I have always found Commission Junction’s business to be an interesting one. For those of you unfamiliar with Commission Junction, CJ serves as a link between advertisers and affiliates – giving affiliates a “one stop shop” to find the advertisers wares to sell, and providing a place for advertisers to tap into a large pool of affiliates. For this service Commission Junction charges about a 30% commission...which is admittedly a bit steep.

InsureMe has worked with Commission Junction for a few years and we are happy to do business with them. However, being an advertiser we have been getting the feeling that Commission Junction has been shrinking year-over-year. I can’t give you any facts, just a feeling that we have, as do other CJ advertisers I have spoken with.

In her recent article in ReveNews, Beth Kirsch speculates that Commission Junction may be on its way to being sold by its owner, ValueClick. While Beth points out (numerous times) that this is all speculation, it appears that she might have some inside information she is not really admitting to.

After reading the article it seems like ValueClick selling CJ might not be a bad idea, since ValueClick doesn’t seem to “get” affiliate marketing, and that misunderstanding of the business may very well be hurting CJ. Also, the transaction could take ValueClick in the direction they would like to go (think online ad agency) and allow them to better develop their behavioral marketing technology (instead of trying to collect the information through affiliates like they did with the Link Management Initiative).

All in all, Commission Junction is a good company and an important part of the affiliate marketing industry. If selling CJ will help CJ get back on track, I am all for it.

Read the article – get learned – and then sit back and watch. This could be interesting.