CJ Affiliate Review 2026 for Beginners! How to Get Approved!

This post was originally published in [2020] and has been fully updated for 2026 with new data and tools.

Affiliate marketing has changed drastically this year, and what worked in 2024 will get you banned today.

This CJ Affiliate Review 2026 for Beginners breaks down the essential website requirements you need to meet to survive the latest AI-driven algorithm updates.

Whether you’re a blogger or a social media influencer, this guide (and our free approval checklist tool) is your shortcut to becoming a top-tier CJ publisher.

You can get approved to be a publisher with Commission Junction by being over the age of 18 and owning a website. Each merchant has their own requirements, which they will review your website manually or sometimes automatically. 

Keep reading, and I’ll share some tips on how to improve your chances of getting approved.

The Honest Pros and Cons of CJ Affiliate for New Bloggers in 2026

Pros

• There are many premium brands on the network.
• 25-year record of paying on time and are reliable.
• You can promote many brands and receive 1 payment from CJ. It’s nice and simple!
• Advanced reporting to see what is working and not.

Cons

• If you don’t earn a commission within 6 months, they may deactivate your account.
• If you don’t earn a commission, they could charge you dormant fees.
• Not beginner-friendly.
• Not only do you have get approved to the network, each merchant has to approve you.
• You also have to compete against large websites for the same brands.

The 2026 Blueprint for Instant Commission Junction Network Approval

• Discription

After CJ approves your account, merchants still have to approve you, and CJ requires a 250-word description. This is where you pitch yourself to advertisers.

It’s good to talk about your experience, like I have a YouTube channel or a blog. Talk about how you get traffic, what you talk about, and how they can benefit.

• Blogging Must Have Pages

You need a privacy page, an affiliate disclosure, and terms of service. I talk more about these pages in this post.

Without these pages, you probably will automatically get rejected.

Verify your Property

• You have to verify your properties (like your website). Accounts with unverified properties usually don’t get approved.

Email

• A domain-based email looks better and gets higher approval. Email from Yahoo or gmail don’t look as good.

• Low Barrier brands

Look for smaller niches to build up your Network Earnings. When you have a history of sales, apply to bigger brands like Apple or Nike.

• Content

Ensure you have at least 10 high-quality blog posts or videos before you start applying.

CJ Affiliate Website Requirements: How to Pass the Network Audit

How can I get approved without a website? What you should do if you get rejected. Plus, how to find the best programs to promote.

Step 1

The first step to getting approved for Commission Junction is to figure out how you’re going to get traffic. Here are a few ideas that can help you.

• Blogging
• Twitter
• Youtube
• TikTok
• Paid Ads
• Podcasting
• Facebook
• Other Social Media
• Offline

I’ve gotten website traffic using ALL these methods.

What I recommend is to start backwards, and this means to create a landing page. What is so great about a landing page is that you can build a list and you own the traffic.

Plus more benefits such as…

• Can promote multiple offers
• Can contact someone WAY in the future
• Promote your other content
• Do list swaps
• Easier to get accepted into affiliate programs
• MUCH higher conversion rate
• Great for launching products
• Get valuable feedback
• Protects you from algorithmic changes
• More personalized marketing

Even better, I’m giving away FREE guides on how to build a landing page, build a list, and make money from the list HERE.

You might be wondering, how do you get traffic to the landing page? Well, anything can work, and most things can work, but I really enjoy and recommend short videos to start with.

They are very easy to make, and all you need is your phone. All the editing is fun, quick, and easy.

Plus, they get boatloads of views for little effort.

Even better, you can take 1 TikTok video, download it, and then re-upload it to other places. I go over this in way more detail in this post HERE.

It’s not a bad idea to get a little traffic first before signing up to promote offers.

It doesn’t hurt to have a few ideas on what you’re going to promote before getting traffic too. The reason why is that there is NO point in getting traffic if there is NO way for you to make money from it.

Plus, putting the pieces together on how you’re going to get paid, could help motivate you.

Step 2

The next step for you to do is to sign up for CJ.

Next, sign all the terms that CJ wants you to sign. You do have to click on the blue link and scroll to the bottom before you can click on the accept agreement button.

Then, go to continue to the account and log in with your username and password. Now you have to fill out more fun forms.

These forms are things such as how you’re going to get paid, tax forms, and information about how you’re going to promote offers.

CJ offers 3 ways for you to get paid. You can get paid with a check, direct deposit, or with Payoneer.

The catch is that you have to meet the minimum payment threshold to get your first payment.

For direct deposit and Payoneer, the minimum balance is $50. If you choose to get paid with a check, the minimum amount is $100.

