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Two WordPress Affiliate Themes Compared

Overview

If you need a website for your business, what are your options? Using HTML, CSS and PHP, you could develop something very tailored and individual. However, that’s very time-consuming and requires you to either code a site yourself, or outsource it to someone who can – making it a very expensive option.
If you want to build your website faster, but don’t have the time, skills or money, you’ll probably use a CMS (Content Management System). And the most popular of these, and the one Amazon Associates recommends, is WordPress.
WordPress allows you to use a variety of useful themes (designs) and plug-ins (extensions) which can be adapted to the needs of your business. With the help of specially designed WordPress themes, optimized for affiliate marketing, a beginner can quickly set up a professional affiliate website, using time-saving ways to include products from various affiliate networks into your own website.

What is an Affiliate Theme?

There are thousands of different WordPress themes which can be obtained from various developers through the WordPress website. Affiliate themes are specifically designed to create and administer sites of this kind, enabling owners to easily include corresponding products from Amazon or other affiliate networks.
In addition to writing blog posts and creating pages, these special Affiliate themes also deliver product integration, publish test reports, or even create price-comparison tables. Some of these themes even have interfaces to Amazon and other partner programs, to import product data automatically, keeping product images and prices up-to-date.
Affiliate themes have all required functions within one specially designed theme. It’s possible to use WordPress plug-ins on a regular WordPress site for integrating products into affiliate websites, but they usually offer only a few features. You have to use many individual plug-ins for the desired result, whereas an Affiliate theme has everything you need built in to its design. Too many plug-ins is a bad idea and can adversely affect both the page speed and the security of your WordPress website. A slow website is anything but user friendly, and Google can punish a slow website with a poor ranking.

One-Stop Shop

Affiliate themes have all required functions within one specially designed theme. It’s possible to use WordPress plug-ins on a regular WordPress site for integrating products into affiliate websites, but they usually offer only a few features. You have to use many individual plug-ins for the desired result, whereas an Affiliate theme has everything you need built in to its design.

Too many plug-ins is a bad idea and can adversely affect both the page speed and the security of your WordPress website. A slow website is anything but user friendly, and Google can punish a slow website with a poor ranking.

It’s also worth noting that since different plug-ins are provided by different developers, when used together, there may be conflicts in the way they work and the way they look together on screen.

Which Theme to Choose?

Here, we look at two Affiliate themes: REHub and Compare:
REHub is marketed via Themeforest. REHub began as a magazine theme but has developed into an affiliate theme, now including many features such as comparison tables, product subpages, review templates, etc.

Features:

  • Customizable CSS, layout settings and Customizer
  • Support for WooCommerce
  • Support for Visual Composer
  • Price Comparison
  • Table generator
  • Different shortcodes available .
  • Ajax serach (autocomplete) for content available
  • Evaluation system for products

Costs:

REHub offers one primary license type, which includes product support for six months. Other add ones are available to your license if you purchase, so make sure to review what else is available.
The Compare theme is specially optimized for price comparison, but still offers useful functionality for an affiliate site.

Features:

  • Custom CSS, layout settings and Customizer (including color picker)
  • Multilingual (English, German and French)
  • Price comparison (including via XML/CSV files)
  • Currency support for USD, EUR, GBP and many more
  • Many widgets included
  • Two category levels available for products
  • Many predefined banners
  • Shortcodes for buttons, tooltips, price comparison and more
  • Links to social networks without additional plug-ins
  • Many page templates included (glossary, archive pages, sidebar, blog, contact form etc.)

Costs:

There are two primary license options available, with a key difference being the amount of websites you will use your license on. Both options offer product support and updates for the first six months, with the option to extend

Conclusion

When selecting the appropriate affiliate theme, consider all the advantages and disadvantages. For the less experienced site owner, support and documentation are important criteria, since all themes are very complex and good documentation (especially through videos) can help you familiarize yourself much more quickly.

Page-loading times and clean source code are also important. Likewise, don’t lose sight of the long-term costs of running, maintaining and upgrading a theme as your business grows. There is a wise saying: “Who buys cheaply, buys twice.”
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