A simple step-by-step guide to using ShareASale’s affiliate links features in a custom way.
In my circle of blogging friends and neighbors (literally, a neighbor down the street and I get together and do website stuff, so fun!) I’ve noticed a lot of people not utilizing opportunities to link to products they love and use to show to visitors and subscribers on their websites and blogs off of ShareASale. So, I decided to show you how simple it is in these six steps.
#1 Sign into your ShareASale Affiliate Account
Sign in to Shareasale and at the top of your homepage dashboard there is a tab titled “Links”. Hover over this and then click on “Get a Link/Banner” on the drop-down menu.
#2 Select Your Merchant
On the “Get Links” page you will have all your merchants listed and a green button next to those merchants that is titled “Get Links”, click on this button. For this tutorial, I chose my merchant Belle and June.
#3 Create Custom Link
By default, you will be taken to the “Text Links” section of your merchant’s home page. Click over to the “Create Custom Link” button and your page will look like the image above.
#4 Copy page URL you wish to link to.
For this affiliate link sample, I simply copied the homepage of belleandjune.com, but most of the time you will want to link to the specific product or service that you are advertising on your site. So, instead of just getting the home page URL, go to the specific product page that you are selling and copy THAT URL instead. (ie, if I wanted to link to “trays” I would go to the page that displays the specific tray product and copy that URL)
Speedy Trick: the shortcut to copy text on your keyboard is “COMMAND+C” or “CTRL+C”
#5 Paste selected URL on Shareasale.
Go back to the tab where Shareasale is open and paste (COMMAND+V or CTRL+V) the copied URL in the box in the Custom Link Generator. Then click “Create Custom Link”.
You have the option to add tracking value to your custom link, and basically, save it for late if you’d like. If this is a product or website you are going to link to often, then I would add your value here. If not, then just click “Skip this Step”.
#6 Finalize and Insert into Article.
You will then have your custom link! Congratulations, Blog Boss, you are rockin’ it! Now, we just need to get that affiliate link into your awesome article. So, copy either the full link or the short link (short links are typically for social media, so they don’t look spammy to your audience…) and paste it using the “Insert/Edit Link” icon provided by your WordPress account, Gmail, Wix, Blogger, whatever platform you are using it in.
- Select the text you want your audience to see as an affiliate link.
- Click on “Insert/Edit Link” icon.
- Paste the link URL into the box provided.
- Go to settings and be sure to check the box that says, “Open Link in New Tab”, so none of your readers go away from your excellent post on your blog while exploring your affiliate link.
If your link is then highlighted and underlined you did it! You can finish your article, publish, market (I highly recommend Tailwind via Pinterest), and be on your way to affiliate success with Shareasale.
For a little blogging inspiration, check out my first-month blogging report, how I bombed blogging and kept at it! And to see how I boosted my traffic with three simple hacks, check out this post! Happy Blogging! xo.
