Jude’s Eclectic Resources

Over the past years I signed up with several companies as a publisher for affiliate placement ads and Commission Junction was one of them, however after adding stupid ads to my numerous web sites so many of the companies that wanted publishers would close up their accounts and move somewhere else to advertise. I never got around to removing the defunct ads so that’s another huge project I need to take care of by removing them all.

I have learned a lesson and haven’t really done any more affiliate work. I have forgotten all the different places I have even joined that are still running ads on my sites. I think I have money in several different places that have never reached the pay out point and are simply a waste of time so I certainly don’t advocate joining any of those programs unless you are a great marketer.

I somehow got deleted out of the CJ system at the beginning of the year and have no clue what was in that account. This past week I received the e-mail below and today I got a follow up postcard in my snail mail. I certainly have no plans to include myself or exclude, I just thought it was funny that they managed to have my home address so they know I had an account and CJ doesn’t. Has this happened to anyone else and is it possibly a hoax?

Important Legal Notice Regarding Commission Junction’s Affiliate Network

If you joined or were a member of the affiliate marketing networks operated by ValueClick, Inc., Commission Junction, Inc. and/or Be Free (collectively, “Defendants”), between April 20, 2003 and the present, you may be a class member in Settlement Recovery Center et al. v. ValueClick, Inc. et al., No. 2:07-cv-02638-FMC-CTx, a lawsuit which is pending in the Central District of California. The Settlement Notice informs you of the Court’s certification of a class for settlement purposes; the nature of the claims alleged; your right to participate in, or exclude yourself from, the class; a proposed settlement; and how you can claim an award of advertising credits under the settlement or object to the settlement.

The proposed settlement will resolve claims that Defendants failed to adequately monitor Commission Junction’s Network for the use by third parties of software that does not comply with Commission Junction’s (“CJ”) Publisher Code of Conduct and that is intended to steal or divert commissions from publishers on CJ’s network (“Non-compliant Software”), failed to adequately monitor or prevent third parties from engaging in the theft or “hijacking” of commissions from Advertisers and Publishers on CJ’s Network, and failed to make sufficient disclosures regarding the existence of Non-compliant Software and commission theft, resulting in losses to both advertisers and publishers on the CJ Network.

The proposed settlement will provide a monetary recovery to eligible class members. For class members that currently maintain an account on the CJ Network will receive payment through payments or credits deposited or applied to their CJ accounts; eligible class members that no longer have accounts on the Commission Junction Network will receive a check for an equal amount.

If you are a member of the class, your legal rights are affected by whether you act or do not act. You should review the Settlement Notice as soon as possible as there are several important deadlines that you must meet to take certain actions in connection with this proposed settlement. In particular, the deadline for filing an objection or excluding yourself from the proposed settlement is September 30, 2008. For further information, please refer to the Settlement Notice.

For a copy of the Settlement Notice, click on the link, or visit the case website at CJSettlement.com