress site rather than the store. When a visitor arrives with a referral parameter such as ?ref=123, it stores the affiliate ID in a cookie and appends it to every link pointing at the store where AffiliateWP runs, so the right affiliate gets commission. It suits affiliate programs promoting external landing pages. Link rewriting happens in jQuery, so links added later or without JavaScript are not tagged.

Pros

  • Lets affiliates promote landing pages on a different domain
  • Only three settings: store URL, referral variable, cookie lifetime
  • Cookie keeps the referral across page views on the external site

Cons

  • Only useful with AffiliateWP running on the store site
  • Rewrites links client-side with jQuery only
  • No reporting of its own; tracking happens in AffiliateWP

Topics: Ecommerce plugins

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