In here we’re share with you Rakuten Advertising affiliate program complete review for publishers.
One of the hardest things you’ll deal with when starting an affiliate marketing business is finding good affiliate programs for beginners.
There are a lot of affiliate programs that pay well, but it’s important to pick the right one. Picking the wrong one could make you lose time, while the right one could help you make money even before your website is completely done. We’ll give you a fair review of the Rakuten affiliate network to help with that. Let’s begin.
Table of Contents
- What Is Rakuten Advertising Affiliate Program?
- How To Be Approved As A Rakuten Affiliate?
- Signing Up For Rakuten Affiliate
- Quick Start Guide For Rakuten Affiliate
- Getting Paid
- Rakuten Marketing Publisher Help
- Rakuten Marketing Pros and Cons
- Rakuten Advertising Alternatives
- Conclusion
What Is Rakuten Advertising Affiliate Program?
Rakuten Advertising is a part of Rakuten Marketing LLC. It’s one of the biggest programs in the world where you get paid based on how well you perform. This platform lets companies that want to sell things and people who promote those things connect. Most Rakuten Marketing affiliate reviews say it works well for both these groups.
This platform helps businesses reach more people without spending too much money by picking the right influencer. It also helps influencers find businesses they can work with.
The company is in Tokyo and has offices in 9 other places. It’s one of the few affiliate companies that work all around the world – in more than 200 countries.
In this review of LinkShare, we’ll talk about how this platform works and figure out if it’s something you should try.
What is affiliate marketing?
Online affiliate marketing is like a digital way of telling your friends about something cool and getting rewarded for it. When you have a website and you talk about or show cool stuff from a company, they give you money when people buy those things through your website links.
The websites that show off things from other companies are called affiliate partners. If your website keeps bringing in customers for those companies, you can make a good amount of money regularly. It’s a nice way to earn money online.
How To Be Approved As A Rakuten Affiliate?
Based on the website’s information, you’ll need to have a website that’s live and has relevant content before you can start using the tools on the network. If you want to use a social media page, you have to share the exact link to that page.
Next, you should create good and unique content that helps people. You’ll also need to provide your tax details and a valid mailing address.
If you post spam or copy content from others, your profile will be marked as a problem. But it’s okay if you don’t have a specific number of visitors.
The network has a team that checks the stuff on your website. They usually don’t say no to people, but if your website has very little content or it’s not original, they might not approve your application.
The hardest part is getting approved for a specific program. The company that wants to sell things will look at your website and make sure it matches what they need. So, only apply if your website is similar to what they’re selling.
Signing Up For Rakuten Affiliate
Here’s how to sign up as a publisher and start making money from your website with Rakuten Advertising. It won’t cost you anything to sign up, and you can earn money from your website, emails, and social media!
In the next steps, we’ll ask for some info about you, your business, and your website. It should take about 5 to 10 minutes. This is the first step to using Rakuten Advertising to make money from your website.
Once we look at your application and say yes (usually in a couple of business days), we’ll send you a welcome email with instructions. Your account will automatically let you work with companies all around the world.
You can follow along on the Publisher Registration page.
Company Info
- First, choose the Country where your business is based.
Select a Legal Entity Type
- It’s a good idea to talk to your accountant and legal team about this.
Enter your Business Name
- Make sure this doesn’t go over 60 characters.
Choose the Tax Form
- If your business is in the US, a W-9 form will already be chosen for you. If your business is in another country, you’ll have a few different forms to pick from.
- NOTE: You don’t have to send your tax form to Rakuten Advertising. When you sign up, they’ll ask for your company name and tax identification info (like a social security number or employer identification number in the US). This way, you don’t need to send a paper document.
- For more information on these forms, please see Publisher Tax Information.
- If your business is in the United States, you should enter either a Social Security Number (if you’re an individual or sole proprietor) or an IRS Employer ID Number (EIN).
- These numbers have 9 digits each. Please type them without any dashes or spaces. Rakuten Advertising needs this info for taxes. If your business is not in the United States, you don’t have to fill in this field.
- Enter your Address and Phone number
- Your address can be 40 to 60 characters on each line. You can use letters, numbers, symbols, and spaces.
Contact and Account Info
- Enter your Name, Account Email address, and Login Email address.
