Ready to level up your blogging game and make more affiliate income? If so, let’s talk about one of the best free resources that are available to bloggers: the ShareaSale affiliate network.
This isn’t your run-of-the-mill list of boring reasons to get on board with the latest trend… Nah nah, boo.
This is your alarm clock.
This is the kick in the pants you’ve been waiting for.
The detailed guide that is going to help you STEP UP your game.
Not next year… but now.
There are plenty of great affiliate networks out there, but Share-a-Sale takes the cake for a lot of reasons. This article is going to dig into the top 5 reasons that you need to join the Share-a-Sale network (like, yesterday), and how to make the most of this platform.
First, let’s do a quick recap to make sure you understand some important definitions that will help you maximize your Share-a-sale strategy!
{{ Our blog posts contain affiliate links. Full disclosure here. }}
WHAT IS AFFILIATE MARKETING?
Before we get into the nitty-gritty of ShareaSale features and programs, let’s do a quick introduction to affiliate marketing, just in case you’re new around here.
If you take nothing else away from this article, take this away…
Affiliate marketing is one of the best and easiest ways to make money as a blogger. If you aren’t doing affiliate marketing, you are MISSING OUT!
*Stepping down off my soapbox now*
Affiliate marketing is the act of promoting products and services from a business that you are associated with. That business provides a special trackable link for you to share with your audience. When someone follows that link and performs a specific desired action, you get rewarded.
That desired action might be:
- Purchasing a product
- Clicking a link
- Joining a membership program
- Taking a quiz… or something else
Most of the time, the desired action will be purchasing a product (but not always). Once someone completes that action or buys that product, you earn a commission on that sale.
And how can you get access to that fancy trackable affiliate link that helps you earn commissions?
There are two ways.
You can join an affiliate NETWORK that contains a variety of different programs you can promote, or you can join individual affiliate programs that manage everything on their own without a third-party platform
ShareaSale is an affiliate network, you can join for free right here >>>
WHY JOIN THE SHAREASALE AFFILIATE NETWORK?
Why should you join the Shareasale network?
Because I said to, and you know your girl would NOT steer you wrong.
Hello??
But seriously…as mentioned above, affiliate networks allow you to access a large pool of affiliate programs in every niche market. The network acts as the middle-man between you and the companies/products you will be recommending to your audience.
Affiliate networks make your affiliate marketing efforts extra easy. Within a network, you can:
- Access a large pool of affiliate programs in one place
- Access your affiliate links and banners for multiple companies in one place
- Get paid from multiple different programs in one place
Essentially, Shareasale has built a platform that allows you to work seamlessly with multiple different merchants, and they do the heavy lifting for you.
In other words: join the network now and let Shareasale make your affiliate marketing life EASIER!
Here is a quote directly from the ShareaSale website, that describes what they do in detail:
“ShareASale has been in business for 18 years, exclusively as an Affiliate Marketing Network. Our technology receives accolades for speed, efficiency, and accuracy – and our reputation as a fair and honest business is well known within the industry. Our objective is to provide customers with an advanced Affiliate Marketing platform.”
ShareaSale serves two audiences: merchants and affiliates.
You and I are the Affiliates that recommend products and services to our audience. Merchants are the business owners that pay commissions to the affiliates who recommend their stuff.
Here are five main reasons that every blogger needs to join (other than the fact that I told you to)!
Join the Share-a-Sale affiliate network for free >>>
REASON # 1: PROGRAM OPTIONS
There are over 4,500 affiliate programs in this network, and new programs are being added all the time! No matter what you blog about, you’ll be able to find programs to promote through Share-a-sale.
Here are the main categories of programs you’ll find in this network:
- Accessories
- Art/Music/Photography
- Auction Services
- Automotive
- Books/Media
- Business
- Career/Jobs/Employment
- Clothing
- Commerce/Classifieds
- Computers/Electronics
- Domain Names
- Education
- Family
- Financial
- Food/Drink
- Freebies, Free Stuff, Rewards Programs
- Games/Toys
- Gaming and Lotto
- General Web Services
- Gifts
- Gourmet
- Green
- Health
- Home & Garden
- Insurance
- Legal
- Marketing
- Military
- Moving/Moving Supplies
- Online Dating Services
- Real Estate
- Recreation
- Search Engine Submission
- Shopping Malls
- Sports/Fitness
- Travel
- Web Hosting
- Webmaster Tools
- Weddings
These are the main categories, but there are many programs and options beyond this list, from CBD oils, to pet brands, to eco-friendly products, and more.
Did you see that massive list? There are soooo many options for content creators in every online space.
Yes, that includes YOU!
If you’re just getting started with affiliate marketing, I highly recommend joining ShareaSale and searching for a program that fits within your niche.
REASON # 2: HOLIDAYS AND EVENTS
The Share-a-sale network provides a running list of upcoming holidays and events to promote, which helps increase conversions for many bloggers.
To make money from affiliate marketing, you need to be promoting products and services that your readers are interested in and actively searching for. Paying attention to upcoming holidays and events can make it easier to create content that your audience is actually looking for online.
