CJ’s new Link Management Initiative has caused more speculation, conspiracy theories and noise than our industry has seen for a quite some time. (See previous article for overview: Affiliates Up in Arms About MAJOR Link Changes at CJ. Ever since Todd Crawford, the “Voice of CJ” left the company, affiliates and even some merchants that live in the forums, have felt like they have been left in the cold when important issues come up.

I feel that that due to CJ’s lack of info, answers and unwillingness to participate in forum or blog discussions - CJ is NOT is not in control of the facts or the conversation - everyone else IS! Well since all the negative buzz hit, they did just add an FAQ, which helps to address just a couple of the questions and concerns flying around the forums and the blogosphere. However most people still feel like ‘mushrooms’ left in the dark, which creates stinky fertilizer that feeds the proliferation of even more rumors and speculation.

Although CJ has not commented on any of the USA forums I know of, they have made some comments to the press. This from Clickz: A Change at Commission Junction Raises Affiliate Ire “Every time there’s a change, it’s going to cause a little bit of noise… We anticipated that,” commented Frank Gerstenderger, director of product management at Commission Junction. Gerstenderger stressed that those legacy links won’t be disabled for months. In fact, he said the company will notify clients six months in advance before the links go dead; that announcement will come “sometime in near future.” He later adds training will be provide to affiliates and “We don’t want it to be too disruptive to their businesses.” (Bold added by me.)

Over at the UK Affiliate Forum affiliates and merchants are at least getting the benefit of some replies from Matt Reid, a CJ UK representative. Here are some of the comments he’s made about the situation over there at the 4 page CJ Link Management Initiative thread. However no one from CJ has weighed in yet on this UK forum thread. Goodbye CJ.

OTHER Blogs, Articles and Threads on the topic.

In the same Clickz article and over at Marketing Vox as well as in his own blog, Jeff Molander says that this is in effect CJ’s attempt to rid the network of Mom & Pop type affiliates. I totally disagree!

WebMasterWorld CJ - Only Javascript Links For Merchants After June 23

ThreadWatch CJ Switches to JS Links — a Move in Response to SE’s?

Plus Scott over at the Jangro blog has a good follow-up blog on the story.
Commission Junction’s JavaScript Link Follow-Up

You know what they always say… Any PR is good PR. Well CJ is certainly getting lots of buzz play off this move. Even though most of the buzz is negative, all eyes are certainly on CJ waiting to see how this whole thing plays out and wondering what effects it will have on our industry as a whole.