Commission Junction

Commission Junction

Commission Junction is the largest affiliate network on the web. They have thousands of merchants and tens of thousands of affiliates. This has created a network that makes it easy for merchants to find affiliates to promote their products and easy for affiliates to find products to promote.
I have used CJ.com extensively and have been happy with the results (from an affiliates perspective). Their tracking and reporting is first class and they always pay on time.
There are huge benefits for both merchants and affiliates so I'll try to sum up both.
For affiliates:
• Access to thousands of merchants and tens of thousands of merchants in one place,
• One check each month for multiple merchants. This means that you don't need to achieve a minimum sales level from each merchant to be paid each month,
• Great stats. Commission Junction provides stats for each merchant, each product (where available), each ad type and more. It allows you to easily see what's working and what isn't.
• Ability to add multiple sites to one account,
• It’s free to join.

For merchants:
• Instant access to tens of thousands of affiliates,
• Ability to automatically accept affiliates or manually inspect each one,
• Great stats.
• Easily ad multiple ad types or product links,
• Payments to all of your affiliates are handled by CJ - you don't need to send out multiple checks each month.

Commission Junction Example Ad

Basically, any website looking to earn affiliate commissions should be a member of Commission Junction. The thing that you need to keep in mind is that you need to closely check conversion rates for all the products and merchants that you are promoting. CJ offers a wide range of reports so make sure you use them. As with most affiliate programs, I've had the best results by using the product links for each merchant that I promote so visitors can find exactly what they are looking for. Generally banner links can work OK with CJ because you can track the success of each one. This lets you know what works and what doesn't - make sure you dump the bad ones.
For merchants, the decision to join CJ.com is more difficult. There is really only one reason for this - the price. Signing up to Commission Junction as a merchant can be viewed by some as being expensive. The expense is something that you need to consider but mostly, it will prove to be worthwhile. You could have dozens or even hundreds of sites promoting your products within just a few weeks!
If you do decide to use them, make sure that you make product links available. This will make it easier for affiliates to get sales which will make them happy. If they are happy, they'll try to sell more - this will make you happy!
To sum up, if you are looking for products to promote by means of affiliate programs, sign up today. If you sell products and are looking for a way to manage your affiliate program, decide if you can afford it and if you can, definitely consider it.