- The Account Email is where you’ll get emails about new features, products, and newsletters.
- The Login Email is the email you use to log in.
- Your password needs to be at least 8 characters long and should have a number, a capital letter, and a special character.
- Pick a Security Question and give an answer to it.
Primary Website Info
- Type in your Website’s name and its URL, remember to include “http://”.
- Choose your Main Business Model.
- Write the month, day, and year when your business started in the format MM/DD/YYYY.
- Pick a range for how many Unique Visitors come to your site each month and how many Page Views it gets.
- Give a Brief Description of your website. You can also add a URL that links to your Sell Sheet on your site or another place where advertisers can download it.
Category
- Choose the Main Category that best fits your business. You can pick up to three.
Your Customer Demographic
- Pick the Gender and Age group of your customers. Remember, you can choose more than one age range.
Payment Threshold
- Tell us the commission amount that should lead to a payment. It needs to be at least the minimum payment threshold for your country, which is 50 USD, CAD, GBP, EUR, and AUD for all payments. Please only use whole numbers and no symbols like decimals, commas, or currency signs.
Language Preference
- The publisher dashboard and the emails they send are available in eight languages: English (U.S.), Spanish, French, German, Brazilian Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), and Korean. Please choose your preferred language here.
Email Subscriptions
- Tick the boxes if you want to get the Rakuten Advertising newsletters and be informed about new deals from advertisers.
Membership Agreement
- Go through the complete global publisher Membership Agreement. Make sure to read it all, including scrolling down to the end of the document.
- If you’re okay with the rules, check the boxes to show you agree. Also, click to confirm that you’re 18 years old or older. You’ll automatically be part of all the international advertiser networks you qualify for.
Information Certification
- Lastly, read the Information Certification. If everything is true, write your name in the Signature field and then click Continue.
Email Validation
- You’ll get an email from Rakuten asking you to confirm your email address. Just click the link, and your email address will be confirmed. If you don’t see the email, make sure your spam settings allow emails from @rakuten.com and @linkshare.com.
Once you send in your finished application, the Rakuten team will check it. When they say yes (usually in a couple of business days), they’ll send you a welcome email. This email will have instructions for you to begin using Rakuten Advertising.
Quick Start Guide For Rakuten Affiliate
As a Rakuten Advertising publisher, you get to work with top brands, use updated tools and technology, and receive great support that they work hard to give every day.
Log In
Navigate to Rakuten Advertising and click Login > Affiliate Publisher at the upper right corner of the page.
Type in your email and password, then click Log In. You should have gotten these details in the welcome email when you signed up with Rakuten Advertising.
Account Setup
Setting up your account in the publisher dashboard is quick. Make sure you fill in all the info and keep it current. Especially, choose how you want to get paid so you can get your earnings. There are different payment methods for publishers, depending on where you are.
Find Advertisers
You should team up with advertisers whose products or services match the content on your website. To start promoting their stuff on your site, they need to say yes to you first. The publisher dashboard and help center have ways for you to find advertiser programs you can ask to join.
In the publisher dashboard, you have a few ways to find advertisers to work with:
- Search by Name: Use the advertiser search box if you know the name of the advertiser.
- New Advertisers: Under the Programs tab, click New Advertisers to see advertisers who’ve recently joined.
- Categories: Click Categories and choose a category to see related advertisers.
- See All Advertisers: At the bottom of the categories list page, you can see all available advertisers alphabetically.
You can refine your search using filters for specific traits like network or location.
When you pick an advertiser, you’ll see a program summary. To see their offers, go to the Offers tab and select Available Offers.
Apply for a Program
To join an advertiser’s program, here’s what you need to do: First, pick the offer you’re interested in by clicking the radio button next to it. Then, at the bottom of the page, click Update. If you’re interested in multiple programs, you can apply to several at once by checking the boxes next to the programs you like, and then clicking Apply at the bottom of the page. Keep in mind that by applying, you’re agreeing to follow the advertiser’s rules and conditions, which can be different for each advertiser. So, make sure you read and understand them.
After you’ve applied, the advertiser will contact you by email to let you know if they’ve approved your application or if there’s a reason they can’t approve it.
Links
Once an advertiser approves your program application, you can start using their affiliate links. These links come in different types and contain special codes to make sure you get paid the right commissions for sales made through your links.
