People always ask me why I think Share a Sale
is the best Affiliate Network. There’s a few reasons and although some
have changed over the years, the first is to define what you’re looking
for and what is important to you.
For example, you could be looking for the best Affiliate Network to
launch an Affiliate Program on, the best Affiliate Network for
Affiliates to work with or just the best one to use as an agency to
place your clients on. Since the goal of this blog is to help me not
have to repeat myself a million times over, ShareASale is my preferred
network as of now, and here are 50+ reasons why they are in my opinion
the Best Affiliate Network for merchants, affiliates and agencies to
work with. (Please note this is just an opinion and there are some
merchants and ecommerce stores I would recommend other affiliates
networks too.)
The post is broken out into multiple sections based on what you’re
looking for. You can skip to the section below that is relevant for you
based on the bullet point, or you can read through this giant post
about why I think they’re the best Affiliate Network to make money with,
use as a tracking platform, etc…
- Merchants
- Affiliates
- Bloggers
- OPMs – (Outsourced Affiliate Program Management companies)
- Small Businesses & Large Corporations
- Other
Why Many Merchants, Affiliates and Bloggers think Share a Sale is the Best Affiliate Network.
No matter what conference you go to, people love Share a Sale. They
love that they throw amazing parties and don’t mind when competitors
come in. They love the fun booths they have at tradeshows and the cool
ideas they come up with for themes. The support they provide is better
than many other networks since they actually read emails and they go out
of their way to ensure you have a good experience and get what you need
whenever they can. Here are some other reasons why many Merchants,
Affiliates and Bloggers use and feel that Share a Sale is the best when
looking for the best Affiliate Networks to work with.
The Best Affiliate Network to Launch Affiliate Programs On:
(if you want specifics for SMBs t0 Large Companies, look at their section below)
1. Adware – All networks have adware issues. Share a Sale takes the
strongest stance against them in my opinion and although they allow
some in, a lot of the worst ones are not. You are a bit safer on Share a
Sale if you are looking for the best affiliate network to launch your
program on and want more protection from adware.
2. Time lines in transactions details – On each transaction you can
see timelines with which Affiliate or Affiliates had a click or multiple
clicks and how many minutes, hours, days from the last Affiliate click
to close. You can also see if it was poached by another Affiliate.
This helps you to determine poached sales from coupon sites or trademark
bidders (if the sale is closing 5 minutes after the click instead of
the normal customer shopping time at 20 minutes) or lets you know who to
credit for actually referring the sale and customer.
3. Leapfrogging – The language is confusing, but once you get the
hang of it it’s easy. Share a Sale is one of the best Affiliate
Networks for launching Affiliate programs on because you can set up
commission rules. They include splitting commissions across partners,
eliminating coupon site commissions whose sales close within the last X
amount of minutes before the close of the sale and even leapfrogging
those poached sales back to the original referring Affiliate if there is
one. None of the other large networks (from what I’ve seen…it’s been a
while since I’ve managed programs on other networks) give you the
options or allow you to see who is adding value which is why Share a
Sale is the by far the best Affiliate Network for launching Affiliate
Programs.
4. Advertising options – One thing that is awesome about Share a
Sale and makes it the best affiliate network are the different
affordable advertising options they give you. You can place recruitment
ads in your category, on the Affiliate homepage, send emails and they
have a ton of other options. Some of them are very effective and some
aren’t, but they are all affordable and can bring in some great
partners.
5. Multiple sites with one account – Share a Sale doesn’t try to
trick you into setting up multiple accounts for Merchant’s with multiple
sites. Instead they’ll help you install the pixel across the sites so
that you can run all of the sites off the same links and cookies. Other
networks will tell you that you need to launch multiple programs so
they can get the launch fees, renewal fees, annual fees, merchant ID
fees, Setup fees, etc…
6. Discounts at tradeshows – Share a Sale creates partnerships with shows like Affiliate Summit so you can get discounts on things like booths at the meet market and discounts on passes.
7. Discounts on theft and affiliate tools – When you log into Share a
Sale you’ll find a section of discounts on tools to help prevent theft
and fraud like Brandverity.
I don’t think there are many other networks that offer a solution for
theft since it costs them more money than it makes them. That’s another
reason why Share a Sale is the best affiliate network you can launch an
affiliate program on.
