Commission Junction Read the Advertiser Detail page

I am very unhappy with the way CJ works and I have used them in the past and over a 6 year period I have made less than $29.00. I know there are affiliates that brag about making thousands of dollars a day and there are people who win the lotteries however, for the adverage person it just does not happen. it's no different than Amazon.com or Ebay.com they set a few token affiliates pay them then tell them to tell others how great the program is to entice others to join.
I am writing about the way in which advertisers do not really look out for the hard working affiliates. They are naturally in business to make money so if they can get away without paying too much in referrals the better for them. Here is an example of how the Advertisers screw the affiliates. (NOT ALL ADVERTISERS)
I am using bewild.com Advertiser detail page as the example of a Commission Junction program .

I Copied & Pasted from their Advertiser Detail Page on CJ . I changed nothing.

Advertiser: bewild.com
ActionCriteria: The customer must complete an online purchase within our shopping cart.

Action Referral Period - 1 day(s)
Action Referral Occurrences - 1 time(s) Commission 20.00%

Sure 20% is a very nice percentage but how many sales will be credited to you the affiliate with such a short cookie duration?

How fair is 1 day 1 time within 24 hours?

Think about how they have it set up for the affiliates.

Most customers do not buy the first visit so, when they return to your site it's too late, the cookie has expired and then guess who gets credit for the sale? Yep bewild.com Oh and remember you only get one occurance if they buy within that 1 day cookie duration.
They are not the only sites doing this. I also know there are some honest Advertisers but just Make sure you read the ADVERTISER DETAIL page on each merchant so you will be aware of the cookie duration.
Also, if you put a CJ advertisers link on your site like the banners of all the other links you will notice that your referrals from Google will deminish. I know this thru experiences I have had.
I know this sounds harsh but think about it. If you are an affiliate just check the Advertiser details page be it CJ or any other tracking program.
My last personal opinion --- CJ is not the affiliates friend.

 

I know CJ both from the advertiser and the publisher site and especially in Germany they are probably one of the most publisher-friendly networks.

Cookie-durations are nothing that CJ can decide about, they only give recommendations. Some advertisers are simply not able or do not want to modify their system so that longer cookie durations are trackable. But in contrast to some other network this is clearly communicated on CJ and as grown-up publishers we can decide whether we still want to promote that program. A short cookie duration doesn't necessarily mean that you can't earn money, amazon has been running for years with just a session tracking.

 

pebbles56,

There is nothing wrong with CJ allowing Action Referral Period of 1 day.

If bewild.com is not a good guy to make business: simply do not make business with them - go there and pick another one.

CJ just put it there so you can use your skills to decide if it is good or not for you.

If this advertiser decided to be there with a low EPC - is his problem not yours.

 

CJ would rather have their affiliates choose a longer cookie duration, but as stated, it is something set by the advertiser. If you don't like the terms for a particular affiliate, then don't use them. There are affiliates that have a much longer cookie life, even lifetime. It isn't cheap to become an affiliate with CJ, so if they set terms that no one wants to accept, the vendor will ulimately suffer.

 

There are major advertisers in CJ with 120 day, unlimited occurance cookies selling the same exact products as other advertisers that give 30 day, 1 occurance cookies. If one doesn't suit you, try another merchant or another network.

The line about CJ only works for very few people is absolute bull. If you don't have traffic that is ready to buy, why would they click and purchase? Too many people simply slap on affiliate links to content websites meant for PPC and call it a day. It won't work like that.. you need buying traffic not browsing.

 

Wow! Thank you for the responses however, I guess everyone took this personal without really reading what I wrote. I wasn't slamming CJ the way you say I was.. I was just pointing out that there are problems with some of their programs. But now that this turned into a huge let's save CJ campaign as if they were a gift from God himself, let's get factual. Run a poll on the number of affiliates who actually make a living off their commissions from a CJ based program. I am not talking about the stores / Businesses who opt to feature their businesses, let's just talk about the affiliates.
I did notice that the same people throughout the forum speak all the time on the benefits of the programs with nothing bad to say. C'mon, there are glitches with any business on-line.
Oh, and buy the way, My website does have a great ranking in the search engines Google etc.
Also, the business I spoke of the bewild.com was just one I found listed in the programs available by merchant. This is just one of very many offering the same cookie duration. And to say that cookie means nothing is totally ridiculous.
Like I said, I have used CJ in the past over a 6 year period I have made less than $29.00. And had other sales however guess what.. they were all taken back except for the under $29.00 I got credit for. So, I am speaking from my experience using the various merchant programs in CJ. I was very dissatisfied and I think it's stupid for ANYONE to assume that everyone who utilizes Commission Junction makes money!
I will totally agree that some do far better than others but, it's not a perfect system!
I am not trying to be a jerk or an A--H--E. Just giving my personal opinion.
Also, wanted to warn the new affiliates about the cookie duration problems with some merchants on CJ.
Go ahead and blow this all out of proportion, get angry because I am not saying what you want to hear... I am saying what I want to say about the problems I encounted. Stop protecting something that does NOT work for Everyone. If It did work for everyone I would not be typing this now would I?
P.S. I am not going to post my website for obvious reasons.

 

>>I guess everyone took this personal without really reading what I wrote. I wasn't slamming CJ the way you say I was..

I didn't take it personally, it just sounds like you are badmouthing CJ because most affiliates don't know how to make money.

>>Run a poll on the number of affiliates who actually make a living off their commissions from a CJ based program.

No one said it is easy, but it is certainly possible.

