Commission Junction...What is The Truth?

by A Bary
26 replies
Hello Warriors,

I'm seriously thinking about shifting my affiliate monetization from ClickBank to other "Physical" products networks....

Because I wasn't focusing on this type of products, I had a little success before with Commission Junction and Link Share, but as I am now shifting resources and focus, I am looking for an informative feedback about both networks...

I am asking here about "Selling physical goods" rather than generating leads for CPA offers (I know both networks have CPA offers) because that's what I am planning to do...

I browsed the web for feedback about CJ, and I read horrible stories, I don't buy such negative feedback easily, especially when it points a well known and big network like CJ, but what got my attention is that most of the complains are almost identical:

-Some CJ advertisers shave sales and may scam affiliates and never pay them for actual generated sales.

-CJ advertisers have the upper hand (not the network) in controlling payments and commissions.

-CJ customer support isn't supportive at all when a conflict arises between the publisher and he advertiser.

-CJ have issues with affiliates operating from specific countries (i.e. commissions maybe shaved from affiliates from certain countries under the claim of fraud risk, even if the commissions are generated from 100% legitimate proved sales)

Any warrior here has sufficient experience with commission Junction to clarify these points?

I am planning to invest alot of money and time in this and I need to confirm it is worthy before diving in..


For Link Share, the feedback is generally much better, however, I feel LS has less appealing offers (maybe I am wrong)..any experience with L.S. well be appreciated as well

Regards
#commission #junctionwhat #truth
  • Profile picture of the author HostingBurst
    cj took $4k worth of hostgator sales of me so i dont think much of them.
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    • Profile picture of the author A Bary
      Originally Posted by HostingBurst View Post

      cj took $4k worth of hostgator sales of me so i dont think much of them.
      Can you explain this more plz?

      They just "shaved" the money without notification, or there was a sort of dispute?
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      • Profile picture of the author kindsvater
        Are there some shady merchants in CJ? You bet. But there's many more good merchants. As with any affiliate program some due diligence needs to be done.

        Are commissions showing from a test purchase (I've nailed a CJ merchant on this).

        Is a merchant reversing all large commissions (this happens)

        Does a merchant suddenly go inactive before Christmas to avoid paying commissions, and then reactivate in January (that crap also happens)
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        • Profile picture of the author AffiliateKungfu
          I for one will think that in the nearer-than-you-think future, Google will simply 'phase in' and evolve naturally in time as the best and premium Affiliate Network on earth. Those who had unhappy experiences with CJ, etc, etc will be happy too.

          Google has made such giant leaps on the planet for the overall good of all, and it would be a pity if they are not given the recognition and honour by all the best product/service advertisers in the world. That would be great foresight on their part, I should think.

          But Linkshare, among some others, is great too.
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  • Profile picture of the author TOMMYB1
    I'm not much on the physical products,Thats the main reason I got into this market.
    But if you're good at it I'd say go for it.
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    • Profile picture of the author AffiliateKungfu
      Products are products, physical or not...

      As long as you can sell a lot of it as an affiliate, that matters most, above everything.
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  • Profile picture of the author TheRichJerksNet
    cj is a scam ... When I was a merchant selling an ebook about 8 or 9 years ago and before they scammed other companies and bought them up.. cj paid $800 out of my account to affiliates that did not earn any sales at all.. Money was never returned, so I dropped the account and have not messed with them since.

    I would look into ShareASale myself if I was you ..

    James
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    • Profile picture of the author AffiliateKungfu
      The 'Rich Jerk' masterpiece product has got that unimitatable style I like.

      But getting back to topic,
      at this junction, wouldn't it be greatest thing on earth if all the best and premium products/services advertisers today move over to Google Network, etc as a matter of course?

      I am betting my last dollar they'll do just that real soon.

      And the world will be all the better for it. Hope the best product owners are reading this.
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      • Profile picture of the author TheRichJerksNet
        Originally Posted by AffiliateKungfu View Post

        The 'Rich Jerk' masterpiece product has got that unimitatable style I like.

        But getting back to topic,
        at this junction, wouldn't it be greatest thing on earth if all the best and premium products/services advertisers today move over to Google Network, etc as a matter of course?

        I am betting my last dollar they'll do just that real soon.

        And the world will be all the better for it. Hope the best product owners are reading this.
        I am not "The Rich Jerk" ... As far as google, no .. I am anti-google also but besides that I do not push any affiliate products anyways. I only push my own products and services...

        James
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      • Profile picture of the author FredFarnes
        Originally Posted by AffiliateKungfu View Post


        Wouldn't it be greatest thing on earth if all the best and premium products/services advertisers today move over to Google Network, etc as a matter of course?

