CJ.com is asking for my Keyword list..

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DreamMachine

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Aug 3, 2008
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Hi All,

I recently started working with is cj.com. They emailed me the other day asking where all my traffic comes from and I replied that it's from paid search with the big 3. They asked why no referral or keyword information is being passed to them and I replied it is being removed by prosper202.

They then asked for my keyword list. Now, as an affiliate, I'd consider this a trade secret, or at the very least commerical-in-confidence. It would be like me asking them for all their direct affiliate contacts so I can bypass them.

I have half a mind to simply tell them to fuck off. I've only made a few hundred there so far and could probably just take the hit on the cash.

So, who would provide their keyword list to their affiliate network?
 


Yeah, the option of giving it to them would be an epic fail. Tell them to eat shit, they don't need to know.
 
Actually, they have a reason to ask for the keyword list. Many of the companies there, are really big and have lawyers. Most of them, do not allow you to bid on their brand terms, or some other terms. Its all written in every company's TOS when you submit. Their keyword link also has the restrictions, if any.

CJ will not take up a lawsuit from British Airways or Yahoo, because of some affiliate. You just need to reassure them that you do not violate the advertisers TOS, and not bid on their brand name.
 
I would never provide a network with my KW list. A lot of networks have their own in house PPC teams who would love to see your list if you are making good money or a high epc. I don't know much about cj's staff since I don't do much business with them, but I would just politely tell them that you would like to cooporate, but a keyword list is a big deal to an affiliate marketer and ask if there is anything else they needed. I'm sure they won't push the keyword list too hard. If they demand your keyword list, tell them you will take the business elsewhere.
 
DreamMachine said:
Hi All,

I recently started working with is cj.com. They emailed me the other day asking where all my traffic comes from and I replied that it's from paid search with the big 3. They asked why no referral or keyword information is being passed to them and I replied it is being removed by prosper202.

They then asked for my keyword list. Now, as an affiliate, I'd consider this a trade secret, or at the very least commerical-in-confidence. It would be like me asking them for all their direct affiliate contacts so I can bypass them.

I have half a mind to simply tell them to fuck off. I've only made a few hundred there so far and could probably just take the hit on the cash.

So, who would provide their keyword list to their affiliate network?
Click to expand...
You have three options:

1) Give them all your keywords.

2) Give them fake keywords, similar to your keywords, but not the ones you are using (e.g. if you're using long tails, give them the generic short tails of the same type of keywords)

3) Tell them to fuck off.

While option 3 is tempting, in this situation, I recommend option 2.
 
Just lie to them. It will be fun and bewildering to whoever is asking you for the keyword list. Quite honestly I'm amazed that anyone even touched base with you. There was a time I was doing many thousands of dollars per month through there network and didn't even have anyone I could contact. When I did try to make contact I would get 0 help.
 
Trypp said:
I would never provide a network with my KW list. A lot of networks have their own in house PPC teams who would love to see your list if you are making good money or a high epc. I don't know much about cj's staff since I don't do much business with them, but I would just politely tell them that you would like to cooporate, but a keyword list is a big deal to an affiliate marketer and ask if there is anything else they needed. I'm sure they won't push the keyword list too hard. If they demand your keyword list, tell them you will take the business elsewhere.
Click to expand...
As a CJ advertiser, I can tell you that CJ's network quality / compliance department will not release keywords to the advertiser under any circumstance. All they've ever been able to tell me is confirm if an affiliate is complying with my keyword link's search terms.

I think I've mentioned here before, but hiding referrers on CJ is not necessary, as they strip anything after the ? in a web address before displaying it to the advertiser, and the advertiser cannot gain access to full referrers with the query string, even if it's clear that an affiliate is not engaged in PPC at all (even during a fraud investigation). If you're sending direct PPC traffic from Google when an advertiser does not allow use of their display URL on Google, that's a problem. If you're just hiding your landing page, then just show them your landing page. This isn't a CPA network - You don't have account managers stealing landing pages and running their own campaigns. CJ has a term in their employment contract that does not allow their employees to be affiliates, and they have fired employees years ago for that.

Advertisers may be jumpy after DSW sued Zappos and CJ because a Zappos affiliate registered a domain name with DSW in it - SEOmoz | DSW Sues Zappos.com for Trademark Infringement Over Affiliates' Review Sites .

What advertiser requested this information, anyway?

Just to give an example, here's how a referrer log would look in CJ to the advertisers (addresses modified so they won't link here):

Code: 
ttp://www.google.com/search
ttp://search.msn.com/results.aspx
ttp://aolsearch.aol.com/aol/search
ttp://www.google.com/hws/search
ttp://search.aol.com/aol/search
ttp://www.ask.com/web
ttp://search.live.com/results.aspx
ttp://search.comcast.net/
ttp://search.mywebsearch.com/mywebsearch/AJmain.jhtml
ttp://www.charter.net/google/index.php
ttp://search.comcast.net/search
ttp://www.google.com/custom
ttp://search.hp.my.aol.com/aol/search
ttp://aim.search.aol.com/search/search
ttp://my.att.net/s/s.dll
ttp://search.earthlink.net/search
ttp://search.msn.com/results.asp
ttp://aolsearch.aol.com/aol/weboffers
 
Oh, and if you don't want your commissions to be reversed because you were suspected of breaking the advertiser's search terms, you will have to give them the keyword list.
 
C'mon, keyword lists are trade secrets. If they are frickin' worried about somebody bidding on trademarks, they can just do a Google keyword search and nail the advertisers who are bidding on the trademark keywords.

I've spent hours building up keywords lists that are profitable. Nobody sees 'em except for me.
 
LotsOfZeros said:
this is an example of why CJ sucks balls
Click to expand...
CJ has large, brand conscious advertisers. You can make a shit load promoting companies like that, but you just have a few more guidelines to follow. Some shit Acai "weight loss" offer doesn't give a fuck about how it's presented, but large companies like Dell or The Wall Street Journal do. As a publisher, tt makes me money, and I've never had anything stolen from me - No landing pages, keywords, or anything.

I'm just stating that you have nothing to lose by not cloaking, and you won't tip off their fraud filters.
 
sure johu CJ won't get YOU the keywords, they will keep them for themselves and make a boat load with them.
 
Who at CJ will use them? Their employees can't, and their search team is a completely separate division. CJ actually takes a lot of efforts to protect the affiliate keywords, as I'm pretty sure they have a higher margin on affiliate than search.
 
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