Any Luck With Commission Junction?

Tried CJ a few years ago with no success -- any good now?

[mindspan]

Hi all,
I have some very targeted domains that would well benefit from some affiliate sales. I tried Commission Junction a few years back -- had tons of clicks but not a dime of commissions. I even purchased an item by having a friend click through one of my own banners and didn't have the sale registered or commission paid.

Has anyone had any success with these guys or am I just wasting my time?

[LifeinAsia]

Used to be good with them several years back. Sales have really dropped since then, despite sending them a lot more clicks.

[Palladan]

That's seems to be the same for most of these Affiliate farms, we promote and there is no money.

What I think is really weird is when you have the same product and your paid different amounts or less levels for promoting the same product. The Satellite TV business is running amuck with this type of garbage and it's not right.

If your promoting a product, expending the time,energy and money then you should be getting the same commissions. It just makes no sense. Affiliates beware is the motto!

CJ, how many times I've checked the links they give you and it's reported broken from my site. However, if clicked your at the site of the product and I didn't get any sales that month?

[Essex_boy]

I rana site promoting boating etc and had a very poor return.

[KVeil]

I have been using CJ and AdSense for 6 months and find them OK, but not exuberant...

CTR for both is in the 1.5 - 3.0% range, with CJ at the lower end.

Earnings per 1000-impressions is in the $3 - $9 range, again with CJ at the lower end. (Note that CJ stats are defined differently to AdSense)

Notwithstanding these figures, CJ doubles my overall income.

As has been said elsewhere, use multiple income sources and don't put all your eggs in one basket.

K

PS: I have had the opportunity to monitor some of the sales going through CJ and I have not found that any have been "lost". As CJ pays commission on sales rather than on click-throughs, click fraud is not much of an issue.

[edited by: KVeil at 9:11 am (utc) on Dec. 14, 2007]

[Skeptic]

Why limit yourself to CJ? There are other big networks out there:

Linkshare
Performics
Shareasale (my favorite)

[nomis5]

Regarding "lost sales", I did the same as the original poster with CJ, and surprise, surprise, no sale was registered. The only way I know to check "lost sales" is to buy an item yourself and see if you get a credit. If you don't then you know something is wrong. If you do get a credit, well it just means that one went OK.

I've tried Tradedoubler (Europe only I think) for a couple of years and can't find a problem with them so far.

I only use text links on my sites, I have had no luck with banners ever. What I have found most profitable is to use individual company's affilate schemes, they convert to earnings far better than CJ and the like. I was always wary about the honesty of single company affilate schemes but experience shows me a doubling of earnings when I use them.

For one CJ type company (definitely not CJ), call them company X, I have an account on one of my goood performing sites. I also have a single company affiliate scheme for the same site. The strange thing is that single company affiliate scheme is also available on Company X.

When I look at the returns between Company X and the single affilate scheme (which I would expect to be roughly the same), the single affiliate scheme wins hands down every time.

To sum up, my advice is to use the small individual affiliate schemes rather than the mega-big CJ and similar.

[Bunjie]

I have had mixed results with CJ.
Last year there were several items I know for a fact were purchased. I knew the parties personally and I did not receive any credit.

This year I tested them with one product and had a some sales with credit. I am still treading lightly with them.
Maybe there have been so many complaints they
revamped their platform. Who can figure?

bunjie

[Jon_King]

I am a small player but for reference... you decide if it is good or not, I sent 24,000 in sales made 1200.

[Rufus_dog]

I used CJ, Linkshare and Shareasale but most of the affiliate programs I joined are from CJ and I also earn more commission via CJ than the other networks. I don't know if there are some lost sales though. My sites have only 40-100 visitors per day, I don't pay much attention to CTR as some visitors are from other countries while I mostly advertise for US companies. EPC is around $40-100 for different programs.

[zeropaid]

ebay,ebay,ebay

[KVeil]

zeropaid, tell us more about your ebay experience...

Happy New Year.

KV