Affiliate Marketing Tycoon

**zman** · 03-26-2005, 04:38 PM

Hi all,

After four long weeks of testing I have come to the conclusion that CJ is ripping me off. Here is what brought me to this conclusion.

02-15-05
I got an e-mail from a customer who purchased a backpack off of one of my travel sites. The e-mail was not at all related to Commission Junction, the customer had just gotten the product and had a few questions about the best way to use it. This instantly struck me as odd because I had not seen anything on CJ about the product being sold. In fact not single backpack had been sold for three weeks, I have only seen money coming in from rail passes and hostel bookings. The customer faxed the paper that came with the product and sure enough it had been purchased from e-bags through my affiliate link through CJ. I contacted CJ and was told it was not reported from e-bags. I contacted e-bags and was told it had been reported to CJ. Someone is lying right? Next step, find out if it would happen again.

02-28-05
I ordered a backpack myself using a Paypal debit card with a business name on it that differed from my CJ account name. Pack shows up 5 days later, CJ gives me no credit whatsover. Keep in mind these are several hundred dollar backpacks. The big travel style packs so surley I would get a commission of some kind. Huh, maybe my link is being highjacked right?

03-09-05
I ordered a pack in my name, the same name the CJ account is in. This time I ordered a much smaller one so as to not spend a fortune on trying to figure this all out. Guess what happened? I made 6 bucks off the sale.

So it cant be the affiliate code, it seems to work if I order in my own name but if someone else orders through that company I get nothing. Neither company is taking blame, or even taking a step to look into it from what I have seen.

Anyone else have situations like this? This could really hurt me as backpacks are a part of my keyword optimization and I am ranking quite well. At this rate I could be selling a crap load of backpacks and getting nothing for it.

Thoughts?

**HaRRo** · 03-26-2005, 09:01 PM

I've had commision junction adding me lots of valid earnings them remove them too ?

I know these are valid because they where verified and with proof!

**Republikin** · 03-26-2005, 11:30 PM

I would talk to a lawyer about this.

**dk40k** · 03-27-2005, 10:29 AM

Email them about it, be serious and tell them your concerns, make them think you might take some legal issues against them. They'll listen like that.

**zman** · 03-27-2005, 11:44 AM

All my e-mails are returned with a "it must be the other companies fault" kind of response. Im dropping CJ on most of my sites this week. Im not risking it anymore. Legal action may be the only way at this point.

**WealthStream** · 03-28-2005, 04:43 AM

I find it very hard to believe that CJ would rip off publishers on purpose, but the fact that they won't help you with your problem is inexcusable. You should have a lawyer contact both CJ and e-bags for you, then maybe they'll listen to your concerns.

**candy** · 04-20-2005, 01:38 AM

I stopped using CJ for this very same reason. After becoming highly suspicoius due to low buy rate on a web hosting offer, I implamented 5 test buys for web hosting ($70 commission - Yahoo). These test buys where done from five different buyers in different parts of the country. Only two buys where credited to my account. As I was making close to 1000 a month off of just this hosting deal alone, and an additional 3 to 4000 from other programs, I wanted to be sure my suspicion was correct. I then did 7 test buys one week later, and was credited for two buys.

I immediatatly discontinued using CJ for anything.

My guess is that they are skimming a good chuck off the top, perhaps even 50 to 80 % if you are into the high 4 figure earnings. While it hurt to lose the money I would rather not do business with a company that I feel is skimming.

I also think that this all is done by CJ's top brass