Is the CJ Affiliate a Scam? An Awesome Opportunity or Costly Mistake?

Do you want to get into Affiliate Marketing? And if so, how about CJ Affiliate? Can it help you achieve your goals?

Or is CJ Affiliate a scam?

You may have heard of CJ Affiliate (formerly Commission Junction). You may even know someone who uses it to make money. You might also be thinking of doing it yourself, but what exactly is it?

I am going to tell you, and give you my CJ Affiliate review.

Quick Review

Name: CJ Affiliate (formerly Commission Junction)
Website: www.cj.com
Creation Date: 1999-02-24
Industry: Affiliate Marketing, Performance-based marketing
Headquarters: Santa Barbara, California
President: Waleed Al-Atraqchi
Skill Level: Beginner to advanced
Price: Free
My Overall Rank: 7/10

Verdict: CJ Affiliate (Commission Junction) is not an outright scam. It’s a legit company. CV Affiliate is an online marketplace that brings advertisers and publishers together by acting as an intermediary. Thus they make the whole process of getting a commission easier.

That being said, there are many warning signs as well. Because many CJ Affiliate members feel being scammed by the company. How? Please read the full review below.

 

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Full Review – Is the CJ Affiliate a Scam?

Affiliate marketing, as you will learn on the CJ Affiliate website (and other), is made up of three things. Or rather, three people: The advertiser, the publisher, and the consumer.

1. The advertiser is the person (or group) who is selling a product. This will not be you (well, it can be you, but for this article, this is not your role).

Anyone who has a product or service to sell can be an advertiser. If you are in a position to pay someone else to promote your product or business, then you are an advertiser.

2. A publisher is a person or a group that promotes some services, products, or companies. They are the people who promote the product of the advertiser.

This is the role you are aiming for. When the two parties come together, they agree as to how much the publisher will get for each sale. The publisher will bring solutions as to how to sell the product or promote it. This could be through ads, links, etc.

3. The consumer is the third part of affiliate marketing. Without someone to buy the product, there is no point in promoting it. The consumer is the person who will purchase the advertiser’s product. 

Why Three People?

Technically, yes, you only need two people. One to sell and one to buy, but if it were that easy, then people would not need to seek help.

It makes sense to seek help if you cannot sell your product or if you want to elevate your sales. That’s where the third person (a publisher) comes in.

The great thing about using a publisher is that an advertiser only pays out money when a product sells. The Advertiser can hire as many publishers as they like, and all of them will be helping you to sell. You do not need to pay salaries or pay for high-cost ads.

Where Does Commission Junction Come In?

CJ Affiliate (Commission Junction) is an online platform that brings together advertisers and publishers.

Publishers get paid when consumers are turned into leads, subscribers, purchasers, and other statuses, depending on the contract set up between the advertiser and publisher.

Commission Junction has been around for a long time (20 years), which has given it the chance to grow and increase its client base on both sides of the equation.

Publisher Requirements

• CJ Affiliate Publisher Service Agreement (terms): here
• Language: No specific language requirement
• Prohibited content: content that compromises national security, obscenity, violence, hate, pornography, murder, crime, or fear.

Next, let’s come to CJ Affiliate and see whether it is a scam or legit opportunity.

First, Is Affiliate Marketing Legit?

No, it’s not. It is 100% legit.

Affiliate marketing has been around for a while. It is an excellent way for you to make big bucks, and the best part about it is that you are not going to rip anyone off. Neither are there any pyramid schemes involved. There are no lost revenues.

Once a consumer decides to buy a product, and they use your link, you (a publisher) get paid. You are happy to get money, and the advertiser is happy to get cash from a sale.

It is a win-win-win situation.

Read here a more detailed review on how Affiliate marketing works; And how you can start making legit money with Affiliate Marketing

Second, Is CJ Affiliate Scam or Legit?

Is CJ Affiliate a legit company? Yes, absolutely. And here’s why (5 proofs):

1. CJ Affiliate is in business for 20 years already

The CJ Affiliate (formerly known as Commission Junction) website was created on February 24, 1999. It was 20 years ago. Here’s what Whois.net tells about the site creation date:

Scams usually tend to have a short lifespan. They pop up, do as much damage as possible (rip off innocent people), and disappear. Why disappear? Because they are criminals. If they don’t, they will soon find themselves behind Swedish curtains (=prison).

2. CJ Affiliate leaders are real people

Now that’s more important than you might think. But if you check their About us page, you will see the CJ Affiliate top management team. Including their president Waleed Al-Atraqchi. Now, well, he is a real person.

• Paul Tibbitt – senior vice president… He is a real person
• Desiree Toto – vice president… She is a real person
• Nicole Ron – vice president… She is a real person
• etc., etc., etc. – all real people.

If you compare that with scam websites where… Well, I have reviewed many, many scam websites and seen that they never expose who are the real people (the con artists)  behind these schemes. All you see are fake characters, paid actors, and stolen stock photos.

For example, here are three scams that I have reviewed and their respective fake founders:

• Cryptotrader – Fake David Richmond, its alleged founder
• 1K Daily Profit – Fake John Becker, its alleged founder
• SnapCash Binary – Fake Austin Ford, its alleged founder

That’s clearly not the case here – the CJ Affiliate management team is as real as it can be. They all are real people.