        And the world will be all the better for it. Hope the best product owners are reading this.
        Google has terrible customer service. Recently they banned many thousands of accounts for life! No explanation, no warning, no opportunity to correct the problem, just an email saying you are banned.

        Google has become too powerful. A monopoly is a terrible thing.
        Signature

        So, you want to sell me another way to easily make "X" dollars in "X" days? ROFL too funny! IM success requires hard work and lots of time. Most newbies do not survive the steep learning curve. Anyone who says otherwise is probably selling you a fantasy.

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  • Profile picture of the author derekwong28
    I completely disagree about Google phasing in. If you go to Abestweb, you will find that Google has by far the worse customer service of all major networks.

    You will find that all major affiliate networks will allow merchants to have the final say in whether a sale is valid or not. What Kindsvater said is completely true but it really does depend on the merchant. I think this is actually less likely to happen with merchants in CJ because their admission criteria is very stringent.

    I would recommend that you look at Shareasale because it is much more affiliate friendly. Morover, it will not automatically inactivate your account after 6 months.
    Signature

    Do not get between a wombat and a chocolate biscuit; you will regret it dearly!

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  • Profile picture of the author rayray7
    stay away from them. very shaddy commision structure. you have money and then no more in your account.
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  • Profile picture of the author R.Rapp
    I have had my problems with CJ. I have made a lot of successful sales and commissions, but sometimes it can be very difficult working with the merchants from CJ. I find that A LOT of the merchants do the stupidest things that make you think - okay, do you even care about your affiliates? For instance, you will get emails telling you that by X date you have to change all the links for specific products or you will no longer receive commission for them. When you are like me, and have several sites this is no easy task, plus some of them seem to do this every few months. You have to be really careful of that.
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Howard
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author TheRichJerksNet
      Originally Posted by ccmusicman View Post

      Same with me...stay far away from Google.

      Instead develop your own products. Info products are easy to make now and with services like Kunaki, Rapid Action Profits, Paypal, Nanacast, and easy to get merchant accounts, you can have your own CD/DVD and/or digital products with tons of affiliates promoting YOU.

      Which would you rather be? King of the Hill, with people promoting you or at the bottom of the barrel fighting all the other fish?

      Rob
      Exactly ... I use all my own tools, I have no use for google other than a search engine which it is.. I do not use none of their tools and will not use anything else they decide to come up with.

      If they can build it, then so can I ...

      James
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      • Profile picture of the author FredFarnes
        Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet View Post

        Exactly ... I use all my own tools, I have no use for google other than a search engine which it is.. I do not use none of their tools and will not use anything else they decide to come up with.

        If they can build it, then so can I ...

        James
        If I could find a reporting system that is as good as Google Analytics, I would happily switch from google. It feels very uncomfortable letting google know so much detail about my business.
        Signature

        So, you want to sell me another way to easily make "X" dollars in "X" days? ROFL too funny! IM success requires hard work and lots of time. Most newbies do not survive the steep learning curve. Anyone who says otherwise is probably selling you a fantasy.

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        • Profile picture of the author TheRichJerksNet
          Originally Posted by FredFarnes View Post

          If I could find a reporting system that is as good as Google Analytics, I would happily switch from google. It feels very uncomfortable letting google know so much detail about my business.
          Sure it's called AWSTATS and it is in cpanel .... Works great ... Googles system is wrong and always will be as it can not tie into your server logs.

          Besides that here you go : http://piwik.org/

          James
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          • Profile picture of the author FredFarnes
            Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet View Post

            Sure it's called AWSTATS and it is in cpanel .... Works great ... Googles system is wrong and always will be as it can not tie into your server logs.

            Besides that here you go : Piwik - Web analytics - Open source

            James
            Thanks for the feedback.

            I use AWstats too unfortunately does not compare to Google Analytics. Awstats gives very weak info, it's very basic. I cannot find out which web pages received visits from which keywords in Awstats. Only very general (useless) info..

            Also, I have to log into every one of my individual website CPanel to get statistics which is not feasible with so many websites! Google has them all in one control panel for easy access.

            Definitely Awstats is for beginners, or smaller operators. Google is better, but not the best either.

            Thanks for the link to Piwik, I'd be happy to dump google.
            Signature

            So, you want to sell me another way to easily make "X" dollars in "X" days? ROFL too funny! IM success requires hard work and lots of time. Most newbies do not survive the steep learning curve. Anyone who says otherwise is probably selling you a fantasy.

            {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1572204].message }}
          • Profile picture of the author FredFarnes
            Originally Posted by TheRichJerksNet View Post

            Sure it's called AWSTATS and it is in cpanel .... Works great ... Googles system is wrong and always will be as it can not tie into your server logs.

