Question. Why wouldn't any CJ publisher automatically accept an advertiser? Honestly, they have nothing to lose. It's not like their link on my website ruins their reputation.
you may be from a different country. your site may not match their kind of product / service list. bla bla bla ...
I think you got it backwards don't you? They are the advertisers, you are the publisher. Anyways most of them look at what your site is about. You clicked a bunch of boxes when you joined with CJ that describe your site. If you don't have the right boxes checked you get automatically denied. A lot of them don't actually care and will automatically approve you, so go crazy and add every advertiser you can.
If you ran a porn or hate site, do you think that Zappos.com would want their link there? Lots of sites are very brand conscious (think: Wall Street Journal, Yahoo!, etc..)
I've noticed a few advertisers not approving for no reason at all, it seems. But I have a feeling that they simply have too many publishers for their product.
Yes if it was your brand, your viewpoint would be different. Often they auto reject due to country or poorly designed site or untargeted fit. Some reject publishers that are new or don't have good EPC if they are trying to run a tight program with only good performers.
If you really like it, you can try to contact them via cj email. But in most case, just forget it and there are already too many advertisers and products to promote.
Get up to CJ performer status and I can tell you none of the advertisers will reject an application no matter what the site looks like or where the traffic is coming from at that point. Until then contact them to get a better view of why they didn't accept ask some questions on what you can do to be accepted.