42 replies
I have often heard about CJ as a good affiliate program and you know what...I think they s**kl

Of all the programs I am affiliated with (quite a few) I have made a lot of money but for some reason CJ...not happening.

But ok cool, I can accept that I did not make a ton of sales at CJ (kinda strange since I make bucks everywhere else). What I can't accept is that the sales I did make I never got paid on because I did not reach CJ's payout.

So CJ just keeps the money.

I have decided they are done. What has been your experience with CJ?
#fired
  • Profile picture of the author entrepreneurjay
    I agree they do suck. I realized that a long time ago.

    1. Clickbank

    2. Rapbank

    3. Payspree

    4. Amazon if you find some high end products to promote.

    These are the best in my opinion.
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  • Profile picture of the author Greg D
    Anyone start messing with Digiresults yet. It is a fellow Warrior's project and seems really cool.

    Integrates with CB also and payouts are instant since it is all with PayPal.

    Greg
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    • Profile picture of the author Andy Fletcher
      Originally Posted by Greg D View Post

      Anyone start messing with Digiresults yet. It is a fellow Warrior's project and seems really cool.

      Integrates with CB also and payouts are instant since it is all with PayPal.

      Greg
      Thanks for the mention Greg. Don't want to derail the thread so please feel free to PM me with any DigiResults related questions you may have.
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  • Profile picture of the author entrepreneurjay
    I haven't heard of them Greg thanks for the tip I am gonna check them out.
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  • Profile picture of the author Kevin Williams
    Don't agree. I make lots of sells through CJ and the $100 limit for a payout shouldn't be a problem to reach.
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    • Profile picture of the author pappyy3
      Originally Posted by Kevin Williams View Post

      Don't agree. I make lots of sells through CJ and the $100 limit for a payout shouldn't be a problem to reach.
      Agree. Never had any problems with CJ.

      Everyone has their own experience with the various affiliate networks.

      CBank just dosen't do it for me, so I abandoned it long ago - way too many scammy rubbish products for my liking.
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  • Profile picture of the author miawallace
    I don't see how an entire network can suck because you didn't make very many sales. I'm a complete noob and I've made over $2000 with them since September. It's only logical that it doesn't matter what network you use, so long as you pick the right product and sell it correctly.

    Just my two cents. Obviously I don't have an expert opinion, but I've had an uneventful, if not pleasant experience with them.
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    • Profile picture of the author Rho
      Originally Posted by miawallace View Post

      I don't see how an entire network can suck because you didn't make very many sales. I'm a complete noob and I've made over $2000 with them since September. It's only logical that it doesn't matter what network you use, so long as you pick the right product and sell it correctly.

      Just my two cents. Obviously I don't have an expert opinion, but I've had an uneventful, if not pleasant experience with them.

      I am interested in what you are doing but I can't pm you.
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  • Profile picture of the author Steve Faber
    CJ has been my best Aff network for years. Once in while CB will jump ahead of them for a while. All in all they seem to work very well and have fantastic vendors.
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  • Profile picture of the author Site87
    CJ has been pretty good for me as well. They offer a variety of products and I've had a lot of success with them.
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  • Profile picture of the author jayesser
    I hve to agree - CJ products are C**p and not easy to sell in my experience. I have been selling their products for a while and I find them almost impossible to sell. I have had 1000 times more success with Amazon. Poor commission but sell way better
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    • Profile picture of the author Black Hat Cat
      Banned
      Originally Posted by jayesser View Post

      I hve to agree - CJ products are C**p and not easy to sell in my experience. I have been selling their products for a while and I find them almost impossible to sell. I have had 1000 times more success with Amazon. Poor commission but sell way better
      Ummm....yeah, I'm guessing you've never even logged into CJ once. If you had you'd know much of the same kind of stuff that is available at Amazon is also available at CJ.
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      • Profile picture of the author reapr
        Originally Posted by Black Hat Cat View Post

        Ummm....yeah, I'm guessing you've never even logged into CJ once. If you had you'd know much of the same kind of stuff that is available at Amazon is also available at CJ.
        The branding and prices help with conversions too. I quit promotion products in CJs network a few years back.
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      • Profile picture of the author rosetrees
        CJ were one of the first networks I used when I first tried a bit of affiliate marketing.

        I used to have links on my website to suppliers of compatible ink cartridges so my clients could buy online.

        On more than one occasion I watched a client purchase from a CJ link, on their own computer. Not once did the transaction appear on my account. Tradedoubler and Affiliate Future always recorded correctly.

