In today’s post, I will tell you a bit about the popular affiliate platform, Commission Junction or CJ Affiliate.
I will also walk you through the steps to create a CJ Affiliate account.
I have been a CJ affiliate for a couple of years and I have found extremely helpful products on the platform.
The products I found not only provided value to my audience but also helped them overcome their problems.
If you are an Affiliate Marketer who loves to help your audience, you’d love CJ!
So without further ado, let’s jump in!
What is CJ / Commission Junction?
Before I share the steps of how you can sign up on CJ as an affiliate, I will tell you a bit about the platform, so you realise how powerful it is.
CJ Affiliate or Commission Junction was founded by Lex Sisney and Per Pettersen in Santa Barbara, California In 1998.
It is the world’s largest affiliate platform and has the most established Affiliate Marketing ecosystem.
CJ Affiliate has over 167,000 publishers or affiliates promoting their products to a worldwide audience.
CJ Affiliate is the world’s 2nd biggest affiliate platform, after Amazon Associates.
In India, it is the 6th most popular affiliate platform.
CJ Affiliate is trusted by over 3,800 brands globally, including:
- CNN
- Barnes & Noble
- Blue Apron
- Overstock
- Office Depot
- Intuit Turbotax
- BuzzFeed
Talking about numbers, with CJ Affiliate you can expect huge results:
- Affiliates of CJ drive more than 1 billion global visitors to their platforms every month.
- CJ Affiliates generate more than 157 million online and offline transactions.
- Affiliate Marketers generate more than $16 billion annually.
How Can You Become A Commission Junction (CJ) Affiliate?
Now, I will share the steps that you can follow to sign up as an Affiliate on CJ Affiliate.
NOTE: The steps illustrated are for desktops and laptops.
Step 1: Go To CJ Affiliate
To start creating your CJ Affiliate account, go to https://www.cj.com/.
Step 2: Sign Up
Now, click “Sign Up” on the top-right corner of your screen.
Step 3: Publisher Sign Up
Affiliate Marketers are publishers and if you want to earn commission promoting CJ Affiliate’s products, click “Sign Up” under the “Publishers” section.
Step 4: Become A CJ Publisher
On the “Become A CJ Publisher” page:
- Select the language in which you want to see the details.
- Select the country where you live.
- Enter the email you want to use for accessing CJ Affiliate.
- Enter the password to log into CJ Affiliate.
- Check the “I’m not a robot” captcha.
Once you have entered all the requested credentials, click “Verify Email”.
After clicking “Verify Email”, you will receive a verification link on the email you entered.
Step 5: Open Your Email
Open the email with the subject “CJ Affiliate publisher sign-up – please confirm email”.
Within the email, click the “Create My CJ Publisher Account” button.
Step 6: CJ Affiliate Publisher Agreements
After clicking the “Create My CJ Publisher Account” button, you will be directed to the CJ Affiliate Publisher Agreements page.
On this page, check the age verification checkboxes.
Then, click the Publisher Service Agreement link. Upon clicking the link, a page will open in a new tab. Read the agreement, close the tab, and click “Accept Agreement”.
Then, click the Software Policy link, read the policy statement, and click “Accept Agreement”.
Lastly, click the Privacy Policy link, read the policy statement, and click “Accept Agreement”.
After you have checked the age verification checkboxes and accepted the Publisher Service Agreement, Software Policy, and Privacy Policy, you will see a “Continue To Account” button at the bottom-right corner of your screen.
Click the “Click To Account” button.
Step 7: Login To CJ Affiliate
After completing the CJ Affiliate Publisher Agreements, you will land on the Log in page.
On this page, enter the email and password and click “Log In”.
You can also watch this video for a step-by-step walkthrough of each step covered until now.
Upon successful login, you will see the below pop-up. (The pop-up appears only after the first login.)
In the pop-up, click “Get Started”.
There are a total of 7 steps to be completed for activating your CJ Affiliate account. Verifying your email was the first step.
Now, let’s look at the remaining steps.
Step 8: Add User Information
Now, the next step is to enter your information. So to enter your information, click “Add User Information”.
Then, you will see a “Complete User Profile” pop-up. Click “Next”.
Now, you will see details, such as:
- Name
- Verified
- User Type
- Phone
- Title
- Partner Contract
- General
- Advertiser
Please note that a few fields will be prefilled and you’d have to enter details in the remaining fields.
So to add the remaining details, click the pencil icon at the right of your screen.
When you click the pencil icon, you will see a pop-up asking for your password. Enter your password and click “Submit”.
After entering your password, you will be allowed to enter the remaining details:
- First Name
- Last Name
- Phone
After entering the details, click “Save” at the bottom-right of your screen.
