Commission Junction is a little more difficult to get used to than Clickbank, but with a little bit of practice you’ll be able to whiz around it in no time!
To get started with Commission Junction, go to the homepage at www.cj.com and click on Get Started.
Commission Junction calls affiliates “publishers”; to become a publisher, click on the Publisher image, which should highlight in blue. Then, to begin the signup process, click on ‘Get Started Now’
On the next page select “I do not have a CJ Publisher account, and wish to sign up”
Now you are in the signup form! Select your language, country and the currency you wish to use and click ‘next’.
Be aware that the currency you select is the one shown when using CJ – e.g. checking out commissions, viewing your income, etc, and doesn’t have an effect on which currency you get paid in. However, make sure you’ve selected the correct currency since this cannot be changed later.
You must then read through Commission Junction’s Publisher Service Agreement. Make sure you agree with their terms and conditions, their code of conduct, and their privacy policy.
Also be aware that you must be over 18 to sign up for CJ, and authorized to act on behalf of a company if you are signing up as a company.
Now you get to enter the useful information! Here you must put in details about your website. If you have more than one website, just enter the details of your best or most prominent website – you can add information about the other’s later.
Now, fill out your own details and how you’d prefer to be paid.
Once you’ve filled out all this information, click ‘Accept Terms’. Your application will be submitted for processing. Within the next 15 to 20 minutes you should receive an email from CJ that contains your login information.
To log in to CJ, go to the homepage and use the Client Login in the top right hand corner.
Once you’ve logged into Commission Junction, one of the first things you’ll need to do is fill out your tax information; the specifics of this will depend on whether you’re inside or outside the US, but to fill it out go to your account settings, click on administrative settings and then ‘edit’ your tax information. Please make sure you read the forms carefully to make sure you have the right one.
Searching For An Affiliate Program
Right, let’s approach some advertisers! To apply for programs, we need to go to the ‘Get Links’ tab. This will put you in the General Categories sub tab – from here you can find advertisers in your specific niche.
For this video I’m going to take a look in the Health and Wellness niche. Once you’ve selected your niche, you’ll be presented with a list that looks a little like the following. Just a quick explanation of each of these columns:
This column is the ‘Advertiser’ – it’s the actual company doing the advertising. The ‘3 Month EPC’ Column is the calculated average amount of income earned from this advertiser for every 100 clicks their links got, based on three months worth of data. The 7-day EPC is the same, but based on the last seven days.
The Network Earnings column is basically a general scale to show the volume of commission that the advertiser has paid out to publishers; the more green, the better.
The Sale/Lead/Click columns are designed to give a summary of the advertiser’s commissions, and whether they are paying for Sales, Leads or Clicks.
The next column, Status, shows whether or not you are a part of this Advertiser’s program. Right now all Advertiser’s have a ‘No Relationship’ next to them.
Finally, ‘Category’ shows which niche the company is focused in.
For this video I’m going to take a look in the Health and Wellness niche. Once you’ve selected your niche, you’ll be presented with a list that looks a little like the following. Just a quick explanation of each of these columns:
This column is the ‘Advertiser’ – it’s the actual company doing the advertising. The ‘3 Month EPC’ Column is the calculated average amount of income earned from this advertiser for every 100 clicks their links got, based on three months worth of data. The 7-day EPC is the same, but based on the last seven days.
The Network Earnings column is basically a general scale to show the volume of commission that the advertiser has paid out to publishers; the more green, the better.
The Sale/Lead/Click columns are designed to give a summary of the advertiser’s commissions, and whether they are paying for Sales, Leads or Clicks.
The next column, Status, shows whether or not you are a part of this Advertiser’s program. Right now all Advertiser’s have a ‘No Relationship’ next to them.
Finally, ‘Category’ shows which niche the company is focused in.
Applying For An Affiliate Program
Let’s apply to an advertiser! I’m going to select the first one from the ‘Health and Wellness’ niche. To apply, you can click on the company’s name to pull up their details. Here you can read more information about them, how the commission works, and if there are any restrictions around using their links.
Most publishers will restrict bidding on their trademarked names. Some publishers include other specific restrictions, so make sure you’ve read the details carefully.
Once you’re ready to Apply, just click on ‘Apply to Program’.
Note that some programs will automatically reject you, for whatever reason (e.g. too new, etc), but otherwise most Advertiser applications will sit in a queue until they either authorize or decline you.
For now, you’ll just have to wait until your applications are approved.
Now go to the ‘By Relationship’ tab; once your application is approved then you will be able to view the advertiser in your list here. You can also see your pending applications and declined applications.
To actually get your affiliate links, you will need to click on the advertiser in your list to load their details. On the right hand side you can select the type of link you’d like; for example, I want a text link. Once you click on the link type, you will be provided with a list of potential links you can use. These links might be for special offers or various products.
For example, Medifast has links for products such as The Medifast Program as well as items such as coupons. Finally, in order to get your publisher link, click on either ‘Get Javascript’ or ‘Get HTML’ on the right hand side. These will only become available to you after your application has been approved.
Anyway, while you’re waiting for your first application to be approved so you can actually get links, let’s take a quick look around the rest of CJ.
To check your affiliate earnings with CJ, click on the ‘Run Reports’ tab. The information is fairly straightforward, and shows your current balance and commissions pending; Right now, they probably look like my account, if your account is brand new.
To get more detailed information, click on the ‘Performance Reports’ sub tab, which will provide you with more information in the date range you want. Again, right now you probably don’t have any data to show.
Finally, the other main component you need to know about right now is ‘Mail’. This is where you find out if your applications have been declined or approved, where you’ll learn about important updates and changes, and where you can contact advertisers.
And there we have it! That was a basic rundown of how to use Commission Junction; Feel free to go ahead and apply for some more programs!
Most publishers will restrict bidding on their trademarked names. Some publishers include other specific restrictions, so make sure you’ve read the details carefully.
Once you’re ready to Apply, just click on ‘Apply to Program’.
Note that some programs will automatically reject you, for whatever reason (e.g. too new, etc), but otherwise most Advertiser applications will sit in a queue until they either authorize or decline you.
For now, you’ll just have to wait until your applications are approved.
Now go to the ‘By Relationship’ tab; once your application is approved then you will be able to view the advertiser in your list here. You can also see your pending applications and declined applications.
To actually get your affiliate links, you will need to click on the advertiser in your list to load their details. On the right hand side you can select the type of link you’d like; for example, I want a text link. Once you click on the link type, you will be provided with a list of potential links you can use. These links might be for special offers or various products.
For example, Medifast has links for products such as The Medifast Program as well as items such as coupons. Finally, in order to get your publisher link, click on either ‘Get Javascript’ or ‘Get HTML’ on the right hand side. These will only become available to you after your application has been approved.
Anyway, while you’re waiting for your first application to be approved so you can actually get links, let’s take a quick look around the rest of CJ.
To check your affiliate earnings with CJ, click on the ‘Run Reports’ tab. The information is fairly straightforward, and shows your current balance and commissions pending; Right now, they probably look like my account, if your account is brand new.
To get more detailed information, click on the ‘Performance Reports’ sub tab, which will provide you with more information in the date range you want. Again, right now you probably don’t have any data to show.
Finally, the other main component you need to know about right now is ‘Mail’. This is where you find out if your applications have been declined or approved, where you’ll learn about important updates and changes, and where you can contact advertisers.
And there we have it! That was a basic rundown of how to use Commission Junction; Feel free to go ahead and apply for some more programs!
