{"id":44931,"date":"2022-07-05T04:52:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-05T04:52:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/authorityhacker.com\/?p=44931"},"modified":"2024-01-23T13:18:13","modified_gmt":"2024-01-23T13:18:13","slug":"shareasale-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.authorityhacker.com\/shareasale-review\/","title":{"rendered":"ShareASale Review 2024: Pros, Cons & Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you\u2019ve been on the affiliate marketing circuit for a while you\u2019ll be familiar with ShareASale<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in the day, it existed alongside Commission Junction, Linkshare and ClickBank as pretty much the biggest networks out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don\u2019t forget to check out our reviews of Rakuten Advertising<\/a>, Commission Junction<\/a> and ClickBank<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fact that they were the only real networks might have had something to do with that though.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My experience with them dates back to my affiliate minisite days, promoting an acid reflux info product.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Shareasale<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Anyways, back to business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ShareASale was acquired by Awin<\/a> (Affiliate Window) in 2017 for US$35 million<\/a>, but the site still exists as a separate brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brian Littleton may have kept 100% equity in the company\u2026 but Awin has a reputation for rolling acquisitions into its main brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, for now, ShareASale will remain at the same URL with the almost the same layout and interface it\u2019s used for almost two decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is that a good thing or a bad thing?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s take a look inside the ShareASale network to find out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Signing Up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The first thing we need to take a look at is how easy (or difficult) it is to sign up for a publisher account with ShareASale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Certain affiliate networks make this far more complicated than it needs to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

#1<\/strong> Choose a username and password, and let them know what country you live in:<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Shareasale<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

#2<\/strong> Add your primary affiliate website\u2013 this domain will be used to verify your ShareASale account later, so use a live site.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Shareasale<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

They\u2019re also pretty stringent about the types of affiliate marketing sites they allow on the network i.e. no adult content:<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Shareasale<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

#3<\/strong> Enter your email address, but using an email address @yourdomain.com is going to be far more effective than using a free email address e.g. Gmail, Yahoo, Live, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Shareasale<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

#4<\/strong> Provide full contact details \u2013 don\u2019t forget to include who you want your affiliate checks made payable to:<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Shareasale<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

#5<\/strong> Select your preferred payment method but there\u2019s no PayPal option\u2026which is annoying:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Shareasale<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

#6<\/strong> The final step is to agree to their T&Cs \u2013 you\u2019ll see the Awin branding included here \u2013 and then click on the confirmation email to submit your finalized application for review.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Shareasale<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

And then the waiting begins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ShareASale account approval normally only takes a day or so, but that obviously excludes weekends and holidays. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Note: My new application was approved within 24 hours. That\u2019s a hell of an improvement on other networks I\u2019ve tested where the process is so convoluted that I simply gave up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All told it shouldn\u2019t take you any longer than 15 minutes to complete your application.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What brands can you promote?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Something I really like about ShareASale is their knack for finding merchants that bigger networks would have no interest in, but make perfect sense for affiliate marketers like you and me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In total, almost 4,500 merchants currently use ShareASale as their affiliate marketing network of choice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019ve never really been the \u201cbig brand\u201d affiliate network, and this is actually a good thing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Big corporations can be picky as fuck when it comes to selecting affiliates\u2026because they can afford to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

SME\u2019s (Small & Medium Enterprises), on the other hand, are hungrier than a fat guy in a cheesecake factory to make money.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mmmmm\u2026cheesecake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So they\u2019re far more open to the idea of small site owners promising to work ludicrously hard to promote their products\/services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But ShareASale does promote brand names that at least some of you will recognize:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Namecheap<\/td>\"Autopom<\/td>\"Wpengine<\/td><\/tr>
\"Thinkifc<\/td>\"National<\/td>\"Qatar<\/td><\/tr>
\"California<\/td>\"Masterclass<\/td>\"The<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure><\/center>\n\n\n\n

This is just a random sampling of the hundreds of high-quality merchants you\u2019ll find on the network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ease of Use<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The ShareASale dashboard looks dated by today\u2019s standards:<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Shareasale<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Not very exciting, is it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it\u2019s very functional and I dig the minimalist approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018At A Glance\u2019 displays your current affiliate payment balance, any important updates for your ShareASale account, and merchants that are currently offline or closed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018Activity Feed\u2019 is a relatively recent addition and basically provides you with a real-time overview of what\u2019s going on inside your account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All other functions are available from a series of drop-down menus:<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Shareasale<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Another nice touch is the \u2018Trending Merchants\u2019 feature \u2013 this displays the top 10 most popular merchant programs on ShareASale as a whole:<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Shareasale<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

So you don\u2019t have to trawl through dozens of programs, although ShareASale makes that process way easier than anyone else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What this network lacks in finesse it more than makes up for by not trying to be overly clever or accidentally cryptic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But their interface is far from perfect \u2013 the main affiliate dashboard is just way, way too busy, for example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finding affiliate programs on ShareASale<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Now, this is where ShareASale kicks sand in the face of every other affiliate network I\u2019ve used to date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The basics are the same as their competitors \u2013 click on \u2018Merchants\u2019 and \u2018Search for Merchants\u2019:<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Shareasale<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

From here you can do browse through the various categories until you find one you like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing new so far, until you see how ShareASale allows you to filter through thousands of merchants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 You can sort affiliate programs by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n