Now, click the “Onboarding Checklist” button at the top-right of your screen to complete the remaining steps.
Step 9: Network Profile
The next step is to complete your network profile.
To complete your network profile, click the “Complete Profile” button.
Upon clicking “Complete Profile”, you will see a pop-up. Click “Next”.
Now, to add your network profile, click on the edit icon to the right of “Network Profile.”
Then, you need to describe your business model. You are needed to tell about your strengths, business goals, promotion and traffic generation strategy, etc. in between 250 and 4,000 characters.
When I was signing up on CJ Affiliate, I ensured I covered the below points:
- A bit about my business
- How I will add value to my audience’s lives
- How I will generate traffic – organic and paid
- My mission statement
You can consider the above points as a template to describe your business model, okay?
Once you have written your business model, click “Save” at the bottom-right of your screen.
Now, click “Onboarding Checklist” for completing the remaining steps.
Step 10: Add A Promotional Property
Now, the next step is to define your promotional property. To add your promotional property, click the “Add Property” button.
When the new page loads, you will see the “Add a promotional property” pop-up. Click “Next”.
Now, click “Create Property”.
This step is divided into 4 substeps.
Step 10.1: Type Of Property
The first substep is to define the type of your property. Here, you are asked to define how you will promote the affiliate products to your audience.
You can choose only one from the following properties:
- Website
- Social
- Mobile App
- Browser Extension
- Paid Display Ads
- Paid Search Engine Marketing
- I do not see my property type listed here
If you have a website, select “Website” and paste the URL of your website. However, if you do not have a website, but wish to create one, this post will help you.
If you do not have a website but are actively promoting from social media, you can select “Social” and paste the URL for your Facebook page, YouTube channel, etc.
Step 10.2: Define The Promotional Model
Now, the second substep is to define your promotional model or to specify how you will present information to your audience.
You can select multiple items from the below list:
- Content/Blog/Media
- Coupon/Deal
- Product Comparison, Reviews, or Discovery
- Loyalty – Cash Back
- Loyalty – Closed User Group
- Trademark Bidding
- Influencer
- Pay Per Call
- I do not see my promotional model listed here
If you promote your products through a website or a social media account, you can select:
- Content/Blog/Media
- Product Comparison, Reviews, or Discovery
- Influencer (If you promote through social media influencers)
Step 10.3: Promotional Property Name
Now, in the third substep, you give a name to the promotional property. Please keep this name simple, preferably, your own name, okay?
If you wish, you can also add a description of the promotional property. It is optional and while setting up my CJ Affiliate account, I left it blank.
Step 10.4: Specify Tags
Now, we move to the fourth substep. In this substep, you need to select tags for your promotional property.
Tags, in simple words, are keywords people can type to find you. I am an Affiliate Marketer and Coach, so I typed the following keywords (you can enter multiple keywords by pressing enter after each tag):
- Affiliate Marketing
- Influencer Marketing
- Traffic Generation
- Content Creation
- Copywriting
- Blogging
- Facebook Ads
- Google Analytics
- Affiliate Marketing On YouTube
Similarly, you can type the keywords related to your niche, okay?
Once you have selected the type of promotional property, defined your promotional model, given it a name, and typed the tags, you need to click “Submit” at the top-right of your screen.
After clicking “Submit”, your promotional property will be created and you will an overview of it.
Now, to proceed, click the “X” icon at the top-right of your screen to go to the onboarding page.
Step 11: Enter Company Details & Submit Tax Details
This is an extremely crucial step, so read every word carefully!
This is the step where a majority of Affiliate Marketers or publishers get stuck.
To add your company details and tax details, click “Submit Forms”.
Now, you will see a “Complete Account Details & Submit Tax Info” pop-up. Within that pop-up, click “Next”.
This step is divided into 2 substeps.
Step 11.1: Company Details / Account
In the first substep, you need to enter your company details.
To enter your company details, click the edit icon to the right of the “Account” section.
Upon clicking the edit icon, you will see a pop-up asking you for your password. Type your password and click “Submit” to add your company details, okay?
Now, you’d be able to enter the following details:
- Organization Name: Enter the name of your company. If you do not have a company, you can enter your name.
- Address: Enter the address of your company. If you do not have a company, enter your residential address.
- City or Town (Optional)
- State, Province, or County (Optional)
- Postal Code (PIN Code) (Optional)
- Country
- Phone Number
- Fax Number (Optional)
- Functional Currency (Optional): The currency in which you will want to view your earnings or commissions.
- Language (Optional)
- Date Format: You can choose a date in one of the below formats:
- d-MMM-yyyy (21-Aug-2023)
- MM-dd-yyyy (08-21-2023)
- dd-MM-yyyy (21-08-2023)
Although a few of the fields are optional, try to enter all the details.
