is CJ the best?

[ahmeds14]

i'm new to affilate programms
i used to put google adsense on my website
but recently i wanted to join a good affilaite programm
i used CJ
but i don't think they r good enough
- not easy site
-not updated data
-very sloooooow response (may be after 8 days to answer one mail!)
-do they pay realy and when they can pay me if i said i want my check for 100$, i mean after how long they will sent me the check

my quisition again
adsnse is the best of ads, what is (are) the best on affilaite programms?

[skibum]

I think CJ is great. They always pay on or about the 22nd of every month as long as you meet the minimum balance which I think is $25.00.

Since you are selling things or generating leads, you will have reversals and not get paid on sales that come from your website. If the consumer returns the product, dosn't pay or isn't a qualified lead, chances are you won't get paid for it. No different than any other affiliate marketing program.

[rj87uk]

skibum,

Ive been on CJ.com for a while and I can't find how much it costs to become a merchant without contacting them. Any clues?

I have been to:

Affiliate Future
Affiliate Window
Paid On Results

Any ideas?

[vite_rts]

Hi Skibum,

I finally got 1 lead after 2 months of trying, can I ask you do you ever have web pages devoted to affiliate selling, and get a positive ROI using adword or similar to market that page?

I am thinking in that direction,,,

[markwelch]

You are asking two questions at once:
- which affiliate network is best
- which affiliate programs (merchants) are best

I absolutely despise Commission Junction (CJ) and LinkShare (LS), based on my own and my clients' experience over the past 6-7 years. (I've been involved in the industry in various roles, including consultant, active affiliate, and affiliate manager.) I suppose CJ is a little bit better than LS -- just as the South Pole is a better (though harder-to-reach) vacation destination than the North Pole.

Recently I was hired to launch a new affiliate program for a new merchant, and we really had very little trouble making the choice: we use ShareASale.com. We also considered a smaller, newer network called AvantLink, but decided to go with the larger, more established company with a very positive reputation among affiliates.

---

Someone else asked about the cost to launch a new affiliate program.

My understanding is that you need to pay CJ about $3,000 to launch a new affiliate program, with minimum monthly fees of about $2,500. LinkShare costs more than that; Kowabunga/MyAP somewhat less.

I think launching with AvantLink would have cost about $1,000, and our launch with ShareASale started with an up-front payment of $450, and after several months a $25 minimum monthly fee will kick in.

There are other players (ClickBank, ShareResults, mPort, and many others) who are less expensive (I think at least one has NO setup fee and NO monthly minimums), but their reputation with affiliates is less inspiring.

[markwelch]

To respond to your other question (which affiliate programs are best), the answer depends entirely on context -- a great program for one site will be terrible for another site.

[gamiziuk]

I absolutely despise Commission Junction (CJ) and LinkShare (LS), based on my own and my clients' experience over the past 6-7 years. (I've been involved in the industry in various roles, including consultant, active affiliate, and affiliate manager.) I suppose CJ is a little bit better than LS -- just as the South Pole is a better (though harder-to-reach) vacation destination than the North Pole.

I concur with the opinion above.

I urge you to go with Shareasale over CJ and Linkshare.

[skibum]

Have had the best experiences with CJ from the affiliate POV. As long as ValueClick doesn't wreck CJ by mandating JavaScript links or something like that, they'd be at the top of my list. Most merchant clients use LinkShare and it works well for them but from an affiliate POV, I think their interface could use a lot of work. There are lots of good indie programs out there. Registered on SAS but never actually did anything with them. LinkConnector seems pretty good.

I finally got 1 lead after 2 months of trying, can I ask you do you ever have web pages devoted to affiliate selling, and get a positive ROI using adword or similar to market that page?

vite_rts - I've got pages devoted to selling various things on various sites, do some PPC staight to the merchant site and have some intermediate landing pages that get traffic from PPC as well. It just takes a lot of testing and these days, it may be 6 months to 2 years before you really start to see income coming in from promoting affiliate programs. Jut have to keep plugging away and trying different things.

Ultimately, as long as the network or affiliate interface makes it possible to link to the site in the way that you need to link to it to sell products, the network really doesn't matter. If al the best CJ merchants went to SAS or LinkShare or some other network, I'd just promote them through another network.

[iblaine]

The cost to join CJ is about $2k. Then a deposit of $3k to be used to pay out affiliates. LS is $10k to join & $2k/year. LS is much more selective about who they let in.

It's an endless debate so say there's one affiliate network to rule them all. LS, CJ, myap, Shareasale, etc serve different needs. I have multiple advertiser programs with CJ and am very satisfied. If you're having trouble choosing one then let me know. Details on the nuances & differences could be a lengthy post.

[ann]

Was really disappointed with SAS lack of technology. I applied, accepted, and the was told to download the withholding form and "mail" it back to them. In this day and age? They have to be kidding!
That is really behind the times.

I also could not find a single merchant that I wanted to use. In some areas they have precious few merchants.

Guess I will explore CJ before quitting them entirely, maybe I can find the right merchants there. Haven't really looked for these specific type of items yet.

Ann