I thought I was doing okay with CJ. I joined, did a few sales, made £78 (about US$150) and received my first payment from them on time. Then I went to log in as usual but couldn't. All I got was the message: 'Our records indicate that your account has been deactivated.' What annoys me most, besides them 'owing' me £28, is the fact that I have no explanation as to why I have been deactivated and my emails to them have not been answered. As far as I am aware I have done absolutely nothing wrong. The money I made was for 'sales' not clicks so I couldn't have fiddled this in any way. Since then I have heard from others who have also been deactivated without explanation. Any comments, suggestions, possible explanations, advice etc. welcome. Thanks. Good luck, Mike.
When was your last sale? CJ automatically deactivates accounts that haven't made a sale in 6 months and they don't reactivate them - you would need to open up a new account.
Thanks for the comment but my last sale was immediately prior to being deactivated. I was using CJ continuously since I joined and had regular sales. So this can't have been the reason - unfortunately. Thanks for the input though. Mike.
you've got to be kidding, right? the forums are full of discussions like this, about how trigger happy cj is with closing accounts. Anyway, they're not the only game in town. go to linkshare or other affiliate programs. cj is well known for this. by the way they are legally obliged to send you the money they owe you. by the way Mike, i recognise your picture because i was reading your blog a couple of weeks ago. good blog!
I have to agree with our banned friend Moovs, its hard to be banned from CJ: they only ban you if you really do something very wrong like fraudulent sales or invalid leads. CJ is a very serious business. I already saw cases of people that has been mistakenly kicked out, but this is a very few cases. I used to frequent a forum that one of the members were a CJ employee - every time he saw a topic like this, he used to answer: "private me you PID and I will tell what happened", some days latter he brings the answers like "we had a lot of fraudulent Credit Card sales from your area from your links, what you have to say about it? " and the guy that created the thread never answer anymore. Sadly this guy left CJ some time ago and we do not have this service anymore, but I learned that CJ only kicks you out if you really do fraud.
hmm, interesting. over at webmasterworld, the consensus is that CJ deactivates any account that has had too few sales over a 6 month period. i guess all those people are mistaken? do you know for sure that CJ does not have such a policy?
almost correct: CJ do not deactivate account with 'few' sales on 6 months. But deactivate account with absolutely 'no sales' on 6 months - this is a very clear CJ rule and we are not discussing it: This is not the case here as mikeperry told that on post #3 that he had regular sales recently.
my old cj accounnt deactivated when there was no funds in it and i stopped sending traffic to offers in the account
Thanks for the comments. I must stress that I have never done anything fraudulent regarding CJ. So you'll have to trust me that it is possible to get deactivated without any reason given. I have since come across several instances where this has happened In my case they still owe me £28 (about $60). I was doing sales (not just clicks) and without warning (or explanation) I was deactivated. The sales were absolutely genuine, they were not something I could have fiddled in any way. Micromag you say: 'its hard to be banned from CJ: they only ban you if you really do something very wrong like fraudulent sales or invalid leads. CJ is a very serious business.' Sorry, you are wrong! It is against everything I believe in to do anything dishonest. Mike.
Hi Mike, The first think that you need to know about CJ is that they are a very serious company and they have a strong and serious rellationship with all your publishers. I remember one case that they did a mistake and kicked out a guy by mistake - this things happens: What he did? He contacted they by phone and everything went fine after some conversations. I suggest you that you contact CJ by phone: try to contact someone of the "Network Quality" Department - they will hear what you have to say. good luck.
I dislike CJ as well. I went over 6 months with no sales and was not cut-off. When in the 8th month I got a nice sale, the next day they deactivated my account and kept the sale. That's it for me and CJ.
Thanks Micromag for your advice. Yes, they may be 'serious' as you call them but they have failed to answer my email. To me this doesn't seem good business practice however you look at it. To be honest, I don't think I will phone the USA from the UK. I'm not sure that I want to deal with such a company. Though, to be fair, I must say that I know of lots of happy CJ'ers! Thanks also nextebizguy. I understand why they deactivate accounts after no business for 6 months. It makes sense to remove the deadwood. It doesn't seem right, though, to retain commissions. Mike.
I have many complaints about Commission Junction. They are very late with their payments (or lie about what date they send the payment). They do not respond promptly to emails. They threatened of the possibility of not giving me ANY of my $2000+ earnings because of the possibility of violating one minor aspect of the terms of services, which I fixed. I heard from Shoe Money, or some other SEO podcast that many advertisers are leaving CJ for good reason.... please treat your publishers like GOD. They are working hard to earn money for ur advertisers, and if you treat them badly, guess what? Advertisers will start leaving your service like the PLAGUE. Get your acts straight, CJ, or your business will suffer.
Kuraptka: Thank you for your detailed comment. In some ways I find it a relief that there are others who are not completely satisfied with CJ. Not that I wish any other member any harm or problems obviously. Sometimes I think these websites (like CJ & AdSense) are much to powerful and seem to be a law unto themselves. Anyway good luck to all CJ members. Mike.
They play very hard with you when they detect that you violate just one of their terms - this is a strategy to call your attention and put you in line. The true is that they do not deactivate you as they say due to simply violations - it is a such not polite way that they deal with it.