After all these years, CJ still sucks.

[Shawn]

Seriously. I haven't used CJ in years, I left because of all of the constant screw ups, technical errors, lack of support, etc. I started using it a couple of days ago, and low and behold, it still very much sucks.

Today I couldn't login for about 30 minutes. Some nonsensical technical error. Now, I just logged in to find a "Reporting Delay." This is just sad. I remember these mistakes years ago, but to still have them after all of this time?

I'd even bet that they still have "Payment Delays" for some other nonsensical reason every now and again. I remember sometimes they blamed them on holidays that occurred 2 weeks ago and bad calendars and such.

Redonkulus.

[deronsizemore]

I have an account but never have used it yet as I'm still working on my site, but I agree that it doesn't seem to be a well put together operation. It is constantly asking me to log in on EVERY screen at CJ. I am always going in and messing around with my trusted sites and allowing cj.com as one, but sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.

[Kyle]

I judge them based on the competition.

In the past, Linkshare and BFAST were absolutely horrible. Linkshare never wired money, always sent checks, and often times it was based on the speed of the advertiser. You wouldn't see money from most advertisers for 2-3 months after the last day of the pay month... no joke. A friend of mine just got a check from a site he closed down 2 years ago.

BFAST was always crappy too, but never used them heavily so I can't share detailed complaints.

CJ always had on time payments. When they had "payment delays", it was between 1 and 3 business days (hardly worth worrying about).

Sometimes they are lagged...sometimes the reporting delays happen...but I guess I'm not one who judges a company based on reporting delays when they only last a few hours.

Your frustrations are true, but their reporting is VERY accurate, and they offer great information on the advertisers before you choose to use them. In the past, one time in 4 years that I could remember, the server that tracks conversions was down for "x" hours. They took the average of how much you make in a month for "x" hours, and DOUBLED it. Then gave you that money.

[Chris]

You cannot judge Linkshare & Befree & CJ against each other, it isn't an apples to apples comparison.

CJ requires all merchants to abide by their rules, to deposit money in advance, and offers merchants less individual flexibility on how to run their program with creatives & whatnot.

Linkshare is different. It is run more like a software platform that helps merchants connect with individual publishers and make their own agreement. If you do not like how fast a Linkshare merchant pays, then your complaint is against the merchant you have an agreement with, not Linkshare. Its unfair to judge them for a quality they do not claim to possess.

The Linkshare format does attract more large publishers & large merchants.

I see both methods as having their pros & cons, but overall I prefer linkshare to CJ for the reports, ease of use, and I don't mind the slower payments since I don't live paycheck to paycheck. Though I can see many small publishers just starting out to be annoyed by that.

[Kyle]

I never really looked at Linkshare like that, as being different, cause for me, the end goal was to offer a service to the webmaster. Even though you are right in your statements that Cj and Linkshare can't be compared.

In 2002/2003, when I had my affiliate shopping "mall" going and was trying to quit my job, getting my paychecks on time was very important, so this has given me prejudice against Linkshare. Also Cj offered extreme customization for the webmaster. Many of their large affiliates allow you to customize the URL where the visitor will go after clicking. I was more into customizing the pages on my end, and sending visitors exactly where I wanted them to. I never had interest in using marketing/presentation ideas done by the advertiser.

The other issue I was having (in 2002 - 2004), was for each major "brand" based niche I was targetting, CJ had the far superior advertiser. KitchenEtc (before they closed shop), Zappos, Watchzone.com, to name a few.

I enjoyed having all my money lumped together. If I stuck with Linkshare, one check for each merchant you worked with coming at different times could become quite a hassle. Especially when you have 20 or so advertisers that you're working with, all on different payment schedules... some slow, some on time (that's 20 different checks a month).

The biggest annoyances for me were...

- Scattered paychecks, many advertisers not being on time in payments.
- Brand based niches from shoes, to kitchenware, to watches, to sunglasses. CJ had superior choices.
- CJ shared data on how successful other webmasters were with these advertisers. From 2002-2004, Linkshare didnt show this. (i would assume linkshare is doing this now?)

[Skeewe]

Biggest annoyance about CJ fo me is zillion clicks = 0 sales :(

[agua]

Biggest annoyance about CJ fo me is zillion clicks = 0 salesHere, Here or Hear, Hear... whichever - but yeah - I totally agree :)

[Erin]

Biggest annoyance about CJ fo me is zillion clicks = 0 sales :(Yep, same here. Free advertising at CJ!

[chromate]

I used CJ for about 2 years generating over $1k/month and never had any problems with them at all. Always got payments on time etc. However, the merchant was a different story ;)

Only one thing used to concern me sometimes... The "balance" would suddenly say $0.00 and sometimes the report wouldn't show "payment sent" for days. But I did always get the payment.

[Mike]

I applied to an advertiser over a week ago and it's still listed as pending. They should really make their advertisers respond to applications in a decent period of time...

[s2kinteg916]

CJ has some communication issues IMO but as far as everything else they seem to be on target.

[allout]

Big thing is not to sign up with them until you have traffic because they seem to drop you fast while you are building the site. My account was closed because of no sales and since then I started a new site so I am waiting this time till I build up enough traffic. Till then I will use Adsense and Amazon.

[Mike]

Big thing is not to sign up with them until you have traffic because they seem to drop you fast while you are building the site. My account was closed because of no sales and since then I started a new site so I am waiting this time till I build up enough traffic. Till then I will use Adsense and Amazon.

I think they introduced something where you are dropped if you fail to make a sale in six months...

[rpanella]

Yeah, they did Mike, and I don't really see any logical reason for that. Seems like it would only deter people from giving them a second chance after not using them for a while.
________
MARLIN (http://www.dodge-wiki.com/wiki/Rambler_Marlin)

[AndyH]

Terrible publisher support.

Anyone know how to list all transactions with the "sid" field that you sent to the advertiser?

Since changing their reporting I can't find it.

[allout]

Yeah, they did Mike, and I don't really see any logical reason for that. Seems like it would only deter people from giving them a second chance after not using them for a while.

I agree with that. I am weary to even try them again because I spent all the time putting up the ads just to find out as soon as I started to get some real traffic they dropped me. The big thing is , does it cost them anything to keep their ads up? I would think that would be a plus for them if a struggling site took off, they would be there to share in the glory. Not sure if I am signing back up or not, guess I will see what happens with the site I am promoting right now.

[john190]

Personally I have also never like CJ. They have closed my account a few times now for inactivity. 6 months inactivity and your account gets closed. Not many networks that I have used does this, infact I think CJ has been the only one so far from the larger networks.