We present to you yet another exciting guide, on CJ Affiliate company, to develop an understanding of how the company works, how to get paid and what you need to do to get started with CJ Affiliate. This CJ Affiliate review is comprehensive, and at the end of the guide, we shall offer our unbiased opnion about the platform.
Are you looking for the best affiliate marketing platform, but not sure which one befits you? You might have your hands itching as a publisher to start earning some few bucks with affiliate marketing, but not sure where to start.
When it comes to affiliate marketing, most common questions include;
How do I start?
What are the payment methods?
Am I already a member of other affiliate networks? Why should I join them?
Well, if these questions are racing in your mind, then you’re at the right place.
In this definitive guide, you’ll learn what Commission Junction (CJ Affiliate) is about, payment thresholds, pros, and cons and why they should be on your radar as a publisher.
Before that, a word of caution.
If you’re a newbie with a few hits in a day in the blogging scene, then CJ Affiliate isn’t the right network for you.
But, if you’re an established blogger or an entrepreneur with high-quality traffic, then, yes, it’s the right platform for you.
CJ Affiliate is the right place for you to make a few bucks.
Now that the precautions are out of the way let’s dive in and see why Commission Junction is different and if we can recommend it.
What’s CJ Affiliate?
Commission Junction (CJ Affiliate) is one of the top leading affiliate marketing platforms for physical and digital products.
Founded in 1998, the company started when there was no competition, and affiliate marketing was still a new concept.
However, CJ was one of the fastest-growing businesses in its early stages. Thus, it attracted many affiliate marketers who made millions from the platform.
In 2003, Commission junction was acquired by ValueClick. The acquisition necessitated a rebranding to Conversant CJ Affiliate. Nonetheless, despite the name change, the company’s core business remained unchanged.
According to Datanyze, CJ Affiliate’s market share stands at 8.14%, with more than 13565 companies using the platform.
CJ Affiliate Sign Up Process.
It’s free to join the CJ Affiliate program.
However, by law, you must be 18-years and above and own a website to qualify for the signup process.
CJ makes it clear and straightforward for new affiliates to sign up. You can sign up as a “Publisher” or an “Advertiser.”
Once you choose your preferred way of signing up, you will be required to provide some basic contact information. Once done, this will trigger a confirmation email.
Next step, click on the confirmation link sent to your email to get to the following steps, where you will enter your payment details and choose your account password.
In the subsequent steps, you’re required to provide your company information and some details about your blog or website.
And that’s it! Easy, right? Once signed up, is it time to start earning a few bucks? Not so fast. Hold on; you need to check on a few things.
Our Pro Onboarding Tips.
To fully activate your account, you’ll complete several processes, including terminating your profile and submitting tax documents.
Although the other processes during signup are not ‘really’ critical, pay attention to the following.
Upon applying for the CJ Affiliate program, you need to complete your Network Profile.
A network Profile is what describes you as a publisher. Thus, you need to give it a serious thought and write a killer profile; this will determine whether or not you’re accepted to the program. Hence, we advise that you take your time while filling out the details.
Some of the details we recommend you include are;
- Outline your primary goals.
- Highlight key strengths that set you apart
- Outline your business model by explaining why you’ll make an excellent affiliate partner.
Pro tip: Use figures while making traffic claims. Any statistics you can find will set you apart.
Programs Offered by CJ Affiliate.
CJ Affiliate program offers thousands of programs for both physical and digital products. However, the Affiliate programs fall into three major broad categories.
- PPS (Pay Per Sale): Earn commission by driving sales.
- PPL (Pay Per Lead): Earn commission by referring leads.
- PPC (Pay Per Call): Earn commissions by generating calls.
Now that you understand how you can earn some bucks using CJ, how do you find legitimate and profitable affiliates?
Let’s dive in.
How to Find Profitable and Legitimate Advertiser on CJ
Before you do anything on the CJ dashboard, you need to know what is performing well in your niche (a little research will help here).
