Commission Junction sucks.

webzenstar · 01-13-2007, 07:19 PM

I rarely sling bad things about a company but Commission Junction really pushed all my buttons... the wrong ones, that is!

It's so frustrating to see how fast they "deactivate" your working account whenever there's an alleged period of "sales inactivity".

On the 20th of November, 2006 (less than 2 months from the day I'm posting this message), I was awarded my very own CJ ID. I immediately signed up to all the programs I was interested in, including ebay.

So I installed all the cool banners on my web sites and since, for my web sites, the Holiday Season is very slow, there was no sale (or at least I think because, since my account is "deactivated", there's no way to check)... which means CJ "deactivated" me without asking for details or anything of that nature.

Commission Junction just goes ahead and PULLS THE PLUG on all my hard work of installing the banners in nice "strategic" places in my web sites... they have ZERO RESPECT for the publishers and frankly, that's very lame.

Maybe I'm the only to have had such a negative experience with CJ but in my view, they're arrogant, dishonest and full of -bad- surprises.

It's really sad that ebay don't have their own affiliate program...

EBORG9 · 01-13-2007, 08:13 PM

Yeah, I have read a lot of simular things about them. I would suggest staying away from them, they do not seem to operate fairly. But in their defense, most of what I have read is in their SOP's, but their SOP's are wacky.(or TOS's)

I tried to sign up for one of their programs last month and the sign up page was jacked up. I couldn't sign up.
That was enough for me.
If its jacked up before you get started, what will my stats be like?

I can see a coup, or major upheaval coming soon with them.

khasmoth · 01-14-2007, 12:35 AM

I don't have problem with CJ. Been using them for almost a year now. Did you try to email them about your problems with them?

Utexas · 01-14-2007, 12:45 AM

CJ seems pretty straight with me. They pay before the 20th usually

007c · 01-14-2007, 10:07 AM

I heard alot about them being not really honest... Also check out Commission DisJunction. When you have to install your own stats software to track what visitors do to make sure, i find that unassuring... Bet there may be exceptions.

Hostnetric · 01-14-2007, 06:12 PM

From a business standpoint it makes no real sense to deactivate an account like that, but in a way it does. I see their point would be that they are hosting the banners and incurring the cost of Bandwidth, but for sales of this type it is a numbers game and the more exposure your ads have the higher the chance your ads will convert. They should take into account down times for certain websites as they can be seasonal as well. They should simply increase their inactivity time to 4 to 6 months then you would have a chance to build traffic. They should also look at a period of time for an average in sales and contact you via e-mail to determine how they could help. This would make much more sense instead of deactivating an account.

webzenstar · 01-14-2007, 10:35 PM

Thanks for all your answers!

It appears even though my CJ ID is "deactivated", the banners still show up so the "bandwidth savings" argument, although entirely logical, doesn't appear to stand.

Furthermore, if the banners (from my web sites) are clicked and a sale occurs, who gets the commission, considering my account is "deactivated"?

In this logic, why would CJ continue to feed my web sites with banners even though they "deactivated" my account? Is this a rather low-level technique to avoid paying me accrued commissions or... to keep the commission to themselves, for all future sales?

I plan on taking down all the CJ banners I took so much time installing across my web site network... and it suddenly all seems like such a massive waste of time -and- money.

Until CJ changes 180 degrees, I can't see any financial viability (for publishers) to their apparently whimsical TOS tampering (remember, I got "deactivated" after roughly 45 days... and even though the Holiday Season is slower for me, I was pushing lots of clicks towards their merchants).

I feel it's important that I share this nightmarish experience with Commission Junction so other webmasters at least know about the way things can "suddenly end for no reason" and with no hope for an answer (yes, I sent 4 messages to their customers service with no response to date).

I appreciate everyone's response as this is surely an issue to continue monitoring!

charlesgan · 01-15-2007, 12:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by EBORG9

Yeah, I have read a lot of simular things about them. I would suggest staying away from them, they do not seem to operate fairly. But in their defense, most of what I have read is in their SOP's, but their SOP's are wacky.(or TOS's)

I tried to sign up for one of their programs last month and the sign up page was jacked up. I couldn't sign up.
That was enough for me.
If its jacked up before you get started, what will my stats be like?

