Affiliate marketing 105: A Complete Guide to ShareASale Affiliate Program Mastery

In Affiliate Marketing 102, the second blog of this series I introduced you to different affiliate marketing programs you can register for in 2020. The programs include Amazon Associate, eBay Partner Network, Shopify Affiliate, ClickBank, and the rest. ShareASale affiliate is one of the programs touched, but now I would love to breakdown the program for everyone interested in it.

This post is going to be a long one, therefore, I would like to divide them into various sections. The following are the sub-sections that will be explained in the course of this blog post.

  • What is the ShareASale affiliate program?
  • How does an affiliate earn with the ShareASale affiliate program?
  • How to sign up for the ShareASale affiliate program?
  • How to find a merchant on ShareASale?
  • Why must I do affiliate marketing with ShareASale?

1. What is the ShareASale affiliate program?

ShareASale is a platform that was established by Brian Littleton in 2000. It was later acquired by Awin on June, 10th 2017. The website has been offering affiliate programs for about two decades now with over 3900 merchants and over 700,000 affiliates. ShareASale, like every other affiliate website, is where merchants meet affiliate marketers. The affiliates also are known as publishers who come to select from millions of products offered by merchants, request for affiliates link, and then begin to promote the link on product approval. Many popular brands you may already be familiar with are using ShareASale.

2. How does an affiliate earn with the ShareASale affiliate program?

There are three major different methods by which merchants pay affiliate based on performance effort. The three methods are Pay per Click (PPC), Pay per Sale (PPS), and Pay per Lead (PPL). As for ShareASale they pay affiliate using both PPS and PPL. Let’s see how both works.

  • Pay per Lead
    In this payment system, the merchant pays the affiliate on every lead generated. The customer doesn’t have to buy the product for the payment to be paid. The affiliate can generate a commission when a customer subscribes to the website, download a file on the website or register for a newsletter depending on the agreement of the two parties. The payment system is also known as Cost per Action (CPA) meaning that an affiliate receives a set commission based on the actions taken by a customer by following their affiliate link.
  • Pay per Sale
    PPS is the most used commission system in affiliate marketing. It is the system whereby the affiliate receives a commission on the sale of a product. It means that a buyer was convinced through your marketing effort, then proceed to the merchant website or sales page through the link you have provided, and purchase the product. When this happens, the affiliate is entitled to a commission from the merchant. This system is much profitable because an affiliate can make up to 50% of the cost of the product. Most especially if the product happens to be a software or e-book.

3. How to sign up for the ShareASale affiliate program?

Registering as either an affiliate or merchant on ShareASale is very easy and straightforward. The signing up usually involves filling up your personal information on five short forms. Meanwhile, there are tips and guidelines to see you through the process.

  • The first step is to click here to sign up as an affiliate. If you go directly to the website, at the top right corner of the landing page, you will see “Merchants Join Here” and “Affiliate Sign Up”. Click on “Affiliate Sign Up.”
  • As for affiliate, the first page of the application form is where you choose a username, password, and country of residence. The password can later be changed when your account has been approved.
  • The next page is where you answer the question about your website. To fulfill their aims and ambition, ShareASale has made it compulsory that all their publishers must have a primary website where they will be promoting products. Meanwhile, they don’t want a condition whereby their affiliates will be advertising on any articles directory website. Therefore, at this stage, you will have to fill in your website address, select the language in which the contents of your website are written and to know the type of content that you share on your website. Also, there are some set of question that demands a YES or NO answer from which ShareASale would be able to know if you allow or have been using pay per clicks adverts and coupons on your website.
  • The next stage of the registration is the part where you will enter your email address. There are two ways to get this done, and you either use any of the ways. The first option known as the fast track method can be used by people who have the same domain of their website as that of their email address. For example, let’s say the domain of your website is example.com and you have an email with the domain [email protected] (this mail is not real, it is the only thing I can think of right now). This method is called the fast track because you get quick approval for your account. Meanwhile, the other option is called the standard means. The standard method is for those that choose to use a website domain that is different from the domain of the email. So you select whichever pleases you and then fill in your email address which qualifies you to move to the next stage.
  • In this stage, you will tell them more information about your contact. This will include your name, your mailing address, city, state, postal code, etc. Meanwhile, don’t ignore the mailing address here. It is used by ShareASale for you to get your affiliate payment check. Therefore, give the correct info to receive your payment without a problem.
  • The next step is where you give them more info about your website. The first question there asked whether your website is an incentive program or not? If your website is an incentive program, it means that you demand people to perform some definite actions. But if you don’t know, then you can easily indicate by selecting the “I don’t know” option. The next question is to validate whether you buy the domain or you are using a free domain like .wordprss.com.
  • Moving to page 5 which is the final application page is where you choose your payment option. Would you like your payment check to be processed by FedEx, Postal mail or direct deposit? Don’t worry yourself too much about which one to select as you can change this option later.
  • The remaining steps include agreeing to terms and conditions and verifying your account through a link sent to your email.

