I haven't had much success with CJ yet (and haven't promoted their programs that actively). But I mostly look at two things: - Niche has to fit the site. - EPC has to be quite high. If there are several programs that fit these conditions, I prefer pay-per-lead type of program rather than pay-per-sale.
CPA for sales definitely pay higher than lead gen, like us, we are paying up to 8% commission of the sales amount and averagely a Camera costs over $700 USD. Leads usually pay only a few bucks, so it really depends your website and traffic source.
overall stats for best performing merchants are somehow useless. a merchant can pay much higher commissions simply because of what they sell, and can generate more commissions with a single sale than other merchants with hundreds of sales Imagine a merchant selling $9000 network switches and a website that can generate 20 sales per month of such items, at a hypothetical commission of 5%, this would make $9000 in commissions for the publisher. Now imagine a merchant that sells $70 shoes, 10% commission and a publisher that can generate ~1300 sales per month. The publisher would get about the same $9000, but it requires much more traffic to the website. Moreover, shoes are easier to sell than high price networking equipment for a variety of reasons that go beyond the price ( ie. every datacenter has commercial relationships with vendors making it very difficult to sell to them via a standard website ). All this to say that there are a variety of factors that can make a merchant good or bad for your website, but simply looking at overall stats in cj and picking top merchants doesn't mean they will convert on your website. Don't limit your analysis to EPC and green bars, also make sure you check their shopping cart, their website and try to guess if one of your website users would buy from them or rather look for a different merchant
I look for a high EPC and market share. High market share means they will usually have no problem paying you. I also always decline new advertisers unless they are a reputable company.
If the Merchant is through CJ like us, I think there must be a reputation and the commission is paying through CJ platform. I don't think there will be a problem of paying.
I think it all depends upon your blog niche. You will be better off trying hosting and wordpress related plugns if you have a blog focused around blogging and making money