From the Publisher dashboard, click on “advertisers” from the top menu to get started.
From here, you have the search filter options (one of the best offerings by CJ0 to find the right advertisers.
Caution: if you’re a newbie, the tool might seem intimidating, but patience and excellent research skills help here.
Notably, you can search for affiliate programs using niche keywords or names to find the best advertisers to partner with.
However, if you want to perform a more target search, you can use the following filters;
- Language
- Category
- Currency
- Status
- Advertiser
- Searchable area, etc.
How to decide on the right advertiser
Now that you have done your search based on your own created filters, you have potential advertisers to work with. But how do you determine which one is worth promoting?
Well, while deciding on which advertised to work with, remember the following two golden metrics;
- Advertiser EPC
- Network Earnings.
1. Advertiser EPC
An EPC of a program indicates its profitability. Besides, it shows how much affiliates earn per 100 clicks.
2. Network Earnings
Refers to the CJ Affiliate advertiser’s performance overall. The commissions paid out to publishers by the advertiser are represented by green bars.
And the higher the green bars, the better for you as a publisher.
How to Identify the Right Programs
The Advertiser EPC and Network Earnings filters can be used as a combination.
However, it’s worth noting that a high EPC doesn’t tell the whole story. Therefore, we recommend sorting your results by Network Earnings from High to Low to get accurate results.
Once done, select programs with high EPC after applying Category filters and a list of high converting products.
Although CJ Affiliate programs have many exceptional standards, some affiliate programs and products are substandard. Hence, it’s essential to take note of the EPC and Network Earning when choosing the programs and products to work within your niche.
Why do this? It helps reduce the risk of disputes with advertisers.
If you’re unsure about any program, click on its title, and you will get more details that can help you make your final decision.
Besides, it’s worth noting that you must apply to each CJ Affiliate program separately.
Additionally, it’s worth noting that if you have a new site without potential traffic, then we don’t recommend signing up for CJ. If you fail to make a sale within 6-months, your account will be closed.
How Does CJ Affiliate Work?
Once you complete your signup process and are accepted, your Publisher dashboard will be visible.
Here, you’ll get a snapshot of your performance as a CJ Affiliate marketer.
From the dashboard, you should always pay attention to the following sections.
- Sales: The number of sales you’ve generated.
- Clicks: Number of times your affiliate link has been clicked
- Leads: Total number of leads referred.
- Impressions: Total number of times your ads have been seen.
- Commissions: Total payment from lead generations, affiliate sales, and calls generated.
- Publisher EPC: Measures your earning potentials.
- Conversion: Number of clicks converted into leads or sales.
As a CJ publisher, you can gauge your performance by looking at these sections. Thus, we recommend taking a keen interest to help you grow and implement the missing pieces.
Additionally, you can view a list of the newest advertisers onboard from the dashboard.
How to Create Affiliate Links with CJ Affiliate?
While browsing the CJ search interface can be consuming, especially if you’re new to it. However, Cj currently offers different link options.
- Create product widget
- Deep Link Generator
- Link Placement Opportunities
- Page Based Linking Tool
Let’s discuss the above in detail.
1. Create Product Widget
This feature allows you to create slideshows with products from different affiliate programs.
Besides, this option allows you to drag and drop products approved on your list to Different Widgets.
2. Deep Link Generator
Deep Link Generator allows you to create deep links without logging in to your CJ account. Besides, the tool is simple and easy to use.
Once installed, visit the official websites of the CJ advertiser, find the product to promote, and click on the bookmarklet to generate the deep links for your promotional campaigns.
3. Link Placement Opportunities
This type of linking opportunity befits sites that have high traffic. And this is how it works.
As an advertiser, if you’re interested in marketing the products, you list link opportunities publicly on your site.
4. Page Based Linking
Critical Note: Affiliate links expire after a particular time, and sales are not accredited to your account.
Hence, always check your Publisher dashboard to ensure that “Tasks” you’re promoting are not invalid offers.
