PRESS RELEASE: MarketingSherpa Study: Pepperjam Network Explodes onto the Affiliate Marketing Scene with Unprecedented Growth and Industry Support

WILKES BARRE, Pa., June 30 /PRNewswire/ — Pepperjam, the nation’s fastest growing full-service internet marketing agency (Inc. Magazine, 2006 — 2007), announced today that Pepperjam Network — the company’s next generation affiliate marketing network — is ranked among the top five affiliate marketing networks inthe United States according to a recent study released by MarketingSherpa. The MarketingSherpa study suggests “rapid growth” of Pepperjam Network and points to the fact that the next generation network has been able to penetrate 17.5% of the market since launching the network only 5 1/2 months ago (based on study data).

To see the MarketingSherpa study in its entirety please visit http://www.marketingsherpa.com/article.html?ident=30684.

“The MarketingSherpa study not only validates the fast growth of Pepperjam Network, but also highlights the fact that Pepperjam’s next generation affiliate marketing technology is being embraced and celebrated by some of the internet’s leading affiliate marketers and retailers. We are honored by the support we have gotten from the affiliate marketing industry as documented by this study and we are equally excited about the prospects for Pepperjam Network’s continued rapid growth and acceptance,” said Kristopher B. Jones, President & CEO of Pepperjam.

Pepperjam Network launched in January 2008 and is considered the most significant affiliate network launch of the last 10 years (Electronic Retailer Magazine, June 2008). Pepperjam Network addresses the two primary shortcomings of other affiliate networks, namely (1) poor, unreliable communication tools and (2) lack of affiliate transparency. In short, with Pepperjam Network advertisers are empowered to better manage brand and minimize fraud through full and unfettered affiliate transparency, while also building stronger, more strategic affiliate marketing relationships through real-time communication tools such as Pepperjam Chat.

If you are an advertiser interested in joining Pepperjam Network please call 877-796-5700.

If you are an affiliate interested in joining Pepperjam Network please visit www.pepperjamnetwork.com

Well, it looks like the affiliate marketing industry just got the biggest possible endorsement and shot of adrenaline about the future viability and potential of affiliate marketing – Performics, long considered one of the top three traditional affiliate networks, will be changing it’s name to the Google Affiliate Network as part of the integration of the DoubleClick Performics brand(s) into Google.

I’m feeling pretty mixed emotionally about this announcement.

On the one hand, I believe that the name change is a positive for the broader affiliate marketing industry in as far as it recognizes Google’s believe in the power and viability of affiliate marketing.

On the other hand, Google’s resources are infinite, which makes it pretty difficult to compete with a company that apparently could control the world if it wanted to (or is that what they are in the process of doing anyway? – LOL).

For me personally, Google is so big that it becomes almost impossible to get too close to them.  Yes, we all have to do business with them because they control the world (LOL), but I’m a strong believer in the power of relationships.  It’s why I, as CEO, am here writing this post – I’m interested in getting to know you.  To Pepperjam Network advertisers and affiliates you are not just a number – I think that’s one of the reasons why we’ve become the fastest growing affiliate network in the United States.

Yes, Google will capture a nice slice of the affiliate marketing industry – there is no doubt about that.  However, I don’t believe they will be able to manage what Pepperjam Network believes are the two most important ingredients to successful affiliate marketing: (1) relationships (aka, communication), and (2) full and unfettered affiliate transparency.

I’m most curious about what advertisers and affiliates think about the idea of the Google Affiliate Network?

Do any of the other networks (like Pepperjam Network) even stand a chance?

What would an affiliate network based on a Google AdSense model look like? The Wild, Wild West…

Others on the Web talking about this news:

TechCrunch
5 Star Affiliate Blog
Shawn Collins Affiliate Tip
Scott Jangro’s Jangro.com

Welcome to Week #8 of the Pepperjam Network “Meet the Affiliates” Interview Series!

This week I interview John Chow. John is an incredible success story – he is not only one of the top bloggers in the world, but he is also one of the most recognized super affiliates and successful entrepreneurs in the United States.

Read on to learn more about John Chow.

Here are the rules… 

The Pepperjam Network “Meet the Affiliates” Interview Series will feature an original up-close interview with an affiliate marketer every Friday.  Priority will be given to Pepperjam Network affiliates, but that is not a requirement to share your story.  If you’d be interested in being interviewed please submit your request here – please make sure to tell us why you think your story is especially entertaining or educational and worth sharing with our readers.

