ShareASale Affililiate Program is one of the largest in operation. It caters mainly to small and medium size companies. Over 3,900 merchants have their affiliate programs hosted by ShareASale, supported by over 700,000 affiliates. The company was acquired by Awin, a larger Affiliate Programs group. But it is managed as a separate entity. You can read more about ShareASale in Wikipedia
Should You Join ShareASale As An Affiliate?
Let me tell you about ShareASale and you can decide. It has been in business since 2000 which is a good sign. More merchants and affiliates have been added each year. Growth is always a good thing.
Since it was acquired by Awin, a much larger company, ShareASale has been growing at an even faster rate. It’s merchants and product offerings range over many popular categories. Whatever niche you have, it will most likely be covered by one or more merchants.
In the following section I will show you the product categories from A to Z so that you can scope out where you can find your niche.
Product Categories
There are 40 categories supported by almost 4000 merchants.
A to D
D to G
H to M
M to T
W
You can see that they cover a very diverse range of products. Can you see your niche in here?
How ShareASale Works
It offers convenience. In one place you can find a myriad of companies you can apply to become affiliates of. Some will be easy. Others will apply more scrutiny before accepting your application. Since there are so many companies to chose from, rejection is not as big a problem as it might seem. Just find another one. By the way, this also applies to other affiliate networks like CJ Affiliates, ClickBank, and Awin off course.
On their Home Page above there is an Affiliate Sign Up link in the top right corner.Clicking that will lead to an application page shown below.
Under the Affiliates column below you will see the Affiliate Signup link. Click that and the window below will open.
This is a 5 step process as indicated. You cannot move on until you complete each step. It’s pretty straightforward so you shouldn’t have any problems filling this out. Since you have the option of registering as a merchant or affiliate in these windows, make sire you select the affiliate button each time. Pay attention to accuracy. Click the submit button at the end.
Part of the process is to select your username, which is your Email address and Password. Once these are established, you can Login to your own ShareASale site using your username and password.
After you fill in and submit your application, you will receive a message within a couple of days to notify you of your acceptance. Most applications are accepted.
When you login, you will be directed to your own ShareASale Business site where your name and Affiliate ID# will be shown at the top left.
ShareASale Dashboard Menu
At the top of your Dashboard you will find the following pull-down menus:
- REPORTS
- MERCHANTS
- LINKS
- TOOLS
- ACCOUNT
- PAYMENTS
When I signed up for ShareASale and got approved, my first action was to check the MERCHANTS pull down menu. I was eager to see what was available. Let me share a secret with you. It is helpful if you already know what your niche is. Mine is to help people make money online by being trained by the very best – Wealthy Affiliate,
After you apply to become an affiliate for a merchant, you can check the status of your application at the Merchant Status page in the Pull-Down menu.
Merchant Status Page
Notice the merchant National Debt Relief under the Merchant Search window? This is my first merchant that I have applied to represent. I am only going into some detail here to show you what criteria In used in selecting this company. When you make a choice for a merchant, you need to have a compelling reason to select them since you will have to market their program.
Most merchant’s applications have a section where you have to show how you plan to promote them. If you do not have a close affinity with the company, this will be more challenging.
If you are not interested in reading my details, just skip this section to the end where you will see the Pending Approval window.
Debt Renegotiation
Saving money also falls into this category. You have heard the saying, a penny saved is a penny earned. Since the Great Econimic Recession of 2008-2009, many families and individuals experienced loss of employment. When they eventually got jobs, they found themselves subjected to major pay cuts. Not only in their earnings, but also in benefits, like health care.
Corporations adopted a strategy of offering work that fell short of a 40-hour week. This created a loophole where they considered these employees part-time. And that is how they justified curtailing benefits.
Hardship
Guess what happened. The expenses of families and individuals increased. There was one big problem. Income fell short to meet their needs. Hence, they went into debt. Little by little credit card debt crept up. And if they owned a home,, chances were the value dropped so much they had upside down mortgages. Unlike in the years prior to the Great Recession, home equity loans were not an option anymore.
