Will posting on Craigslist get me banned from CJ?

Hi guys I'm new here. This is my first day using CJ.

I won't go into to much detail about how I do it, because I don't want anyone stealing my ideas and flooding Craigslist with credible affiliate posts.

Anyways, my particular advertiser makes no statements about CL, infact they seem pretty lax when it comes to that sort of thing.

Thus far (today) I have generated 750 clicks, 0 impressions, and 120 leads to my advertiser. Each lead is worth $1. My account showes $120 in commissions.

I've seen alot of talk on this forum advising against posting on Craigslist, however I can't find anything specific on CJ banning me from doing that. Could someone point me in the direction of the text that states that I'm "not allowed to post on a website that doesn't allow affiliate links" ?


Btw I am aware of CL terms, and how to avoid bans, flags, and what not. I've only got about 20 posts on CL now, one in each state. Is this going to draw attention or do I need 100's before they notice?

Thanks guys.

 

I'd contact and ask them. Many places don't like CL. If you don't ask and they find out (they can see the referrer unless you are changing this) and then you'll lose all the money.

 

Contact CL and CJ for specific answer will be your best action for confirmation.

 

Yeah you may want to contact them, becuase most networks have it in the TOS no using message boards or classifieds for offers. If you get caught they will ban you and you will lose all monies owned.

 

Yeah wow I found the answer. It was buried deep within CJ at their "Code of Conduct" page. I found it through Google actually.

The Use of Non-Publisher Owned Web Properties/Sites/Pages to Promote Advertisers. Other than paid search, publishers may only promote advertisers on Web pages/sites/properties that they, themselves, own or operate. Publishers may not place affiliate links/tracking code, nor promote Web sites that contain affiliate links/tracking code, in or on third-party: forums, message boards, blog comment areas, classified advertisement services (such as CraigsList.org), etc., unless given permission from the third-party to do so.


I've come up with a workaround though. Basically I'm going to build a landing page on a no-ads free web host. It will basically be just a blank page with a small block of text and two options:

1: "Apply for a job!" (my affiliate link)
2: "Get more information about this company" (Which will link to a bunch of copypasta about the company in question)

I'm sure it's going to hurt my CTR a little but by how much I'm not sure. Hopefully the money I've made already will fly under CJ's radar.


If anyone has any advice on using CJ and Craigslist together that would help me out alot. Thanks guys.

 

What you are doing with the landing page is about the best you can do. Your conversion will drop but that is better than losing all your commissions and having your account banned.

 

Yeah thanks man. It sucks because it took me literally maybe 3 hours of work to get 20 posts up. I could do maybe another 10 hours through proxies/throwaway emails etc. and be making like $500 per day. I'm completely broke right now and don't know much about FTP so I'm looking for a free web host with no ads, a short domain, free subdomains, and a web editor. I keep finding places that have all but like one of those. None with all 4. I'm sure I'll find one though. Thanks for the support guys this is a great forum.

 

free host with lot of stuff and nice domains ?

http://www.000webhost.com/

 

I found a free domain at biz.nf. It doesn't have a web editor so I had to get my friend to help me with it (who knows all about the technical aspects of building a website). We got a really great looking landing page up now, and according to the stats so far, it isn't scaring anybody away. (1 impression = 1 click).

I do appreciate the suggestions though, because we might have to move to another host due to the low bandwidth limit of 4 gigs per month.

BTW is it going to send up any red flags if my impressions are less then my clicks? I've got about 800 more clicks then impressions right now, and at this 1:1 ratio that number isn't going to improve.

 

But what does this exactly mean? A landing page is a site contains the affiliate links. So I can only promote my landing page if the third part, such as CL, allow me to do so.

 

Right discuss4u. The only thing the landing page does is mask the fact that your leads are coming from Craigslist. Also they allow you to build impressions which I think is how CJ knows that you are promoting in that way.

But consider this. If you are not allowed to post a link to a site that contains your affiliate links on websites that you do not own, how are you supposed to get traffic? Technically this would apply to blogs as well as simple landing pages. According to the terms, only natural search engine traffic is allowed to make you money.

Thats why I'm looking for other affiliate networks now.

