It is one of the largest and most popular affiliate networks in the world.

In this article, we’ll discuss what ShareASale is, how it works, its best features, its biggest competitors, and who can benefit from using it.

We’ll also provide some tips for getting started with ShareASale.

What Is ShareASale?

ShareASale is an affiliate marketing network.

It connects advertisers with publishers who want to promote their products or services.

Advertisers pay ShareASale a commission for every sale that they make through the network.

Publishers earn a commission on every sale that they generate for the advertiser.

What Is ShareASale Used For?

Affiliate marketers use ShareASale to find and participate in affiliate programs.

The platform makes it easy for affiliates to find products to promote and get paid commissions for their sales.

ShareASale also provides the technology and tracking necessary for affiliates to receive credit for their sales.

How ShareASale Works

When a customer clicks on an affiliate’s unique ShareASale link, the network places a tracking cookie on their computer.

The tracking cookie allows ShareASale to keep track of the affiliate’s sales and commissions.

For every purchase made through a ShareASale link, you’ll earn a commission as an affiliate.

ShareASale takes care of all of the payments to you as the affiliate marketer.

Your main responsibility is to drive traffic to ShareASale affiliate links.

Notable Features of ShareASale

Here are the main features you’ll discover when using ShareASale.

1. Affiliate Education

ShareASale provides affiliate education through its blog, webinars, and other training materials.

You’ll find education about how to be a successful affiliate marketer, how to use ShareASale’s platform, and tips for driving more traffic and sales.

Specific topics include how to set up your blog, use paid advertising, generate content that sells, search for merchants that fit your business, add affiliate links, and write reviews correctly.

2. Custom Link Creation

ShareASale makes it easy to create custom links for your affiliate website or blog.

You can create a custom link for any merchant that you’re promoting.

As well, the system lets you create deep links to specific products on a merchant’s website.

Take advantage of this feature if you want to promote a specific product on your site, rather than promoting the merchant in general.

3. Affiliate Diagnostics

ShareASale’s platform also offers affiliate diagnostics, which is a tool that allows you to see how your affiliate campaigns perform.

The diagnostic tool provides data on impressions, clicks, and sales so that you can troubleshoot any issues with your links.

The data from the diagnostic tool can help you improve your overall performance as an affiliate marketer.

4. Real-Time Click Tracking

Inside the overall diagnostics tool, ShareASale’s platform gives you real-time click tracking so that you can see how your links perform.

The feature is important because it allows you to track the specific links that drive traffic and sales, and adjust your strategies accordingly.

Becoming an affiliate marketer means looking at your efforts as if you’re starting a business.

Running a successful business always revolves around understanding your numbers.

Use the data provided by ShareASale’s real-time click tracking to make better decisions about your affiliate marketing business.

Don’t continue to run campaigns that perform in a less than optimum manner.

Adjust quickly so you can earn the revenue you seek.

5. Merchants Tab

Use the Merchants Tab to search for relevant affiliate programs to join.

ShareASale offers a wide variety of merchant programs in different niches.

You can use the search function to look for merchants that offer products or services that match your blog’s niche.

Inside the search tool, you can find affiliate products to promote by searching for the following types of information.

• Trending merchants
• Featured Categories
• Keywords
• Program type
• Performance metrics
• Product category

You shouldn’t run into much trouble finding products that match your industry.

ShareASale offers almost 40 categories, including the following.

• Travel
• Marketing
• Financial
• Health
• Food/drink
• Education
• Clothing
• Business

The Power Rank section represents one of the most interesting aspects of the Merchant Tab.

It shows you which brands already perform well for affiliates.

Add these merchants to our favorites list so you can go back and research them in detail.

6. Account Details

Use your account details area to learn about your account.

You’ll see choices such as payment options, program statuses, feedback, violations, and how to get customer service help.

Are There Any Minimum Requirements Necessary To Use ShareASale?

No, you don’t need to think about minimum requirements.

Everything you do with ShareASale is online inside your affiliate account.

You won’t download anything to your computer.

How Much Does ShareASale Cost?

For merchants, they must pay ShareASale $550 to set up their merchant accounts.

The fee covers the costs associated with getting each merchant set up on the platform, listing its pricing, affiliate links, and other materials for affiliates.

You won’t spend any money with ShareASale as an affiliate.

Instead, the merchant pays ShareASale a commission for every sale that you generate.

The affiliate network then pays you a commission for the sale that you helped facilitate.

You can think of yourself as the middleman between a company selling products or services and the customers looking for those solutions.

Using your content, you can attract targeted prospects, show them why the product you promote fits their needs, and then send them to the sales page.

All you need to worry about is matching up those two parties.

After the sale, the merchant takes over customer service and other fulfillment needs.

Does ShareASale Have an Enterprise Version Available?

No, ShareASale doesn’t have any payment plans or an enterprise option.

ShareASale Promotions & Savings

Let’s see if ShareASale offers any type of promotion or savings option.