Also, from your dashboard, you’ll get notifications when an ad stop firing or becomes invalid.
Summing up, always keep an eye on your offers to ensure you’re not promoting dead links. Else you will put in efforts for no reward.
CJ Pay-out Options and Terms
Listed below are some of how you can get paid if you decide to join CJ Affiliate.
Payment methods
Direct Bank Deposit and Payoneer are the only payment options provided by Commission Junction.
However, it’s worth noting that only selected affiliates from eligible countries can receive payments via Direct Bank Deposits.
If you’re an international affiliate marketer, then we recommend using Payoneer.
Payment Timeframe and Threshold
You’re eligible for playout if you have a minimum balance of $50 and a maximum payout of $1000 per withdrawal. Note that if you’ve more than $1000, you must request multiple withdrawals.
Also, you get paid for your referrals within 30 days after a purchase has been made.
Besides, payments for commissions earned are scheduled for playout on the 20th of every month.
Pros of CJ Affiliate
1. Variety of Merchants
The world’s most trusted brands use the platform. Besides, the platform offers the widest selection of products in the market.
Additionally, CJ Affiliate offers programs for small and large brands; hence you can choose your advertiser from a pool that your audience is familiar with.
2. Extensive Reporting Toolkit
The publisher toolkit has valuable tools to help you track and increase conversions, manage activities, etc.
Besides offering an incredible product catalogue, you can choose the products and advertisers to promote based on their performance from the dashboard.
Additionally, you receive real-time reports on your commissions and performance with the toolbox, with options to customize your notifications to your liking.
3. Real-Time Tracking
CJ Affiliate offers real-time tracking on all transactions. With this, you can tweak and adjust your ads based on the performance report, which will take effect immediately.
4. Automation of Link generation
With the CJ Deep Link Generator, you can generate links automatically through JavaScript link insertion.
5. Mobile Solutions
Mobile marketing is on the rise, and with the mobile-ready tools from Commission Junction, you can test, track, and optimize your conversions for tablets or iOS.
Cons of Commission Junction
1. Hard to Get Accepted
After being accepted into the network, unlike most affiliate programs that allow you to start earning immediately, for Commission Junction, you must apply each time you want to be an affiliate for any advertiser.
Applying to each consumer once you’re accepted into the network is a tiresome process that many don’t like; thus, making the process too complicated.
2. Poor Customer Service
Most publishers have criticized CJ for slow customer service. Most reviews that conclude “CJ Affiliate is a scam” 90% emanate from poor customer service. You can only contact support through phone or online form to make it worse. There’s no option for emails.
3. Limited Payment Options
Commission Junction only offers Direct Bank Deposits and Payoneer. There’s no option for PayPal, which is quite frustrating, to be honest.
People always feel unsafe by providing their bank details online, and further, those who don’t live within the USA have only one payment option, Payoneer.
4. Termination Without Notice
This is a typical problem with the program. Some merchants are removed from the network without notice. Unless you’re an affiliate who keeps track of reports, you might not be able to tell if your links are dead or not.
Tips to make in CJ Affiliate
It’s no brainer. You need tons of targeted traffic to earn good commissions on this platform.
Typically, it takes between 3-6 months to start seeing results.
Those who regard the platform as a scam, were sprinters. They don’t understand the game of affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is like a marathon. It requires both patience and stamina to succeed in the game.
Final Thoughts
CJ Affiliate is rated one of the best affiliate marketing platforms. Besides, it offers a variety of products. Thus, it’s a good business opportunity for you to earn some commission.
And with its extensive and superior reporting toolkit, coupled with the world’s most sought-after brands, we bet this isn’t an affiliate opportunity you should miss.
But be wary, do thorough research before settling on the advertisers to promote. It can be the difference between you regarding CJ as a good platform or a con site.
We do our best to present to you the best business opportunities out there, so be sure to always check with us. If you’ve any experience with this platform, do lets us know your thoughts about it in the comment section.
