As a newbie to Commission Junction, when I log in to CJ homepage, I am overwhelmed and confused.
So I started my own reading over the Internet. And I come out with my own personal guide.
If you like to find out more about how to go about making money with CJ, you are most welcome to read or even share this guide with others.
What is Commission Junction?
It is an affiliate program network for both advertisers and publishers, similar to Clickbank.
It offers thousands of products from different industries/categories for you to earn commissions.
First you need to apply to Commission Junction asa publisher. And you also need a website or blog to promote the product or service.
You have to apply to join some of the many programs from those categories.
Each advertiser has its own program and if you wish to promote its product, you need to apply for it.
Once your application is approved, then only you are able to use links provided to promote their products.
You paste the link on your blog or website. You can choose the type of ads format (text, banner, buttons, etc.) to promote it on your website or blog.
If someone clicks on the link and buys something, you get a percentage of the sale.
If someone clicks on the link and fills out a form, you also get a commission for getting a sales lead for the advertiser.
If the visitors come back to the site later and purchase something or fill out the form, you still get a commission, because the cookie stays on the computer.
The transaction is tracked and recorded by Commission Junction.
You need a PayPal account to get your commission from CJ.
How To Pick Product or Service To Promote
Browse through the different advertisers. Click on "Get Links" on the homepage.
You will see a page with a list under "Advertiser Categories".
This is where you start off, by choosing any of the advertiser.
To find out more details about their program you can click on the advertiser that you are interested in.
Pick an advertiser that sells a product or service that is associated with your blog or website, to promote.
Once you find one you are interested, you click on the advertiser name, and a box will pop up.
In the pop-up box, you can find details like company email address, the type of links, commission, policies, etc.
You have to click on the "Join Program" or "Apply To Program" button at the bottom of the box.
Then another box will pop up titled "Join Advertiser". Different advertiser will have different message.
Read their terms and conditions carefully. Some programs will approve your application automatically, while some will approve you manually, as shown below:
"This advertiser approves publishers manually. Your application status will be set to "Pending Application" and the advertiser will contact you if approved."
Once thew advertiser has approved your application, it will be added to your link "Relationship" list."Relationship" list is a list where all the advertisers that approved your applications.
To get your approved links to be placed on your blog or website,click on the "Get Links" tab which
is on the homepage of commission junction.
Next, you click on the "By Relationship" tab.You will see a list of all the advertiser programs that have approved your applications.
Then you click on the "view Links" which is under the advertiser you want to get a link.
Remember you only choose an advertiser that says you are active. Don't click on those which are not active or haven't been approved.
You will not be getting any money on the sales or leads from those not active or not approved programs.
You can either choose a link or a banner. When you click on "View Links", a list will pop up with all the links that you can post on your site or blog.
Select a link you like, click on it and from there you can copy HTML or JAVA and paste it on you website or blog.
After you have pasted the HTML or JAVA code to your blog or website, click "Publish". The link should appear on your blog or website.
That's all. Now your site is on the way to make money from Commission Junction.
More Useful Information You Need To Know About CJ:
It is not easy to get accepted into the affiliate program. You have to apply to each advertiser's program individually.
Take your time to read all of the requirements and payment terms for each individual affiliate program. Each program has different policies, payment terms, etc.
Avoid using free web hosting because certain advertisers may not accept it.
EPC does not mean that if someone clicks on that link 100 times you earn the dollar amount in the EPC.
Your success with CJ is relative to how many visitors you can sent from your site or paid search link that can create sales for the advertiser you are promoting.
EPC: It means earnings per one hundred clicks sent by affiliates to the merchant's website.
It is calculated as an average based on all affiliate traffic (and corresponding sales) sent to the merchant within the specified period of time.
In other words, EPC reflects an average affiliate program's payout per one hundred clicks.
Your EPC is calculated based with all publishers within Commission Junction.
They take each publisher’s total commissions earned “regardless of currency” then they to convert that total amount if necessary to US dollars.
Once every publisher’s commission reaches its total amount then it will be converted into a common currency known as ”USD“. So this amount will be divided by the “total number of clicks” then it shall be multiplied by 100.
7-day EPC:
The calculation is made by taking data from yesterday counting back seven days. We take the sum of all commissions for the 7 days and divide it by the sum of all clicks for the same 7 days then multiplying this by 100.
If today’s date = N, the date range used is N-8 to N-2. NOTE: There must be at least 100 clicks for the 7-day period to calculate your EPC. If less than 100 clicks occurred, N/A will display for the EPC. In addition, advertiser EPC will display as “New” for the first 90 days in the Commission Junction Network
3-month EPC:
Three month EPC values are calculated and updated daily, using data beginning five months previous through three months previous.
On the first of each month the “five months previous through three months previous” time frame changes to accommodate the month change.
Example: An EPC rating in June is calculated using data from January, February, and March. It is necessary to use data beginning five months previous to give accurate EPC ratings that may include extended or reversed transactions.
There must be at least 1000 clicks for the 3-month period to calculate your EPC. If less than 1000 clicks occurred, N/A will display for the EPC. [From Commission Junction’s definition for EPC].
EPC = Profit ÷ Clicks × 100
SmartZone Setting: Basically it is a banner-rotation utility. You add banners or even text ads from CJ of your choice to it, then, place the code on your site and it will rotate them.
With SmartZone, you download links straight to your web site, without having to edit your HTML source code each time you change a banner.
How To create a SmartZone:
First log in to your CJ Member homepage.
Click on the Get Links tab.
Then click on the SmartZone Settings. On the right side of the screen, look for the little green "Create A Button" which allows you to create a SmartZone.
When you click on this button, a popup window appears and asks for the following information:
Create a name for this SmartZone (for your reference):
Which Web site would you like to associate this SmartZone with?
What is the URL where you will place this SmartZone?
Select the type and size of links to be placed in this SmartZone?
Once you have answered all these questions, the pop-up window will disappear.
You must then add at least one link to the SmartZone before you Get HTML.
Once you Get HTML (which is the HTML for the SmartZone), you can place the HTML for the SmartZone anywhere on your Web site.
There are 2 ways to choose and add a link to a SmartZone.
1. Go to Get Links, choose the specific link you want to use and then click Add to SZ on the right-side of the page to add it to a SmartZone.
2. If you are in the SmartZone Settings on the Account page, click View to the right of the specific SmartZone you want to place a link in, click Add Link, and you will go to the Get Links page to select the link you want to place.
Only one link will appear in the SmartZone at a time. Links will rotate; each time a person refreshes your page, a different one will appear.
All the links in your SmartZone will appear an equal number of times unless you change the weighting of a particular link.
A higher weight means that a banner appears more frequently relatively to the other banners on the list.
If you set the weight to 0 then the banner will never display.
TIP: You can use the SmartZone to rotate several banners into a single space on your web site. You can also use the SmartZone with a single banner simply to avoid having to edit your web site source code every time you want to change the banner.
To do the latter, just add a new banner to the SmartZone and delete the old one.
Changes to SmartZones will take 24-48 hours to appear on your site.