GSI Commerce Acquires Pepperjam Network

Wow, this is pretty big news about two companies that are pretty local to me.  GSI Commerce (NASDAQ: GSIC), a leading Ecommerce solution provider has entered the affiliate network space by acquiring Pepperjam Network.   I am based in Reading, PA, Pepperjam Affiliate network is based in Wilkes Barre, PA and GSI Commerce is based in King of Prussia PA.  Both of them are within an hour of me so it’s pretty great to see these two local companies come together.

The details of the deal were not disclosed but what we know ist hat GSI Commerce acquired all of Pepperjam’s search marketing service but only certain aspects of it’s affiliate network.

GSI Commerce represents a pretty impressive group of online retailers.  Their strength has been in providing Ecommerce and Multichannel solutions.  Affiliate marketing has always been an important key to the success of their clients.  Last year, their affiliate marketing channel generated $100 Million for their clients.  We can only think that will increase now that they have their own network.  Especially since the Pepperjam network is so impressive in their service, their platform and their offers.

You can read the full article by clicking here or you can go directly to Pepperjam and sign up as an affiliate

Affiliate Track and Pepperjam Working Together

I just received an email from Pepperjam Networks about a new partnership they have entered into with Affiliate Traction.  We have talked about Pepperjam before but have never mentioned Affiliate Traction.   They are an agency that specializes in representing Online Retailers in the affiliate marketing space.  They are not a network themselves, they represent companies and setup affiliate programs for those companies with other networks.

Affiliate Traction has a pretty impressive client list, they manage affiliate programs for some top tier companies like Skechers, JC Whitney, CO Bigelow, Laguna Tools, Tool Barn and The Watch Co. just to name a few.   You will find these programs are now available on Pepperjam, one of our top rated networks.

With the addition of Pepperjam, Affiliate Traction is now working with the following networks:

• Google Affiliate Network
• Commission Junction
• ShareASale
• AvantLink
• Affiliate Future
• Pepperjam Network
• Azoogle Ads
• CX Digital
• Hydra
• and Motive Interactive

You can check out Affiliate Traction and read more about them by going to http://www.affiliatetraction.com

Jelly Belly Affiliate Program

Easter is just around the corner and as such, we wanted to review an affiliate program that is selling Easter related items.  I know, what an amazingly original idea :)  Well, the fact is, if you have the right audience, Holidays can be a great time to boost your commissions, people pay more for things when they are buying it for a holiday, even in a down economy.

When I think of the non-religious aspects of Easter and more specifically when I think of Easter baskets, the two big candies that come to mind are chocolate bunnies and jelly beans.  I have never had or put together an Easter basket for my kids without those two items.  In my opinion, no company does Jelly Beans as well as Jelly Belly.  They have a huge breadth of flavors and products built around that tiny little confection and parents are going to buy tons of them to fill the bottom of Easter baskets over the next couple of weeks.

Jelly Belly runs their own online store and has some great promotions going on for the Easter holiday.  Luckily for us, they also have an affiliate program so as an affiliate marketer, we can profit from the demand for the product and the promotions they have put in place. The affiliate program is run through the Pepperjam affiliate network and they just recently posted some Easter banners and a coupon that you can use to drive traffic to their site.  They pay out a 10% commission and seem to be pretty active on the network.  If you have traffic that would respond to an offer like this, the Jelly Belly affiliate program is worth a test.

If you aren’t an affiliate at Pepperjam yet, Sign Up for the Pepperjam Network and Get a $10 Sign On Bonus

The Harlem Globetrotters Launch Affiliate Program on PepperJam

The Pepperjam Network announced today that the official Harlem Globetrotters affiliate program has gone live on their network.  The Harlem Globetrotters have such a wide interest across the sports fan spectrum which gives the program a great advantage.  They are loved by many different sports fans regardless of what team they follow.  What this should mean for you is that if you have a sports related site, a larger percentage of sports fan may be tempted to click through and buy something than if you were running an ad that targeted Boston Celtics merchandise.  It’s a perfect campaign to test for more general sports sites or sites that segment their traffic but are looking for some default ads to run.

They offer most of the things you want in a good affiliate program, banners, text links, advanced links and coupons.  They pay 10% per sale and the cookie lasts for 45 days.  Unfortunately, at the time of writing this, they do not seem to offer a datafeed which is a big drawback.  Maybe it’s in the works and they just haven’t posted it yet but for a site like that, it’s a must have.

If you have an audience that may be interested but you aren’t currently an affiliate of Pepperjam, read our Review of Pepperjam Network.  If you already read it but haven’t signed up, you can sign Up for Pepperjam Network and Get a $10 Sign On Bonus

Pepperjam Affiliate Network Review

This review is going to be from the perspective of the affiliate.  We will follow up and write another review from the advertisers perspective once we have had a chance to explore that area of Pepperjam a little more thoroughly.

I am fairly new to the Pepperjam Affiliate network but man, color me impressed!  The company was founded in 1999 by Internet marketer Kristopher B. Jones.  Their offices are actually pretty close to me, they are based out of Wilkes-Barre, PA which is about 2 hours north of our offices in Reading, PA.

They started out as affiliates themselves and leveraged their success and expertise by switching sides and becoming an affiliate network. The huge benefit of the path they took is that they have a very strong understanding of what affiliates are looking for in a network.  They took the concepts they liked from other networks and programs and improved upon the things they didn’t like.  Their mission was to solve two major problems that they saw in the affiliate marketing industry.  The first was poor and unreliable communication and the second was lack of real transparency into how programs were performing.

The software that runs their network appears to be completely custom made and is pretty and functional at the same time.  Too often networks hide behind fancy graphs but lack the tools that real affiliates need to really succeed.  That is not the case with Pepperjam.  They have the fancy graphs but they are actually useful and give you real data to test against.   Of the offers I have tested, they offer a wide array of linking options and give you the ability to add your own tracking id to each URL you deploy so you can test what is working and what isn’t.  These are tools that are designed to help affiliates make more money for their advertisers.  It seems like such an obvious concept and Pepperjam isn’t the only network offering these kinds of tools but they are certainly one of the best.

They offer both revenue share offers where you are paid for a % of a sale  and CPA offers where you are paid based on an action other than a sale.  They offer you all of the tools you would expect from a top-tier network and some that I hadn’t seen before.  You can grab coupons, generate coupon feeds for easy integration into your site, build out a store with product feeds, build out customized contextual ads with their pepperjamADS system and more.  This all keeps coming back to the fact that the tools they provide are impressive and if you know how to use them, you can make more money with the same offer on Pepperjam than you could with a network that doesn’t offer these tools.

At the time of writing this review they have 557 active offers and the most important part of that number is that these are NOT the same old offers you see in every other network.  They have some very impressive companies and some really great exclusive offers that you will only find at Pepperjam.

In conclusion, Pepperjam is a network that we strongly recommend.  At the very least, you need to sign up and take a peek under the hood, you will be impressed. Sign Up for Pepperjam Network and Get a $10 Sign On Bonus