To use these links, just go to Links > Get Links in your publisher dashboard.
After you click on an advertiser in the list to see their details, go to their advertiser home page and click on Links. This will show you the different types of links they have.
When you’ve chosen a link type, like a text link, you can narrow down your search by selecting a category, such as coupon. Once you’ve done that, you can pick the link you want to use from the list and click Get Link on the right side of the page. This will open a pop-up with HTML code that includes your tracking code. You can copy this code and paste it onto your website.
Another kind of link is a deep link. These links send visitors to a specific page on the advertiser’s site, not just the homepage. You can use the deep linking tool in the publisher dashboard by going to Links > Deep Linking.
Getting Paid
It would be really helpful if all affiliate networks paid their affiliates in the same manner, but unfortunately, that’s not how it works. Don’t assume that payment schedules and timeframes are the same across all affiliate programs just because one network pays you weekly.
They differ.
Now, let’s see how Rakuten Marketing deals with affiliate payments.
Payment timeframe
At Rakuten Marketing, all affiliate payments are set on a net 60 basis. This means you’ll receive the commissions you earned 60 days after you actually earned them.
For instance, if you ran a Halloween promotion in October, your earnings would be approved by the affiliate program manager in November, and you would receive your payment in December.
Payment methods
You can select how you want to receive your affiliate commission payments: through direct deposit (bank transfer), PayPal, or a check. However, you might need to clarify to your bank that the payment is from an affiliate company, and that the check is legitimate. This can be repetitive.
Also, it’s important to note that specific payment methods might not be available in certain countries. For instance, affiliates in the UK, Germany, France, or Australia won’t receive payments via checks.
Payment threshold
This is the minimum amount you have to earn before Rakuten Marketing will send you a payment via your preferred method. Thankfully the payment threshold for this affiliate network is very small – just $50, in fact. You can obviously increase your minimum payout to a much higher amount.
But you have to change this under ‘Marketing Channels’ instead of ‘Payment settings’ for some weird reason. The good news though is that you can adjust your payment threshold as a Rakuten affiliate.
Rakuten Marketing Publisher Help
It’s reassuring to have the option to contact a customer support team when you encounter issues or need answers. Rakuten Marketing affiliates can benefit from their knowledge base, which covers most common questions and acts as a useful publisher help center.
If that doesn’t cover your needs, you can reach out via chat or email support worldwide. They also offer toll-free phone support in the US, Canada, and the UK.
Rakuten Marketing Pros and Cons
Pros
- Completely Free: Joining Rakuten Affiliate Network and becoming an affiliate doesn’t cost anything. This is especially helpful for bloggers or individuals with limited budgets.
- User-Friendly Dashboard: The network’s dashboard is easy to use and navigate, making it accessible even for newcomers to affiliate marketing. It’s suitable for both beginners and those familiar with affiliate marketing services.
- Rotating Banners: One of Rakuten Affiliate Network’s standout features is its rotating banners. Instead of manually trying different ad units, you can create a banner that automatically displays various ad units in random order. This saves time and optimizes the visibility of ads without cluttering your website.
- Comprehensive Support Tools: Whether you’re new to affiliate marketing or looking to enhance your existing knowledge, Rakuten Affiliate Network provides valuable educational tools and training materials. These resources can help you improve your affiliate marketing strategies and boost your earnings.
Cons
- Unpredictable Payment Schedule: One major drawback of Rakuten Affiliate Network is its payment schedule, which can be unpredictable. For instance, publishers only receive payment once the payment from each advertiser has been received. This means that payment timing can vary greatly – you might get paid within a week for some advertisers, but for others, you might need to wait for 60 days or even longer. If having a steady and reliable payment schedule is crucial for your decision on which affiliate marketing network to work with, you might want to explore other options.
Rakuten Advertising Alternatives
Looking for a Rakuten Advertising alternative? we had published top 12 affiliate networks article for you. you can read that click here
Conclusion
Your choice of the best affiliate network depends on your preferences and the features you need. In this review of the Rakuten affiliate network, we’ve highlighted its strengths and weaknesses. We’ve also discussed its unique aspects compared to other networks and its areas of improvement.
Rakuten is undoubtedly among the leading players in affiliate marketing. Joining this network lets you become part of a rapidly expanding community that pays out millions in commissions annually.