How do I get affiliate links at Commission Junction?

As I write extensively about TV and satellite programming, a couple of people have told me I should sign up for an affiliate program and make some money based on my recommendations. They suggest Commission Junction, but I can't figure out how the site works. Help!

Dave's Answer:

While the dataset underneath Commission Junction is unquestionably one of the very best in the industry, I have for a long time felt that the site was confusing and difficult to use. Your question confirms this and doesn't surprise me one bit.

The problem is that in many ways, CJ (as the industry calls it) is really like an online store for affiliate links and graphics, but without it being as straightforward as purchase transactions on a site like Amazon.com. Amazon's figured out the online store design, clearly, but when each item you buy then generates reports and revenue, things are quite a bit more complex.

Let me step through how I signed up for an affiliate program related to Dish Network services and got the affiliate links for the Allsat.com Dish Network through Commission Junction.

Once you have a CJ account, log in and you'll see this set of control tabs:

Commission Junction (CJ.com) Main Navigational Menu

Click on "Get Links" and now you'll see this:

Commission Junction (CJ.com) Main Navigational Menu: Get Links

Since I've already signed up for AllSat.com, I can click on "By Relationship" which shows you all the affiliate programs that you've both applied for and been accepted to. It looks like this:

Commission Junction (CJ.com) My Advertisers

This is where you can really start to see the complexity of the CJ interface. There are a lot of tabs here and for any given affiliate, there's quite a lot of information presented.

All we're interested in here, however, is "View Links" immediately under the Affiliate program name (in this case, "DISH Network Satellite TV by AllSat.com"). Click on it and:

Commission Junction (CJ.com): Dish Network Ads

Lots of choices. This affiliate program alone has 28 different affiliate offers, ranging from large graphics to simple text links.

For this demonstration, I'll pick the first advert, a banner ad labeled "468 x 80 Full Banner". On the right it says "Get HTML". Clicking on that produces a new window:

Commission Junction (CJ.com): Dish Network Promo: Banner

Commission Junction has lots of slick capabilities to help you produce succinct and safe affiliate links, as you can see. I always select the following options: "Encrypt link", "Set link to open in a new browser window" and "Hide tracking code in link".

The result is shown in the "Code" box at the bottom and ends up looking like what's in the screen shot above, or, the previous time I ran it, similar code except for the URL in question and encrypted link:

In use, when I copy and paste the HTML snippet, it looks like this:

Roll your cursor over the banner and you'll see that while it's pointing to the CJ server site "jdoqocy.com", the status in the Web browser correctly indicates allsat.com. Click on it - if you're interested in Dish Network progrmming - and you'll see that it gets you to their landing page quickly and easily, without much fuss or really without even making it too visible that there's an affiliate program involved.

I hope that helps you get started with Commission Junction . Their interface is quite complicated, but once you get the basics down, you can safely ignore all the other capabilities until you want to expand your skills.

Categorized: Auctions and Online Shopping (Article 8126, Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: affiliate programs, allsat, commission junction, dish affiliates, dish network, satellite tv
Previous: How do you get inbound links to your Web site?
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Comments

How do I make commission junction links to an affiliates web pages and incorporate my CJ affiliate ID to get credit for the visits?

Link making a link to one of my CJ affiliate homepage, about page, buy page.... and imbed my affiliate ID.

Posted by: Bobby E. at July 3, 2008 9:54 PM

eBay Stores: Your application has been declined by this advertiser for one or more reasons. If you have a question please contact the advertiser through advertisers detail page within the account manager .......
as iam new to comission iwas facing this problem almost all links pls help me as soon as possible

Posted by: pradeep at October 13, 2008 12:58 PM

So our own ID is already included when the html link is created?

We dint have to add our id?

Posted by: josh at March 10, 2009 8:51 AM

I am just starting out my business and want to get started and earn money but have been declined by 4 affiliate programs through CJ so far that I am really interested in and it’s really frustrating!! Help!

Posted by: Trevor Swenson at April 17, 2010 12:33 PM

Thanks Dave
I took a look at their site and gave up!
This post makes it easy to understand - just what I needed.

Posted by: Keith Davis at April 19, 2010 1:29 PM

I am glad I can find your blog, very useful infomation that exactly what I wanted. Thank you!

Posted by: Chris at May 28, 2010 11:49 AM

Thanks Dave but you have given example about the various affiliate programs on cj. But where can I find my cj affiliate url from which if someone joins cj, I get commissions

Posted by: Kavita at July 3, 2010 3:47 AM

I don't think that Commission Junction has an affiliate program aimed at promoting more people sign up for CJ.

Posted by: Dave Taylor at July 3, 2010 7:32 AM

Hi Dave,
Could you please explain or demonstrate how to do a text link to your affiliate site using CJ? I don't care for banners. I'm a newb trying to launch my first wordpress site and I am stuck. Your guidance will certainly put me on the path.
Cory

Posted by: Cory at July 29, 2010 6:47 PM

i cant figure out how to link to different pages inside the site im trying to promote... the code they give only goes to the homepage but in my blog i link to different pages and wanna get credit for each page im sending them to in the text... or else i'll have to hope they only click on the banner or the 1 or 2 links i have that go to the home page.... do you know how to set up the link url so that it goes to a different page on the site your promoting?... in your screen shots i see you have an input box for "url destination" but thats not on the page for the company im promoting "odesk" ... that or "image url" it has everything else but those

Posted by: Still Confused at August 10, 2010 2:51 AM

Dave, you explained how to get the HTML or Java code from CJ for a banner link to an affiliate advertiser.

But what do you use if you're just placing a text link on your website and you want the simple url (with your Affiliate id included)that goes through to the Advertiser's page you're trying to link to?

The reason I ask, is because I have a Wordpress site and I've just installed the plug in "GoCodes". They are asking for the Affiliate URL. When I tried this with Clickbank it was really easy to get, but with CJ it seems impossible to find. Do they even offer such a thing or can you only use their banners and Ads?

Posted by: Dave at March 29, 2011 6:22 PM

Hi, Dave i am a newbie in the affiliate world and i need if after applying for a publisher account with commission junction and i cant seem to get access to their affiliate links then is it ok for me to serch the internet and find free affiliate links on my own? Or do i have to have a account preastablished with a company such as commission junction? I have my website up and going but just can't seem to get any affiliate links Please can you help me out here?

Posted by: Novada at October 1, 2011 2:31 AM

I came across a coupon site http://www.mefindcoupon.com that doesnt change your destination link when you submit coupons to their site, I was thinking to use this method for submitting coupons to coupon and promo code sites that are popular. Has anyone found more?

Posted by: kevin at October 11, 2011 2:45 PM

I have something to say, now that you mention it, but ...

I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!