50+ Reasons Share a Sale is The Best Affiliate Network (Compared to others)

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.