Recruiting affiliates for CJ - ETHICAL ?

questions about ethical recruiting methods for commission junction

[4crests]

I have just joined Commission Junction. My only problem is that i want to get affiliates quickly without waiting for them to find me on the CJ website. Would it be ethical for me to search for current affiliates of similar products as mine and email them inviting them to my affiliate program? For example, if i was searching for CJ affiliates relating to Genealogy, i could search Google for the following phrase: "qksrv.net"+genealogy

This brings up several thousand websites that have something to do with genealogy and have at least one Commission Junction link on them. I could then email each one inviting them to my affiliate program. Since they are already CJ affiliates, it would be very simple for them to join mine, and i know they are in the same subject area.

I could see where my competitors wouldn't like this tactic, but I think the MAJORITY of advertisers would be receptive to my emails. I tested this with a small amount of emails, with wonderful results. Almost every one i emailed has emailed me back expressing interest. However, i would like to hear from you about possible problems with this method.

[eljefe3]

Direct personal recruitment is by far the most effective at getting good webmasters/affiliates. As long as you don't just flat out poach the producing affiliates, I think you'll be fine.

You might also want to consider finding a site that is complementary, yet not directly competing with your site and see if you two can get each others affiliates to sell both product lines.

This way in theory everyone wins. The affiliates get to offer a broader range of products, and the two companies get more affiliates selling for them. A win/win situation (again in theory as you need to be careful who you do this with).

[4crests]

Does anyone know if there is an area in CJ where you can search for affiliates that are known to be joined to programs with a certain keyword?

For example, can i search the CJ database to find any potential affiliate who is already joined other programs that deal with Genealogy?

Or, is the Google search for the following phrase the best method: "qksrv.net"+genealogy

[eljefe3]

>>For example, can i search the CJ database to find any potential affiliate who is already joined other programs that deal with Genealogy?

I don't think this would be allowed. It would kind of be like going to a company and asking them for a list of all their customers in their database.

>>Or, is the Google search for the following phrase the best method: "qksrv.net"+genealogy

Yep, good old-fashioned legwork.