[blakekri]

I don't use CJ much and am not very familiar with its ins and outs. There is one advertiser on there who has a few products I would really, really like to market individually. They would definitely sell. The problem is this merchant hasn't uploaded a feed and all they offer are generic HP and category links.

Is there SOME kind of magic incantation/workaround I can do to promote an actual specific product for this merchant? Yes, I've asked the AM, no response yet and I don't think they are too savvy about feeds, and not too likely to get on this before the season is over.

Thanks so much ...

[jodyq]

Hmm. This is just a suggestion. In the Get links section of CJ, search for the product you want, there might be another advertiser who has that product, if they do apply for the program!

[CathyM]

Some Advertisers have a work around. Go to the Advertisers' View Links. Find a text link. Get HTML and see if there is a field for Destination URL. If there is, you can build your own links to any page.

I haven't found a way to search for this type of link - anyone else, is there a way to search? I find them by checking links to see if its there.

[blakekri]

Originally Posted by CathyM

Some Advertisers have a work around. Go to the Advertisers' View Links. Find a text link. Get HTML and see if there is a field for Destination URL. If there is, you can build your own links to any page.

I haven't found a way to search for this type of link - anyone else, is there a way to search? I find them by checking links to see if its there.

Thanks Cathy, I thought I heard there was something like that, if not an actual deep linking tool. This merchant doesn't have it but at least now I know what to look for. Thanks again

[blakekri]

Yes they DO have it, I am an idiot. THANKS!!

[writerguy]

Originally Posted by blakekri

Yes they DO have it, I am an idiot. THANKS!!

Hey, glad you found what you were looking for.

I had fits a few weeks ago with a very similar problem. A merchant I use a lot and made some steady income with closed their SAS program and required all affiliates to join their CJ program.

Problem was, I could NOT find a way to generate text links to some specific products and pages from the merchant via CJ.

I never actually found a good answer. Is there any way you can elaborate more on just what you did or found so as to offer some guidance to the rest of us troubled, frustrated CJ affiliates??

[CathyM]

writerguy, I think blakekri followed the instructions in my post.

P.S. Always be sure to test the link. I have one merchant with a very out of date datafeed, tried to build a link today with a destination url and could not get it to work. I have other merchants that it works perfectly for.

[AffiliateHound]

You have to be careful with CJ merchants (same for LS) who have product links but not to certain products. In many cases it is because they specifically do not want affiliates linking to those products, and will not pay commissions for those products. Cooking.com use to have that policy and Macy's on LS is another one that still does.

If it were me, I'd make sure with the merchant or am before spending time building those links and building pages for them.

[blakekri]

Originally Posted by writerguy

Hey, glad you found what you were looking for.

I had fits a few weeks ago with a very similar problem. A merchant I use a lot and made some steady income with closed their SAS program and required all affiliates to join their CJ program.

Problem was, I could NOT find a way to generate text links to some specific products and pages from the merchant via CJ.

I never actually found a good answer. Is there any way you can elaborate more on just what you did or found so as to offer some guidance to the rest of us troubled, frustrated CJ affiliates??

Yes, follow Cathy's instructions and you will see the field she's talking about if the merchant's account provides it.

EDITED: just figured out how to post a pic, maybe

[Robert Drumm]

When I create custom feeds, I use a CJ tracking link with ?url= product page. It works like a charm.

http://www.CJTRACKINGURL.net/click-YOURPID-CJCREATIVEID?url=ENTER-URL-WITH-HTTP-INCLUDED

You can find an example on our CJ feed generator - http://www.aclens.com/cj_feed_generator.asp

So far it's worked like a charm and I assume it does with other CJ merchants but as with anything, test your links just in case.

Bob

[Rexanne]

It would be awfully helpful if CJ gave affiliates the tools to effectively work with their merchants ... like giving us a way to create a link to any product or page on a merchant partner's site, like SAS and Avantlink do.

Why is it that they don't? Used to be easy to get specific product links before CJ started charging for data feed access. Doesn't make sense to me. The more we sell, the more CJ makes but I guess they'd rather take the upfront money for data feed access NOW than consider a long term business model that will prove effective for the long haul.

[writerguy]

Thanks for those who gave specific instructions, etc., above. I also wonder about the issues AffiliateHound brought up: How can we be sure we are even allowed to link to a specific product in a CJ merchant's offerings?

I read several places on the CJ help pages and TOS stuff a couple of months ago when this issue first came up for me. According to something I read, strictly speaking we are not supposed to create our own links without specific permission from the merchant involved regarding the product involved.

I wish I could link to the info I'm referring to. At the time, I emailed the affiliate manager for the merchant I was concerned about -- but I never got a response, as I recall.

I personally would hate to create a custom link to a merchant's individual product, only to be in violation of some TOS or merchant policy or wishes. As AffiliateHound mentioned, there's always the possibility the merchant doesn't want us as affiliates selling a specific product.

I'm with Rexanne on this one, too: I think CJ is horrible about providing really usable, specific tools for many of the merchants. Not sure it's CJ's fault, probably as much the fault of ignorance by the merchant. But it does seem to me CJ merchants in general haven't a clue about making really useful tools available via CJ. *sigh* Nobody said it would be easy, did they? LOL!