Shareasale Review – Scam or Legit?

In this Shareasale review we try to break down the pros and cons of being a Shareasale affiliate.

Shareasale Review – Merchants and Offers

One of the key factors in deciding if you should join an affiliate network is the size of their merchant database. In this aspect, Shareasale does really well.

Shareasale merchants range from small businesses like us, to Fortune 500 companies. You can search offers and merchants, see new merchants added recently, top 100 merchants, and all the standard stuff you would expect with similar networks. Merchants can also use sponsored posts and placements to get more exposure via Shareasale’s login page, and other areas of the website.

You can also engage merchants in the Shareasale “Aquarium” – which is a weird name for nothing more than a forum. However, the forums look dead.

Shareasale Review – Design and Usability

This is where Shareasale sucks big time. While most affiliate networks like Commission Junction and ClickBank have revamped their design and improved their usability in the past year, Shareasale’s interface remains a big turn-off for most new affiliates.

There’s way too much information, too many options, too many features you will probably never use, and a total lack of coherence in design.

As a new affiliate who just signed up, you will find the Shareasale website too clunky and confusing. Affiliates who have been on board since the last design update (like 99 years ago) would have no trouble finding what they want, but it’s one heck of a maze for everyone else.

In fact, the vast majority of complaints from Shareasale affiliates have been about it’s overwhelming, rigid user experience. It’s a turn-off for any newbie affiliate.

Shareasale Review – Tools and Integration

The more tools an affiliate network provides, the more ways their affiliates can make money. Shareasale has its own share of features such as a text ad widget builder, where you can build your own Adsense-styled widget for your blog or website. You can also create custom deep links, which is a much better way to promote a merchant. Datafeeds are also readily available for more advanced affiliates.

Other tools include an affiliate API, affiliate page builder, and RSS notifications. Although it may seems like Shareasale is choked full of these awesome tools, I find that the quality and ease of use of almost every tool is mediocre.

In fact, it feels like they have added all these features just for the sake of having them. Actually using them will be a struggle, unless of course, you’ve been a Shareasale affiliate for a while and have learned to navigate the maze.

Shareasale Tracking and Payments

How do you get your commissions?

For international affiliates, you have to choose check as your payment option. Unlike networks like Ashadee or JVZoo that allow payments via PayPal, international affiliates may find it too cumbersome to wait weeks for their checks to arrive, only to spend another few weeks waiting for it to clear in their local bank.

For US / Canada affiliates, you can opt for bank transfer. There’s a fee of $30 for checks via FedEx in the US, $35 for FedEx to Canada, and $55 for all other countries.

On a side note, LinkTrackr’s affiliate program is also on Shareasale, and you can earn up to $331 per sale for each referral. Our program has one of the highest EPCs in the Marketing category, and we are frequently in the Top 100 list at Shareasale. You can get more information about our affiliate program here:

http://ww3.linktrackr.com/affiliates

I hope this Shareasale review was helpful, and cleared any doubts you may have had if Shareasale is legit or just another scam. If you have anything to add to this Shareasale review good or bad -please leave a comment below.