Now, click “Save” at the bottom-right of your screen. If you have entered everything correctly, the information will be saved.
That’s about the first substep.
Step 11.2: Tax Information
In the second substep, you need to enter your tax details.
Be careful on this step! This is the most crucial step!
To enter your tax information, click the edit icon to the right of “Tax Information”.
When you click the edit icon, you will see a pop-up asking for your password. Enter your password and click “Submit”.
After entering your password, you will see a pop-up asking you to select the tax document based on your country.
If you are from the US, click “W-9 Request…”. If you are not a US citizen, click the “Certificate of No United States Activities” link.
Since I am not a US citizen, I will share the steps the non-US citizens will see.
Upon clicking “Certificate of No United States Activities”, you will see a pop-up requesting you to enter the payee’s name and signature.
If you have a company, enter the company name in the “Payee Name” field. If you do not have a company, enter your name.
Inside the signature, enter your name or the name you entered in Step 8: Add User Information.
Now, click “Submit Form”.
You have now entered your company details and submitted the tax form.
Now, click “Onboarding Checklist” and let’s go to the next step.
Step 12: Payment Information
After entering your company details and submitting the tax form, you will need to enter the payment details.
The payment details are required to pay you for the revenue and commissions that you generate.
To add your payment information, click the “Add Payment Information” button on the onboarding page.
Now, you will see the same page as in the previous step. But this time, you need to edit the “Payment Information” section.
After editing, you will be asked for your password. Enter the password and click “Submit” to add your payment information.
In some cases, you will be asked to enter the verification code to proceed. The verification code will be sent to your registered email.
The first thing you need to enter now is the minimum payment amount. Here, you specify when you want the amount to be deposited into your account.
You can keep an amount between $50 and $1,000. For example, if you enter 75, the amount will be deposited into your account only when you earn at least $75, okay?
Now, select the currency that will be used to view your earnings. You can keep any currency that you want.
NOTE: Your earnings will be converted to the currency that you choose. For example, if you choose INDIA (INR) as your currency, your earnings will be converted to INR.
Let’s say you earned $50. Since your default currency is INR, $50 will be converted into INR, okay?
Now, select the account type as either “Checking” or “Savings”.
The next step is the Routing Number/Sort Code. Within Routing Number/Sort Code, enter your respective bank code.
You can refer to this document for finding your Routing Number. If you want to find your Sort Code, you can refer to this document.
If you are Indian, these codes will be the SWIFT Codes. If you want to find the SWIFT Code of your bank, you can refer to this tool.
Then, enter your bank account number.
After entering your account number, enter the name of your bank.
After entering all the details, click “Save” at the bottom-right of your screen. If you have entered everything correctly, your information will be saved.
Now, click “Onboarding Checklist” to complete the remaining steps.
Step 13: Answer Some Questions
You are almost set! Now, you need to answer some questions to help CJ Affiliate set you on the right path.
The questions are simple “Yes/No” type questions and you can answer all of them in about 60 seconds.
To answer the questions, click “Answer Now” and answer each question.
To help you, I will share what I answered in each question.
Q. 1. Do you run a network that other publishers join where they can promote brands or merchants?
Answer: No
They want to know if you have an Affiliate Platform like CJ Affiliate, Amazon Associates, JVZoo, etc. If you have such a platform, answer “Yes”, otherwise “No”.
Q. 2. Do you or do you plan to drive traffic and conversions via a browser extension, add-on, or toolbar?
Answer: No
Q. 3. Do you run or work for an agency where you represent multiple separate publishers or content creators?
Answer: No
Q. 4. Do you have a rate card or specific placements you’d like to advertise?
Answer: No
After answering all the questions, click “Submit Answers”.
Once every step is complete, click “Activate Account”.
If you followed every step as I requested, your account will be activated successfully! You will see a pop-up acknowledging a successful account activation.
To start promoting CJ Affiliate’s products, click “Got It” in the pop-up and get started!
Conclusion
In today’s post, I told you a bit about a popular affiliate platform, Commission Junction or CJ Affiliate and also walked you through the steps for becoming a CJ affiliate.
I have been a CJ affiliate for a couple of years and I have found extremely helpful products on the platform.
The products I found not only provided value to my audience but also helped them overcome their problems.
Now, it’s your turn to follow the steps and create your CJ Affiliate account.
Go back to the steps, set up your account, and tell me in the comments box if your account was activated successfully!
As a bonus, I would love to give you my premium Affiliate Marketing course worth ₹4,999 for absolutely FREE!
Click the below button and enrol on the free course, now!
