Welcome to our ShareASale Review!
If you have been looking into some affiliate networks to use within your affiliate marketing business, then you might ask yourself what is ShareASale about?
Being an affiliate marketing network for quite a while, it has plenty to offer but is it worth your precious time?
In this review I have gone through everything that a potential affiliate partner would be asking themselves before joining.
ShareASale Review Summary
Product Name: ShareASale
Founder: Brian Littleton
Product Type: Affiliate Network
Price: Free to Join
Best For: Affiliate Marketers
Summary: ShareASale is an affiliate network, and is part of the Awin network. It connects merchants selling products with affiliates to promote them. There is a minimum requirement of you needing a website.
But is a solid option for an Affiliate Marketer.
Rating: 85/100
Recommended? Yes
If you’re still brand new to affiliate marketing, or haven’t got a website yet. Then I would recommend you check out our #1 Recommended Training program to get an excellent start with Affiliate Marketing. 🙂
Table of Contents
What is ShareASale?
ShareASale is an affiliate marketing network connecting merchants with affiliates who want to promote their brands for a percentage commission. It is based out of the US, in Chicago and is actually part of the Awin Affiliate Network. Brian Littleton founded ShareASale in 2000, so has been around for 18 years and to date it has around 4,5000 merchants and over 700,000 affiliates registered with them.
Whilst most of the merchants are looking for marketers (affiliates) to provide buyers for products, there are a couple of other ways you can earn commission by introducing leads.
This review will be focusing on the affiliate side, as this will tend to be the side my readers will be interested in more.
Related Post: How Does Affiliate Marketing Really Work?
Joining ShareASale Requirements
There is a minimum requirement to be able to sign up and start promoting the merchants on ShareASale. This is a website or blog. Even if you want to focus on promoting products via paid promotions, you will still need a website.
If you haven’t got a website yet check out this guide to creating a free WordPress website for affiliate marketing.
Once you have a website, there are a number of questions you need to complete to go through the application. Also note, that you will not gain immediate access. A member of the ShareASale team will review your application – which is similar to the way Awin works.
This makes sense as ShareASale is a part of the Awin network.
How Do You Make Money at ShareASale?
Whilst most of the merchants are looking for you to introduce buyers to their products and services, it isn’t the only way to earn commissions within ShareASale.
Pay Per Sale
Every time you make a sale, you will earn a commission. The majority of the merchants work under this way.
Pay Per Lead
This is where you get paid if you introduce a lead, not necessarily a sale. If you get someone to fill in a form, this can sometimes be enough. The commission rate is typically lower than the pay per sale line, but still one to look for.
The best example I can use is insurance quotes. If you get someone to use a comparison site comparing car insurance rates, this can be a typical pay per lead model. If they don’t end up buying the lead, it will not affect your payout.
Pay Per Click
This is where you can earn commissions if they click on the link you provide. Whilst it looks like an easy way to earn money, you will not find many merchants operating this model and you need to have at least one qualifying pay-out before you can even use it.
Pay Per Call
This is one that I am not sure how many people will actually use, the eligibility of actually being able to advertise it does make it something for people who are already earning plenty of earnings through the other 3 methods.
Haven't Made Your First $1 Yet?
Getting Paid At ShareASale
Let’s start off by covering how much you need to have earned to be able to withdraw your earnings. You need to have earned at least USD $50.00 to be able to get your earnings and they offer 3 different ways of payment.
- Via Check (different fees apply for checks being mailed via FedEx to either Canada, US or the rest of the world)
- Wire Deposit (into your bank)
- Payoneer
They do not currently use PayPal, and not sure if they ever plan on using this method as they have decided to go with Payoneer. You would need to create a Payoneer account to be able to use it, but not many retailers actually accept Payoneer payments. But choose whichever method works for you.
