I'm currently looking at switching from CJ to another network since the offer I'm promoting is available at both networks.. I'm a bit disappointed because of CJ's interface and the bad support. Can anyone recommend this move?
I can say that the support at Pepperjam is first rate, at least from my experience. Most times you can live chat with the relevant account manager, even ebays account manager Mandy. Their CEO often posts on DP as well (one level up from here) I don't think CJ's CEO has done that. Both networks have their good points. Why don't you sign up for your advertiser with both networks and see which ones goes best??
CJ likes to make money off of accounts not generating. Be sure to read their fine print. If your account does not generate them money they charge your account. When questioned about it as they had done this to a couple of my clients they kicked me out of their program. Absolutely hilarious since we have never had much luck with their program since eBay dumped them. It is not costing them a dime to have an active account for a person advertising their merchants but not producing clicks. A persons site is generally not about their merchants banner or advertisement so it does not mean that the persons site is not building in traffic and popularity. I would recommend caution when using CJ.
So that explains why they took $10 from my balance! I tried promoting some CJ offers months ago but I found several networks to deal with that are more worth promoting so I stopped pushing their offers. When I logged in to CJ like 2 days ago, they took 10$ from the commision I earned before.
So, you all reckon, CJ should be avoided at all cost? i was suggested by other members that I should use CJ, but i don't want to use until i have like 50k visitors a month.
Avoid Pepperjam. Pepperjam is both an affiliate and a network - Do you really want another affiliate knowing all of your strategies and how certain methods of promotion perform?
Agreed. Pepperjam is sketchy. When Pepperjam was still managing affiliate programs for advertisers on CJ, they also happened to be the top affiliate for many of their advertisers (they would run an affiliate account & do search marketing under and account in their CEO's name). That's a huge conflict of interest, and I wouldn't doubt if they were stealing profitable keywords from other affiliates. The place is also run like a frat house. See http://www.pepperjam.com/blog/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=1877 .
While I agree that PJN has some benefits and some decent advertisers, CJ.com wins hands down when it comes to a huge diversity of advertisers and being a solid performer.
Johu - your statement is misleading. Pepperjam has 125 employees. We have one major affiliate property - Shogging.com - with only 1 employee from the 125 dedicated to it. hogging also represents less than 1% of Pepperjam's revenue. Our one dedicated Shogging employee is not authorized to access or use any affiliate data from Pepperjam Network to promote Shogging. That would be stupid. I fact, Shogging is not treated any differently than any other affiliate. BTW - Commission Junction is a much larger "affiliate" than Pepperjam - CJ just so happens to own Coupon Mountain (www.couponmountain.com) and a major shopping comparison engine, which are two of the largest super affiliates in the world. BTW - Linkshare is a much larger "affiliate" than Pepperjam - Linkshare just so happens to own Traffic Strategies, which is one of the largest lead gen super affiliates in the world. Azoogle, Hydra, CPA Empire - these companies are all super affiliates. Oh ya, based on the same reasoning you are expressing about PJN you should not join Google Affiliate Network since they have all your data and everyone else's as it relates to search marketing, e-mail, affiliate marketing, blogging, organic search, and just about everything else you'd like to protect. The real issue here is what these companies (including Pepperjam) do with your information. I can tell you that Pepperjam's policy is to protect confidential information and not use that information in any way that may jeopardize the trust and valued relationships we have with our partners. Pepperjam Network is hands down the fastest growing affiliate network in the United States. We are dedicated to providing affiliates with the ability to make more money. Kris Jones CEO, Pepperjam
tvmatt - a "frat house." Yeah - that sounds like a really bad place to work. LOL Loosen up. If Pepperjam is a frat house Google must be a freak circus.
LOL I would way want to work in a "frat house" With retreats and keggers. If that is true Pepperjam must do really really good! My company only does christmas parties that serve Soda and potato chips and a few subway sandwiches.
What about 1insearch.com? Both you & your COO are involved in 1insearch.com (http://1insearch.com/about.html), which is another search affiliate on CJ. Pepperjam used to (and might still, not sure about now) run search campaigns through your CJ account & compete with your own affiliates. Is that correct? I clearly remember my ads competing with Pepperjam's affiliate ads. These were not official search campaigns run for your clients, these were being run through CJ. The CJ PID on those ads matched an account under your name. Does this happen anymore?
Kris Jones, I think you guys are a losing business. The reason I am saying this is I do not understand why the CEO of a large business like yours hanging out on this forum. Nothing wrong with this forum, but, seriously, I do not see any CJ, Neverblue CEOs hanging out here (or any other well-off business people). I don't know. Maybe you are just a good guy and wish the best to all of us. Maybe you are a bit insecure. Who knows. But all the CEOs I have known or read about are type "A" people who would not waste their time on something like a forum.
They took my $6 (CJ) although I just stop producing commission/leads for 5-6 days. They paid me a lot of times but still sucks in this.
Kris - Would you mind explaining how you brokered an offer through another network, and then your in-house search team ran the brokered offer through the other network in order to hide your tracks and bid on branded terms? Oh, no? I thought so much...