3. CJ Affiliate is a respected and authoritative marketplace

As you can see, CJ Affiliate won big at the International Performance Marketing Awards 2018:

This fact alone makes it very clear – CJ Affiliate is a legitimate company. It is not a scam. It is a well known and respected business. Here’s the full list of rewards won by CJ Affiliate at the event:

4. Other CJ Affiliate Rewards

Here are some more impressive awards given to CJ Affiliate by Forbes and Fortune Magazine:

Impressive, isn’t it?

5. A good number of world-famous brands trusts CJ Affiliate:

Again, unlike typical online scams, these badges are real. They are not fake.

And when Barnes & Noble, Lowe’s, Priceline, and other big names trust CJ Affiliate, it cannot be a scam, do you agree? Also, you can find several other Fortune 500 companies that you can promote.

Plus, the transparency of the site is great. The way you can track your numbers is also helpful.

And there are many ways in which you can earn your money (not just purchases of a product). If you are starting out, then this is the place to gain your vital experience.

There Must Be Some Sort of Catch?

Kind of.

The problem with the CJ Affiliate website is that to be an affiliate, you have to sign up for each business or company.

With a lot of other affiliate sites, you can choose who you want to promote and get started straight away. With Commission Junction, however, you have to apply to become an affiliate each time.

Once accepted, you can begin to promote. This can slow down earnings, but if you are committed to doing this right, then you can still make good money from home with established merchants. You can also receive invites once you are established, meaning that you can skip the entire application process and get going straight away.

The other thing to look out for is your payment schedule. You will not be paid until you have at least $50 in your account. This may take some time when you first start out, but it is not a real problem once you get going.

Yet another negative is that you cannot be paid out via PayPal. If that is a problem for you, you should look into another site.

And then there are the complaints.

CJ Affiliate Complaints

Even though CJ Affiliate has won respect and impressive awards at the international level, it does not mean everything is a bed of roses for the end-user (= you, the publisher).

[Sidebar: By the way, that’s often the case with big brands. Take Amazon, for example. Almost everybody is using it, and its founder Jeff Bezos has become the world’s wealthiest person. That being said, thousands of Amazon workers are in food stamps. (source)]

That’s why (if you want to use CJ Affiliate to make money online), you should also pay close attention to these complaints below.

Because not only the top management team are real people. CJ Affiliate publishers (often individuals) who have written these complaints are genuine as well. And, as you can see, they feel being scammed.

Read some of the complaints that I have provided below, and you understand what I mean:

Here’s another complaint:

And again:

One more:

You see! Even though the portal is internationally awarded, it does not seem to live up the expectations and promises.

There are many-many more complaints like these. But I think you got the picture.

Maybe the platform is fantastic for the advertisers (big businesses). But for the publishers (who are often individuals and small, work-at-home businesses), often it’s not so great.

Why? Because it can happen that…

…You make no money…

…Or you make money, but they refuse to pay you…

…And they refuse (or don’t bother) to answer you…

…etc., etc.

That’s why, before diving in, you should look into this and make an informed decision for yourself.

What I Did Not Like

1. Many members have discovered its way too hard to reach the CJ Affiliate support team
2. You must accumulate $50 to cash out by direct deposit, and $100 to cash out by check
3. You cannot use Paypal
4. A requirement to sign up to be an affiliate of each CJ Affiliate advertiser
5. CJ Advertisers can go many months to approve (or decline) your application to join their affiliate program.
6. Some advertisers email you and invite you to join them… Only to turn you down later when you apply through the CJ Affiliate portal
7. There are also cases where advertisers drop people within a day of approving their applications.
8. Many people complain that they make no money despite their efforts
9. People’s accounts get blocked with no valid reason
10. Many members complain CJ Affiliate refuses to pay them

Final Verdict – Is CJ Affiliate Scam or Legit?

No. I cannot say it is an outright scam because it is not. After all, people have been doing affiliate marketing ever since products were sold on the internet. And CJ Affiliate is not unlike many sites out there in that they are bringing advertisers and publishers together.

It can be hard for one to find the other, without an intermediary, and CJ Affiliate has built up a client list on both sides. The good news here is that the client list is growing, and you could be a part of it.

That being said, I am not going to lie to you. There are quite many warning signs that make me alert (as described above). Way too many people feel the company has scammed them. That’s why I recommend you to be cautious.

Plus, there’s one more thing…

…There is work to be done if you want to make money at this. Nothing in life is free, but if you are willing to put in the time, then the money will come. I would recommend CJ Affiliate (Commission Junction) if you have the time to go to their website and get to know how it can benefit you.

 

Imagine for looking for legit work-from-home opportunities and finding THIS when you go inside… WOW
Why not give a whirl right now? You’re certainly not committed to anything.

 

What About You?

I want to thank you for reading my CJ Affiliate review. I hope you found the information that you were looking for.

Now that you have reached the end of the review, what do you think? Is the CJ Affiliate a scam or not?

Have you ever used CJ Affiliate (Commission Junction) services? What are your experiences? Please share by dropping a comment below.