No, ShareASale doesn’t offer a free trial.

Instead of asking merchants or affiliates to pay monthly fees, it simply takes a percentage of the merchant’s sale as its form of payment.

Instead of asking merchants or affiliates to pay monthly fees, it simply takes a percentage of the merchant’s sale as its form of payment.

No, there aren’t any coupon codes affiliated with ShareASale.

No, ShareASale doesn’t offer any type of lifetime deal to merchants or affiliates.

Who Are ShareASale’s Main Alternatives?

Three main ShareASale competitors include CJ.com, ClickBank, and Rakuten Marketing.

1. CJ.com

CJ.com used to call itself Commission Junction.

Now, it goes by CJ.

It’s one of the most established affiliate networks on the Internet, going into business back in the late 90s.

It works similarly to ShareASale in that it connects merchants with affiliates and then facilitates the transactions that take place between them.

Here are a few of the brands you’ll find on CJ to promote.

• Overstock
• Barnes & Noble
• IHG Hotels & Resorts
• Office Depot
• Turbotax
• Priceline
• J. Crew
• Blue Apron

CJ shows affiliates how to monetize their content by using social media, blogging, and other forms of affiliate advertising.

You can use its Content Certification program to get automatically approved by top brands on the network.

One difference between ShareASale and CJ is that ShareASale requires a $550 deposit from new merchants before they can open up their affiliate program to the network.

CJ doesn’t have this same requirement.

2. ClickBank

Similar to CJ, ClickBank started in the late 90s as one of the first online affiliate networks.

It started as an online marketplace for digital information products and has since expanded to include physical goods as well.

There isn’t much difference between ClickBank and ShareASale.

You’ll find a similar marketplace on ClickBank as the ShareASale Merchants Tab.

Inside ClickBank’s marketplace, you can search for affiliate products to promote.

You’ll see data that shows you whether other affiliates have already successfully sold the product or not.

3. Rakuten Marketing

Rakuten Marketing used to call itself LinkShare.

It’s one of the oldest affiliate networks, starting in 1996.

Rakuten Marketing works with over 150,000 brands and offers a wide range of marketing solutions for both merchants and affiliates.

Rakuten Marketing has a few more features than ShareASale does.

For example, its platform includes data feeds that allow you to keep track of product information, such as price changes and new arrivals.

It can come in handy if you want to create a dynamic affiliate website that’s always up-to-date with the latest products from your merchant partners.

How Does ShareASale Differentiate Itself From Competitors?

ShareASale has a few key features that set it apart from its competitors.

ShareASale helps with high payouts, accurate tracking, and an easy-to-use interface.

It’s also one of the only affiliate networks that offer fast payments to affiliates.

Rakuten, for example, makes you wait 60 days after the sale before releasing funds to you.

Who Is ShareASale Best For?

ShareASale is best for any type of content creator.

Why Is ShareASale Best For Content Creators?

ShareASale works well for content creators because it helps you monetize your hard work.

After building a blog or attracting several thousand social media followers, you can use ShareASale to find relevant affiliate programs and products to promote.

Is ShareASale Easy To Use?

ShareASale is easy to use.

After signing up for an account, you can search for affiliate programs and products by keyword, category, or merchant name.

It isn’t any more difficult than finding a product to promote, copying your affiliate link, and adding it to your blog, social media profile, or a paid ad campaign.

What Features Do Some Users Love?

Many ShareASale affiliates like how easy the network makes it to create links and start selling products.

To create a custom link, log into your ShareASale account, go to the “Links” tab, and click “Create a Custom Link.”

Then, enter the URL of the merchant’s website that you want to link to, and choose which type of link you want to create.

You can create a text link, banner link, or product link.

Many affiliates also love the fact that ShareASale offers the ability to create “Smart Links.”

ShareASale automatically generates these links for you.

Smart Links will send your visitors to the most relevant merchant website, based on their location and the type of device they’re using.

For example, if you have a Smart Link setup for the merchant “XYZ Clothing,” visitors from the United States will go to XYZ’s US website.

On the other hand, visitors from Canada will go to XYZ’s Canadian website.

What Features Do Some Users Find Frustrating?

Some ShareASale affiliates become frustrated when they need help with customer service.

They’ll sometimes open a ticket and find that it gets closed before they felt like they received adequate help.

Other affiliates sometimes report getting confused by the dashboard.

However, these appear to be new affiliates.

Give yourself time to become acclimated to how affiliate marketing and ShareASale’s dashboard work.

Frequently Asked Questions

You may have some questions about ShareASale that we haven’t answered yet.

Here are the answers to two commonly asked questions.

Wrapping Up

ShareASale is one of the most popular affiliate networks on the web.

If you’re looking for an easy-to-use platform that offers excellent affiliate marketing features, put ShareASale on your list as a solid go-to choice.

Are you ready to become a ShareASale affiliate?

Click here to get started.

After using ShareASale, please come back to leave a review in the comments below.