If you have been browsing the internet for the online money making opportunities, it is highly unlikely that you haven’t come across the phrase ‘Commission Junction’ as yet. A company owned by ValueClick which deals with an affiliate marketing, search engine marketing and global marketing. It is a highly touted company and most sites will tell you that it is possible to make your riches through this program alone. But the question is – “Is it true or just another online money making gimmick? Also, is it really as simple as they make it sound?” Well the answers to these questions are both a resounding yes and no. If anybody tells you that you can make a 6 figure income out of Commission Junction and if you believe them you’ve just been deceived. But it is possible to make some money out of it and we will explore the ways to increase your income later in this article. However you must’ve heard the old adage ‘nothing in life s free or easy’ and it is especially true for all making money. So do not buy the hype generated by paid online money making programs that tell you to just sit and watch your money grow. But if you are willing to put in some good old fashioned hard work and research, you can also join the ranks of the hundreds who are making a decent living out of this online money making idea.
How does it work?
For those of you who do not have a clue about Commission junction and how you can make money from it, this is what you will need. To begin with you will need a website, preferably one that receives a fair amount of traffic. What CJ (Commission Junction) does is it places advertisements on your website and you are paid for the leads and sales that you help generate. However if the ad just sits on your site without getting a click or generating a sale you make nothing. But there is a catch here if you site fails to generate a designated minimum of leads and sales CJ will not want to work with you anymore.
After your registration with CJ you can apply for the specific ads that you would like to display on your site. But the application is usually reviews before it is approved. Unfortunately this is where all the trouble starts. A lot of advertisers will check your EPC (Earning per click) from other campaigns but if you are new to CJ and affiliate marketing you will of course have a very low or zero EPC and many advertisers may reject your application due to this. Also, you will need to prove the legitimacy of your website to CJ they need to know that your site has the potential to receive traffic that would be interested in the advertised products. Since they have had bad experiences with some marketers from Asian countries they tend to reject the applications of many providers from non English speaking countries like China and India. These countries are considered high risk (fraudulent practices) and CJ thinks that websites from these countries do not have the scope to interest US visitors.
The trick to getting around these issues is to have a genuine site with good content. Also apply for products and services that are related to the topic of your website. You cannot promote medical products on a financial website. Also, if your site just lists all the affiliate programs there are very slim chances that you will get good traffic. The next thing to do would be to promote your site very well. You can do so with the help of article marketing link building. Even if your site is fairly new, you may be able to convince CJ if you have a good marketing plan in place. Also, a lot depends on the timing. For instance, it is easier to anticipate that many people would be interested in buying lights around Christmas so if you can run advertisements of products related to Christmas decor and lights on a site that has information on homes, Christmas or family life etc you can make a killing out of it.
To sum it all up, you can certainly make a decent amount of money with Commission Junction but you should be willing to put in some hard work and research and not be disappointed each time on of your applications is rejected.
wpCJ.com make it easier
Hey,
You probably know that working with CJ is not as easy as other affiliate networks. Their system is a bit slow and somewhat outdated... it's not user friendly.
One way I've found to monetize it in an easy way is by using a wordpress plugin called wpcj. It makes most of the process pretty straighforward.. including the analysis of advertisers and links.
I hope you find it useful too.
regards,
Alex
rameshreddy