I applied with one of the affiliate partners on Cj about a week ago, but everytime I log in it says the status is "Pending Application". How long does it usually take to get approved. Thanks
Sometimes instantly, other times it can take a month. It just depends on the advertiser. You can speed things up by trying to contact them. When I first started I applied to a bunch and the same thing happened to me. Now that I'm actually making decent money, I'm starting to get approved more. Maybe they can see how much you have earned? The best thing to do is to just spam apply to a few dozen programs in the niche you want to promote. Usually 1/10 will auto approve.
Like kevin said... You really need to contact them, it is a must for all the good ones anyway... That is probably why they are the good ones.
Well I would say that the metric used in CJ and an increasing number of other affiliate networks is the "Network Performance" or "Network Activity" as it is called. This measures the performance of the affiliate on the basis of EPC (earnings per 100 clicks) on a per week and per month basis. This is what most advertisers (who focus on recruiting performing affiliates) look at to determine whether they should accept you into their program.
Don't underestimate the guys that auto approve though. So far ALL of my money has been made with a single merchant (who auto approved me without a relevant website) , and I have yet to see 1 single lead get reversed.
I used to work with someone who had a lot of pending applications with different CJ merchants. One day, they decided to just pick up the phone and call to ask what was up, and almost all of their applications were approved that way. I wouldn't say that approval depends so much on the amount of money you've made on other campaigns, but I think advertisers are really just looking for people who are serious about promoting their products.