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Commission Junction..Strike 2, Strike 3, You’re Out!

Posted by Paul B | September 14, 2007 .

My previous experiences with Commission Junction have not been that great, there was that one time when they closed my account without telling me but left their advertisers adverts running. That was a bit annoying, it also earned them there first strike from me. They don’t really appear to do anything for affiliates, it’s all about the advertisers for them, 1 look at the rubbish percentages will show you that.

In the last 24 hours they’ve managed to hit strikes 2 and 3 and I’ve now asked for my account to be closed. The main problem here is that I’ve been stitched up like a kipper, one of their advertisers has taken me for a ride and Commission Junction are more than happy to go along with it.

A few weeks ago I was contacted by a company to promote an event. They’d found one of my sites, loved the look of it and we’re really keen for me to sign up with their affiliate program (through CJ) and get earning. It was a personal e-mail from one of their marketing representatives, I know this because I replied and we had a very nice exchange of ideas going forward. So I used my existing CJ account to sign up, was approved after several days (during which they reviewed my website again) and then set about integrating their creative’s into my content. The site in question isn’t really a money maker but more of a hobby, I’m not overly bothered about the money from it so the very low commission percentage was not a problem. After a couple of days I checked my stats and low and behold the program was doing great, a 15% conversion rate for them, just under $500 in sales and I’d earned a little bit as well.

Jump forward to last night. I get an e-mail from the advertiser stating that due to my website containing illegal content they were pulling the plug. Maybe just a coincidence but I was only 1 or 2 sales below getting a better percentage for the rest of the month. As for the illegal content, that’s utter crap. I’ve always been very careful with all my websites and I’m certainly not interested in getting into legal battles over the sake of a hobby website. A t the first sign of a cease and desist order I’d alter whatever it was they were complaining about. To date nothing like that has ever happened. Besides the website contains nothing but text content and links, if I remove that text then the website doesn’t rank and they don’t sell. It has been a great way for them to make some very quick sales earn a wedge and then not have to pay any commission, great. That’s strike 2 for Commission Junction for allowing any old company to sell stuff through them.

Then I got another e-mail this morning this time from Commission Junction themselves. As I expected all commission is to be forfeited. Not only that but I have somehow violated their TOS and have 5 days to respond. Maybe I upset their nan or something? Strike 3. I am also a Commission Junction customer, without me and other affiliates hosting ads for their advertisers they don’t have a business. Completely ignoring the fact that their is nothing illegal about the content of my website there is also the small matter that the company in question bloody contacted me personally AFTER reviewing my website. They then accepted my application (that they had asked me to make) after reviewing my website again. After I’d earnt just enough money for them they then decided my website was not suitable and I got shafted. I gave Commission Junction a response in less than 5 days, shut my account now and void any banners that are showing, I don’t want to be earning their advertisers another penny.

I know it’s slightly of subject but this is what really worries me about Google’s edging towards CPA. It is just switching the potential fraud from publishers to advertisers, and when you’re dealing with a big advertiser as an individual you’re screwed from the start.

By the way I’m now on the lookout for a good CPA affiliate network, what’s your favourite?

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4 Comments so far
  1. Michelle UNITED KINGDOM Windows Vista Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.6  September 14, 2007 11:48 am

    Crumbs. I thought CJ was one of the big hitters. I will be very interested in viewing your commentors favourite alternatives!

    Shellie

  2. Googlelady RUSSIAN FEDERATION Windows XP Mozilla Firefox 2.0.0.6  September 14, 2007 12:49 pm

    The truth this surprised me because I have been with Comission junction since 2003 and never got a problem with them. I am just waiting a check from them and last 2 months have been my biggest earning (a check for 5 figures).

  3. PHP eBook UNITED STATES Mac OS X Safari 312.6  September 14, 2007 3:14 pm

    I created a CJ account a long time ago and just found it cumbersome to navigate their site. There’s a lot of affiliates out there to work with one-on-one, I would prefer to do that - except for trying to manage and check all of the tallies.

  4. Commission Junction Strikes Back | Make Money Online With Paul Barlow UNITED STATES WordPress 2.2.1  November 4, 2007 3:33 pm

    [...] in your bank account and thanks to Commission Junction I had a little bit of that action this week! The last time I spoke about Commission Junction was because I’d had a bit of a falling out with them over an advertiser. To cut a long story [...]