The "Friends of J-List" Affiliate Program

Welcome to the Friends of J-List, our affiliate program, which will enable fans and customers to support J-List and help us spread interest in Japan to others while earning cash or store credit for each order you send our way. We're overjoyed with the huge number of customers who have shown interest in the program.

What does it mean to become an affiliate?

If you have an established website, you can become a Friends of J-List Affiliate, which is a partnership between us (J-List, a Japanese limited corporation based in Isesaki, Japan) and you (an individual or company with a website, based anywhere in the world), which will earn you commissions on orders made through your site.

What do I have to do?

First, register through our Friends of J-List sign-up page, here. We'll need to know the URL of your website(s) and some other information. Within a day or so we'll review your site and let you know if you've been approved for our program. If you're approved, log in to the affiliate control panel to get the code you need to put in your site, and you'll be done!

How do links work?

We're very happy to have an extremely flexible affiliate system that lets you show J-List's products in any way you want. Want to promote only bento boxes or Japanese snacks? After you're approved, log into the affiliate system and choose one of the graphics we've pre-made, showing the products you want to show your readers, then paste the HTML into your website's template or directly into the HTML. Want to link to products directly, or to categories of products? It's very easy. You have complete control over the J-List items you show your readers. We've also just rolled out a great new feature: the ability to create automated "tower" banners showing specific products you choose, great if you have, say, a site that wants to promote specific items.

One of our bento banners, which rotates randomly on reload

What kinds of sites will you approve?

J-List genuinely loves Japan and wants to promote interest in Japanese popular culture all over the Internet, so we're looking for sites that will help us attain this goal. There are some sites that we won't approve for the program, including those that promote software piracy or otherwise violate copyrights of others; sites which promote hate or any illegal activities; sites that are under construction; and sites that are "banner farms," existing for the sole purpose of spamming the Internet with dozens of ads (yuck). If your site is a valid website with real, useful information for your readers, we'll be happy to approve it for the program.

How do I earn commissions?

If you're approved, you'll have the option of choosing a cash payment (plan A) or a J-List store credit (plan B) on all valid orders made through your link. Currently, the commission rate for cash payments is 12%, and the rate for store credit is 15%, which are significantly higher than any similar program we know of (Amazon pays around 2.5%). If you've chosen the cash payment option, we'll send you a Paypal payment or a check at the end of every two-month period; if you've opted for a J-List store credit, we'll enter the store credit for you into the J-List shopping cart, allowing you to make purchases through the site. Please note that all J-List products are part of the commission system -- other sites give you a commission only on full-price, non-sale items which greatly reduces your overall commission potential.

How about Paypal?

Yes, we can now send affiliate payments using Paypal. Please select which option you'd like (check or Paypal) in the control panel.

You can now generate random graphics which show the products you want on your website.

What does "valid orders" mean?

"Valid orders" are orders received through your website link which were paid for by customers and not returned. Orders made with fraudulent credit cards, orders from countries we don't ship to, orders received but never paid for, or orders made with suspicious IP addresses are examples of orders that are not valid (obviously).

Incidentally, we know how darned confusing those other affiliate links can be, and kept ours very simple, so linking it not difficult at all. ^_^

How can I verify that the system is working properly?

As an affiliate, you will get access to all the information you could need on your links, including how many clicks you've received and when, how many sales you've received and what was purchased, and whether sales were approved or not. There's no confusion about how many clicks you're getting or sales you're making -- just log into the Friends of J-List Affiliates Console and check your current status. You have total access to all information with our system.

Do I have to host J-List banners on my server?

J-List takes care of all the image hosting of the graphics we make available to you for your website -- so being a Friends of J-List Affiliate doesn't even cost you any bandwidth! To display our ads, all you have to do is insert the HTML for the graphic you want to use into your website. We make it easy for you to join our program! We update the graphics every 6-8 weeks, and the graphic on your site will be updated automatically, too.

I don't want ugly graphics or Flash animation on my website.

We totally hear you! We have selection of ready-made graphics you can easily show on your website, with different graphics for different tastes -- anime, toy and "wacky" graphics, ads that show the steamier side to J-List, and specialty graphics like Japanese study, yaoi and "gothic" products, which are non-offensive, non-animated JPGs. There are also small button-style graphics that will go with any website. Don't want to paste graphics at all? No problem -- you can also create text links to any product, category, or search string on either the J-List or JBOX.com websites, for very low-key, targeted ads. None of our ads use Flash and only a few have GIF animation to them.

We think it's important to show rare and special products to your readers -- here's a banner for "Gothic Lolita" fashion culture, for example

What else should I know?

The Friends of J-List partnership between you and us is governed by our Affiliate Agreement, which you agree to when you start linking to us through the system. We reserve the right to change this agreement when necessary, and inform affiliates of the changes when they've been made. We'll maintain a mailing list that allows us to easily update affiliates on changes to the program.

Okay, how do I sign up?

Just complete the registration form here and we'll be on our way.