4. How to find a merchant on ShareASale?

Finding a merchant on this platform is very easy. However, you must not forget the drill that any product you must promote must fall under the same niche with your blog. When this is put into consideration, you will be able to convince your audience better and also have products to complement every post. Meanwhile, you should select a merchant with good products and awesome reviews. If possible, try as much as possible to view the stats of affiliates under this brand and also view the numbers of products that have been sold by the merchant. To find a merchant in your niche,

  • First of all sign in into your account.
  • Then, move to the merchant site and click on “search for merchants”

You can either search for a merchant by browsing for product, keyword, or name. But as for newbies on the platform, the best method to go about this is to search by categories.

When you finally get the answers to your search, be very careful to run through the results and select the merchant with the products that best suit your niche. Don’t forget to check on the company’s name, and commission rate before asking for approval.

Now, if you are pleased with the products they offer you are free to click on “join program”. This may cost you to write a description of your website, niche and the kind of information you offer to your audience. And also endeavor to read the terms and conditions provided there is any.

Then you wait for the approval. When you get the approval then you have access to all the products that are sold by the merchants. And you are entitled to both affiliate links and ads of each product.

5. Why must I do affiliate marketing with ShareASale?

Apart from the fact that ShareASale has been for so many years. There are other great things to benefit from other than credibility and trust. The platform offers a good payout rate of anything greater than $50, and the fact that its environment is easy to use by newbies is another thing to consider. The following are the great opportunities offered by the ShareASale affiliate program to both affiliate and merchants.

Let ShareASale find sale leads for you and only pay when it works

Do you have an online store? Or have any locally made product that you want to sell on the internet? Then you should sign up on ShareASale for leads because only your marketing effort cannot give you the profit you desire-you need to source for people who will help you in the campaign. Meanwhile, lots of them are waiting for you on this platform.

The amazing thing about this affiliate program is that you don’t have to pay to hire an affiliate. They will always come to seek your product link, and you only pay them a commission when they finally get you a sale or lead. However, to register on the ShareASale affiliate program as a merchant you will need to pay a total sum of $650 of which $550 is for a one-time network access fee and the remaining $100 is for the minimum deposit amount.

The network access fee will cover all the expenses that are required to make ads, text links, Webinars, and all other necessary tools available for a smooth affiliate marketing experience. Meanwhile, publishers are paid from the deposit amount. To learn more about the ShareASale registration fee and monthly recurring fee click here. and select “I want to be one of these merchants.”

Drive more traffic to your online store using performance-based marketing

Affiliate marketing is also known as performance-based marketing. It is called so because the success of the campaign depends on the marketing efforts of the affiliates. By having hundreds of bloggers advertising your products, a merchant cannot estimate the number of customers that will come across their product on the internet. Therefore, for merchants to be able to measure their success, ShareASale has put in place a mechanism for them to view their affiliate performance in one single view.

The affiliate program provides a merchant with stats that show the performance of every publisher on their list. Moreover, this report includes sales generated, number of clicks, conversions, and commissions paid to each affiliate. Performance-based marketing is undoubtedly the best method to reach out your products to millions of internet users without having to spend any amount on advertisements.

Learn how to increase your sales, develop your brand, and generate interest in your site

Your brand deserves a shout out and only ShareASale has the thicker voice to make that happen. With so much affiliate on the website, you can reach as many customers as possible from different parts of the world. The traffic of interested buyers will be driven to your eCommerce website through the use of a ShareASale affiliate program. By doing this you’re developing your brand and also gaining more sales. Meanwhile, if your website is enriched with wonderful blog post on the use, maintenance, and tips about the product. Then you can be assured of developing the interest of your visitors on your website and expecting them to come for other inquiries. Thereby, opening the chance of turning them into returning buyers.

Find a sponsor for your website and get paid for your great content and tools

You deserve more than the penny you receive on ads and the likes of the PPC campaign. As a blogger, you deserve to make your survival and savings from the great content you are creating. The only way to see this coming into reality is by engaging in affiliate marketing. With ShareASale affiliate program, bloggers have been able to make thousands of bucks in a month, and there are testimonials of those who have quit their job for full-time blogging and affiliate marketing.

As a blogger in a particular niche, you already have the charisma and the leverage to make more money through the ShareASale affiliate program. The platform is built such that bloggers can easily integrate their account to their blog using tools. All you have to do is to create a post or review about a product, and then include the affiliate link or ads provided by the merchant.

Free videos and tools for both affiliate and merchants

The one-time subscription amount paid by merchants is to cater for all the resources that will be needed for the smooth sail of the performance-based marketing journey. The resources include training webinars, merchant API, welcome kit, and program diagnostics. The welcome kit is a four weeks checklists that teaches a merchant on how to make use of different tools to build a strong affiliate marketing background for their brands.

The training webinars, on the other hand, contains tutorial videos on how to set up your affiliate program and also make more money. Moreover, ShareASale does organize regular webinars where marketers and successful affiliates come and share their experience with newbies in the business. These and many more are benefits you stand to gain as a merchant or publisher in the program. Not to even mention the 24hours support services to help you out always. The company aims at seeing both merchants and publishers doing great in their businesses and yours won’t be a different case.

Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are ‘affiliate links.’ This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, I will receive an affiliate commission.

 

Affiliate Marketing Series

Affiliate Marketing 101: What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate Marketing 102: Best Affiliate Programs In 2020

Affiliate Marketing 103: Winning Strategies for Affiliate Marketing Contests

Affiliate Marketing 104: 7 Unforgivable Mistakes Every Affiliate Marketer Should Avoid