Now that you have filled out all this information, the next step for you to do is to view different merchants’ affiliate programs.

Step 3

Here comes the fun part of viewing offers. All you have to do is go to the top menu and click on Advertisers

You can narrow your search with categories or keywords. To the right of each merchant is a button that says apply to the program.

Simply click on that button and follow the steps of each program.

3 Secrets to Get Approved by CJ Merchants Fast (2026 Edition)

It’s frustrating to apply for a program only to be stuck in pending or denied. Here are some ideas to improve your chances.

Your profile description is a great place to sell yourself. The way to sell yourself is to give the merchant what it wants. What does the merchant want? It wants traffic.

If you have a blog and it’s getting (this much____) page views, you should say this in your profile. If you have a YouTube channel that has (this much ___) subscribers and views, you should mention this.

If you have a Twitter account or Facebook Page with (this much ___) followers, then you should mention this.

If you have a list, then talk about it.

If you can ethically get traffic, then this will improve your chances of getting approved.

Step-by-Step Guide: Getting Your First CJ Merchant Account Approved

Some merchants automatically reject applications. This means you should send an email after you get rejected and explain why they should choose you.

If you don’t have a website, you can still get approved if you have a solid marketing plan.

A great idea is to send a personal video explaining how you will make the merchant money. By making this video, you are already proving to do what most people “will not do.”

This sets you above the competition.

Plus, a video makes you seem personal and helps you build a relationship with whoever is in charge of getting you approved.

How to Appeal a CJ Merchant Rejection: Step-by-Step Recovery Guide

If you still get rejected now, it’s time to bring out the big guns. Yeah, you can ask CJ to pitch on your behalf.

Most affiliates have access to a recruitment service. This is where CJ pitches our account on your half. All you have to do is send an email to pubdev@cj.com.

Another idea is to just keep asking the merchant if you can promote their offers. This reminds me of a great book called “I’ll stop talking when I’m dead.”

The author Jerry Weintraub wanted to take Elvis the musician on tour, and so he called his manager at 6 AM. The first time he called the manager, he was told no.

Jerry didn’t give up but continued to call the manager every day for a year (yeah, a whole year). After a year, the manager let him take Elvis on tour.

Yeah, don’t give up after 1 attempt if you want to get approved, just keep trying.

Another thing to think about is to ONLY apply for programs you are going to promote. Merchants see TONS and TONS of applications in a week.

If you don’t plan on promoting an affiliate offer, then don’t apply. This helps save everyone’s time, which is valuable.

How to Find High-EPC Affiliate Programs on CJ for Beginners

When it comes to finding the right offer, I’m a fan of promoting products you have experience in. It’s best if you can purchase the product and use it yourself.

The main thing is that you feel good sharing it. Would you share the product with your mom or a close friend? Do you feel guilty if you don’t share it? These are things to think about.

This way, your enthusiasm for the product can be transmitted to your product. It also helps you market the product, and you know the product doesn’t suck. 

Of course, you don’t have to use a product to market it. If you haven’t used the product, you can always be honest and tell your prospect this.

You could explain why you would purchase the item and what you like about it.

Another thing to look at is how popular the offer is selling. CJ uses something known as Earnings Per Click, or EPC for short.

EPC stands for earnings per click per 100 clicks. If you send 100 clicks to the merchant’s website and you earn $100 in commissions, it would be $100 EPC.

CJ also uses 7-day EPC and 3-month EPC. The 7-day EPC is created by taking information starting yesterday and going back 7 days. CJ takes the sum of all clicks for the same 7 days, then multiple this by 100.

The 7-day EPC gives you a good idea of the average EPC recently.

The 3-month EPC is also good to know. This data is created and updated every day. Using information from 5 months previous to 3 months.

An EPC rating in June is created using data from January, February, and March. The reason CJ creates the data 5 months prior is so they can account for refunds.

There must be 1000 clicks for the 3-month EPC and at least 100 clicks for the 7-day EPC. If not enough clicks are reached, then the amount will be N/A.

Also, look at the sales page. Would you be proud of promoting this offer? If you have experience using the product, then that is even better.

If you like the product, EPC is good, and you like the sales page, then ask to get approved to promote it. Again, there are thousands of offers you can promote, so it’s ok to pass on something if you’re unsure.

Closing: CJ Affiliate Review 2026 for Beginners!

CJ is just 1 affiliate network.

Another idea that I’m a fan of is CPA marketing. This means you get paid if someone fills out a form or downloads a free video game.

The largest CPA marketplace is not easy to get into, and I share cheat sheets on how to join them in this post HERE.

I hope this post on how to get approved with Commission Junction was helpful. Have a nice day.