Re: Commission Junction's Skimming $10

From: Marshall Hays <marshall_at_hays.net>
Date: Wed 26 Mar 2003 07:38:36 -0600

"Loren M. Baker" <loren_at_webadvantage.net> wrote:
>
> Why is Commission Junction penalizing it's members for giving free
> advertising to their affiliates?

Well, from a business standpoint I can see two reasons for the move.
Commission Junction competes for advertisers based on its userbase of
affiliates. CJ needs to show potential advertisers that their
affiliates produce sales. So by charging non-producing affiliates, they
are probably hoping many will drop out. If they're not making money in
six months, they are of no use to CJ. Plus it's an easy way for CJ to
clean out the inactive affiliates. I'm sure there are countless
affiliates that have abandoned their websites.

The other issue is for advertisers. CJ lists the available advertisers
ranked by how much revenue their links generate so that affiliates can
choose which links to promote on their sites. So again, if you have a
poor performing affiliate, it will bring down your CPC and thus scare
off other affiliates from signing up with your particular program. We
have actually had one of our content sites kicked out of an advertiser's
program because we were not performing well enough.

By charging a fee, CJ is not kicking them out, but is encouraging the
affiliate to rethink their affiliation. I agree it is not an
'incentive' and the PR spin is probably insulting to some. And I agree
with you on the point of any banner ad is still helping promote the
brand and that has value to the advertiser, but in this case that's not
part of the business model. Advertisers need to maintain a high CPC so
that they can attract more affiliates. And as for affiliates, they
don't make any money when someone types in the domain name separately or
tells a friend to visit an advertiser's website anyway, so that's a
waste of an ad.

Advertisers are paying CJ a fee for a service and one of those services
could be that CJ makes sure that they provide quality affiliates that
will drive sales. It sucks, but that's life in the declining online ad
world.

Now, having said that, time for me to go tweak our affiliate links. LOL

-Marshall Hays

Hays Internet Marketing, Inc.
ph: 214-221-9700 http://www.hays.net
http://www.Allphones.us * http://www.ClubJobs.net
http://www.DatingFun.com * http://www.VirtualKiss.com




Received on Wed Mar 26 2003 - 07:38:36 CST