I have been a full-time affiliate marketer for 5+ years now. I've promoted nearly everything under the sun, and the #1 worst affiliate network out there was LinkShare (just awful overall), followed by CJ (bad but not awful). I have yet to try Clickbank but am encouraged by the positive response I have seen. I am selective about my CJ products and do everything right, but performance from CJ just doesn't compare to my the numerous in-house affiliate programs I use. Anybody else think CJ sucks? What do you think about Share-A-Sale compared to CJ?
Compared the in-house programs? You should see the same conversion rate in-house or through CJ. I help manage a few advertisers' affiliate programs on CJ, and numbers in CJ always come very close to the backend numbers (there will be a few transactions here & there that are missing due to programs that block all cookies and things like that, but the number is negligible). If users are blocking all cookies, or blocking all ad cookies, all of the networks - not just CJ - will be blocked.
I have not had any problems getting CJ products to convert. Though I haven't actually used anyone else. I don't think CJ is stealing leads, but I could be wrong. How much lower is CJ conversion then other networks? (or in-house). Have you done any tests to confirm that CJ's conversion is in fact lower? My experiences with CJ have been very good so far.
I should clarify... I was comparing CJ.com advertisers in general compared to those programs that have their own in-house affiliate program and don't use CJ. I've never actually tested a program that offers both in-house and a CJ based system. In fact the only place I can think of that offers both (that I promote) is evitamins affiliate program. Interestingly enough, they offer 12% in-house and 10% through CJ, and they describe their in-house as being for "more advanced users." The commission difference makes sense though... CJ needs their cut.
Yeah I heard CJ takes about 30%. I could be wrong about that though. Have you noticed any netowrk advertisers performing better then in-house? I ask because to run an in-house program you have to do the work yourself, setting up traffic and the like, while going with a network is more plug and play. I do know that CJ is affiliated with a lot of large, legitimate companies such as Yahoo etc.. I've also read in my research that share-a-sale scrapes a lot of leads. They've been mentioned a few times over at the blackhat forums (which is probably why they get such bad reviews)
Yeah, I think CJ sucks. I really don't know what the big deal is about them. Their tools suck..I mean banners and that's it !? Hasn't the web progressed a little past that by now ? I have always done better with selling products direct. The amount of traffic needed to make a sale from a banner would make you twice or three times as much with other programs like Ebay, Joe Bucks and Amazon. Yes they are affiliate with a lot of large companies, but seriously..it's just a big banner farm with stupid rules, and they skim too much off the top.
Is ebay or amazon really that great? I see them in lots of cheap sites on ebay for sale and loaded with either ebay or amazon ads. To be honest, those ads just looks like they take up space more than make sales. Selling specific products or services (for me) has always been better than trying to use a all-fit-one approach. The only thing that really works in the one-program-fit-all approach is adsense...
Ebay and Amazon work if you tackle a niche. You will never make it trying to open an "all in one" store...It's a waste of time. I prefer to open niche stores, rather than just placing banners on my sites and blogs..everyone already knows ebay and Amazon exist, no need to have a general banner up as a reminder, but not everyone knows that you can buy a 1961 Ford Fairlane, or Rare Greek Coin on Ebay. IMO banners are dead. If you target a niche correctly you can make more money off of less traffic.
I've had great luck with CJ and certain CPA offers. There's not that many free CPA offers on there.. but if you find a reputable company promoting a free CPA offer like me you can make quite a bit of money!