Becoming an Affliate Advertisor (CJ?) in the next month. Your thoughts......

[Dimaseo]

Well, one of our companies, a product design and development company, is thinking about becoming an advertiser with one of the large affiliate networks. The best part about it is that we own the rights to all of our products and they will only be sold; A) On our site, B) On TV and catalogs, and C) on our publisher's sites (not the typical saturated product).

Questions is: What affiliate networks would you consider selling your products on?

I've looked into CJ but haven't done the full exploration yet (I also don't sell affiliate products).

Things I am considering:

- Popularity of network
- start up costs for joining
- montly/annual commissions/fees to the network (not the publisher)

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

 

[erect]

subscribing, I'm in the same boat.

Will reply to your PM in just a bit dima. Bedtime approaching for the daughter.

 

[tvmatt]

I've worked in CJ on both the advertiser & publisher end. Here are my thoughts:

- Popularity of network

CJ is probably the most popular affiliate network out of the "traditional" affiliate networks (CJ, Linkshare, Google Aff Network, Share a Sale). The top affiliates comprise mostly of search affiliates & coupon/deals sites, but there are also a lot of large content sites. Whatever you do, don't instate overly restrictive & dumb search marketing rules. However, be sure to protect your brand & watch for violators (I've gotten countless affiliates kicked out of programs & CJ due to term violations). Additionally, make sure that you have some sort of coupon for coupon/deal sites.

- start up costs for joining
- montly/annual commissions/fees to the network (not the publisher)

CJ is on the higher end of costs, but last I was aware (~Jan of 08), LinkShare was actually quite a bit higher for a network I consider on a much lower end than CJ. CJ does have special agency rates, so if you're considering working with an agency, see if they're able to get you better rates. Of course, then you have to pay an agency. There are reasons to work with or without an agency - I won't go into those now, though.

Unlike Linkshare, CJ doesn't have any exclusivity clause in their contract, so you can always enter into the CPA realm (Azoogle, Copeac, Hydra, A4D, etc...). However, if you do that, make sure that your payments are the same across the board. I've seen advertisers cannibalize their programs by offering more in CPA channels - the CPA for a specific lead ended up being $14 after 2 months when they started at $6.


I absolutely love CJ as both a publisher & advertiser, but make sure that the costs meet your goals. At the same time, beware of smaller networks like ShareASale that have much cheaper fees but probably won't generate results. If there are any specifics you want to know (from either a publisher or advertiser end), let me know.

 

[johu]

I'll PM you the full details that were available on CJ's website until about a year or so ago, but the basic summary was:

Network Access Fee
$2,250
Annual Renewal Fee
$250
Non-refundable deposit
$3,000
Minimum Monthly Fee
$500

CJ takes 30% on top of commissions as their fee.

What to watch out for in CJ (as in any network)? Fraud. Make sure you monitor things carefully. At least it might be easy for you to spot a fraudulent affiliate in CJ (especially if you pay me to do a fraud screening of a CJ account ) since you can see publisher info (some of it) directly, and break out stats by publisher.

What kind of product/service are you going to be selling, and what commission structure (sale/lead)? A recommendation on network would be easier to make if I knew what niche you were in and what kind of payout structure you'll have.

 

[AffiliateX]

Not so sure about CJ

As it may be true that CJ is one of the most popular of the bunch. Consider the fact that they do not pre-screen any of their affiliates. Any Jerry Chan and One-lung Ho can gain access to CJ with ease. With the popular and easy to join network you expose yourself to much greater risk of fraud. Now their compliance team does work to detur fraud, however unless CJ's system auto triggers a red flag , they will do nothing. You will have to make the complaint and a manual investigation will have to take place.

I'm not out to bash CJ, but please do a little homework before hand. There are several great networks out there that can bring you tons of good quality traffic.

 

[TFLNetwork]

Thats why you make your campaigns selective on CJ...??? So YOU can approve affiliates manually.

 

[tvmatt]

Thats why you make your campaigns selective on CJ...??? So YOU can approve affiliates manually.

Yep, manual approval of affiliates is key is CJ as an advertiser. Oh, and set India on auto-decline. I've seen maybe one or two legit publishers from India, and have caught over $60k of fraud attempts.

 

[Sonny Forelli]

Here's a good tip, from someone who used to work at CJ.

IF YOU MANUALLY REVIEW PUBLISHERS- GET BACK TO THEM.

I avoid CJ like the plague as I take my payments weekly and not net 20, HOWEVER about a month ago I could've blown a small advertiser's 2009 projections wide open for them yet they were too stupid to bother to answer my multiple correspondence attempts and auto-rejected my "new" account (my others were long disabled after not running a dime through them in years).

It's this stupidity that causes me to not touch cj/linkshare/sas merchants- if some affiliate manager making $40k/year at some non-internet company running their program (poorly) is too stupid to answer my requests (or even my cold-call into her voicemail) they deserve to sit there and be poor.