Eventually the burden of debt got so high, many had to declare bankruptcy and lost their homes. Fortunately for some, including our family, there was an alternative. Debt renegotiation.
Did you know that credit card and loan companies were willing to accept cutting loan amounts of their debtors? However, there was one major problem with this. They would not deal directly with their customers. But they would, if their customers hired third party companies to negotiate for them.
A whole new industry of debt renegotiation, not debt consolidation,exploded. Let me explain the difference between the two.
Compared to Debt Consolidation
In debt consolidation, all debts are pooled together and a new personal loan is obtained with lower interest rates to pay off all the existing loans, Instead of making numerous payments each month, only one payment is necessary. However, the amount owning is not reduced. Just consolidated. Interest is still accrued even if it is at a lower rate.
Debt negotiation takes a different approach. Since the individuals having a debt are undergoing major financial hardship, the probability is they will default. Huge losses will be sustained by the creditors. The debt renegotiation companies set up an escrow account with the debtors where they pay into this the most they can afford. At the same time they stop making payments on all their loans.
The Process
At first the consequences are bad. Credit scores start to tank. But then, one by one each loan is renegotiated at 50% or less of the balance still owing. And a payment schedule is arranged where this amount is spread over an agreed to number of months. The debt renegotiation company takes care of making the payments from the escrow account.
The client also gets training on not to talk to creditors. And all letters and messages they receive are handed over to the debt renegotiation company. They deal with that. And if any lawsuits are filed, they have attorneys who handle that too.
So what is the end result for the debtor? There are fees involved to pay for this service. However, since there is no interest involved, the client ends up paying about 50% of what they owned, instead of two to three times more if they did nothing and maintained their high interest payments.
The Outcome
Most debts are paid off within two to four years. And they are classed as PAID IN FULL. The credit rating of the clients improve dramatically. Plus, the stigma of going bankrupt is absent. This makes it easier to obtain credit if necessary. Another outcome is from lessons learned. This experience teaches the clients to stop repeating prior bad habits.
Save before spending. Pay cash whenever possible. It is OK to get a new credit card. But pay the balance off at every billing cycle. This will continue to improve one’s credit. One of the major causes for low credit rating is having too many credit cards and loading them up with over 50% of debt compared to the credit limit.
National Debt Relief (NDR)
You may have seen TV ads run by this company. That is how I first heard about them. When I checked them out I noticed they had a AAA Better Business Rating. I also checked their reviews and was reassured they had an army of happy customers. I called them and had them do their magic for me.
The peace of mind knowing I had a company who cared about their clients was a Godsend. Fast forward several years. I looked to see if NDR had an affiliate program. They did. As a merchant of ShaeASale. That was what motivated me to sign up.
When I click the company name in the previous graphic, I am directed to the following page.
Pending Approval
As you can see, they pay a commission for each qualified customer who clicks through to their website using the affiliate link they give you. Pretty good right? Notice that the projected conversion rate is 10%. This means that out of every 10 people who see the NDR ad, blog post, or banner you use, 1 will click through.
When they do, a 60-day cookie is placed on their browser. Hence, they have up to 60 days to schedule a phone call. When they do that you get paid $41 for that. Plus, you can earn 12% override commission on every affiliate referral.
If you become an affiliate of several companies, ShareASale takes care of collecting the commissions and directly depositing it into your bank account. NDR also offers training and loads of banners and text links to choose from.
Here in a nutshell I have described how the process in ShareASale works using one company.
Training – In The ShareASale Blogs
Some basic training is provided in their ShareASale BLOG SITE. Here are a few examples:
Affiliate Marketing For Beginners
Nine Ways To Generate Traffic For Your Affiliate Offers
ShareASale Parallel Tracking Solution
Each one of the above posts are worth reading. They zero in on the essence of these topics. However, you will still need the nuts and bolts taught by reputable affiliate marketing training companies like Wealthy Affiliate.
My Assessment
Let’s be real. I just joined ShareASale and awaiting approval for two merchants, National Debt Relief and True Trading Group. This one is dedicated to trading stocks and Forex. I cannot give a review that is complete yet. However, I can offer my opinion on what my first impressions are. I will return later to update this review.