To see the full list, login to your Share-a-sale account and scroll down to the Holiday section in your dashboard. It looks like this:
They also have a special section with Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals so that you can promote the best possible deals and current offers to your audience.
We already know your audience loves special deals (we all do), so take advantage of this opportunity to go a step further in serving them.
REASON # 3: LINKS + TOOLS
The ShareaSale dashboard is more user-friendly than most. As soon as you login, you’ll see a snapshot of your commissions, new affiliate programs you can join, and recent activity for the programs you are already in.
You can search for new programs right here…
You’ll find your affiliate links here…
Below is a brief video that shows you exactly how to find your affiliate links in your Share-a-sale dashboard.
You can also create custom links for any page or product you’re affiliated with, download videos and banners, and make customized pages of affiliate products.
And if any of that feels a little overwhelming, don’t worry! These are just extra features that are unique to Share-a-sale (you do not NEED to utilize them if you don’t want to).
REASON # 4: SUPPORT
Share-a-sale provides marketing-focused support to help you grow and get more conversions (sales). They update their blog regularly, giving you access to helpful marketing tools, tips, and announcements.
In addition to their marketing blog, they also have a RESOURCES section to help you make the most of trending topics, find merchants for each season, and navigate your ShareaSale dashboard.
Even if you don’t reach out to support on a regular basis, it’s good to work with companies that are responsive and eager to help you succeed.
REASON # 5: HIGH COMMISSIONS
The ShareaSale affiliate network has some of the most popular and highest-paying programs out there. Most affiliate programs pay between 1% to 15% of every sale. Now and then, you’ll find programs that pay 20% to 40%.
On the Shareasale network, you have the opportunity to earn higher commissions from several of their programs. Here are just a few examples:
Seed Health // 100% commission per sign up
Click Meter // 80% commission per sale
Ritual Women’s Health // 75% commission per sale
My Memories Suite // 75% commission per sale
Thrive Health // 50% commission per sale
Stella & Dot // 10% per sale or $100 commission per stylist referral
These are just a few of the high-commission / high-paying affiliate programs available within this network. There are many, many more, in various blogging niches across the board.
WHAT TO DO AFTER YOU JOIN
If you haven’t already, you can sign up for the Share-a-sale affiliate network right here.
After you sign up, you’ll be able to login and start searching for merchants. Remember, the business/brand that you’ll be promoting is the merchant. You’re the affiliate.
Affiliate = Awesome = YOU (remember that)!
Select the merchant that you want to promote and hit the blue button next to it that says ‘Join Program’. This allows you to apply for the programs you want to promote. There is an optional step that gives you an opportunity to share your promotional plans, so make sure you take advantage of it.
You are more likely to get approved by the program if you explain how you plan to promote their stuff!
Don’t stress about it, just provide a few sentences about the value you’re bringing to the table.
After you get approved by the program, you’ll be able to go to the LINKS tab in your Share-a-sale dashboard to grab your affiliate links. Here is that video link again that shows you exactly how to do this.
Once you have your affiliate links, you can start sharing them with your audience.
- Publish blog posts
- Create social media content
- Create a resource list
- Make YouTube videos
- Make a course or e-book
You’ll promote these recommended products or services to your audience, and when someone clicks on your affiliate link and makes a purchase, you earn a commission.
Pro Tip: Only promote affiliate products that are applicable and valuable to your audience.
You won’t get anywhere if you’re just pushing products to make a quick buck. You need to focus on helpful content that solves problems for your reader.
In fact, if you’ve ever asked yourself, ‘Why can’t I make any money blogging?’ or ‘why can’t I make my 3 qualifying Amazon sales?’ or ‘ why is nothing working for me like it is for other bloggers?’… you need to stop and think critically about how much consistent value you are delivering to your target audience.
You probably need to focus more on niching down and serving your target customer.
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER
As a quick recap: Shareasale is an incredible FREE affiliate network and you need to join it (do that here… and now… right now).
The network has over 4,500 affiliate programs to choose from, great tools and support, and a long reputation of quality and commitment to affiliate marketing success.
And the beauty of affiliate marketing is that you can continue to earn passive income long after you hit publish on your article, video, or that e-book. Create the content once, earn income from it every time someone clicks and makes a purchase (even if it’s 10 years later)!
And that’s what we’re all about around here!
Maximizing that income and efficiency so you can grow your business, live the life you want, and also impact others in a positive way.
If you’re still here reading, then HECK YEAH affiliate marketing is for you, and ShareaSale is a great place to start.
Start with one affiliate network and one program in the beginning, so that you don’t get overwhelmed when you’re getting your feet wet.
READ OTHER TRENDING ARTICLES ABOUT AFFILIATE MARKETING:
How to Make Money with the Madison Reed Affiliate Program
47+ Food Affiliate Programs for Food Bloggers
How to Add Affiliate Links to Your Blog Posts
Thanks so much for this post, it helped me a lot!