Review of Commission Junction: Is It Worth It for Bloggers?
Do you want to make money as an affiliate marketer? Becoming part of reliable and reputable affiliate networks is instrumental.
Commission Junction is one of the biggest affiliate networks out there, and since you’ve landed on this page reading, you’ve likely got to know a bit about it or not.
But how would bloggers leverage this platform?
In this review of Commission Junction, I’ll let you know some vital reasons you should become part of this network, so you can decide whether to join or not.
Summary
Commission Junction is a reputable affiliate network. It offers numerous opportunities as there are open doors to hundreds of affiliate networks in different specialties. As a blogger, you only need to study how things work and you can avoid getting frustrated.
What is CJ & What Does it Offer?
CJ (Commission Junction) is popularly known as CJ Affiliate. However, whether you’ve heard it as Commission Junction, or CJ, it means the same. It’s a big affiliate network with more than two decades of affiliate marketing experience.
This implies if you have a personal blog or site and would like to make money by publishing or promoting products, CJ is a great affiliate network whereby you have access to all affiliate programs and can choose by categories.
If you’d decide to try it out, CJ is a completely legit affiliate network – knowing that from personal experience as a member.
Now, let’s have a closer look into what Commission Junction is offering to bloggers or publishers before taking action, so you can rest assured it’s what you’ve been looking for exactly.
What Types of Products Are You Allowed Promoting Upon Joining CJ Affiliate?
The awesome thing about becoming part of an affiliate network generally is that it gives access to a huge list of products that can be promoted.
Some affiliate networks are meant for particular specialties. That isn’t the case with Commission Junction Affiliate. As a blogger or publisher, you’re going to have access to hundreds and eventhousands of products within multiple specialties to promote.
No matter what your specialty is, anyone in any niche can join CJ Affiliate and promote products for brands through thisplatform. So, not until you’ve joined, you may not have access to product owners or exact advertisers.
Who can join CJ Affiliate?
Anyone from any part of the world can join CJ Affiliate and start promoting. So, there’s no ethnic discrimination in this network.
Even though there are affiliate programs that focus on specific languages, this doesn’t imply you cannot promote such programs so far you’re able to translate into that specific language. You don’t have to be a native speaker or resident of that particular country before you’ll quality to promote such products.
One vital requirement for anyone applying to be a publisher on the CJ Affiliate network is a personal website. Having a personal site is a must to be accepted into the Commission Junction Affiliate network.
So, if you’re still a starter in the world of affiliate marketing and you haven’t yet created a personal website, first set up a site, otherwise, you won’t be accepted into the network.
How to Leverage CJ?
Once your application has been approved into the CJ Affiliate network, it’s quite easy to leverage. It only requires a little time to study the network and get used to how it’s used.
The most crucial thing you need to know as an affiliate is getting to know which affiliate programs you should apply to and products to promote.
Therefore, I’ll teach you how to go about this in simple steps below, ensuring you start out easily upon deciding to join.
Step 1 – Search for Affiliate Programs
Start by navigating through the “Advertisers” link in the site’s main menu. Even if you’re a publisher, you need to first navigate here, as you’ll get to know all the advertisers around.
There are 3 good ways to find relevant products you can promote:
- Perform a search by advertisers’ names or specific keywords
- Perform a search through the available products
- Perform a search using the search filters
Unless you’ve got the time and patience, scrolling through the programs available isn’t the best way to find programs relevant to your specialty.
CJ has hundreds and even thousands of products you can choose to promote; so it may take time to scroll through all of these. Thus, I’d suggest using one of the other 2 ways recommended above.
If you have a specific advertiser or a particular topic you want to search for, the first option would be recommended. It has so many filters you can set to help sift the most relevant affiliate programs you can join.
Step 2 – Choose the Right Affiliate Programs
Each affiliate programs has its summary. Affiliate products you can find through searches include Grammarly, Fiverr, and many more.
Once you’ve found the right program to join, click on it in order to get more details about it such as the countries that can participate, the cookie time, the commission structure, where the programs can be promoted, and more.
Step 3 – Submit an Application for the Program
Once you’ve found an affiliate product to promote, you can submit an application with your personal website. In the product overview, simply choose the “Join Program” tab to submit your application.
You may sometimes have to wait for days to receive approval while it may automatically be granted other times. Though it may be frustrating a bit to wait for 2, 3 or 4 days of applying to still continue waiting while you could have got started right away with a program you desire to promote.
It happens sometimes that you may not be accepted into the network – some people have experienced this in the past – getting rejected automatically.
For the sake of emphasis, let me assume you’ve got approved. Now, the next line of action is to navigate straight to the advertiser’s info on CJ Affiliate and copy your affiliate link again. Now, you’re set to start promoting.