As the series progresses we will do our best to ask questions that both entertain and educate!  We encourage you to comment on each of the interviews, as well as ask follow-up questions of the interviewee.

Lastly, if you are a blogger or just someone with a network of likeminded affiliate marketing friends, we encourage you to share our interviews series with anyone who you think may benefit. Also, since you won’t want to miss an interview once it’s published I encourage you to join the Feedburner Pepperjam Network RSS Feed, which is located at the top of this page or by clicking here.

Well…let’s get on to the interview!

Meet the Affiliates: Interview #8 

John Chow
JohnChow.com / The Tech Zone / TTZ Media

Question #1

KRIS: Where do you live?  Are you married?  Any children? Animals?

JOHN: I live in Vancouver, BC Canada. I’m married and have two daughters but no pets. However, my wife would like to get a dog.

Question #2

KRIS: Can you take us through a typical “day-in-the-life” of John Chow?

JOHN: I generally get up at around 8AM. The first thing I do when I get into the office is check the email and delete the spam. Then I will check the comments on my blog and approve or reject any that were held for moderation. I also check stats and approve or reject any new TTZ Media applications at this time. The entire process takes about 15 to 20 minutes. Then I eat some breakfast.

The rest of the day is divided between playing with my daughter, making a blog post, working out, chatting on IM or Twitter, hanging out with friends, etc. I don’t have any structured hours of work.

Question #3

KRIS: We all know “John Chow” from the incredibly popular, entertaining and successful blog www.johnchow.com.  Why has your blog been so successful?  Are there any specific things you’ve done to get so many readers (as I write – 26,044 readers)? Can you share a few tips for our readers?

JOHN: I think the biggest thing for the success of the blog has been its transparency. I don’t have anything to hide. What you read on the blog is pretty much how I am in real life. On the Internet, everyone can be whoever they want to be. However, it’s generally the ones that are themselves that will do well.

Question #4

KRIS: One of the things that you started doing quite some time ago was sharing with the readers of JohnChow.com how much money you make through your blog.  Why did / do you do this? Has disclosing your income increased or decreased the amount of money you make on your blog?

JOHN: The income disclosure was part of a case study to see if money can be made by blogging. Up until September 2006, the blog didn’t make any money. However, one of the topics I write about is making money by blogging, so I got many emails asking me to prove it. So I did.

Question #5

KRIS: If you were not an affiliate marketer and blogger what do you think you’d be doing?

JOHN: I would be an accountant. It’s what I studied in school.

Question #6

KRIS: If you could trade shoes with anyone in the world for “one long weekend” (the one day thing is too short) who would it be and why?

JOHN: I would have to say the President of the United State. Then I would get the experience what real stress is like. I think one day maybe enough.

Question #7

KRIS: One of your successful money making ventures is TTZ Media Network.  Can you please tell us about TTZ Media Network…

JOHN: TTZ Media is an ad network that provides shopping related ads to its affiliated sites. The ads feature consumer products with real time pricing and direct links to the merchant that is selling them. The system works best for technology and shopping based sites. Learn more about TTZ Media HERE.

Question #8

KRIS: Another one of your popular projects is The Tech Zone.  Can you tell us more about that?

JOHN: The TechZone is my first money making site. Like my blog, it was started as a hobby. I’ve always been into computers and The TechZone started as a page about my first computer. The site has expanded a lot since then. Today, the site reviews the latest tech gadgets and reports back from all the major technology trade shows like CES and Computex. Learn more about The Tech Zone HERE.

Question #9

KRIS: When you are not busy being a Technorati Top 100 blogger and super affiliate what do you like to do?  Any hobbies you’d like to share with our readers?

JOHN: I like to hang out with friends and family. I also enjoy attending local technology and blogging meet ups to meet like minded people. I don’t have any hobbies unless you call blogging a hobby.

Question #10

KRIS: How can internet marketing beginners avoid failure and become successful internet marketers like you? Can you share a few tips?

JOHN: Read the blogs of successful Internet marketers and learn as much from them as possible. Attend some of the trade show to meet them in person. Getting educated in the business will save you from a lot of mistakes.

_____________________________________

Next on deck for Meet the Affiliates: Super Affiliate Connie Berg

Connie’s exclusive interview will be published here on the Pepperjam Network Blog next Friday(ish – bec/ of the holiday), July 4, 2008.

Make sure you don’t miss it!  Click Here to subscribe to the PJN Blog and have each interview delivered to your e-mail box.

