How to Get Accepted to RewardStyle/LTK

Were you rejected from RewardStyle/LTK? Don’t worry, getting accepted to the LTK affiliate program is no easy feat. LTK is an exclusive, invitation-only affiliate platform for fashion, beauty, family, and home bloggers and the majority of their network is comprised of the top female influencers in those niches.

LTK was founded by Dallas-based blogger Amber Venz and has taken the fashion world by storm, as it was the first affiliate network to successfully persuade fashion brands to pay the bloggers promoting their products with affiliate marketing.

Quick note: RewardStyle recently rebranded as “LTK” so you might see some references to both names on my site. Know that they are the same company!

Today, LTK is very well-known in the fashion industry and has become so popular that many bloggers are rejected one or more times before they get in. RewardStyle is serious about ensuring only the best of the best are let in. While getting accepted is tough, I can say that it’s definitely worth the effort if you create content in a female interest niche. Some bloggers who use LTK are earning tens of thousands of dollars per month, simply by linking to the products they love and taking a cut of the sales they refer.

How to Join LTK (formerly RewardStyle)

I applied to LTK (it was called RewardStyle then) for the first time in 2015 and was rejected before getting accepted the second time around in February 2017. So don’t feel bad if you aren’t accepted the first time around. It just means you aren’t ready yet and need to work a little bit longer!

LTK doesn’t publish its requirements for acceptance into the platform. Lucky for you, I’m going to spill all my secrets and tell you exactly what changed between my rejection and acceptance.

I don’t blame RewardStyle for rejecting my application when I first sent it in. I wasn’t in a place where I was totally serious about my blog (unlike how I am today), and it showed.

When I first applied to RewardStyle, I was simply a really new blogger. I wasn’t sure how dedicated I was to it. My traffic was pretty limited and my social media accounts were good, but not thriving.

By the way, if you don’t have a blog already, then click here to read how I started mine.

Equally noteworthy was the fact that RewardStyle hadn’t fully launched into the home decor category; at that time, it was mainly fashion bloggers, and I was blogging about interior design!

Here are how my stats lined up when I was rejected:

Site Launch Date: Less than 4 months ago
Posts in the Last Month: 5-8 times
Monthly Page Views: Less than 5,000
Monthly Unique Visitors: Less than 2,000
Primary Publishing: Blog
Region of Influence: United States
Content: Interior
Monetization: Display advertising
Estimated Monthly Earnings: $20
Instagram: 10,000 – 49,000
All others: Less than 5,000

Surprisingly the RewardStyle application doesn’t include an option to enter your Pinterest stats but most other networks are represented.

RewardStyle Application Improvements

As they say, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again!

When I re-applied for the network in February, I made sure my RewardStyle application was strong. My page views increased significantly and I started posting 5 times per week consistently. I wanted to show I was serious about this blogging thing and my hard work paid off!

Here are how my stats lined up upon being accepted to give you an idea of the RewardStyle requirements:

Developer capabilities: In-House
Site Launch Date: 1-2 years ago
Posts in the Last Month: 13+ times
Monthly Page Views: 10,000 – 24,999
Monthly Unique Visitors: 10,000 – 24,999
Primary Publishing: Blog
Region of Influence: United States
Content: Interior
Monetization: Display advertising
Estimated Monthly Earnings: $200
Instagram: 10,000 – 49,000
Tumblr: 10,000 – 49,000
All others: Less than 5,000

Depending on how strong your RewardStyle application is, you should hear back from them within a week. RewardStyle says they don’t just look at blog traffic and follower stats, but also consider engagement and quality of content. I think they want to see how professional your blog appears and the potential it has for success.

I’ll be the first to admit that my social media engagement is quite low (I don’t have a ton of comments on my blog or Instagram), but I did manage to get lots of eyeballs on my site through Pinterest, so I think in my case, my stats really helped.

How to Become a LTK Influencer

I’ll end this article with a few tips on how to become a RewardStyle influencer:

If you have your heart set on becoming a RewardStyle or Liketoknow.it influencer, the good thing is you don’t need an ultra-popular blog or Instagram account!

Apply to LTK once you’ve hit 10,000 page views per month on your blog and you have one really strong social network you can market to. I actually started my Instagram account before my blog, so that’s one option if you’re not sure you’re ready to start a blog just yet. RewardStyle’s Liketoknow.it program shows they are open to accepting popular Instagram influencers to their platform!

Be sure you apply with your own domain name. It’s really unprofessional to have a Blogspot or wordpress.com blog URL. Having your own domain name shows you are serious! I purchased mine through Namecheap, but if you are brand new to blogging, then Bluehost, a WordPress-approved hosting provider will give you a domain name for FREE with your hosting package.

Take high-quality pictures! You may need to invest in a professional camera or hire a photographer, but trust me when I say that it’s worth it. I linked up with another blogger in the city where I live and we take pictures for each other when needed. It works out great because we both get content and save money at the same time!

You can find RewardStyle’s Influencer application here: https://www.rewardstyle.com/apply

Of course, if you have any questions at all, don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly. I’m happy to look through your site and provide feedback before you apply! Good luck!