What do I consider the Pros and Cons? Let’s carry on.
Pros
- Generous choice of merchants covering physical products as well as digital products and services
- Easy to apply
- Website is straightforward to navigate
- One stop shop for receiving commissions
- Basic training for newbies starting out
- Basic tools available to write content and make videos
- Company information blog that provides tips to merchants and affiliates
- Affiliates can make their own ads
Cons
- Merchant approval takes longer than the two to three business days
- Each Merchant requires repeating the marketing methods the affiliate will use
- PPC not permitted
Recommendation
I do indeed recommend ShareASale as a fine affiliate network to join. It is a good idea to have at least 30 posts on your website where some are ranked on the 1st pages of the search engines. Therefore, I do not recommend ShareASale for an affiliate just starting out.
Tips On Generating Traffic
The concepts I list below are simple to comprehend but not easy to pull off without really good training:
- Write compelling content that engages visitors positively – I recommend using WordPress
- Use keywords to rank high. But not at the expense of 1
- Incorporate well-established SEO techniques in posts
- Follow the SEO procedures for WordPress such as filling in the metadata and description, plus image tags
- Write and publish posts regularly at least two a week. Google will send more traffic if you become an Authority
This simplified graphic summaries what you have to do:
Affiliate Marketing Training
If you wanted to be a doctor would you treat patients without being trained? What about being an engineer.
I don’t think you would. Yet, people dive into online marketing of which affiliate marketing is a subset and expect to make money right off the bat. It just doesn’t happen in that way. If you need to make money quickly, what you need to do is to get a job.
When you get into this field, you need to be well-trained. Writing compelling content, driving traffic to read it and making conversions, i.e. sales, is not intuitive. There are proven techniques and practices you need to become very good at in order to succeed. Hence, affiliate marketing is NOT for everyone.
For those who embrace it with their eyes wide open, willing to learn and work hard, the sky is the limit. It is not unusual to come across affiliate marketers who are generating five and six figure monthly incomes. It took them years and a lot of trial and error before they found their path to success. They never gave up.
It pays to get educated correctly. There is only one company I know that provides a complete training package at a price you can afford. I’d go so far as to say, the training they provide is the best available at any price. Do you want to know more about them? I suggest reading my article shown below:
The Best Training In Affiliate Marketing That Turns Beginners Into Pros!
I would love to hear from you if you have any comments or questions. Leave them in the comments section below. If you wish to contact me I have a Contact tab at the top right where you can enter your information.
With entrepreneurship exploding, why not make the effort to get your fair share?
Future Plans
I will be researching and selecting merchants who help people to either make money or save money. Like Investments. Stock and Forex (Foreign Exchange) trading. If I see a product or service I like outside the MMO niche I will consider them.
Why not join me as an affiliate in ShareASale by clicking the banner below and signing up like I showed you at the beginning?
I wish you much success in your online affiliate marketing journey.
Edwin Bernard
Wow! Very interesting program. To be honest, this is my first time hearing about this affiliate program. However, according to your writing I feel an interest in ShareASale. Because I really want to resign and get out of this 9 to 5 work.
By the way, if I don’t have experience about affiliate marketing, would you recommend this program to me?
Many thanks
Hi Kylie,
Thanks for your comments. I wouldn’t recommend this program to brand new affiliate marketers as they need to acquire more experience in order to write posts that catch the attention of people looking for the products in their niche. Once they have confidence in their ability to connect with prospects, then by all means they can apply to ShareASale.
After signing up and receiving approval for the merchants you applied to, start by using the affiliate links and banners provided (called creatives) and invite your visitors to click those to make a purchase.
I suggest starting off with ClickBank that specializes in digital products. I wrote a review of them on this website.
Much success to you.