But lets remember that CJ might actually be more lax then what their terms state. It's possible that stuff is just there to give them the legal right to withhold payments from someone who abuses the system. As it is also possible that those terms are there so they can find excuses to withhold payments from people that earn too much.

I really cant tell what their intentions are, or what I can actually get away with as I have only been with them for a few days.

 

Would this exclude things like Squidoo Lens also?

 

The number of clicks and the lack of impressions is a red flag for CJ. Eventually, they will notice it and ban your account.

 

Once you start making money through CL and CJ will without a doubt learn where the traffic is coming from. If you really want to still use Craigslist traffic you have to take that traffic drive it into a landing page.

You don't want to post ad's that go straight to the advertiser. Sure if you make under $500 a month you might slide under the radar do you really want to risk $1k+ if you get caught?


Craigslist ----> drive traffic to one of your websites ----> users click on offer through your website ----> CJ is happy.

 

Things are going well now. The landing page has been up for a while and the impression count is climbing rapidly. I'm showing %70 CTR for the day.

I am concerned about my first day. I made over $100 and that was without the landing page. Even if my impression count climbs to normal, will they still see the lack of impressions on day one? Or is that even an issue?

Also is a CTR of %70 to high? That pretty much suggests a no-content landing page is being used. They might see that CTR and investigate. Find out where my traffic came from on the first day.

Ehm so would it be in my best interest to put more ads on the landing page so as to lower my CTR and get the impressions up to something more reasonable CPM wise?

 

LOL they won't ban your account for having that but it will send a red flag and you will be questioned on how you are getting your traffic. and also remember that the 100 dollars made on leads doesn't matter until it locks and drops, they have the right to reverse and a lot of lead based programs do that no matter if they are good or bad leads. It is a risk we all take. but it is nice to see someone do good, keep it up! and like i said b4 becareful that CL doesn't ground you.

 

When I first started with CJ I was doing something very similar to what you are now and lost quite a bit of commissions by posting on craigslist. Thankfully, I hadnt put too much effort into it, but did lose out on a few hundred dollars.

And yes, they can track where all of your clicks come from, including the ones from the first day and they can reverse payment of them if they are in any sort of violation to their TOS. I would contact the advertiser directly and see what their policy on CL is, Id hate to see you lose as much money as I did.

 

a $100 is not going to make a difference just make sure you are not using the CJ creatives on CL. Make up your own that direct traffic to your landing pages. CTR won't matter either I ran a program for over 2 years on CJ with a lifetime CTR of near 50%. Keep up the good work.

 

Thank you, for this information.

 

Here's an update to the situation for those of you who are interested. I received the following email from my advertiser a few minutes ago:

xxx's represent the affiliate I was using
yyy's represent the company of one of their products I was promoting

Hello Kevin,



I’m contacting you on behalf of xxxxxxxxxx. Earlier today they received a complaint from a contact at yyyyyyyyyy regarding some Craigslist job postings that we tracked back to your CJ account. They were not pleased with several aspects of the ad, including your unauthorized use of their trademark and the fact that you mistakenly refer users to apply at yyyyyyyyyy.com when their actual domain is just yyyyy.com.



To review our program guidelines with you, which we revised last month, xxxxxxxxxx does not allow directlinking from any kind of online posting or ad (including ppc ads) and does not allow unauthorized use of the logos of their employers. You are in clear violation of both of these rules and we ask that you please take down any yyyyyyyyyy's or (logos of any xxxxx company for that matter) and that you stop direct-linking to xxxxx.com from ads in online classifieds.



Please respond to this email to confirm your understanding of these guidelines. If we don’t receive confirmation of your compliance within the week we will be forced to deactivate your account.



If you have any questions please contact me.



Best Regards,



Damian Juarez-Mrazek, Schaaf Consulting


I've already complied with their requests. What is interesting about this email though, is that they never say I can't promote with CL. They only say that I can't direct link from my postings. None of my listings were direct linking at the time, though the first 150 leads I generated had come from direct links. CJ is still showing all of my commissions. Maybe my affiliate didn't / wont reverse them? I guess only time will tell. Not that it matters much. My commissions earned so far are chump change compared to what I can get if I am given the go ahead with some restrictions.