        I gave up on CJ.
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  • Profile picture of the author Greg D
    CB and sites like it are just easy. No approval, just sign up. easy to figure out the hop links. Easy pay set up. Every 2 weeks, weekly if you get enough sales.

    I agree that there are a bunch of spammy products on there as well, and there are some good ones as well.

    Greg
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  • Profile picture of the author nerokon
    CJ was not good for me as well. I tried for few months and then left.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob141
    I gave up with CJ. Getting approved by merchants is hard enough,then it's even harder to make sales.
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  • Profile picture of the author Odhinn
    CJ seems a little suspicious to me. I had the same problem as the OP. I set up a rotating banner ad, and alternated clickbank products with CJ stuff (all software, same niche and everything). I found that I could sell all kinds of clickbank products, but after selling 50 or so clickbank products, I had sold only one piece of software on CJ.
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  • Profile picture of the author DJ Hughes
    I use CJ for one of my sites and find it to be just fine. It isn't CJ that has bad products. I found a company listed with CJ that has the best possible products for my site market and it works quite well.
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  • Profile picture of the author ncmedia
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author Piper Anderson
      I don't make a lot of money with CJ, but I make enough to keep sticking with it. I usually put at least one CJ banner on every site I make, and the more merchants that approve me at CJ, the easier it becomes to get approved by other merchants.

      After two years with CJ, I've made enough to qualify for a payment twice (I just qualified for the second payment, and will get it next month). So sales are slow and not easy to make at times, but just keep those banners sticking around on your sites, and eventually you will make SOME money off of them.

      I do better with other programs, like Adsense, eBay Partner Network and Amazon Associates, but CJ is good to keep around for a little supplementary income once in a while.
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    • Profile picture of the author brendan1
      Originally Posted by ncmedia View Post

      lol at thread backfire.

      I agree with the others, don't judge a man by his tools/networks. (or don't judge a network by one man, or one experience, not reaching threshold is lol).
      lol at post backfire

      Obviously CJ sucks for a lot of people... there's obviously enough negative "experiences" to formulate a judgement. At least for those intelligent enough to realize it. :p
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  • Profile picture of the author Sylviane
    I've heard both songs with CJ. Some people love it and some don't. It 's not my favorite personally, because I do know that some of the sales I made have not appeared on my CJ dashboard. If you email them, they usually sent you to the vendor. In other words blaming them.
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  • Profile picture of the author rparikh
    I have tried couple of time back and i have also no good luck with CJ and then i left.But i think as marketer,all you need to test.It might be some of the offers good at cj and some one banking from it.
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  • Profile picture of the author TheDebtEliminator
    Greetings LilBlackDress,

    I have had mixed results with CJ.

    CB has been the best for me.

    Amazon is also good as physical products sell well, but their commissions are very low.

    All the best ...Ron
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob141
    Also if you don't log in for a while (cant remember how long) they terminate your account and keep your money.
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  • Profile picture of the author Slade556
    I wasn't having any issues with CJ until one day I'm expecting one of my payouts and they tell me the merchant didn't have enough to pay me so guess what, no money for me. It just sat there. CJ has lots of products that are easy to market but this soured me towards it quite a bit. Perhaps I didn't do enough research when I signed up with them. I've had more success with other affiliate programs anyway.
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    • Profile picture of the author Kevin Williams
      Originally Posted by Slade556 View Post

      I wasn't having any issues with CJ until one day I'm expecting one of my payouts and they tell me the merchant didn't have enough to pay me so guess what, no money for me. It just sat there. CJ has lots of products that are easy to market but this soured me towards it quite a bit. Perhaps I didn't do enough research when I signed up with them. I've had more success with other affiliate programs anyway.
      This is one of the reasons that I only stick with the more well-known programs on CJ. My favorite is ThinkGeek.
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  • Profile picture of the author BlondieWrites
    I do pretty well with CJ. There was a period of about three months when income went down, back when the economy fell out. They have so many affiliates to choose from in their network, so it's pretty easy to find something that pertains to my various readers. I have my eggs in a lot of baskets so that I am never left hanging if one place goes under. Cj has been good for me. Maybe try different ads, or perhaps some blogs on different topics?


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  • Profile picture of the author lasinob
    I agree that CJ is not paying commissions. I had friends of mine order 3 orders from CJ vendors on my sites and I did not get commissions from any of the 3 orders. I don't know if it is CJ or the vendors are not paying commissions to CJ, but the money does not flow to the affiliate.

    I contacted the vendors and they promised to get the commissions paid, but I haven't seen them yet, over a month later.
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  • Profile picture of the author Lloyd Buchinski
    There have been a few threads about non payment when Hostgator is promoted using the CJ / HG affiliate link. Tommygadget started the most memorable one. The forum search will only go back a year so I couldn't find it.

