As a blogger, my income comes from a variety of avenues — ads, sponsored posts, and affiliate sales being the primary channels. Ad revenue for my site is the smallest income generator. I earn far more from sponsored posts and as an affiliate. My best revenue generator as an affiliate is ShareASale. Unless you are a new blogger, you are probably already signed up with ShareASale. If you’re not, you can click here to join (it’s free to sign up).
How Do You Decide What Company To Use For Making Money With ShareASale
Once you’re signed up with ShareASale, there are literally thousands of merchants to choose from. How do you decide who to apply with? I started by selecting companies and brands I already knew and that I knew would have products I’d be happy to share with my audience and friends. Then, I discovered that a lot of companies will provide sample blog posts and often, will pay you a small bonus for publishing it.
A little later, I found out many companies will also pay you a referral fee when you refer another blogger to them. The problem is, it’s difficult to find about these bonus posts and referral bonuses until you are already signed up with a company. So, I decided to share my entire list with you to help you find some new merchants to connect with (and make a few extra dollars in the process).
I’ve listed all of the merchants I am an affiliate with through ShareASale below. After the name, I have added a note to indicate if the company offers referral bonuses, bonus posts, or both. I hope this helps you to connect with some great brands for a long, lucrative future together! And if it isn’t already obvious, all of the links listed below that have a referral bonus are my affiliate links so thanks in advance if you sign up with any of them.
adidas (referral bonus, bonus posts)
Aloha (referral bonus, bonus posts)
Beau-Coup (referral bonus)
Birthday Express (referral bonus, bonus posts)
Blurb (referral bonus, bonus posts)
BuyCostumes (referral bonus, bonus posts)
The California Wine Club (referral bonus)
Cents of Style (referral bonus)
Craftsy (referral bonus, bonus posts)
CreativeLive (referral bonus)
Cricut (referral bonus, bonus posts)
CustomInk (referral bonus, bonus posts)
Flirty Aprons (referral bonus)
Gazelle (referral bonus, bonus posts)
Gymboree, Crazy 8 & Janie and Jack (bonus posts)
Julep (referral bonus)
Little Passports (referral bonus, bonus posts)
Mabel’s Labels (bonus posts)
Magnet Street (referral bonus)
Marbles: The Brain Store (referral bonus)
ModCloth (referral bonus, bonus posts)
Montage (referral bonus, bonus posts)
MyCleaningProducts.com (referral bonus)
One King’s Lane (referral bonus, bonus posts)
PS I Adore You (referral bonus)
Reebok (referral bonus, bonus posts)
Sizzix (referral bonus)
Snake River Farms (referral bonus)
True & Co (referral bonus, bonus posts)
USA DAWGS (referral bonus)
Warby Parker (referral bonus, bonus posts)
WyzAnt Tutoring (referral bonus)
ZoomFlower (referral bonus)
Zulily (bonus posts)
Experienced bloggers know you aren’t going to make a living off the referral and post bonuses. So don’t just sign up and go into hibernation. Make sure you use the resources provided by ShareASale and your merchants to promote special offers, deep link relevant products and services into your posts, and place banners and text links where applicable on your site and in your posts. Many of the merchants will occasionally run sales bonuses which you’ll be better able to earn if you’re already in the habit of driving sales to them. If you choose the right merchants and products that will appeal to and benefit your audience, everybody wins.
Use ShareASale Resources
Go to ShareASale’s blog to download seasonal catalogs, ebooks, tutorials, and content ideas.
In your ShareASale dashboard, go to “links” then “videos” to get videos you can use to promote merchants. Videos do better on Facebook and keep visitors on your site longer.
In your ShareASale dashboard, go to “TOOLS” then “PRODUCT SHOWCASE” to create a product showcase that features products from all of your merchants (or just ones you choose) around a common theme.
Add the ShareASale Product Discovery Bookmarklet to your browser toolbar to easily create links to specific products from merchant websites. You can read more about it and get the bookmarklet here – http://blog.shareasale.com/2014/09/18/product-discovery-bookmarklet-tool/