How to Use ShareASale Step by Step (Beginner Guide)

ShareASale is one of the largest affiliate networks in the US, hosting over 30,000 merchant programs across dozens of niches. How to use ShareASale step by step (beginner guide): create a free publisher account, get approved by merchants, grab tracking links, place them in your content, and collect commissions when readers buy. Setup takes under an hour; your first commission can arrive within days of approval.

Photo: Ylanite Koppens (Pexels)

This guide walks through every stage — no fluff, no vague tips, just the exact workflow.

---

What ShareASale Is and Why It Matters for Affiliates

ShareASale (owned by Awin since 2017) connects publishers — bloggers, newsletter writers, content creators — with brands that pay commissions on referred sales or leads.

Unlike running individual brand affiliate programs, a single ShareASale account gives you access to thousands of merchant programs. You track everything in one dashboard, and ShareASale consolidates your payments.

Some well-known brands on the platform include WP Engine (web hosting), Thrive Themes, and hundreds of physical-product retailers.

Who Should Use ShareASale

ShareASale suits you if:

• You run a content site, blog, or email newsletter
• You want one dashboard instead of juggling 10 separate affiliate portals
• You prefer programs with consistent 30–90 day cookie windows
• You’re in niches like home goods, fashion, software, or B2B tools

It’s less ideal if you want only Amazon products (use Amazon Associates for that) or if you need instant real-time analytics at the click level (networks like Impact offer more granular data).

---

Step 1: Create Your ShareASale Publisher Account

Go to ShareASale.com and click Affiliate Sign Up.

The registration form asks for:

1. Username and password — pick something you’ll remember; you can’t change the username later.
2. Primary website URL — enter your blog or content site. If you only have a social channel right now, you can list it, but approval odds improve with a live website.
3. Website description — a short paragraph about your audience, content topics, and how you plan to promote merchants. Be specific. “I write product reviews for US-based home office workers” beats “I write about stuff.”
4. Primary promotional method — choose the most accurate option (website/blog, email, social, PPC, etc.).
5. Payment details — you’ll set this up after account approval, not during registration.

ShareASale reviews applications manually. Most approvals land within 1–3 business days. You’ll get a confirmation email with your login link.

Tips for Faster Approval

• Make sure your website has at least a few published pages of real content before you apply.
• A clear “About” page and a basic privacy policy help.
• Avoid applying with a brand-new domain that has zero posts — ShareASale may reject or delay.

---

Step 2: Complete Your Profile and Payment Settings

Once inside the dashboard, navigate to Settings → Edit Settings before you do anything else.

Key things to fill in:

• Payment threshold: default is $50. You can lower it to $25. ShareASale pays on the 20th of each month for the prior month’s earnings.
• Payment method: choose check (mailed), direct deposit (US accounts), or international wire. Direct deposit is fastest for US publishers.
• Tax form: US publishers complete a W-9 directly in the dashboard. Non-US publishers submit a W-8BEN. Do this immediately — ShareASale holds payments until the form is on file.

---

Step 3: Search for and Join Merchant Programs

This is where most beginners spend too much time. The ShareASale merchant search has filters that make it manageable.

Go to Merchants → Search for Merchants.

Key Filters to Use

• Category: match your niche. If you write about web tools and online business, filter by “Internet / Online” or “Business” categories.
• EPC (Earnings Per Click): a 7-day or 30-day average of how much affiliates earn per 100 clicks. Higher EPC generally means a converting offer. Look for EPC above $30 as a rough minimum signal.
• Reversal rate: shown as a percentage. High reversal rates (above 15–20%) mean merchants frequently reject commissions after the fact — a red flag.
• Cookie length: longer is better. 30 days is standard; 60–90 days is excellent.
• Commission rate: flat dollar amounts (e.g., $200 per sale for WP Engine) or percentage of sale (e.g., 20% of order value).

How to Apply to a Program

Click a merchant’s name → read their program details → click Join Program. Some programs auto-approve within minutes. Others require manual review by the merchant, which can take a few days.

Apply to 5–10 programs in your niche to start. Don’t apply to 50 at once — merchants can see your application quality, and spreading too thin early hurts focus.

---

Step 4: Generate Your Affiliate Links

Once approved for a program, go to Links → Get a Link/Banner.

Select the merchant from your approved list. You’ll see options:

• Text links — a hyperlink wrapping your chosen anchor text. Best for in-content use.
• Banners — image ads in various sizes (300×250, 728×90, etc.). Useful for sidebar placements.
• Product links — deep links to a specific product page, not just the homepage.
• Custom link builder — paste any URL on the merchant’s site and ShareASale wraps it with your tracking code.

For blog content, text links and deep product links almost always outperform banners. Banners get ignored; contextual links within relevant sentences get clicked.

Your link will look like:
https://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=[bannerID]&u=[yourID]&m=[merchantID]

Copy that URL and use it wherever you reference the product.

---

Step 5: Place Links Effectively in Your Content

Getting approved and grabbing links is the easy part. Where and how you place them determines whether you earn commissions.

Highest-Converting Placements

1. In-context mentions — link the product name naturally inside a sentence that explains why a reader would want it.
2. Comparison tables — readers actively scanning a table are close to a decision; a linked product name in a table cell converts well.
3. Resource pages — a dedicated “Tools I recommend” page on your site can generate passive clicks over time.
4. Email newsletters — if you send a list (via Kit, ActiveCampaign, or similar), text links inside educational emails tend to outperform standalone promotional emails.

What to Avoid

• Dumping 10 affiliate links into a single post with no context
• Linking to the merchant homepage when a specific product page exists
• Hiding disclosure — FTC rules require a clear, conspicuous affiliate disclosure near any affiliate link. ShareASale’s operating agreement requires this as well.