___________________________________

Read Previous “Meet the Affiliates” Interviews:

Week #1 – Sam Harrelson
Week #2 – Scott Hazard
Week #3 – Rosalind Gardner
Week #4 – Colin McDougal
Week #5 – Zac Johnson
Week #6 – Harrison Gevirtz
Week #7 – “Uber Affiliate” Paul Bourque

Alright, back to the grind. We have our niche and keywords chosen, domain and hosting purchased, and Wordpress is installed and ready to rock. Now – we need our plugins.

Plugins are one of the main reasons I build almost all of my affiliate sites with Wordpress. They make life much easier, and in some cases allow me to fluff out otherwise thin sites with images, video, and even auction listings much more quickly than if I had to add these elements in by hand. Over the months, I settled on a group of plugins that are included in my default install Wordpress package. Here’s the breakdown…

Flexi Pages
This little gem makes adding lists of Wordpress pages to my menus quick and painless. This is a big help when using Wordpress as a CMS for a static site instead of a blog because you tend to end up with a ton of pages.

Google XML Sitemap Generator
Just like the name would have you believe, this baby cranks out a Google XML sitemap and updates it as you update your site.

Search Pages
Again, since I’m making pages instead of posts, I need my search feature to scan my Wordpress pages instead of just posts.

Sociable
Super easy social bookmarking.

Google Analytics for Wordpress
Any “white” site I make has Google Analytics installed, but tagging outgoing links is a giant pain. Luckily, this will do it for me.

RSS Footer
Any hand updated blog should have this installed. It allows you to add a piece of text at the start or end of each post in your feed. Perfect for adding in a “This post is from..” line with a link to your blog. There’s no chance of you completely stopping scrapers from grabbing your content, but the amateur ones won’t take the time to wash the links out of them. So, you might as well use them for some backlinks.

Permalink Redirect
Duplicate content is a nightmare. It is by far one of the top problems we see when taking on clients. Sadly, Wordpress and other blog systems are notorious for creating mass amounts of duplicate content. This helps eliminate that headache.

Crawl Tracker
Keep an eye on how much you’re getting crawled. For large sites, this factor is incredibly important. If you’re not getting deep crawled, you’re going to have chunks of your site totally missing from the index. If your crawl rate is too low, you’re in some serious need of new links. As a side note, when using Wordpress for a static site where you write new pages instead of posts, there’s a really easy way to trick Google into crawling the hell out of your site without having anything look strange to your visitors. I won’t write the whole process out unless enough people request it, but let’s just say you’ll figure it out if you think about where blog posts are displayed when Wordpress is used for a static site.

Well, now that my link dropping and apparent love for Yoast’s work is over and done with, why don’t you go ahead and download each of those and get them loaded up into your Wordpress installation.

(Our last plugin that we’ll be using for this project is phpBay. However, that deserves a post of its own.)

Now, each of these plugins have their own installation instructions, which you can get by clicking the link for each. However, the usual process is as simple as unzipping the plugins and ftp’ing them into the /wp-content/plugins/ folder. Just make sure you go to the plugins section of Wordpress and activate each one.

Next time we’ll look at phpBay and how we’ll use it on our sites.

We are thrilled to announce the launch of the Duplicate Poker Affiliate Program on Pepperjam Network – www.pepperjamnetwork.com

HIGHLIGHTS: Duplicate Poker is the ONLY legal US poker room!

About the Duplicate Poker Affiliate Program:

“You’re invited to partner with Duplicate Poker – the first legal skill-based poker site in the USA!

Duplicate Poker takes the world’s most popular poker game, Texas Hold’em, and transforms it into a game of skill.

Because duplicate Poker is a game of skill, not luck, it’s not considered gambling, and therefore legal in most of the US states. US players can deposit using Visa and MasterCard.

Duplicate Poker will provide you with a library of banners and text ads promoting new events. We run monthly promotions that will help you promote fresh content to your user base, which will encourage more people to click on the advertisements– which means more money to you! As an affiliate, you can make money through our Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA) program earning up to $65 for each cash player you refer to Duplicate Poker.

You can now promote the only legal poker site that is legal in the US. You have less competition, and a unique product to offer your players. [DuplicatePoker.com does not accept deposits from players located in states where skill-gaming is prohibited: Arizona, Delaware, Iowa, Louisiana, Arkansas, Tennessee, Vermont, Connecticut, Florida, Montana, Illinois and South Carolina].”

Commission: $65.00 per lead
Cookie Duration: 45 days