PepperJam Network vs. CJ – Battle of the Bears
On Wednesday night, PepperJam founder Kris Jones made a very long rant (2,000+ words) on his PJ blog about recent activities between CJ and the newly released PepperJam Network. The post was titled “Did Commission Junction Act Fairly, Break the Law, or Simply Overstep its Power Against Pepperjam?”. With the release of their new network, it seems many networks have wanted to start working more closely with PepperJam, while others (specifically CJ), see them as being a major competitor. Within the post Kris talks briefly about his past, how he got started, built up the PepperJam network and more importantly, how merchants/advertisers on the PepperJam network “were being aggressively contacted by Commission Junction employees and delivered an ultimatum“. So what Kris wants to do, is let everyone aware of the situation and let you decide if CJ was acting fairly, break the law, or act outside of it’s boundaries.
This is a very long post, so I advise you to go and read it yourself, or you can head over to Scott Jangro’s blog, where he did an excellent recap on the original blog post, which makes it easier to read and more understandable. For more opinions and responses this article, you can also read Search Engine Journal, AffiliateTip and Revenews. I’m sure this will be a heated topic over the next couple of weeks, as more and more blogs cover the story and more information is released.
Lastly, even though I’m not personally making a killing off the PepperJam network as of yet (I currently have way too many projects going on). I’m loving all of the new merchants/offers that are continually being added to the network. I can’t wait until things cool down a bit and I get some projects finished, so I can start focusing on marketing these offers. This isn’t some rant of mine to impress or suck up to the network, nor to get you to signup. Right when their network went live and I had access to the network, I was thrilled to see brand names I was never offered anywhere else. Every time I log in, it’s a surprise to see what new offers are on the network. Below are just a few of the brand names available on the network.
If you haven’t already, I recommend you join the PepperJam Network and take a look at some of the new offers they have added. The network went live just over a month ago and they already have well over 100 offers! Most of which are offers you won’t find on every other network.
Ever since I join Pepper Jam I keep getting e-mails thats my terms have change..
The pay outs sound good for you to sign up and then they change all the terms.. it figure.
I will stick with CJ and Neverblue ads.
That looks quite stupid. How can they change terms after you signed up?
Hi Zac,
I red kris blog and yes indeed it looks like CJ is using its power to bully pepper jam clients, which doesn’t suite to organization like CJ, having said that on the other hand if i would be CJ i would have done almost the same thing but in a nice professional way, rather than giving an immediate notice to pepperjam client CJ would have contacted pepperjam and discussed it out rather than acting on its own and showing the policy of ‘take it or leave it’
CJ is a great company, whether we like it or not, they are the trend setters in performance based marketing, compared to CJ, pepperjam has just started and still like a small baby.
CJ would have thought twice before going head to head with pepper jam.
Regards
Asif Siddiqui
Love the picture Zac! Haha. Oh and PJ > CJ
Yep but sometimes the Shorter ones win by hitting from the bottom 😀
CJ rules!
Maybe everyone should take a deep breath and GROW UP!
Typical low handed tactics to protect territory. Oh well, we can only help that people will make intelligent, thought out decisions.
Nice picture too.
I am out of CJ network and focus more on pepper network.i guess CJ just can't make it already.
Wow Zac, reading your blog makes me want to take a taco diarrhea all over your face and in your mouth
Guess this isn't really john cow, will notify him of this now so action can be taken
Would be extremely awkward if you made the notification and it turns out to be JC LOL
Err, whoever is trying to impersonate us, we don't even like tacoos!
Unbelievable.
Of course this is a major conflict of interest, being that Pepperjam manages several CJ programs and then they launch their own network. They can easily steal affiliate out of CJ and recruit them into their network…bad move in my opinion if they wanted to maintain their affiliate program managment services. Great for my company however!
the playboy store and sesame street on the same network. kinda ironic don't you think?
I noticed that, too. It was worth a giggle.
I haven't tried out pepperjam and have been using CJ for quite some time. I hope this doesn't hurt CJ too bad.
Those posts are always fun for us to read and gets lots of media attention as we…
Unfortunately for CJ, there is no substitute for hard work. Underhanded tactics like what they were / are doing to Pepperjam merchants rarely, if ever pay off over the LONG RUN.
I have a feeling that this will be a very long-drawn own battle, one that may be just to keep competition down in the eyes of CJ.
I think Kris sent this article out by email to Pepperjam members… that's how I came to read about it, anyways. I was truly surprised! Of course, big companies using their weight to stomp out upcoming competitors is pretty standard in the business world. I might be biased after meeting Kris at ASW08, but I definitely side with PJ on this one… I think Commission Junction might have stirred up some trouble for themselves.
All CJ is doing is protecting their affiliate and merchant bases from being completely pilfered by PepperJam! Especially since PepperJam is proclaiming themselves to be the hier to affiliate network supremacy. Good luck with that one! I hope they are confident in their ability to produce for merchants that leave CJ for them. Incredibly stupid move to launch a network without clearing it with CJ before hand, what did you expect them to do. PepperJam should be locked out of CJ immediately.