>>I did notice that the same people throughout the forum speak all the time on the benefits of the programs with nothing bad to say. C'mon, there are glitches with any business on-line.

I have plenty of problems with CJ, but they are the best option currently available for a wide selection of merchants.

>>Oh, and buy the way, My website does have a great ranking in the search engines Google etc.

Doesn't mean diddly if your search terms are for browsers and not buyers.

>>Also, the business I spoke of the bewild.com was just one I found listed in the programs available by merchant. This is just one of very many offering the same cookie duration. And to say that cookie means nothing is totally
ridiculous.

No one said it is meaningless; most of us said there are plenty of other options if one merchant's cookie duration is unacceptable. I agree with you-- I would never promote a 1 day cookie.

>>Like I said, I have used CJ in the past over a 6 year period I have made less than $29.00.

I made 20 sales and $165 commission yesterday with ONE site with CJ and that is with 1300 uniques. Hardly a high traffic site and those figures don't in clude the other affiliate programs the site works with. Why does it work? Because the people on the site are ready to buy, not browsing for information.

>>And had other sales however guess what.. they were all taken back except for the under $29.00 I got credit for. So, I am speaking from my experience using the various merchant programs in CJ.

Using how many different merchant programs? All of them?

>>I was very dissatisfied and I think it's stupid for ANYONE to assume that everyone who utilizes Commission Junction makes money!

That's like saying don't assume that everyone who has a car knows how to drive.

>>Also, wanted to warn the new affiliates about the cookie duration problems with some merchants on CJ.

And a very good warning that is. Also, I think most new users aren't aware to look for "leaks" on a merchant's site-- leaks like 1-800 numbers that people call to order or Adsense ads that visitors can leave the site with.

>>Go ahead and blow this all out of proportion, get angry because I am not saying what you want to hear... I am saying what I want to say about the problems I encounted. Stop protecting something that does NOT work for Everyone. If It did work for everyone I would not be typing this now would I?

I'm not angry and I never said it works for everyone; if that were the case, it wouldn't take much skill to make money. It still takes some skill and some luck. CJ is just a tool-- not a magic money wand. You're right in saying that the vast majority of CJ users doesn't make significant amounts of money-- but then neither does the majority of Adsense users.

>>I am not going to post my website for obvious reasons.

I don't get it-- what is the obvious reason? If it isn't making money, why would people copy it? You might do better if you did post it and ask for some advise.

 

Nice rebuttal and good information (especially with the leaks!).

Thanks!

 

Don't get me started on leaks!

- 1-800 numbers (do they offer affiliates a special code and ask for this code on the phone?)
- LivePerson chat to order
- Adsense on any page (you're not sending traffic so they can make Adsense money)
- Links to other merchants (they're not sharing that clickthrough)
- Basically any link offsite

Any of that will disqualify a merchant and their program in my book.

 

So you think companies like Ebay pay a few affialites some cash to brag about how good the program is? hahaahaha Thats so pathetic.

The fact that you only made $29 in 6 years in another story, but making accusations like that is just rediculous. Thousands of people make good money from CJ merchants.

Ebay pays me $300+ a day to sit on my ass.
(or am I really just getting paid by them to tell you that?)

 

They must call you King Joch21 in Thailand. Kick ass, man.

 

they just call me the white man

 

29 bucks in six years, wow.

I've been on CJ three weeks and I've made 77 dollars so far.
And my 2 sites with CJ content get about 35 uniques a day, which is nothing.
So no complaints here !

The advertisers / business area you chose are really important !...I just picked industries that paid the most
and advertisers that had the best commission.

 

Exactly what I was thinking when I went through this. The fact is, and this is just my educated guess, most people who own websites do not make full time livings on just their websites. Seems kind of unfair to say that CJ is not a decent program because everyone who uses it doesn't make a full time living from it. Thats how it is with almost everyone, with almost any 'make money online' program.

 

I would like to offer a little different slant on this discussion.

Many times when merchants offer a 1 day cookie or 1 time occurrence it's out of total ignorance about how affiliate marketing works or how to set up CJ. You would not even believe the # of merchants that have a secretary, web designer or even the company owner themselves who know nothing about AM set up the program. When you wonder why some merchants never return emails or take weeks to approve you on CJ, many times it's because no one is home and the program was set-up them left on auto-pilot to some degree.

I know because I offer free consultations to merchants and get NUMEROUS calls where the merchant does not know what cookies even are, they don't know what parasites are and they had some admin type set up the program and just expect it to run itself - then wonder why it fails.

So it's not always that merchants are trying to screw affiliates. Sometimes they just don't know any better - which is still a big fault in that they don't value the channel and give it the time and attention it deserves. Looking at the site that was mentioned - I would almost bet money they just don't GET it and have some 18 year old web designer with no affiliate marketing knowledge at all set it up on CJ.

I remember the 1st CJ program I set up when I was new in the industry. I had STRONG marketing background, STRONG commitment to be fair to affiliates but it was complicated and over my head. I had to have the techs do parts of the set-up and they did some things wrong that I didn't realize at the time hurt affiliates income. It's complicated to set up and quite frankly - you don't know what you don't know. The company I worked for made me start off with a 5 day cookie. They didn't know any better. Took me a long time to convince them to change it.

Also CJ makes 30% of whatever the merchant pays affiliates, so they want you guys to earn more. I'm not justifying or making excuses for anyone, just telling it like it is. I'm Ms. Pro-affiliate. I want you guys to make every penny that is fair. Bottom line -- you can't push a rope and you can't make every merchant see the light. So move on and find one that will treat you right.