    He helped mom (or whoever) clear all her cookies and history and then buy through his affiliate link. Didn't work. The same story was repeated a couple other times in this forum.

    He might have the url of the thread.
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  • Profile picture of the author ryanjm
    This has been a helpful thread. We're just starting out in IM, but are leaning towards CJ/Amazon over Clickbank because Clickbank products seem more like scams since they're all just digital ebooks or videos for $50+ selling a dream. I feel better about a physical product from a reputable merchant rather than a huckster selling wares out of the back of his van.

    The 7-12%commissions on CJ are appealing compared to Amazon's lowball 4% that turns into 6% if you do any kind of volume. I agree that conversion rates are probably much higher on Amazon though...I just wonder how much higher.
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    • Profile picture of the author LilBlackDress
      Originally Posted by ryanjm View Post

      This has been a helpful thread. We're just starting out in IM, but are leaning towards CJ/Amazon over Clickbank because Clickbank products seem more like scams since they're all just digital ebooks or videos for $50+ selling a dream. I feel better about a physical product from a reputable merchant rather than a huckster selling wares out of the back of his van.

      The 7-12%commissions on CJ are appealing compared to Amazon's lowball 4% that turns into 6% if you do any kind of volume. I agree that conversion rates are probably much higher on Amazon though...I just wonder how much higher.
      Though Amazon is not my main source of affiliate income it is a very good one for me. I also use other affiliate sites including Clickbank.

      One of the things to keep in mind with Amazon is that you get the commissions on every product someone buys when they click thru your link. I have sold sheets, kindle readers, books, craft kits, jewelry....all kinds of items I was not even trying to sell because of this. Paula and Wanda the 10K a month Amazon bloggers have said they sell more items they weren't trying to sell then items they were.

      And by offering a mix of high and low ticket items you can hit the higher commission levels very quickly.

      The high consumer trust factor, great range of products and excellent prices make Amazon a pretty easy sell. Amazon is a win win for both the buyer and affiliate.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dwight Anthony
    CJ would be nice for me if they would ever approve what i wanted to promote (**sigh**)
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  • Profile picture of the author pethanks
    You can actually do what seems best for you.
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  • Profile picture of the author scortillion
    Not all Clickbank products are poor quality. I've purchased and sold may quality items from clickbank.

    Personally I like Clickbank better. They pay far higher commissions.
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  • Profile picture of the author lacraiger
    i quit cj looong ago. they scammed me of multiple sales and even after providing them with numbers and evidence they refused to do anything about it.
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  • Profile picture of the author kentaiwan98
    I'm doing a rotation between Google Aff. Network and CJ for a bunch of products, but the weird thing: I have sent almost 1000 clicks to CJ, and not a single purchase. While I'm not yet good at aff.marketing, I have had success with Amazon this year on almost a regular basis. I will wait until each has 100 clicks on stats and see which has better results.

    There are a lot of variables: including merchants own inability to handle their own site, something which Amazon is amazing at. And Amazon test, test and test some more, while it's not clear that many affiliates on CJ bother testing at all.

    The other thing that's weird: I can promote more variety of products through Amazon, even in the same niche, but it's very difficult to promote somethings as Affiliate terms are pretty strict, esp. on some brands.

    In the end, I'll go with the network that helps me sell more of what I want to sell: coffee. So far it's Amazon 3: CJ 0 and GAN 0. Next up is Linkshare, but they have so few products in my niche, it's ridiculous.

    Kenneth
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    • Profile picture of the author LilBlackDress
      Did you try Share A Sale? I believe they have coffee and that is a nice affiliate site to work with.
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      • Profile picture of the author kentaiwan98
        Originally Posted by LilBlackDress View Post

        Did you try Share A Sale? I believe they have coffee and that is a nice affiliate site to work with.
        Yes, already signed up. I have some coffee vendors but thanks for the tip anyway!

        Kenneth
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  • Profile picture of the author Capitalist_Pig
    CJ makes it hard to deep link to products on the merchants' sites, and from what I can tell, don't offer data feeds at all. I'm moving to Pepperjam for these reasons.

    That doesn't make them bad, they just don't fit my needs.
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  • Profile picture of the author burnsai
    Yeah, CJ is pretty limited with their deep linking ability and many times I find the same affiliate on a 2nd network but with a much better payout.

    So, I would say if you want to keep things VERY simple stick to CJ - but if you want to make money look at some of the smaller networks.
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