            Besides that here you go : Piwik - Web analytics - Open source

            James
            James, I appreciate the suggestion, but a quick look at the demo for Piwik leads me to think it is feeble. I may have this wrong, since I've only looked at their demo for a short while. I hope I'm wrong, perhaps someone with Piwik experience can comment?

            What I need to know is what keyword was used to arrive at a specific web page, and which country those specific visitors to that specific web page came from.. This is what we get from Google Analytics at this time.

            The Piwik demo seems to show only keyword info for the whole website, not page-level detail. Also geographic source is only for the website, not page level detail.

            It looks great for beginners though!
            Signature

            So, you want to sell me another way to easily make "X" dollars in "X" days? ROFL too funny! IM success requires hard work and lots of time. Most newbies do not survive the steep learning curve. Anyone who says otherwise is probably selling you a fantasy.

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  • Profile picture of the author FredFarnes
    Originally Posted by goldmind123 View Post

    Hello Warriors,

    I'm seriously thinking about shifting my affiliate monetization from ClickBank to other "Physical" products networks....

    Because I wasn't focusing on this type of products, I had a little success before with Commission Junction and Link Share, but as I am now shifting resources and focus, I am looking for an informative feedback about both networks...
    We're doing well will CJ, and have not experienced the problems that you mention. We have several websites selling physical products via CJ.

    Those problems may exist, we have not tested for them, just happily receiving commissions.

    Linkshase seems to have fewer products that match our websites, or the consumer finds better deals at the CJ advertisers currently. So much less commission via LinkShare. Linkshare has a much easier user interface, to generate deep-linking affiliate urls for specific products, much easier in general than CJ.

    I also hear many complaints about Clickbank, but we have no trouble, the money appears in our bank account on time..

    We have some Amazon revenue, but their commission is low, cookie is short-lived, and their statistical reporting is slow and clunky. So we don't give Amazon much exposure. In order to diversify, we may do more with Amazon in 2010, though not sure yet..

    I hope this helps you with your decision.
    Signature

    So, you want to sell me another way to easily make "X" dollars in "X" days? ROFL too funny! IM success requires hard work and lots of time. Most newbies do not survive the steep learning curve. Anyone who says otherwise is probably selling you a fantasy.

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  • Profile picture of the author juniorich
    I did one year with cj and get zero commission, i was thinking that i'm stupid. then i switched to another network and start getting conversions...so was cj scamming me?
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    • Profile picture of the author A Bary
      Thanks warriors for the feedback

      But unfortunately, the feedback made me confused....

      Some great feedback here, and many bad experiences as well:confused:

      Maybe I need to investigate by myself a while before I got deeply involved with CJ

      For ShareASale, I always wanted to join their network, however, they declined my application twice, maybe because of the little traffic I was receiving upon applying???

      Not sure..
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      • Profile picture of the author FredFarnes
        Originally Posted by goldmind123 View Post

        Thanks warriors for the feedback

        But unfortunately, the feedback made me confused....

        Some great feedback here, and many bad experiences as well:confused:

        Maybe I need to investigate by myself a while before I got deeply involved with CJ

        For ShareASale, I always wanted to join their network, however, they declined my application twice, maybe because of the little traffic I was receiving upon applying???

        Not sure..
        Well, here is my advice. Internet marketing is complicated and there will always be conflicting opinions.

        CJ is a large and successful operation. They would not be in business if they were a scam. I'm making money there without problems.

        And finally, try not to solve problems that you don't have! Register with CJ, make money, if you have a problem in the future, then fix it..

        Wishing you success..
        Signature

        So, you want to sell me another way to easily make "X" dollars in "X" days? ROFL too funny! IM success requires hard work and lots of time. Most newbies do not survive the steep learning curve. Anyone who says otherwise is probably selling you a fantasy.

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        • Profile picture of the author FredFarnes
          I don't mean to say you should not research, being cautious is most usually very wise.

          In this case, I doubt you will have trouble, because so many people are using CJ successfully. So my suggestion is to give them a try.
          Signature

          So, you want to sell me another way to easily make "X" dollars in "X" days? ROFL too funny! IM success requires hard work and lots of time. Most newbies do not survive the steep learning curve. Anyone who says otherwise is probably selling you a fantasy.

          {{ DiscussionBoard.errors[1572989].message }}
  • Profile picture of the author dmarze
    They closed my account without any warning or explanation. They newer answered my emails. They still owe me more than $1000. Anyway, I know I will never get it.
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    Get Unique Content Rich Website... I Will Build And Promote It For You (WSO)

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