CJ Advertisers, Don’t Be Digitally Stupid

There is no doubt that Commission Junction is one of the best, if not the best, pay-per-performance affiliate networks in the Internet today. I love CJ the way it manages its affiliates and publishers.

The affiliate curse is not in CJ, but in its advertisers. Imagine you are automatically declined to join an advertiser’s program despite the fact that it has not reviewed your site for humanity’s sake.

It means that even if Shoemoney and John Chow would apply for a particular company, they can be rejected outright for non-sense, stupid reasons courtesy of imperfect parameters.

An automatic rejection is a curse. Automatic rejection is simply a digital stupidity. Automatic rejection is a shameful digital laziness on the part of affiliate managers.

Affiliates can exist without advertisers. Affiliates don’t need advertisers if they want to. Affiliates don’t have a stake and stock to protect.

What’s the point of having an affiliate program but the affiliate managers are rejecting website owners without clear explanation?

Besides, affiliates today have tons of choices. They can run to ShareAsale Affiliate Network or Linkshare, for instance, if this culture of elitism in CJ is deemed brutish.

Affiliate Managers, listen. I don’t know from what MBA school you graduated from and I don’t know what kind of business strategy you are using as model.

Affiliate Managers should read first the book of Debbie Allen, “Shameless Confessions of Self-Promoters.” The book will certainly change the way they view marketing and business.

At one point, Debbie Allen pointed out that if Coke, Nike, Pepsi, and McDonald’s, who are so popular and yet they never stop advertising, companies should do more on promoting products and services. And that’s the point of being part of Commission Junction or any affiliate networks for that matter.

Affiliate Managers should learn the strategy of Google. Why is Google so infectious? Google does not discriminate any website owner so long as one doesn’t screw up its rules. Google, now considered as the world’s most popular brand more popular than Apple and Microsoft, has the heart that can see the potential of a start-up website. Well, Google started in a garage. It has its humble beginnings.

But certain advertisers at CJ are clueless on the disastrous impact of rejecting a website without valid reasons. Companies should even be thankful that someone applies for their affiliate programs. Any affiliate program is useless without publishers, the website owners.

One thing that some CJ advertisers have miserably missed is that when a website owner promotes a company, one is not paid for doing such promotion. Remember the principle of brand awareness? Some CJ Advertisers don’t understand this concept of improving brand awareness. Webmasters can help a company raise brand awareness though they are not paid a dime for this laborious task. Company banners and text links are spread all over the site like this blog, but the company does not spend a cent for this thankless relationship.

I can write a whole book on this issue, if time permits. I hope the CJ Management would reconsider its policy and advise its advertisers to first review a site before they trigger a heartless, brutal, mindless rejection.

Automatic rejection is a curse. It’s bad for business. It works against any CJ Advertisers or any Affiliate Programs in the Internet today. I advocate for manual review of a site.

Webmasters have thousands of choices today. Once rejected, webmasters may never appeal or reapply for that program and even hate that company for good.

When a rejected website emerged from obscurity to stardom, some CJ Advertisers may remember an infamous day of affiliate rejection.

CJ Advertisers, don’t be digitally stupid. Review first a website before you make an important decision that will have a long-term impact on your company’s growth and success.