ShopMy, LTK, or Your Own Links: Who Owns Your Audience
Three models, described accurately, and the question underneath them.
Three kinds of tools currently sit between a fashion creator and their audience, and they are different enough that comparing them is mostly a matter of describing them accurately.
Linktree is a routing layer. A list-style link-in-bio page, around seventy million profiles strong, that turns the single allowed URL into a menu of destinations. It does not touch your transactions. It owns the page, and you own wherever the buttons lead.
LTK is a commission marketplace. Operating since 2011, it connects brands and creators, with brands funding commissions that typically run from ten to twenty five percent of a tracked sale. The creator's showcase lives inside the LTK app, where the network's own audience of shoppers browses it.
ShopMy occupies the premium end of the same model. It is a commission network favoured by editors, stylists, and people inside the industry, with brand gifting and partnerships flowing through the platform alongside the commissions. Like LTK, it earns from the transaction and hosts the showcase in its own environment.
All three are legitimate businesses doing what they describe. The useful question is not which is best. It is what, in each arrangement, belongs to you.
Four things that can be owned
The address. If your showcase lives at a platform's domain, inside a platform's app, the address is theirs. If the platform changes its product, its terms, or its fortunes, the address changes with it.
The links. In a commission model, links are routed through the network's tracking. That is how the model functions, and it is fair. It also means the link is a shared asset, not a private one.
The data. Whoever operates the surface holds the record of what happened on it. You see what the dashboard shows you, at the resolution the dashboard chooses.
The relationship. This is the quiet one. When an audience learns to find you through an app, the habit belongs to the app. The network can introduce your audience to a hundred creators like you, because that is what a network is for.
The fourth arrangement
REN is built so that all four belong to the creator. Your archive is a permanent page under your own name, indexed by search engines. The links inside your photographs are your own, untouched, your affiliate programmes included, and we never insert ourselves into them. They take a cut. We never touch it. The click analytics are yours, at full resolution. And the visitor who arrives at your archive has arrived at you, not at a feed of alternatives.
The model that makes this possible is deliberately dull. A flat subscription, £12.99 a month in the UK with regional pricing elsewhere, a free tier of twenty five photographs, and a seven day trial that asks for no card. We are paid for the room, not for what changes hands inside it.
Coexistence, honestly
Nothing here requires an exodus. Many creators will keep a network for its brand relationships and its shopper traffic, and they will be right to. The distinction worth keeping in view is between the places you rent and the place you own. Rent wherever the deals are. Own the home, the archive that holds your work when the campaigns are over and the apps have moved on.
How they compare
| REN | ShopMy | LTK | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Business model | Flat subscription | Commission network | Commission network |
| Commission taken | None, ever | A cut of each tracked sale | A cut of each tracked sale |
| Where it lives | Your own permanent page | Inside ShopMy | Inside the LTK app |
| Data ownership | Click analytics are yours | Limited to the dashboard view | Limited to the dashboard view |
| The address | Your name, indexed | Platform domain | Platform app |
| Links | Your own, untouched | Routed through tracking | Routed through tracking |
| Brand gifting | You arrange directly | Gifting flows through platform | Gifting flows through platform |
When to choose each
Choose ShopMy or LTK when their brand partnerships, gifting, and shopper traffic are earning for you. Both are legitimate networks doing what they describe, and many editors and stylists rely on them well.
Choose REN when the four things worth owning - the address, the links, the data, and the relationship - should all belong to you. A flat subscription, a permanent indexed archive, and no cut of anything that changes hands.
Nothing here requires an exodus. Rent wherever the deals are. Own the home: the archive that holds your work when the campaigns are over.
Questions
- How is REN different from ShopMy and LTK?
- ShopMy and LTK are commission networks: they earn a cut of each tracked sale and host your showcase inside their own environment. REN is a flat subscription with no commission, and your archive is a permanent page under your own name. The address, the links, the data, and the audience all belong to you.
- Does REN take a cut like ShopMy or LTK?
- No. REN takes no commission on anything that changes hands. We are paid for the room, not for what sells inside it. The price is a flat subscription, from GBP 12.99 a month with region-aware pricing. Commission networks earn from the transaction, which is a fair model, just a different one.
- Do I have to leave ShopMy or LTK to use REN?
- No. Many creators keep a network for its brand relationships and shopper traffic and use REN as the place they own. Rent wherever the deals are. Own the archive that holds your work when the campaigns are over and the apps have moved on.
- Who owns my audience on REN?
- You do. When an audience learns to find you through a network app, the habit belongs to the app, which can introduce them to a hundred creators like you. A visitor who arrives at your REN archive has arrived at you, under your own name, with the analytics belonging to you.