I have had my CJ account open for 2 years and I have only earned $12.17. I dont understand it!!! I have been busting my butt for the past year building sites around CJ. I have static websites, blogs and BANS stores. I now have about 20+ websites with CJ ads. All are optimized for search engines, many rank very well for good terms. I get pretty good traffic on a regular basis. The websites have great designes, great domains and the ads have been carefully placed. I am using about 15 different niches. I have many years of advertising experience- I actually teach companies advertising stragegies. The websites have been carefully designed- Im talking about using certian colors, layouts, etc. to motivate visitors to do what you want them to do. I dont understand how all these people are like... I just signed up with CJ, bought a .info domain, installed a default BANS store with no content and Im pissed off that I worked all month and only received $90 in commissions... I would be delighted with $90/mo. at this point! Last month, my CJ report shows I had 246 clicks! I also show 0 sales and 0 commission. If only 50 of those 246 clicks turned into sales, I'd be doing pretty good! Since Jan 1, I have 76,000 ad impressions and 440 clicks... of course 0 sales. What the heck am I doing wrong!!!???
Could be your niche? Your traffic might not be 'buying' visitors. You using PPC or just organic search for traffic? hanji
I don't know how it can be my niche when over the past year Ive used dozens of niches and I know Im using some niches that are for a fact working for others. I've also tried different platforms- static site, blog, bans store, etc. I have used PPC before, but Im not right now because I am getting really decent traffic from the search engines as Im ranking first page or #1 for some really good terms.
Ad Placement, the affiliates you are choosing, the terms you are ranking for, the type of traffic all comes into play. Keep working, and experiment, find out what will work because you obviously haven't found it. I have 10 clicks on CJ and just got my first sale ever with eBay. Not too tough at all. Justin Dupre
I just dont see how I can be so spread out, try so many advertising methods, get so much traffic, wait for so much time and STILL not get anything.
Seems like you're not getting targeted traffic. If you have people coming to your site because they're looking for 'widgets', it doesn't do you much unless they want to 'buy' widgets. That's why I'm partial to limited PPC, those clicks are sending 'buyers' to the site. Also, are you sure your tracking is working correctly? Correct PIDs etc? Are you attracting US visitors when directing to ebay.com? hanji
Good point! I've seen it happen too many times where the pid is entered incorrectly, meaning that you could be losing sales. On another note, with the products you are selling...are you giving price comparisons? That has seemed to work best for me. I may find a few products with CJ and Amazon, and throw the prices out there. Unfortunately, the Amazon products are usually cheaper (less commission) but at least I am selling some items.
Well if my PID is incorrect, I wouldnt be able to see the stats such as how many impressions the ads have had, right? Since I am able to see all these impressions my PID should be correct, right?
1. I was assuming you may have different sites.. with different PIDs.. and possibly a small set have issues with PID 2. eBay stats don't count impressions (unless you show a ebay banner, etc).. but we're really caring about rover, and those don't count for impressions. I guess I don't know what to tell you. I think you're not getting targeted visitors. hanji
I don't know that anyone can offer much help beyond questioning whether you're getting "targeted buying traffic" or not, or perhaps your on-site content and if it's pre-selling for you as well as leading visitors to your affiliate links smoothly--unless you shared more information about your sites or the URLs themselves, and I'm not suggesting you do that. I don't use CJ on many sites, but across those that I do I seem to average between a 5% and 8% click-thru rate (5 to 8 clicks per 100 impressions), and from my clicks there's typically a conversion rate of about 0.5% (1 sale per 200 clicks - which is why I don't use CJ more). Given the 76,000 impressions you mentioned, I would have expected a minimum of 3,500 clicks from that traffic, not the 440 you got. Obviously something is wrong. It's either the products you're promoting, something in your link codes (tracking) or something on your pages is leading visitors away from your links. It could be the niches or traffic too, but if you're really spread out across multiple niches and getting organic traffic then I'd look first at the link codes and page content. Maybe you've been over-thinking and planning your content and promotional link/ads display? Maybe start with the KISS rule, just put needed products in-front of buying customers in a minimalist manner and then once you're getting conversions start tweaking colors or playing with other customer motivation techniques. Good luck
you'd be getting more with adsense I guess. To me it seems that your traffic is not buyers. Therefore, my suggestion is you go with leads instead of sales, and for 440 clicks I'm sure you'd get some conversions.
Thanks for the help thus far. Gives me some things to think about. I am honestly thinking of closing down this CJ account and opening a whole new account because I think something is screwed up here.
I think if you started promoting 100% free campaigns like double opt-ins, email/zip submits, etc then you can easily make at least $100 a month with all your sites combined. At least that's better than $12.17 in two years!!
If a majority of your CJ adverts are banners, Your figures make sense, Next, perhaps you need to consider the fact that advertising and selling are 2 different disciplines For a publisher(you, me, most folk here) CJ is about selling. Marketing an advertising skills are usefull, but you need buyers, Generally, methinks you advertise to the disinterested, and sell to the buyers Actually, I am just learning how to sell affiliate style myself, so I won't make any specific points
WOW. I don't know what's going on with you, but this is unmotivating for us the newbies... I hope you can solve the problem as soon as possible and tell us what was the problem??? For the EPC statistics you should have to have great earnings. Isn't there any invalid link right??? Can you provide us some of your sites? Reinaldo.
You need both targeted traffics and content that converts. Just place a banner is not a guarantee for your success. You have to reach them and tell them exactly why they should purchase that product or how they would benefits by purchase that product. Give them both honest comments/reviews but little emphasize on product you are selling.