Commission Junction why it works and why it doesn’t
Author: glend
I get asked all the time if I use Commission Junction (http://www.cj.com/) on my sites or promotions. I do use CJ on my sites but I don’t use them as much as I could or should. I will discuss the ups and downs with CJ and why I use them sparsely.
First, CJ is great because it has tons of businesses and ads all in one place. If you are looking to do either CPA promotion or Sales promotion this could be the place for you. Of course they have the E-bay affiliate program which can make you lots of cash. CJ gives you lots of options and products to choose from in one place which is great.
Second, CJ’s interface is not intuitive. While getting to your reports of statistics and sales is easy, but if you are trying to search for new advertisers plan to spend your time searching. The search works but it appears that for some reason some of the biggest companies are the hardest to find. A perfect example is for Bass Pro Shops, If you log into your account choose get links and input in the search box “Bass Pro Shops” you get back 0 results. This is just one example but this happens for many companies. The work around for this is to visit the website you want to join find their affiliate link then choose the link that states you are already a member of CJ, but having to do this makes no sense.
Thirdly, CJ does do charge backs. A charge back is when you provide a lead or a sale but advertiser comes back sometimes weeks later and states that lead or sale wasn’t valid and in turn you don’t get paid. I have talked with many people that have had this happen, while many big advertisers can handle the charge backs those starting out new can be squeezed out of the affiliate game due to this. I believe the charge back issue is something CJ needs to fix soon as this causes many publishers to steer clear.
Lastly, CJ is the only option to promote some goods. Even with its issues if you have a site or a way to promote some of the companies CJ lists you should sign up and try promoting. Be for warned that you may get frustrated at times but also be warned you could make a good bit of money promoting other peoples products or offers.
If you have any suggestions or feedback feel free to leave us a comment.
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