8. Ease of launch – You can be live within 24 hours on Share a
Sale. If you have your banners, description and pixel set up, you can
be live within 24 hours if you want your program to launch fast.
9. Monthly review report – Share a Sale has a report that is
available for a few days out of the month that shows duplicate
transaction numbers, sales from the same IP address and other things
that could mean fraud or duplicate orders. This makes it easy to void
and reverse duplicate or bad orders that you may have missed. Not many
other networks will create reports that cut into their own profits which
is another reason why Share a Sale is the best Affiliate Network to
launch an affiliate program on.
10. Affiliate Feedback – If you click on the details link by the
Affiliate’s name, you will see a link on the Affiliate Details Page that
lets merchants leave feedback and has a score. For every positive
feedback they get 1 point. For everything negative they get a negative
point. You can also read feedback like if they bid on trademarks, post
fake coupons, send fraud orders, etc… This helps you figure out if your
Affiliates are doing something they shouldn’t be and if other people
have had issues with them before.
11. Nexus – Share a Sale lets you see and sort state by state revenue
for partners making it easier than some of the other networks to
determine if you are compliant with nexus taxes. They also let you set
up application rules so that Affiliates from specific states cannot
apply helping you to stay compliant.
The Best Affiliate Network for Affiliates to Work With:
12. Auto deposit – Share a Sale has an icon for Affiliate Programs
that are on auto deposit. If the program is on auto deposit then there
is a credit card stored in the network and the program has a better
chance of staying online and you getting paid.
13. Downtime report – Share a Sale has a downtime and history report
on the merchants. You can see how often the Merchant has gone offline
and if they try to rip off their Affiliates by going offline during
their busy season, etc…
14. More protection – Share a Sale offers more protection for their
Affiliates than any other network that I have seen and worked with as
far as adware. This makes them the best Affiliate Network to work with
as an Affiliate. They have leapfrogging, better adware protection by
not letting all of it in, timelines for merchants to see who should have
gotten credit, etc…
15. Real time reports – One thing I love and that makes them one of
the best Affiliate Networks for Affiliates is that they offer real time
reporting. You can see how your campaigns are performing in real time.
Both unique and non unique clicks and everything broken out by
merchant.
16. Added parameters – By using the deep links tool
in Share a Sale you can add custom parameters to your affiliate links.
This helps you to optimize your campaigns and make more money.
17. Tools for Affiliates – Share a Sale offers the most tools out of
any of the other Affiliate Networks from what I’ve seen. From the Make a Page
tool for storefronts to their new storefronts tool. The video tools,
widgets, deep link tools, product link creator, etc… they offer the most
effective tools for Affiliates making them the best Affiliate Network
for Affiliates to work with.
18. Think Tank – Share a Sale normally has huge discounts for their
annual conference for Affiliates making it affordable for newer
Affiliates and established Affiliates at all levels to attend.
19. They have 1,000’s of merchants of all sizes – If you want a
variety of huge brands to small mom and pop shops, Share a Sale is the
best Affiliate Network for Affiliates to promote because they have
everything. They are affordable for smaller stores and have a ton of
quality content sites that love them so they are also appealing to large
brands.
20. Share a Sale exclusive status – Share a Sale has an exclusive
status for Merchants. Although it is not always accurate, if the
Merchant is exclusive you are better protected than merchants who have
programs elsewhere with adware and other things that can overwrite your
cookies and cause you to lose your commissions. I always prefer Share a
Sale exclusive merchants because I know my chances of having my
commissions stolen are much better with them.
21. Development – Share a Sale has webinars to help you learn how to
grow your sites and make more money as an Affiliate. This training is
what has made a lot of us very loyal to Share a Sale and has made them
one of the best Affiliates Networks for Affiliates to make money with.
Why Bloggers should work with Share a Sale:
22. Tradeshows – Share a Sale has done a ton of outreach to try and
recruit bloggers and content sites in. They know that if you have loyal
readers or rank well in the search engines then you are the most
valuable type of Affiliate. They want you to work with them and from
the blogging show’s I’ve been to, they are the only ones out of the
large Affiliate Networks attending and recruiting at the shows. Share a
Sale is the best Affiliate Network for Bloggers because they want you,
they recruit you and they want to work to help make sure you have what
you need to be successful in their network.