---

Step 6: Track Performance in the ShareASale Dashboard

ShareASale’s reporting suite lives under Reports → Activity Details.

Metrics to check weekly:

Metric	What It Tells You
Clicks	How much traffic your links are driving
Sales	Confirmed purchases attributed to your links
Commissions earned	Dollar amount before any reversals
Reversal rate	% of commissions clawed back by merchants
EPC (your own)	Your personal earnings per 100 clicks

If you’re sending clicks but no sales, three likely causes: the landing page is weak, the offer isn’t relevant to your audience, or your link placement lacks context.

If you see a high personal reversal rate with a specific merchant, pause that program and investigate before sending more traffic.

---

Comparing ShareASale to Other Affiliate Networks

Understanding where ShareASale fits helps you decide whether to use it exclusively or alongside other networks.

Network	No. of Merchants	Payout Threshold	Best For	Approval Process	Standout Feature
ShareASale	30,000+	$25–$50	Bloggers, content sites	Manual (1–3 days)	Huge merchant variety; transparent metrics
CJ Affiliate	~3,800	$50 (check), $25 (direct deposit)	Established publishers, B2B	Manual per merchant	Enterprise-level brands (Lowe’s, Overstock)
Impact	~2,500+	Varies by merchant	Intermediate/advanced publishers	Manual; stricter	Granular click-level analytics
Amazon Associates	Millions of products	$10 (gift card), $100 (check)	Product review bloggers	Auto-approved; requires 3 sales in 180 days	Universal product catalog; high trust
Rakuten Advertising	~1,000+	$50	Retail and lifestyle niches	Manual per merchant	Strong retail brand roster

Most bloggers run ShareASale alongside Amazon Associates — ShareASale for software and specialty products with higher commissions, Amazon for physical product recommendations where trust and conversion rates are high.

---

Common Beginner Mistakes on ShareASale

Even with the right setup, these errors slow down earnings:

Applying to irrelevant programs. A personal finance blog applying to a garden tools program wastes approval bandwidth and confuses readers. Stick to merchants your audience would genuinely buy from.

Ignoring reversal rates. A merchant offering 25% commission looks attractive until you notice a 30% reversal rate. Your effective rate drops to 17.5%. Always check reversal rates before prioritizing a program.

Not disclosing affiliate relationships. The FTC requires clear disclosure — a note like “This post contains affiliate links. We may earn a commission at no extra cost to you” placed prominently. Non-compliance can result in account suspension and FTC penalties.

Treating links as set-and-forget. Merchant programs end, commission rates change, and merchants leave ShareASale. Review your active programs every quarter and replace dead links.

Sending all traffic to one merchant. Diversify across 3–5 merchants in your niche. If one program closes, you still have income coming in.

---

How to Use ShareASale Step by Step (Beginner Guide): Quick Reference

For anyone who wants the condensed version, here’s the full workflow:

1. Sign up at ShareASale.com with a live website
2. Complete your W-9 and set payment preferences
3. Search merchants by category and filter by EPC, reversal rate, and cookie length
4. Apply to 5–10 relevant programs
5. Generate text links or deep product links
6. Place links in context-rich content with FTC-compliant disclosure
7. Monitor clicks, sales, and reversal rates weekly
8. Drop underperforming merchants; double down on high EPC programs

This is exactly how to use ShareASale step by step (beginner guide) — no extra complexity required at the start.

---

Frequently Asked Questions

Is ShareASale free to join as a publisher?

Yes, ShareASale charges publishers nothing to sign up or maintain an account. Merchants pay to list their programs; you earn commissions on referred sales. There are no monthly fees, application fees, or traffic minimums after you’re approved.

How long does it take to earn a first commission on ShareASale?

Timeline varies widely. If you already have traffic and place links in relevant existing content, you could see a click convert within days of approval. Most beginners without existing traffic wait several weeks to a month. Building SEO traffic to review posts or comparison articles is the fastest sustainable path.

What’s the difference between ShareASale and Amazon Associates?

ShareASale is a network of independent merchants, each with its own commission rate, cookie window, and product catalog. Amazon Associates covers the full Amazon catalog at generally lower commission rates (1–10%) but benefits from Amazon’s brand trust and universal cart system. ShareASale merchants often pay 15–30% commissions on software or specialty goods, but conversion rates can be lower than Amazon’s.

Do I need a big audience to get approved by merchants?

No minimum traffic threshold exists at the network level, but individual merchants can set their own requirements. Some auto-approve any ShareASale publisher. Others review your website quality. A site with 20–30 solid, relevant posts will get approved by most merchant programs in its niche. Quantity of traffic matters less at this stage than relevance and content quality.

Can I use ShareASale with an email newsletter instead of a blog?

Yes. During signup, select “email” as your primary promotional method. Some merchants restrict email promotion in their terms, so read each program’s operating agreement carefully. For email-based affiliates, tools like Kit (formerly ConvertKit) or ActiveCampaign integrate cleanly into a workflow where you send educational content with ShareASale links embedded.

---

Summary

How to use ShareASale step by step (beginner guide) comes down to a clean sequence: apply with a real website, complete your tax form, research merchants using EPC and reversal rate filters, generate deep links, and publish them inside useful content with proper disclosure.

The platform’s strength is breadth — thousands of programs across nearly every niche, transparent performance data, and a reliable monthly payment cycle. The learning curve is low enough that most beginners can go from registration to first published affiliate link within a single afternoon.

Start with five merchant programs, track your data for 60 days, and cut the ones that generate clicks without sales. That feedback loop — applied consistently — is how affiliate income grows.

Want more guides like this? Bookmark twofunnelsaway.com and check back for new affiliate marketing walkthroughs.