What We Liked About ShareASale
Here’s what we liked about ShareASale:
#1 Huge Catalogue of Merchants and Products to Choose from
The first benefit is the ability to look through a catalogue of merchants and products to be able to write content about and promote. Having to search via the internet for products takes time and you would also need to sign up with each affiliate program you found. Time better spent writing content
#2 Back-Office Dashboard
The back-office dashboard they provide is a great feature to keep an eye on how your promotions are working. See sales, merchants and commissions in easy to read reports. You can also dig a little deeper into each to understand how you are getting on.
#3 Marketing Tools
They also offer numerous marketing tools to help you promote. Promo banners and widgets, access to data feeds and more.
What We Didn't Like About ShareASale
Here’s what we didn’t like about ShareASale:
#1 Mixed Reviews on TrustPilot
There are some interesting reviews on TrustPilot about ShareASale. Some querying getting paid, or even being approved and then rejected in the same week.
This might be unique cases, but there are definitely a few reviews – both good and bad to read on there…
Haven't Made Your First $1 Yet?
My ShareASale Review - Final Conclusion
ShareASale offers a high number of merchants and is definitely worth a look if you are an affiliate marketer looking for new products or services to add to your blog to promote. With little fuss over being able to apply, other than having a website there are no hoops to jump through unlike other networks.
I would always suggest you review the list and ensure it is relevant to your audience, as looking through it I would find that being from the UK, I do not know many of the brands in certain niches and this would be a factor depending on where you are targeting with your website.
Being part of the Awin umbrella, does mean that ShareASale does get a positive score from me, as Awin is a very good affiliate network and is the largest in the world boasting a lot of merchants to advertise. So is definitely worth a look at as well as looking at ShareASale.
How We Make Money Online
If you’re still relatively new to affiliate marketing, don’t have a blog yet or are feeling lost with it all – we’re here to help!
Affiliate Marketing is a fantastic way of making money online, but without the right training, tools, and support it can become a really hard slog to get anywhere… If you want to see where we learned everything we know, then I would recommend you read our Wealthy Affiliate review…
Thanks for checking out our ShareASale Review. If you have any questions or comments to add, then please write them in the comments section below. 😉
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wow I never believe signing up for things like this can be free and the fact that there is no monthly subscription has really got my mind rolling about signing up because have been looking for a way to promote my brand and I think I have seen the right choice. I must share this post for my friends because what’s good is not meant for only one person.
Hi Lok,
thanks for checking out my review. Genuine Affiliate Networks or programs do not charge you for using them. Some may ask for a small deposit, but that is just to prove you are real and you get it back when you take your first withdrawal.
ShareASale doesn’t do this, and as long as you have a website and pass their initial screening you are good to go.
thanks
John
Hi John – thanks for sharing this useful and in-depth article. I have considered joining Share A Sale, but I hadn’t realised it was part of the Awin network which I am already a member of. I guess its more for American marketers. To be honest, I haven’t yet dipped my toe in the water with Awin, its on my to-do list after the holidays. All the best, Diane
Hi Diane,
thanks for checking out my review. Whilst they are part of the same network, the merchants on each are different. At first glance, it looks like ShareASale only targets a US audience, but my wife runs a wedding stationary business and we have found that actually there are a few things we could utilise in our UK business on there. Most websites will be targetting a wider audience than just local, but as I said in the article, check out the list of merchants and see if it is worth your time.
Awin, on the face of it looks good but I have found that only specific niches will benefit from it. Picking the right affiliate network for your business is all part of the plan.
thanks
John
Hi John!
I’m so glad I came across ur article cos only today i got an email from amazon about them closing my affiliate membership in the next 90 days and I was wondering how I would replace them.
looks like shareasale is the one to do it!
my niche is travel so im looking for anything related to travel – would you know if they have travel related products/services or it is more physical items?
Hey Tarun,
thanks for checking out my review. First off, Amazon can be like that and even if they do close your affiliate membership, just reapply. It is a step they take due to the amount of applications they receive. But as most do not make sales straightaway and dont come back. It is an easy step for them to take to manage those who are serious about it and those who are not. So reapply and you will be accepted.
