The Web Authority

Commission Junction is one of the biggest services for webmasters to make money with their sites on the web, but I have to tell you I personally feel that they are very difficult to work with.

One, they have this infuriating policy about disabling your account for non-activity, but non-activity in their eyes. I have to tell you, you should watch your account regularly. Then have you tried to use their reporting system? Talk about non-user friendly!

For me, I am a Yahoo Ambassador and so get a preferential commission rate for Yahoo Search Marketing sign ups. Yahoo had moved into a CJ managed program earlier this year, and that’s when my problems started.

Currently I have Yahoo and CJ working to resolve my problem, but am I hopeful that it will be fixed and be paid? Actually no I am not. I will most likely not be paid for any activity that had occured in my account in the last 6 months because of a glitch in their system that approved me and sent me a welcome letter, but in their control panel denied me. I am currently going around and around with them and am getting exhausted by it.

The biggest problem that I see is that Yahoo has outsourced this important aspect of their business. Google has this all done in house with their own AdSense program for Google AdWords, and Yahoo really should take notes. By outsourcing their commission payment for referral programs they have brought in a cadre of people who really don’t care if someone is frustrated and drops their program.

The amount of contact to try to resolve a problem is just unbelievable. So far I have worked with Yahoo’s Ambassador team at Kowabunga, (they outsource this aspect too – shame on you Yahoo), and Yahoo directly, as well as the Yahoo team at CJ (who from my point of view is totally in the dark).

Okay I’m done with my rant for the day, but good grief, the web is rife with complaints about Commissions Junction and this is just another one.

Here is one tip though. If your Commission Junction account does get deactivated at CJ, get on the phone and get with Technical Support. Here is the Commission Junction phone number 800-761-1072 and boy was it hard to get! They can actually re enable it for you to give you another chance. As for me, this is it. If I get deactivated, I will go back to my regular program and get rid of all CJ links.

Are you using one? I just got a webcam and think that it is great. I will be doing a piece in my next e-newsletter on how to install it and use it. But in the mean time, I sure am having fun trying to figure out how to effectively use it.

The web and many blogs are moving into video. You see them all over the web, the static image with the big arrow on top. There are no easy tutorials on the web on how to add video to your blog, but I will be testing how to do this in the next several days, so look for additional information on how to add video to your blog as well. Whether I will be able to eventually create my own video for my blog remains to be seen, but I’ll keep trying and post one if I can only figure it out.

For those of you who are logging into my blog to read the news, I am here to tell you, my content can be delivered to you at your My Yahoo, My AOL, My Live Page, or My Google page. Just click the post title to view our 12 page visual PDF presentation on how to get going with RSS/XML feeds and never have to log into my blog again to see my content.

Oh, I will miss you :0) but if you are not actively reviewing news feeds and blogs online using a portal, you are missing the efficiency that they afford to read a lot of news in small bites and then only click in to a site when you want to.

Here is the direct link to the visual guide: http://www.mccordweb.com/pdfs/feed-lesson.pdf.

In this PDF you will see visually how to set up a My Yahoo account, auto-subscribe to a feed using a one-click icon, how to subscribe to a feed by grabbing the feed URL and where to enter this on My Yahoo. I think it will make it easy for you to get going fast.

As for me, I have made it easy for you to subscribe, just click the link in the right bar and you can choose to auto subscribe or snatch the feed address. Either way, I may never see you here again, but I’ll see you on your My Yahoo page!