However, you have a couple of things to take note of before you join, thus here are some tips to follow:
Vital Things to Take Note of Before You Join
CJ Affiliate is extremely easy to leverage. However, there are a couple of things you should take note of before you join.
Does it Cost a dime to join?
If you’ve previously joined some affiliate networks earlier, it shouldn’t be strange to you, but Commission Junction Affiliate is totally free of charge.
I decided to mention that here in this tutorial owing to the fact that you may not have been aware of it if you’re using CJ Affiliate for the first time. So, you have nothing to lose in trying out the various programs.
What if your application is rejected for a specific program?
I once mentioned that earlier in this post and you need to be familiar with this that applications can get rejected on Commission Junction and it can happen to you or anyone else.
A frustrating thing about trying to apply for programs on CJ affiliate is that you may experience automatic rejections as many have.
What should you do instead? Visit the advertiser’s site and reach out through their contact or support page. Send a message to them and state why you’d like to join their program and what you’re willing to offer as an affiliate.
Ensure to add your site URL and let them know you’ve submitted an application through CJ Affiliate, but got automatically rejected and, thus, decided to reach them directly. So, what I’m trying to drive at here is that you shouldn’t give up at rejections. You can go as far as reaching out to advertisers directly.
What if you experience an account deactivation?
Upon signing up to CJ Affiliate, you agreed to the terms that your account may go deactivated once you’re unable to generatea sale within a period of six months.
This is to further make sure that only quality and active bloggers or publishers are left on the affiliate network.
This is to ensure the quality of the publishers and to make sure only active publishers are on the network. If you’ve already built a powerful website, you won’t have issues. But if your site is still under construction, there’s no assurance you’ll make a commission in a period of 6 months.
Don’t panic; even if you experience an account deactivation, you can always get it fixed and reactivate it.
First and foremost, you’ll get an email notification within a month period before it gets deactivated – which means you’ve got enough time to sell and make a commission.
If that isn’t feasible, you’ll receive an email notification once the account has gone deactivated. You’ll be reactivating the account by simply following the instructions sent to you via email. It’s as easy as that. It doesn’t take a long time to complete the reactivation process. It’s simpler than you think.
But one important thing to note is that your account will only go dormant on the occurrence that a balance is found in it within a 6-month period of making no sale at all.
This implies that you’ll be subjected to a monthly deduction of $10 until this account comes to a $0 balance, and then it goes completely deactivated. Once you’re able to make a sale at anytime within this period of time, you’ll have your account automatically reactivated. That’s how it works at CJ Affiliate.
This is nothing to worry about at all, because once you’ve become successful at your online business, there’s no more issue with all of that. You just need to be aware of these things lest you begin to panic in case it happens to you all of a sudden.
How and when do you get paid?
Since every affiliate has the opportunity to promote as many products as they want, it’s good to get familiar with the mode of getting paid – getting to know how and when to get paid is one of the things that keep you cool and moving. Commission Junction Affiliate has great offers on payout options.
For all sales generated in the previous month, you’ll get paid on 20th of the current month. You don’t need to get worried at all on getting paid on CJ Affiliate. The precise payout method is strictly based on the country you’re residing in.
You can receive payments via direct deposit, checks, or Payoneer for electronic transfer. All these methods of payment are great ways to receive your earnings regardless of where you reside in.
Conclusion – Is It Worth It or Not?
CJ Affiliate is an excellent affiliate network with unlimited opportunities. However, let’s finalize this review by adding up the pros and cons, so you’ll be able to have a quick overview and make a decision as to whether it’s meant for you or not.
Pros:
- It’s free to join
- Products are in diverse niches
- It has a reliable and stable payout process
- It’s easy to use
Cons:
- The process of rejection can be quite frustrating
- You’d have to sign up first in order to see which advertisers you have access to.
It’s no doubt to say Commission Junction is a legit affiliate network. It has thousands of affiliate products, programs and people from all walks of life.
You just need to know that your account will go deactivated in case you cannot generate a sale in a period of 6 months, and that the process of reactivation is simple and fast.
Also, you should know that your application can be rejected automatically for certain affiliate programs within the network, but there’s a way out of that as it’s clearly explained above.
Once you’re familiar with all of these, CJ Affiliate can be an amazing affiliate network to try out, and it can give youcomplete access to so many products to promote. There’s no limit to the number of affiliate programs you can join through CJ Affiliate or products you can promote on your site. All that matters is that you need to promote products that are most relevant to your specialty.
I am Chris. I want to hear what you think. Please leave me your comment in the comment section below. I will reply to you as soon as I can. Please share.
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