As to travel affiliates, you are probably better off looking for individual programs or actually looking at Awin, they have some great travel affiliate programs inside. Whereas ShareASale is better suited to a retail niche. Check out my Awin guide to see what it is like.
thanks
John
Very interesting read, John! Thanks a lot for putting this together. I started as an affiliate marketer a couple of months ago and had not heard about Share A Sale, nor the Awin umbrella. You’ve saving me some precious time by putting all this information in one place without me having to do the research. 🙂 Thanks to your review, I just signed up now as a Share A Sale affiiiate member. It only took me a couple of minutes. And I am definitely going to check Awin out too. Thanks again!! Nathalie
Hey Nathalie,
thanks for checking out my review – glad you found the information useful!
John
This is helpful. I had heard of ShareASale, but had never looked into it. I did join CJ Affiliates, though. The reason I joined CJ Affiliates was because I was looking for an affiliate network that partnered with a particular company that I wanted to work with.
If I looked into ShareASale, it would probably be for the purpose of seeing what possibilities there would be for promoting affiliate products (without having a certain company in mind first). Is it pretty easy to search by category or niche on ShareASale? And do you have any thoughts on how they would compare to CJ Affiliates?
Hey Danette,
thanks for checking out my review. That is often the way it works, we have a brand in mind and we find their affiliate program is signed up with a network, yours was CJ. That is great when we have a brand in mind, but when we start expanding our knowledge and realise the number available, you will find brands you never knew existed.
It is really easy to check through the merchants available on ShareASale, you can even do it before you sign up to see whether it is worth your time.
As to comparing them, it all depends on what your niche is and what products or services you are choosing to promote. To that point, I wouldn’t compare them really. You may end up signing up with every affiliate network within your blog, as to reach a higher number of affiliate programs.
CJ affiliates is next on my list to write an article about. The only thing I will mention is that on ShareASale, I found a lot of brands that only those in the US would know. Whereas CJ looks like it is more a global partner. Again this could be a factor in your decision to sign up with either.
thanks
John
Thanks for this John, this is really insightful. I never knew what really Share A Sale was. I’ll have to browse through their catalogs and see what items I could start promoting within my blog. Share A Sale seems like a legitimate site. I’ll need to start adding more product reviews as well, and I could start utilizing their platform. Thanks again.
Hey JD,
thanks for checking out my review. ShareASale is definitely legit, and has the backing of a giant like Awin. But, have a look through their catalog first, no point applying if you have nothing relevant on there.
Product reviews will be an important step in your business, so you will definitely need to write a few…
thanks
John
That is very good blog you have shared but let me ask you a Question do they first check amount of traffic your website is generating? like let say amazon i am asking this for my self because i am new in affiliate marketing my blogs are yet to generate enough traffic so it wise to apply.?
Hey Charles,
thanks for checking out my review. No, the only stipulation is that you have a website. checking the t’s and c’s, there is nothing about the amount of traffic. But the reason they check is, when you fill out the form there are some checks around the type of content on your website.
My advice would be for any network is apply, if you get rejected at the first attempt, just wait a month and try again. Some are more picky than others around the traffic.
I do understand it as if you haven’t got any traffic, they will not make any sales from you. If your website is brand new, I would always say build out your site with plenty of articles before adding affiliate links to it.
So, if you have only got a couple of articles, it might be worth waiting anyway for applying for any affiliate program.
This is about building something for the long haul, and sometimes we try to jump ahead.
Stick with it and you will see it working.
Good Luck, John
Hey John,
Thank you for sharing your review on ShareASale – an reputable affiliate network. Although I have been approved as their affiliate/publisher some time ago, some of their merchants still rejected my applications citing that some of my criteria does not meet their requirement.
Nevertheless, l am still happy with their service and support rendered.
Best wishes.
Hey Shui,
thanks for checking out my review. That is where traffic will always be a factor. Most merchants will check out the state of your website, if they notice a new website, they might make the decision not to accept you. They are paying a fee to ShareASale so will want to improve their chances of sales and that will mean that some newbies will be rejected.
But if you are writing regular content that is getting ranked well, it won’t be long before you are accepted by any merchant.
All the best
John