How to Test ShareASale Affiliate Links (Complete Procedure)
To test a ShareASale link: open an incognito window, click the link, and verify three things — the redirect passes through ShareASale's infrastructure (shareasale.com), you land on the intended page (not a homepage or error page), and the sscid parameter appears on the merchant URL. Then confirm the click registered in your ShareASale dashboard. A link can pass a casual click test and fail attribution — the dashboard check is the ground truth.
Step 1: Clean environment
Test in incognito with extensions disabled. Ad blockers block affiliate redirects outright, and stale cookies from previous tests mask attribution behavior. What you want to observe is a first-time visitor's experience.
Step 2: Follow the chain
Click the link and watch the address bar. A healthy ShareASale chain touches shareasale.com briefly, then lands on the merchant. Reference: https://www.shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=123456&u=7890123&m=45678&urllink=merchant.com%2Fproduct
Landing anywhere unexpected — an error page mentioning "merchant not found", the merchant homepage instead of a product, a browser error — is a failed test; see the failure modes below.
Step 3: Check for sscid
sscid on the final merchant URL is ShareASale's click identifier — its presence is near-proof the click registered. Its ABSENCE is inconclusive: merchants routinely clean URLs after storing tracking. Never declare a link dead on a missing parameter alone.
Step 4: Dashboard confirmation
Your test click should appear in ShareASale reporting within minutes. One visible click end-to-end proves the entire pipeline. If clicks never appear across repeated tests, regenerate the link from your dashboard and test again.
Failure modes this test catches
- ▸Merchant migrated to Awin: The defining failure of the ShareASale era’s end. Your old link may still reach the store, but attribution happens on Awin now — your ShareASale link no longer credits you. These links need to be regenerated on Awin.
- ▸Merchant closed their program: The link shows "merchant not found" or "program suspended". ShareASale historically hosted many small merchants, which churn more often than enterprise brands.
- ▸Dead urllink destinations: Deep links carry the destination in the urllink parameter. Small-merchant catalogs change constantly, so the tracked page often 404s while the tracking hop works.
Testing at scale
This procedure takes 2–3 minutes per link — fine for one, impossible for a back catalog. Afterlink runs steps 1–3 automatically across every ShareASale link on your channel or site and re-checks on a schedule, leaving you only the occasional dashboard confirmation.
Frequently asked questions
Will test-clicking my own ShareASale links get me flagged?
Occasional test clicks are normal and filtered from payable activity. Don't click at volume, and don't test-purchase through your own link unless the program explicitly allows it.
How often should ShareASale links be re-tested?
Continuously, in practice: programs close and pages die year-round. Weekly automated validation with change alerts is the standard that catches failures within days.
More ShareASale troubleshooting
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