I can see a coup, or major upheaval coming soon with them.

i agree that their signup page is very hard to get through. i totally give up after a few attemp ends in failure. just not convince with the quality' that i will gets.

EBORG9 · 01-15-2007, 10:26 AM

I think that the most frustrating thing is the Lack of response. That will drive you crazy and it is bad business and it definitely tells everyone, that "We dont give a crap. This is our company and screw you!".

I mean how hard is it to set up an autoresponder, that says"We will get back to you soon, my name is blah, blah, blah, your account rep., your business is important to us", and so on.

I will give anyone a shot if they are trying, but screw some one that blatantly ays, "Yes, we have the ability to show concern, but we choose not to."

Bottom line is, CJ has pissed a lot of people off, and its not a secret anymore, so either they fix it, or someone will just move up and take their place.
Most companies dont care once they have made their money.

tscopel · 08-16-2008, 10:31 PM

I too had problems with CJ. Seems they do basically what they want at times. I had a site up for a long time with good traffic and sales. It was very family friendly. One day, my account was deactivated and I don't know if I lost money or not. I do know that the links still worked, but I didn't see any sales after that. I recently created a new site, again family friendly, and was turned down. Why? I attempted to call them to find out why and it said press 1 to leave a message. I did and never got to leave a message but cause they disconnected. Oh well, not much good to say about them. Plenty of other affiliates out there. Goodbye CJ thanks for nothing.

kitk30@yahoo.com · 08-23-2008, 03:47 PM

I am pretty new to the online business but, tried my hand at affiliate marketing. I signed up with CJ, yet, I could not stay with the selling; no money. I signed up with clickbank and I was able to sell something like once or twice. I had gone back in and did a report and they do deduct fees for inactivity but, I still recieved a check in the mail. That happened both times. I have recently tried this online biz again and I am finding other opportunities. Anyhow, if you haven't already, I would checkout clickbank; at least they pay something.

Kitk30-newbie
Start your own fully automated ebook reseller website for under $2.50!
[link removed]

Napa · 08-25-2008, 08:09 AM

I was using CJ until I woke up (from the nightmare). But that's just my experience, hopefully not everybodys.

meshleman3 · 09-15-2008, 07:13 AM

I've been with CJ now for a few months and havn't made any sales yet. So far everything is fine with us but this definetly woke me up to the real picture here. I never heard anything like this before about CJ. But if they do deactivate me I don't care, I like Linkshare better anyways and actually make money from them.

ZunuZunu · 09-15-2008, 07:20 AM

CJ is crap. Don't work with them. If you failed to generate sale within 6 months, they will de-activate your account anytime without informing you. Stay away from CJ.

meshleman3 · 10-02-2008, 10:46 PM

I just got an email from them saying I need to make commissions or my account will be deactivated. Exactly when, I don't know. At least they emailed me unlike other people. I make more from Linkshare and ShareaSale anyways.

boss · 10-11-2008, 05:35 AM

at least its better than linkshare. I think it depends on what you are marketing and how rather than the network

alemcherry · 10-11-2008, 07:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by meshleman3

I just got an email from them saying I need to make commissions or my account will be deactivated. Exactly when, I don't know. At least they emailed me unlike other people. I make more from Linkshare and ShareaSale anyways.

I guess they do it with everyone. Actually it is fair, if you dont make a sale for 2 months there is no point in hanging around there. You can always reapply, in case you work hard on your site and the traffic is improved.

bill22 · 10-22-2008, 06:55 AM

If I didn't get 1 sale in 2 months it would be hard staying optimistic about a particular company

Malok · 10-22-2008, 10:38 AM

Really though - whats the advantage of them pulling it? Is 2 months a sufficient amount of time? I'd think something like 6 months would probably be a more appropriate choice.