Clickbank vs CJ

[Edward Smeu]

I'm a newbie to both of these and any advice is appreciated.

Which one do you use, what advice do you give, anything helpful is really appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[johname]

Click Bank is heavily skewed to Digital Products. Like selling ebooks or website access. CJ has more all around applications and generally a developer more likely to find a CJ fit.

 

[RazorNF]

Plus CJ features many recognizable brands.

As johname mentioned, Clickbank features mostly digital products, and some of which I've come across, just seem shady. But there are people out there who seem to make ALOT of money through Clickbank though.

What you use really depends on your website niche and audience. Keep in mind, there are also plenty of other affiliate networks you can join as well.

 

[phowell23]

I've never had much luck with CJ, and so instead focused most of my attention on Clickbank the past few years. I have generated over $12k in affiliate sales as well as selling off the affiliate sites. My best advice I can give for Clickbank affiliate marketing is not to just try to look for a high gravity generating product (what most newbies try to do). I prefer to look for new products that have a solid affiliate site and a solid sales page. If that's there and you can hand reg or purchase a domain with the product keyword in it and the Google competition isn't tremendous (in other words you got a good chance to rank in the top 10) you are more then half way there already.

If you find a product that has already been on the Clickbank market for awhile look to see if it has a slowly increasing gravity of around 20-30 or so. That is a dead give away for a product that is good that people are slowly finding out about.

Also, it really helps to speak to and befriend someone who creates Clickbank products. They can normally give you insights on their upcoming projects before they are released to the public giving you a slight edge.

If you need any help or have any further questions feel free to PM me.

 

[Edward Smeu]

Thanks for the answers, rep added.

 

[hopkism]

I have had more luck with CJ because for the most part the advertisers I use on there are more recognizable and brand names. Edited to add, that I also really appreciate the variety of commisions and pay off on CJ which allows me to tailor them correctly. Certain brands will pay out for users just signing up and not buying anything. Others only pay when they make a purchase (leads vs. sales). Using both can really make a nice mix.

Clickbank is great too though, just have to weed through some shady ones. I ignore the ones with the really spammy sales page (auto video, music, "Don't Go! Wait for this Incredible Offer" pop ups, red text and pages that go on forever! etc.) There are actually some great products on there that are quite affordable.

 

[enlytend]

The two networks are apples and oranges. I haven't done much with Clickbank because the products aren't a good fit for my sites, but I do very well through CJ. As others pointed out, there are a lot of well-known brands at CJ - the trust-factor from promoting a familiar brand is a big plus.

 

[Edward Smeu]

Let's extend this a bit, what other similar sites do you use and why?

Thanks, rep will still be added.

 

[hopkism]

Although ineeddiscipline.com/make-money/ - this guy makes a pretty messy blog with all the advertisements and that he does have a really nice honest report on that page about all the different revenue streams he uses. Some Clickbank alternatives have been listed. He is also very honest with which ones work and which ones don't.

 

[JB Lions]

Let's extend this a bit, what other similar sites do you use and why?

Thanks, rep will still be added.

As what's been pointed out already, Clickbank is more for digital download type products.

CJ has a lot of merchants you'll see at your local mall, merchants you've heard of before.

Computers, they have Dell, Apple, HP.

Clothing, they have Gap, Old Navy, Jockey, Chadwicks, Pacsun etc.

CJ is a traditional affiliate network. They have merchants with products, with datafeeds.

Other popular affiliate networks like CJ are:

Linkshare

Google Affiliate Network aka GAN

Shareasale

Pepperjam

Sign up to those networks and you'll find more of the type of merchants I mentioned above.

There is another category that gets lumped into those traditional affiliate called CPA networks. Networks like Copeac, Clickbooth, aZoogleAds, etc. One of the major differences you'll find is those CPA networks generally don't have product links like the traditional affiliate networks do. They do more lead type stuff, whereas traditional networks do more per sale type stuff, they do leads as well but mainly per sale. Another difference you'll generally find is on traditional affiliate networks like CJ, the merchant programs are run by affiliate managers, OPM (outsourced program manager) or somebody else from the company themselves, not the network* On CPA networks, it's usually the merchant has an offer, gives it to the network and you work with a network representative, a merchant has less control on who gets to promote those offers.

*there are occasions where somebody from the network runs the program, it's a service some of them provide nowadays.