If you've ever worked in the retail industry, you'll remember back on how you enjoyed getting your 10%, 15%, or higher discounts on purchases that you made from your own store. Well, don't forget that you have this option in the internet marketing industry too. Most people have an account at Commission Junction, and probably don't realize all of the "Employee Discounts" that you have available to you. I only noticed recently how nice this actually is. You've obviously seen a ton of banners for people promoting Hostgator as a hosting solution. Well, if you have a CJ account and need hosting, you can purchase the hosting through your own affiliate link and earn a very nice commission. In fact, the commission alone will help you pay for your own hosting for most of the year. Do you need domain names? Well, did you know that GoDaddy and Dotster have programs set up in CJ? Search the forums to find the GoDaddy Coupon Thread. Purchase through your own affiliate link, enter the coupon to get a .com domain at $6.95 (CJC695DOM), and get 20% back as a commission. Your domain name ends up costing less that $6 now. How many amazing domains can you buy, then sell them for $8+? My point was to just make you realize that we are all in the retail industry still, and it's acceptable to get your "Employee Discount" through the companies that we promote as well. They still get the business, and you get a discount (or commission). It's a win/win situation. Think about it...
I was doing the same thing a while back. Like I bought flowers for my wife and numerous other things and CJ cancelled my account. I emailed them and they said because I was clicking my own ads, and I explained what I was doing and they eventually reinstated my account, but it sucked going through the process. I suggest buying through a proxy if your going to be doing that. Also the best retail discount I ever had was at The Good Guys. We got 10% BELOW cost!! That was the best discount ever....