23. Broken Links report – Most Affiliate Networks have broken links
tools so this isn’t unique to Share a Sale, but they have a report to
show you which pages have broken links and where you can find them and
replace them to make your life easier. When you have thousands of links
across hundreds of posts, this is a huge time saver.
24. Ideas for your sites – Share a Sale offers a ton of ideas
specifically for Bloggers like gift guides, niche merchants and post
ideas on their blog.
25. Share a Sale has a new tool being built for you and for forums.
This tool will replace some of the other ones you’ve used in the past.
If you’re a loyal SAS Blogger like I am, this tool will help to make
your life a lot easier. It’s in production so I can’t talk about it,
but it will make your life a million times easier making Share a Sale
the best Affiliate Network for Bloggers to work with.
Large Brands, Marketing Firms and SMBs
If you wonder why more and more large brands, tons of SMBs and
Outsourced Affiliate Program Management firms like mine started
recommending Share a Sale as the number one pick for the best Affiliate
Networks to be on, here are some of the reasons why.
Why Many Affiliate Marketing Agencies think Share a Sale is the Best Affiliate Network:
26. Easy to manage programs – Share a Sale built an entire dashboard
and system for Outsourced Affiliate Management companies so we can
easily log into all programs, flip through and navigate or make changes
easily.
27. They don’t bad mouth or poach clients – Share a Sale is the
favorite for the best Affiliate Networks for Agencies to work with
because they don’t pitch your clients. I refuse to work with a couple of
networks because they try to go around you to manage your clients
programs or to get them to approve in sites that you would never work
with including adware, coupon sites ranking for your trademarks, etc…
Share a Sale leaves managing programs up to the Agencies and what the
outsourced Affiliate Management Company feels is best for their clients.
28. Discounts – Share a Sale offers discounts and specials for
Outsourced Affiliate Management Companies so we can pass extra value to
our clients.
29. Dedicated resources – Share a Sale has a dedicated resource set
up for Outsourced Affiliate Management companies. Other networks have
them as well, but Share a Sale’s dedicated rep actually gets things
done, can have changes made and they pay attention to what the agencies
want.
30. Think Tank – Share a Sale sets up meetings for you based on your
goals are with the partners that will be there. Instead of having to
hope you find the person in a room, hope they have time, aren’t busy,
etc… They set up the meetings for you with the types of partners you
want and schedule the time for you and provide you with a dedicated
space. This is an amazing and effective way to use your time because we
all find exactly what we need making Share a Sale the best Affiliate
Network for Marketing Agencies to work with and out of the best
Affiliate Networks shows, Think Tank is above and beyond the classiest,
best and most cost effective network based tradeshow that I have been
to.
Why SMBs and Large Brands Launch Affiliate Programs With Share a Sale:
31. Price – Share a Sale has a very low cost to launch on their
network, no annual fees and they only bill $25 a month after a certain
amount of time if they don’t make it in fees.
32. No contract – Share a Sale doesn’t hold you to a contract. You
can leave at any time and not have to deal with threats or Lawyers.
This definitely makes them the best Affiliate Network for SMBs and Large
Brands.
33. Large Brands are starting to see why Share a Sale is the best
Affiliate Network for Affiliate Programs because there are no additional
fees for having huge product fees, using most of the tools, uploading
tons of banners and no annual fees or contracts they cannot break.
34. You can get access to a lot of the content sites that Share a
Sale recruits at blogging shows that can bring you new customers and add
value.
35. They have almost all of the large coupon sites that large brands
like to work with (including some of the adware ones) but don’t allow
some of the really nasty toolbars and theft Affiliates in. Because of
this you can keep many of your “top performers” even if they don’t add
value so moving your program to Share a Sale is very simple.
36. If you don’t want to use a video tool like this one
for your Affiliates that can be branded to your store and site, Share a
Sale has an easy to use video tool so you can offer your videos to your
Affiliates with clickable calls to action.
37. Share a Sale offers easy to create, manage and modify widgets
for your Affiliates so you can always make sure there are up to date
products and best sellers showing where you want them to.
Other Reasons Why Share a Sale is the Best Affiliate Network:
If those aren’t enough reasons why Share a Sale is by far the best
Affiliate Network for Affiliate Programs to work with, then here are
some more.
