Linkshare or Shareasale?

Violetinka

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Oct 12, 2011
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Can some of the merchants share their experience working with LS or SAS?

We are considering selling downloadable PC games for the Uk and USA market. which do you think will be the best for us?
 


I've managed a number of affiliate programs over the years, and I've never found a CPS network that's easier to work with than Shareasale. They make it incredibly easy to access detailed information about every referred order, and they have a lot of cool features that make your life easier as an affiliate manager. The "Create a Custom Link to a Page" feature saves a ridiculous amount of time because you can just tell affiliates to make their own links. I know Linkshare has something similar to this with some programs, but Shareasale makes it way simpler. Shareasale also lets you upload videos that your affiliates can use (affiliate link embedded), so if you have videos of your games, that might be something you want to think about.

Disclaimer - I haven't used Linkshare as a merchant in quite a while, so it's possible they've added in a lot of the stuff I like about Shareasale. However, I still think Shareasale has the most convenient interface and best customer service of the 3 big networks. It's also considerably cheaper than the other 2, though you're not given quite as much recruitment help unless you want to buy extras like category/holiday sponsorships.
 
+1 here for Shareasale over Linkshare, have worked with both directly on the advertiser side. From my experiences with them, Linkshare has huge quantities of very poor quality affiliates, and has been a nightmare to deal with in terms of getting responses, pre-paying balances etc. Also had a lot of trouble with TM bidding.

They also charge for absolutely everything, including adserving. Hugely regret getting involved with them, but others have probably had better luck.

Shareasale is very very easy if you're going to self-admin your own account, and as Stefanie said provides easily accessible data for each order placed. Also just a $500 setup fee rather than $3k (and then $500/month for largely nothing) with Linkshare.
 
why not just work with a CPA network with a CPS model if you prefer. Linkshare is now one of the worst of the bunch. As a publisher, shareasale dont have a lot of branded offers but their platform is top notch. CJ is probably the biggest CPS network with massive presence and lot of branders.

Honestly, you should checkout CPA networks. Not only you will save money on setup fees and other BS, but its lot easier to deal with overall.
 
Thank you, guys! I appriciate your oppinion! We decided to work with SAS. :cool2:

Our main concern now is that Shareasale work basikaly with US affiliates. Do you have any ideas how we can recruit UK affiliates?
 
I see, we already decided to work with SAS.

We will use affiliate diretories to post info about our affiliate program, but can you give me more ideas how to attract more affiliates?

We don't wanna use paid search...
 
SAS was great. But now-a-days, their site looks down most of the time! What the hell!

Try Plimus.
 
They both have positives and negatives. LS also has a minimum charge so if you are looking at smaller number of transactions it might cost a lot per sale, I think around $500 a month in processing minimums.

SAS also has quick turn around time for setup which is great.

To attract affiliates look at all the networks around. There are lots of CPA networks here, and there are other options like CJ, PepperJam, Zanox for overseas or Cleverbridge for more international transactions.
 
I would suggest SAS, plus they are easier to work with. However, I would also suggest taking a look at CPAWay, they have a great program as well. Good luck!
 
How does prepay work on SAS? I'm also looking at running an offer with a network and am curious about the ease to work with them.

Its really easy with them, I just reg'd a CC and paid in like $1k when I opened the account, and then set it to auto-recharge $1k when the balance gets down to $200. Simples :)