Rapid Response from Commission Junction

Posted by Shawn Collins on January 28th, 2008 | 17 Comments

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I made a comment recently that I thought the CJ interface was “terribly clumsy to find what I want.” Later that day, I got a note from Kerri Pollard, General Manager of Commission Junction, asking for details behind my knock.

Commission Junction I was immediately impressed that Kerri would take the time to get feedback on the nuts and bolts of CJ.

So I shared my opinions with Kerri, and soon after I got a call and email from Craig Battles, Principal Product Development Manager at CJ. He wanted to get any details from me about my frustrations with the system, so they could try to address them.

My main gripe was having to drill down to get details on commissions earned. I mentioned how I’d like to be able to see this data when I login, as it is the most important to me.

Now I know the data is just a few clicks away, but time is money, and I’m always trying to be more efficient with my time and money.

Anyhow, Craig was extremely helpful and provided a tip that never occurred to me and solved my problem.

Craig suggested that I create a desktop shortcut and browser favorite to the Performance Reports page on CJ. And if that page didn’t have all of the details I wanted, then I could create a Saved Report (”Saving a report actually saves the query, not the data, so you can create very complex customized queries that can be saved and run with one click.”) and save the actual report results page in my Favorites or a desktop shortcut.

Great stuff. So now I just click on the direct link in my browser to the reporting, rather than the conventional homepage for CJ. When I login, I get exactly what I want in the interface.

I love learning new things to make my affiliate life easier.

Kudos to CJ – thanks Kerri and Craig!

Posted in Affiliate Opinions, Affiliate Tips

On January 28 @ 10:39 am Charles Heflin said

I am impressed that CJ answered you so quickly and helped you personally like that.

Kudos to them!
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On January 28 @ 11:57 am Think Like An SOB said

Have you also noticed that when you click on the CJU, it is slow as hell.
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On January 28 @ 12:04 pm Shawn Collins said

Are you talking about a particular area at http://cju.cj.com?

I just went there and a bunch of pages in that area and they all loaded fast.
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On January 28 @ 5:20 pm Charles Pafford said

Yea I Talk tp CJ A While back About there
product feeds you cant click on more then on Item But On The Banners links you can take as many as you want.
I guess its bacuse I ‘m Not one of thoese that make 10,000.00 a month or dont want to pay 200.00 for product feeds,if I had the spare money I would but I cant,And when Bfree was open They had pertty good product feed.

Any comments om this for the little man.
But I love working with CJ Dont get me wrong.
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On January 29 @ 1:28 pm Carsten Cumbrowski said

Implementation is the only part where they still fall short. I talked more than once already with various people and managers at CJ and provided detailed feedback and suggestions with explaining the whys and how etc. (very specific stuff).

Unfortunately did I not see anything of it being realized as of today. Some of the communication dates 3 years back, others 2 years and some about a year, so plenty of time to do something. Well, I hope that Kerri will kick some butts soon to actually get beyond talking one of these days.
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On January 30 @ 10:47 am Yoni Gerblich said

I have to say, I’ve been a little frustrated with the CJ interface as well, especially concerning reports. I couldn’t figure out why you had to drill down three or four steps just to get a list of yesterdays sales.

This tip is great. Anyone have any tips on reports they put together? I feel like going bookmark crazy…

Thanks!
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On February 3 @ 6:32 pm Nathan Alexander said

It looks like Kerri and Craig do not have any project to work on. They surf on the Internet all day long.
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On February 11 @ 8:16 am Affiliate Marketing Guide For Newbies said

CJ has for me been great when it comes to providing customer support.
It is commendable to know that they take the time address queries regarding their service
They probably use google alerts to notify them
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On February 14 @ 11:48 pm Brian said

Have you noticed that it has been going down constantly lately? I’ll be in it several times a day and all of a sudden, boom gone. Annoying.
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On February 15 @ 9:46 pm Dan V said

has anyone else noticed that the registration process for new affiliates at CJ is one of the most demented forms they have ever had the misfortune to have to fill out?
Unfortunately I am registering other people as CJ affiliated so that they can earn commissions on my products – and really (*$*#^&*& with practice you can do it in a few minutes but the first time through it useually takes people about 15 to 20 min if they make it. Tax IDs, phone numbers, websites, even ‘do you offer incentives’ questions. Give me a break! And cj have been totally unresponsive to my questions about it !
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On February 18 @ 8:53 am Carsten Cumbrowski said

Dan, You are filling out a CJ registration form for somebody else? I hope you have the permission of the affiliates to make the registration on their behalf and at least send them CJ’s legal agreement (TOS) that you agreed to on their behalf as well.

The Tax ID is needed for verification and/or Tax reasons. They have to have it at the latest, if an affiliate earns over $600 in any given calendar year.

Phone number is needed for contact purposes, especially if the email is misspelled.

The information about the affiliates website is needed, because many advertisers do not accept affiliates without a website.

The incentive question is also very important. It is for many advertisers a deal breaker, if this is set to YES.

Keep in mind that you sign people up to the whole CJ Network and not just to your program. If you don’t like this, maybe an in-house tracking solution would better fit your needs.

Why the heck are you registering affiliates anyway? Are they unable to do this themselves? I never heard of anybody who was doing this.

Cheers!
Carsten
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On February 22 @ 1:01 am cole ryan said

good for you!

but i gues that is because youre a force to reckon with in the arena!

anyhow, generally speaking, CJ is good in answering queries.
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On February 23 @ 11:49 am Charles Pafford said

Brian has brought up a question I for got about This. How many time have you been to CJ trying to get links and get booted off?
Its happen to me quite a bit I guess I need to write them about it I was just not worried about it to much but sence I see other people writing about it I need to turn it in to CJ.
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On May 27 @ 1:01 am Ron said

I was very impressed to them also.

They give me also a tips how to make my site good in general merchandise around the world.

But Soonest I hope I can be their one of the merchants.
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On August 31 @ 9:55 am Guy said

Heya,

anybody can help me? Ow for me CJ is terribly slow, and I cannot find my way around, system always freezing (or is it my Vista??) .
I want to do a simple search for “products” from “my affiliates” “all countries” , and I simply cannot get it …. Plse help. Thank so much.
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On November 10 @ 5:02 pm H2 said

I think Commision Junction has a horrible interface. NOT user friendly at all. It's too bad it can't be more like Linkshare (Link Synergy). With Linkshare, your commission earnings and reports are display as soon as you login, and you don't have to fill out and email a complex W8 Tax Form (all is done by answering a few questions online). Not to mension it has Link Builder which makes it much easier without having to hunt down specific product links. I also had emailed CJ support regarding not being able to view any CJ advertiser links, and although their response was fairly quick, they weren't able to help me, or even make any suggestions that would help me. I am thinking of dropping them all together.
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On November 10 @ 7:02 pm H2 said

I think Commision Junction has a horrible interface. NOT user friendly at all. It's too bad it can't be more like Linkshare (Link Synergy). With Linkshare, your commission earnings and reports are display as soon as you login, and you don't have to fill out and email a complex W8 Tax Form (all is done by answering a few questions online). Not to mension it has Link Builder which makes it much easier without having to hunt down specific product links. I also had emailed CJ support regarding not being able to view any CJ advertiser links, and although their response was fairly quick, they weren't able to help me, or even make any suggestions that would help me. I am thinking of dropping them all together.
reply to this comment