Edwin
Well Great article! I really like the way you present your information simple and direct to the point, Personally i have been a member of Shareasale and i can really testify the truth in this article especially the application process is simple, their dashboard has all you need from the profile to the payment, Moreover, it has many merchants that for me I would call it unlimited that one can apply for affiliate programs,
i have been a member of ShareASale for two years and i have no complain about it, i am really excited to come across this article, i am sure to subscribe to your newsfeed to learn more about this and the other related articles from you. Thank you.
Hello Joy,
Thanks for your kind words. Glad that you have been satisfied by being a member of ShareASale. I presume you have received several products to check out. May I ask what niche you are in? I wish you much success with your business.
Edwin
Hello Edwin,
Thank you for writing about ShareASale Affiliate Program And Make Money online guide. I enjoyed reading and experiencing your article and learned many new thing from it.
You are working very hard to share full details regarding any program. We will soon use Shareasale on my website to generate some revenue. I recently created my new website and content plays an important role to drive traffic to me.
Thank you…
Parveen
Hi Parveen,
Glad to be of help. If you register with ShareASale, remember to maintain a minimum balance in sales of $50 each month. If not, they will charge you $25. And if you are not even able to achieve $25, they will delete your account after a notification. This is reasonable as I am sure you would like your earnings to be much more than $50.
If you join and do get deleted, you can wait till you can generate more traffic before rejoining.
I hope this helps,
Edwin
September 15, 2020 – P.S. I made some errors regarding the penalties. My apologies. I only just found that out. ShareASale DOES NOT require sales within the first month. Nor do they have a minimum requirement before penalties kick in. In fact they are very new member friendly. So feel free to sign up anytime. All the best to you.
An informative post on Shareashale, I will say. You did an excellent breakdown of what Shareshale is about and how you can earn commissions with it.
I’ve been familiar with Shareasale the last few months, but you giving the breakdown helped. I like your example of National Debt Relief. It helped understand how joining an affiliate program within Shareasale works. You were very clear on this point.
Thanks for sharing- a very neat review.
Hello Eric,
I am glad that you found this ShareASale article helpful. Thanks for your comments.
Edwin
Hi Edwin, thank your for a very informative article on ShareASale. I’m always keen to find affiliate programs that offer good tools and training to support their members. And ShareASale does have a site that is easy to navigate which is a big plus.
However, the monetary penalties charged for not completing enough sales in a month I imagine would be a bit of a turn-off for new entrants to the world of affiliate marketing.
One thing I’m curious about is whether you should find a ‘best-fit’ affiliate program to join or cast your net wide and sign up for as many as possible. Would you recommend newbies sign up with ShareASale if they are already a member of another affiliate program, for example Amazon Associates?
Hi,
Thanks for your well thought out comments. You have asked some great questions.
I know of newbies who are actually making sales on sites like Amazon. So if they are getting sufficient traffic to do that, I recommend that they consider joining ShareASale as it opens up new possibilities. But yes, the penalties should make newcomers think hard before jumping in.
Our time is finite and limited. If we cast our nets as you put it too wide, that will dilute our efforts for all the different programs one would join. I suggest restricting membership to just one or two at the most affiliate companies until significant traffic and conversions are experienced. And then review additional companies.
In my opinion, a focused plan stands a better probability of success.
I hope this helps.
Edwin
September 15, 2020 – P.S. I made some errors regarding the penalties. My apologies. I only just found that out. ShareASale DOES NOT require sales within the first month. Nor do they have a minimum requirement before penalties kick in. In fact they are very new member friendly. So feel free to sign up anytime. All the best to you.
Hi,
Thanks for taking the time to provide this content. I often look for a good affiliate that I may start working with. Shareasale seems to be like a one stop shop. I had never hear of it. I will definitely look into it.
I enjoyed your detail instructions on how to sign up. Also enjoyed the information on debt solutions and their differences.
I like that they have been around for a while. Do they offer good training?
thanks for sharing,
Pitofly
Hi Pitofly,
Thanks for your supportive comments. You asked a good question about training. They offer some very basic training, I would consider more like information about what affiliate marketing is and what one needs to give attention to in order to generate traffic. What they do not do is go into the details on how to do that.
For that reason I highly recommend joining a company that trains you first to understand the concepts of online marketing such as Keywords, Search Engine Optimization, traffic and then shows you the steps on what to do.
