[UncleScooter]

When compared to your past four weeks' income, how much are you down or up?

[ToddCrawford]

The upgrade hasn't cost anyone anything. Tracking was not affected, nor part of what was upgraded. Currently, reporting is delayed by about 20 hours. This is the only issue with the latest upgrade and we are working to resolve this.

[Ron Bechdolt]

My sales are good. Upgrade has not cost me anything...I'm just having to be patient while reporting catches up. Yesterday was a great day and I can't wait for reporting to catch up to see how well I really did.

Todd, it might be helpful if you posted again how the tracking and reporting actually works so folks understand what all is happening. I know it really helped me to understand that sales are not being lost, they are just delayed. (btw, thanks for your many updates here to keep us informed...it is really appreciated)

[UncleScooter]

I too maintain that it has not cost me sales, but a LOT of publishers maintain that it has.
At this point, the poll is split right down the middle with 8 reporting even or increased sales and 8 reporting a loss in sales.
I could have worded the question in a more generic way I guess. If so, my bad. No harm intended. I am only curious to see how many publishers truly feel like their sales are getting lost in the backlog.

[ToddCrawford]

There are many tracking servers responsible for serving ads, redirecting clicks and capturing transaction data. Each operates independently and periodically batches its information (impressions, clicks and txns) to the main database. Here the various pieces of data are consumed into the database and made available for reporting. The system is set up to consume the data at just under 1 hour intervals. Under normal circumstances, your reporting is never more than 1:30 behind real-time. In the event that the database or members area is unavailable to either consume data or report it, the tracking servers hold the data until the database is available again. Once the data base is caught up, reporting will be caught up. We designed the entire system to be very robust, redundant and scalable. If one piece is brought down for maintenance or an upgrade, the rest can still operate and things will catch up again once everything is back online.

Nothing gets "lost in the backlog".

I hope this helps.

[UncleScooter]

It appears that clicks are still being reported as usual. Is the click data and the transaction data reported seperately?
I often see a load of clicks come through, then an hour or so later I see sales come through.
What is the relationship between how clicks are reported and sales are reported?

[matlok]

Thanks Todd, Great information. Now I have a good idea of how it works

[Snib]

Seems like CJ is down right now. I can't seem to log in.

- Scott

[Ron Bechdolt]

Yes, Todd, thanks for that information.

[matlok]

No login problems here

[inasisi]

Todd,

Thanks a lot for taking the time to explain to us how the reporting works. It definitely allays some of our fears about missed transactions.

Just one more question, is the statistics that we see under the "Performance Reports" near real time or is there likely to be delay in that too?

[BrattyKitty]

The upgrade hasn't affected my sites negatively. There's a slight delay in the sales reports but everything is as well as can be expected.

[voloda]

Originally Posted by ToddCrawford

There are many tracking servers responsible for serving ads, redirecting clicks and capturing transaction data. Each operates independently and periodically batches its information (impressions, clicks and txns) to the main database. ...

And this may be the reason some Affiliates are doing fine while some are not. It looks like during these issues some servers are affcted and the sales is slow. I am not sure if this was an issue caused by CJ or if it was a problem with my sites but in these 2 days I was looking for issues on my sites and I couldn't see CJ ads. Other network ads were visible (Google adsense and small indy). I turned off Norton's ad blocking and the ads were still not showing. Then few hours later the ads were there. The ads were off and on in the last couple of days. Todd, is it possible that some affiliates are having slow sales because CJ servers are not showing the ads?

[ticketguyz]

For once I agree with Voloda. If the sales that are showing up at CJ are supposed to be everything through 10pm yesterday (that's the latest showing for me right now), then no way is that everything. My usual conversion rate is 11% and it's now showing 4.5%, and it never drops below 9%. There is no possible way that all sales were tracked if that's the case.

[Chocolate_Chicken]

"The upgrade hasn't cost anyone anything."