38. The CEO does a ton of fundraising and advocacy for the PMA to
help make sure you can work with Affiliates from all states and so that
Affiliates don’t lose their businesses.
39. Share a Sale helps you make money. Out of the best Affiliate
Networks, Share a Sale does more for their partners and actually prints
magazines randomly featuring products, ideas and ways to promote their
merchants. These are amazing ways for merchants to get exposure,
Affiliates to find new companies to work with and new products they may
have not seen before.
40. Share a Sale and their Founder and CEO have won and been
nominated for more industry and third party awards than any other
network (from what I can see) including Affiliate Summit Pinnacle Awards, ABW awards, etc… for best the best Affiliate Network with the best employees, tools, etc…
41. The CEO does fundraisers like the CyberMonday tshirt one the
other week to help better the industry and raise money to overturn Nexus
rules so that Affiliate Marketing can survive.
42. They close on specific days like 9/11 and I believe donate all
or part of their profits to specific charities. Check out their site
next 9/11 or write to them to find out the exact details.
43. The Share a Sale Road Show – A few years ago they did a few
Share a Sale Road Shows where they had employees drive to multiple
cities to host events for Affiliates. By hosting events and giving out
swag they added a face to their Network, helped to generate new ideas
for their Affiliate Network to make it better and helped new partners or
Merchants that cannot afford larger trade shows be able to attend one,
network with Affiliates and Merchants, learn and grow.
44. Sing a Long Piano nights – The CEO has sing a long piano nights
randomly at tradeshows and invites everyone to come sing as loud and as
bad as they can. This has become a tradition and is only one of the
many things that makes them one of the best Affiliate Networks to work
with.
45. The Affiliate Aquarium – Years ago, another large Affiliate
Network had forums so you could talk to and learn from each other. They
closed the forums and communication and the ability to learn and have a
group of peers was gone. Share a Sale opened the Affiliate Aquarium
where merchants and Affiliates can meet, network and help each other
grow.
46. Costume Parties – Besides working hard, Share a Sale has become
known for their insane costume parties at tradeshows like Affiliate
Summit. You can get dressed up, they have costumes and accessories
waiting for you if you forget and you get to network while having fun.
47. They offer training for everyone. Merchants can go to webinars
to learn about incentives for Affiliates, ways to motivate them, recruit
them and to grow their programs. Affiliates can learn how to grow
their own companies and use the tools they didn’t know existed to make
more money.
48. They have fun. If you watch their blog, instead of just being a
business blog, they post pictures of their employees and show that they
are a real company with real people that has fun and knows when it’s
time to work hard and also when it’s time to take a break.
49. If a Merchant wants a specific Affiliate in their program but
the Affiliate is having a hard time getting approved into the network,
they have a way for the two of them to be able to work together so that
Affiliate can only work with that program and also streamline their
application.
50. They aren’t going anywhere. Share a Sale seems to always grow
and has been around much longer than many other Affiliate Networks.
Some Affiliate Networks launch and then disappear within the first year
or after a few years. If you want a company that looks and in my
opinion (without seeing any financial records, etc…) is stable, this is
the one to go with so you don’t have to worry about them going under,
disappearing, etc…
51. Honesty. Share a Sale is the best Affiliate Network because
they are honest. Instead of lying to you, trying to avoid questions or
flat out lie, Share a Sale answers your questions and is (when compared
to other networks) more honest about them. Barely any of the other best
Affiliate Networks do this which is why when you compare them, Share a
Sale always wins. With that said, opinions and employees change and
with that change the integrity now lies with the new employees. Please
keep that in mind when talking to any vendor, tracking solution or
company in the world.
I personally think Share a Sale is the best Affiliate Network for
Merchants, Affiliates and Agencies to work with. If you have other
reasons why you think Share a Sale is the best Affiliate Network, please
feel free to leave a comment below and share this post. If you are
having trouble trying to figure out which network to launch your
Affiliate Program on or if you are an Affiliate and you aren’t sure
which is the best Affiliate Network to start working with, click any of
the banners in this post and you can sign up, write or call them and
find out for yourself why I think Share a Sale is the best Affiliate
Network. BTW, the banners are my Affiliate Links as a heads up. Thank
you again for reading.
All Data Credited Goes To -http://www.adamriemer.me/
