Thoughts on Commission Junction?

6 replies
For those who don't know, Commission Junction has been applying a $10 monthly fee, on all inactive accounts that go dormant (not generate a commissionable transaction) after 6 months. As far as I understand $10 is periodically chipped away from a current CJ account balance, until the balance hits zero, and, at the time, the publisher's account is deactivated.

Forgive me for not keeping closer tabs on my account (my fault), but I had roughly a $60 balance accrued, that, like their policy says, was chipped away by $10 each month. Having not accessed my CJ account (again, my fault) I had noticed that most of that balance was chipped away.

I've been reading quite a bit about this policy. I can see CJ's point of view, as well as, that of the publisher.

I can't help but think this is just a tad bit shady.

Here is a good article about it, but the comments are quite interesting, as well?

Commission Junction suckle on my account balance | Swollen Pickles Commission Junction suckle on my account balance | Me fail English? That's unpossible!

Is there anyone here who has stopped using CJ because of this?

Right now, I just made a $150+ sale, and earned a nice commission, however, it appears like you need to have at least $100 in your account to even withdraw it.

Thoughts?
#commission #junction #thoughts
  • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
    ClickBank does it too.

    I think it's their way of weeding out the smaller players.

    Perhaps 20% of affiliates produce 80% of their income, so if they can eliminate the 80% of the underperforming affiliates, it probably saves them some money in maintenance costs, plus they get to keep the money those affiliates earned.

    So, it's good for their bottom line, probably.
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  • Profile picture of the author RichardF
    I don't like CJ at all. I've had nothing but bad experiences with them, almost Google-like in terms of customer support. I was once banned for not responding to an e-mail from them within 14 days (it was buried among hundreds of "important" emails from their merchants that I was active for). And I was a CJ "Performer" or whatever they called it. That alone says a lot about how much they care about us affiliates. I haven't been able to get back in since then, they suspend all accounts I try to make saying that I'm banned for life.. Oh well, lots of other stuff out there
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  • Profile picture of the author Mike Hlatky
    Originally Posted by x3xsolxdierx3x View Post


    Is there anyone here who has stopped using CJ because of this?

    Right now, I just made a $150+ sale, and earned a nice commission, however, it appears like you need to have at least $100 in your account to even withdraw it.

    Thoughts?


    Why would someone stop using CJ because of this policy? This policy only affects people that have ALREADY stopped using CJ.

    If you keep it up, you only need to sell 2 products PER YEAR. If you are unable to sell just 2 products a year, I don't know what to tell you.

    Personally, I find this policy really isn't an issue.

    BTW I thought that the minimum withdrawal was $50, although I may be wrong......
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    • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
      I can do it.

      I had shifted focus more to linkshare, and clickbank, and, focus on CJ just fell by the wayside.

      On another note...it 'appears' like a publisher can purchase from their own link in order to satisfy this, if they really haven't made a sale come 5 1/2 months or so. I had always thought they publishers weren't suppose to purchase from their own affiliate links, however, this appears to be allowed per what I read in an article.


      Originally Posted by Mike Hlatky View Post


      Why would someone stop using CJ because of this policy? This policy only affects people that have ALREADY stopped using CJ.

      If you keep it up, you only need to sell 2 products PER YEAR. If you are unable to sell just 2 products a year, I don't know what to tell you.

      Personally, I find this policy really isn't an issue.

      BTW I thought that the minimum withdrawal was $50, although I may be wrong......
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    • Profile picture of the author Hamida Harland
      Originally Posted by Mike Hlatky View Post


      BTW I thought that the minimum withdrawal was $50, although I may be wrong......
      The minimum must be about $50, because in Europe my minimum payout is only €25.

      If I wasn't going to be promoting anything there for a while I'd definitely just change it to the minimum amount, take my last payment and go.
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  • Profile picture of the author Raindance
    CJ has a lot of bad reviews to its credit. I have heard from so many people about how they lost thousands of dollars overnight and were never given a proper reason for it. I, myself, have used CJ as my primary source for affiliate programs but lately I'm trying to stay away from them and pay more attention to other big players like LinkShare, ShareASale, PepperjamNetwork and EpicDirect (Azoogle).

    CJ is home to the affiliate programs of the world's biggest brands and that gives it a lot of arrogance. However, you are never allowed to use the name of the brands during your promotions anywhere, whatsoever.

    And the $10/month is also done by clickbank. It just sieves all the inactive affiliates from the list.
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