Your clients lose plenty of traffic and sales when we turn the PPC campaigns off. I have no qualms about spending a few hundred per day on PPC action, and there are others who would spend several thousand per day, but with CJ in its current state, I wouldn't spend a wooden nickel on a click from a compulsive buyer with a million disposable dollars.

"reporting is delayed by about 20 hours"

Last Saturday and Sunday are still a gaping wound.

[Billy Kay]

'bout a year ago, when reports weren't working, we all complained "Why the hec wasn't there even a notice about it on CJ"

And the listened.

A little notice appeared on the home page says "Something vague is amiss/tracking is not affected"

Then we complained that we didn't like the vague message, and that it was old and not updated.

And CJ listened.

When I logged on, these was a "less vague" message, and relatively recent update to it.

Everything man builds... breaks.

C'mon! How many times does cable go out and you have to work with dialup.

Point is: CJ admits there's something wrong

and they listened to us when we said "Can you tell us what's up?"

You deal with it - and you move on!

[Grumpy]

It's always the same jargon with CJ: "Tracking and recording of transactions remains fully functional....".

Gee why don't I believe this for one moment? Give me a break!! The fact that reporting is delayed by 20 hours is certainly an indication that things are going horribly wrong somewhere, and have been for some time now.

[Cagles Mill]

At least part of the problem is due to CJ having a credibility gap. Todd wants us to believe that eBates, WhenU, ScreenSavers and the other parasites are all fine upstanding corporations AND that "tracking is not affected". If CJ ever admits that parasites are indeed parasites and dump them, then people might start believing it when they are told that tracking is working. In the meantime, saying that tracking is not affected is just meaningless gibberish.

[inetsol]

I also agree with voloda. There is no other reasonable explanation.. You make in average $150 in commissions 4 days in a row and then 2 consecutive days you are barely on $20! and after that back to the normal (above $120 a day). What would you think?

[Airstrip]

with Voloda and with the previous post.... I too was averaging in excess of 100 bucks a day and now I am at $15!! The last upgrade was even worse, not to say that this one isn't heading that direction. My EPC last upgrade went from $28 to 3 bucks. Buy CJ said, all my sales looked normal. Sooooo as much as I want to have faith in CJ., I am very concerned about who's interest are in mind here. Sign up must be strong. I suppose If I closed up shop that 3 more would sign up. So no big loss to CJ.

[Billy Kay]

I also have non-affiliate sites and I can say that even though traffic is steady - sales fluctuate widely - why? no idea. They do - they always have.

As affiliates, we send xxxx amount of visitors to a merchant, and only two convert.

We're left to guess as to why? And as everyone knows, there's a myriad of possibilities.

It would be sooooo cool if we were allowed to follow the cookie trail all the way thru the merchants site and see where the visitor goes - do they even get to the shopping cart?

If we knew our visitor only visits one merchant page and then leaves, we can assume merchant has an ill-concieved website and swap them out.

If we knew each visitor we sent to a merchant spends an average of 22 minates at their shopping cart, yet no sales are ever credited, we can assume we're being ripped off and swap out.

But no one will ever tell us what happens after someone leaves our site - for a variety of reasons.

So for the near future, we're left to guess and go with our gut.

Gonna go see the new Wynn casino - have a good one everybody!

[Abigail]

Hey Todd, you got any more wine left in that bottle?

[ticketguyz]

I've seen only 12 hour delays, but I haven't seen anything post for event dates past 1am pst. Anyone else seeing any action (or 20 hour delays?). It better be more than 20 cuz I'm still missing A LOT from yesterday...

[UncleScooter]

I am missing a lot from yesterday and I have not seen anything post in the past 8 hours and I have 35-40 CJ transactions every day. I officially change my stance on this. Something is wrong here. No doubt about it.

[Infoseeker]

Originally Posted by UncleScooter

I am missing a lot from yesterday and I have not seen anything post in the past 8 hours and I have 35-40 CJ transactions every day. I officially change my stance on this. Something is wrong here. No doubt about it.

I agree, I want to change my vote to a major money loss.