SO- all of the other comments in here are valid- but DO NOT set some stupid rule like auto-deny 'new' accounts and then not bother to go through your email.

 

[Dimaseo]

All great info to consider, thanks.

Network Access Fee
$2,250
Annual Renewal Fee
$250
Non-refundable deposit
$3,000
Minimum Monthly Fee
$500

CJ takes 30% on top of commissions as their fee.

These ^^^ rates are a little ridiculous. Okay, let's say the standard retail product has a 100% mark up cost (pretty standard). So the gross profit margin per sale (no matter what product) is 50%.

So your telling me that is cost to join is $5,250..........then 500 monthly...........then 30% off commissions? I am assuming the 30% isn't from the product price but the set commission for the product (total commission paid being $10, CJ takes $3?).

Example. Let's say I have a product that cost $200. My company's net cost is $100, profit margin of 50% ($100). I set the total commission rate at 25% of the total sale ($50), CJ gets $15 of that and the publisher gets $35?

Am I missing something? It seems like you would really have to turn some volume through the network to make it worth while.

What type of revenue have some of you generated through CJ network (on the advertiser side)?

 

[johu]

The $500 is a monthly minimum. If your 30% fees to them don't hit $500 in a month, you still pay $500. The 30% is of commission. If you had a $200 product with a 25% commission rate, your payment to the publisher would be $50 and your fee payment to CJ would be $15.

As for advertiser volume, I've dealt with accounts paying anywhere from $1000 (a new program, at the start) to programs paying hundreds of thousands a month. It really depends on the brand, commission, conversion rate, niche, etc. With the example you gave, you'd only need 34 sales to hit the monthly minimum fee. It can take a bit to recruit affiliates, but they offer some value added services (read: fee) to help. Not sure how valuable those are. See if you can negotiate rates down or try to reduce/delay the minimum fee, if possible. No clue on what CJ can or will negotiate on, but it can't hurt.

The $2,250 network access fee and $250 annual fees are the only fees that are steep (compared to some other networks). The non-refundable deposit is used to fund against the monthly minimum fee and commissions. Some CPA networks require deposits, but those are usually refundable.

You can always try something like ShareASale on the cheap end of things - ShareASale - But I'm much more of a fan of CJ than SAS. Really, there's no reason not to be in SAS, since their network access fee is only $550, fee is only 20%, and the monthly minimum fee of $25 only kicks in a few months after you join. It'd be easier to gain traction quicker in CJ than SAS, but budgets always come into play.

Call both companies, and get some real information from their sales people. This is old, posted info I'm working off of, and things are always up for negotiation in this kind of thing.

 

[Rasta_Cook]

If you set your approval to manual, please make sure you actually check them...
Ive got an approval pending for weeks now, its really annoying

 

[Dimaseo]

Informative post and much appreciated. Definetly looking into SAS still CJ. Might start out with SAS now just to test the waters.

Quick question though:

when you said:

The non-refundable deposit is used to fund against the monthly minimum fee and commissions.

did you mean they take my monthly minimum or or fee out of this? Then after I hit the 2,250 mark they bill me? Or is this a form of protection for people who don't pay?

Thanks again. Quality Post +REP

The $500 is a monthly minimum. If your 30% fees to them don't hit $500 in a month, you still pay $500. The 30% is of commission. If you had a $200 product with a 25% commission rate, your payment to the publisher would be $50 and your fee payment to CJ would be $15.

As for advertiser volume, I've dealt with accounts paying anywhere from $1000 (a new program, at the start) to programs paying hundreds of thousands a month. It really depends on the brand, commission, conversion rate, niche, etc. With the example you gave, you'd only need 34 sales to hit the monthly minimum fee. It can take a bit to recruit affiliates, but they offer some value added services (read: fee) to help. Not sure how valuable those are. See if you can negotiate rates down or try to reduce/delay the minimum fee, if possible. No clue on what CJ can or will negotiate on, but it can't hurt.

The $2,250 network access fee and $250 annual fees are the only fees that are steep (compared to some other networks). The non-refundable deposit is used to fund against the monthly minimum fee and commissions. Some CPA networks require deposits, but those are usually refundable.

You can always try something like ShareASale on the cheap end of things - ShareASale - But I'm much more of a fan of CJ than SAS. Really, there's no reason not to be in SAS, since their network access fee is only $550, fee is only 20%, and the monthly minimum fee of $25 only kicks in a few months after you join. It'd be easier to gain traction quicker in CJ than SAS, but budgets always come into play.

Call both companies, and get some real information from their sales people. This is old, posted info I'm working off of, and things are always up for negotiation in this kind of thing.

 

[Dimaseo]

If you set your approval to manual, please make sure you actually check them...
Ive got an approval pending for weeks now, its really annoying

I am doing a manual approval process but ill check it two or three times a day. Just a the way I am.