The company that in my opinion does the best job in this area is Wealthy Affiliate. If you wish to know how their platform and program works check out this article I wrote:
The Best Training In Affiliate Marketing That Turns Beginners Into Pros!
I wish you all the best.
Edwin
September 15, 2020 – P.S. I made some errors regarding the penalties. My apologies. I only just found that out. ShareASale DOES NOT require sales within the first month. Nor do they have a minimum requirement before penalties kick in. In fact they are very new member friendly. So feel free to sign up anytime. All the best to you.
Very clear on the analysis of the affiliate program, i.e. ShareaSale. Your recommendation of having 50 posts in the website before considering joining this Program has reminded your audiences to be very cautious of the requirement because money will be deducted if the monthly sales drop below the standard. Your tips on Generating Traffic are very useful, esp. for the beginners in affiliate marketing field.
Thanks very much. Looking forward to reading your further reviews.
Dolbe
Hi Dolbe,
Thanks for the appreciation you showed about my ShareASale article. One needs to know all the facts before making a decision. Unfortunately these are usually buried with reams of small print in the Terms and Conditions. I decided to extract the most important one to share with my readers.
I wish you all the success in the world.
Edwin
September 15, 2020 – P.S. I made some errors regarding the penalties. My apologies. I only just found that out. ShareASale DOES NOT require sales within the first month. Nor do they have a minimum requirement before penalties kick in. In fact they are very new member friendly. So feel free to sign up anytime. All the best to you.
Thanks for all the information on becoming an affiliate through ShareASale. I have been working as an affiliate for just over a year and not too long into my business I had joined ShareASale and I have been completely satisfied with their service.
An advantage I like about ShareASale is it is a network of programs, so once I was approved through ShareASale, I had access to a wide range of affiliate programs and I have enjoyed working with them since, thanks.
Hi Neil,
I am delighted that you are having a positive experience with ShareASale. May I ask you to what extent did your first month’s sales exceed $50 so that you weren’t charged the $25 penalty? I’m making the assumption that you weren’t.
Thanks for your comments. I wish you much success in your affiliate marketing business.
Edwin
September 15, 2020 – P.S. I made some errors regarding the penalties. My apologies. I only just found that out. ShareASale DOES NOT require sales within the first month. Nor do they have a minimum requirement before penalties kick in. In fact they are very new member friendly. So feel free to sign up anytime. All the best to you.
Very exciting information, to be able to make money talking about products I already love. What a concept!
I didn’t know the difference ways of getting out of debt. Thanks for the information.
Thanks for dropping by David, and your comments.
Edwin
I use ShareASale to search for trending niche and products – just to get topic ideas for my make-money-online blog. The current user interface is much better than the previous one which was quite dated. Having said that, I’ve never joined any of the programs within the network because my offer is mainly on digital products. They don’t seem to have any merchant within that category.
However, I am not aware that they will terminate your account if your monthly balance dropped below a certain amount. They certainly haven’t terminated mine even though I haven’t earned a single cent for the past few years.
Hi Kathy,
Glad to hear that. When I checked the reviews of others online, several mentioned this minimum condition. I couldn’t find it in the fine print. I may need to remove that statement from my article.
If someone decides to join ShareASale, this will be up to to them to o check the Terms & Conditions. I don’t want to give false information.
Thanks for letting me know.
Have you joined ClickBank? They specialize in digital products. What do you think of them?
Thsnks.
Edwin
As a representative for ShareASale, I can verify that the information about the penalty for not getting started is incorrect. It’s not about getting started in a month – we know that would be nearly impossible for newer affiliates. ShareASale welcomes new affiliates and in fact gives you years to earn your first commission payment. Normally if someone doesn’t even log into their account for years, we may close the account, but we don’t just start taking money from commissions.
Please, please, please get this corrected, as this type of misinformation can hurt someone’s new career in affiliate marketing.
Hi Jeannine,
Noted and edited my post to correct the errors. Thanks for pointing that out to me.
Cheers.
Edwin