Why PepperJam Network

I've been a member of a number of affiliate networks, including but not limited to Commission Junction, ClickBank, Affiliatefuture, and Shareasale. All of these networks offer some great programs, interesting tools, and some sort of customer service. However, in the past 3 months I've been using PepperJam they have went above and behond in all aspects of what I look for in an affiliate network.

The Programs

Pepperjam network has so many great programs in their arsenal and seem to be adding 100's monthly. Each of these programs are a great way to diversify your affiliate income sources and even give you some great ideas. Program managers can also solicit you to be their affiliate partner, not just the other way around like on other networks.

Payout

Pepperjam pays me every 2 weeks via PayPal on locked commissions. Each affiliate program has it's own requirements for what means 'locked' but generally speaking I've been keeping my plate full and who can argue with fast immediate deposits in a PayPal account?

Ease of Use

Whether I'm searching for a new program to affiliate for, checking my reports, or just finding out what the latest news is, PJN navigation and use is top notch. Almost all aspects of my account are reachable from the main dashboard and affiliate programs I've already partnered with are readily available through one click, no need to filter results. Furthermore I'm treated with 4 very distinctive reports immediately, every time I login.

Affiliate Tools

Affiliates are only as good as the tools they are given, the more tools, the happier I am. PJN offers plenty of standard tools, like banner generation, text links, and advanced javascript ads for some programs, but in the past month they released a monster tool, Pepperjam Store Builder. This tool allows you to create mini-stores through a point and click interface, then simply copy the code generated into any standard web page environment. Also, don't forget their PepperJam Ads tool as well, which will create Adsense like ads to display on your website, though all or any programs you select.

Affiliate Customer Support

I just cannot speak highly enough about the support I've received from the employees of the PepperJam Network. There have been a number of issues, not necessarily problems, that have creeped up that have allowed me to speak through email and on the phone with my account rep. Every time has been a pleasant experience and messages have been promptly responded to. Unfortunately I can't say the same thing about other networks where human contact is required. Also, what other network allows you to meet the entire Pepperjam Network team, even the bulldog on YouTube?

Closing Statements

I'm not a huge affiliate with the Pepperjam Network, on average about $400 per month, but I'm working on expanding and moving over some of my sites and replacing some other network programs. Even though I'm not what would be considered a super affiliate, I can vouche for the kind of support I have received from them, it's phenomenal and a network I can feel good about recommending to anyone.

Protecting Your Inbox

Marketing your new affiliate landing page can be a daunting task that requires special tools to make it as painless as possible. The number one marketing method I enjoy doing requires me to have a membership on multiple forums. Furthermore each membership will generally have a unique name and password, but with the same email address.

Keep in mind I'm not spamming, but honestly contributing to the forums growth, only utilizing my signature links within the forums TOS. To remain as anonymous as possible though, I don't like using my personal email account or an account associated with my affiliate site. Most public free email accounts are not allowed to sign up with forums, so using Hotmail, Yahoo, and similar accounts goes out the window. This has created a problem for my mass marketing endeavors and need to keep accounts separate and that's when I found HushMail.

HushMail.com is a trusted email service that provides free limited access to an email inbox. They do not offer HUGE storage or a lot of extra inbox options, but it does provide a spam free working environment for handling my multiple forum marketing identities. Plus HushMail uses several spam protectors for signing up as well, so it's a trusted email while signing up to forums.

Hushmail provides a high level of security combined with total ease of use. All you need is a computer with an Internet connection and a current Web browser. Just sign up for a free Hushmail address, create a passphrase, and login to your account to begin. You'll immediately be able to communicate securely with other Hush users, and you can access your Hushmail account from anywhere in the world.

Conclusion

If you are looking for an email service that you can take with you on any computer and have a trusted spam free email provider, then HushMail.com is the service for you. As long as you don't plan on archiving a ton of messages, you'll find their service top notch and rarely any spam makes it through. That's why I use HushMail as my #1 email service provider for managing my marketing campaigns.

The Future Of Affiliate Programs

I tell myself on a daily basis to be positive, unfortunately I'm seeing too many changes, happening a little too fast, and I think it spells a rough road ahead for affiliate marketers. The internet is not immune to the troubles in the US and foreign economy, therefore we should start preparing for trends in online businesses just as we have seen them in 'brick 'n mortar'. I'm referring to cut-backs, lower wages (see affiliate commissions), and less accessibility.

First let's look at what companies must do to become more profitable in a failing economy. Consumer confidence is way down, so even fewer people will be buying online, therefore less impulse buying. The less impulse buying the less companies will need to rely on affiliates to bring in the long tail consumers. Either a consumer will know what they want and go to the source, or they won't be interested at all. Expect companies to withdraw existing affiliate programs and even more will wait to enter the market place with programs in place.

Lowering wages is a great way to pad your profit margin and in our case it means lower commissions. Lowering a commission on a program becomes much easier when it's spread out over thousands of affiliates, instead of just a handful of employees. Expect large cuts in commissions and new offers looking flatter than usual. I've actually lost track of how many programs are actually adjusting their commission rates from MaxBounty, luckily these have yet to effect me personally. One only needs to look at eBay for another example of 'cutting commissions', in regards to their recent hack of affiliates and the reorganization of their ACRU tiers.

Lastly, accessibility in regards to the ease of joining an affiliate program. At one time even larger affiliate managers accepted almost anyone into their programs, no matter traffic, or even visitor quality. Now things are getting tighter and bandwidth costs money, the days of sending traffic that doesn't convert to affiliate sites may be over. Expect to not be allowed to sign up unless you have a record of targeted traffic, or existing affiliates should start taking steps to record where and how their traffic is arriving on their site and where they are being sent to the affiliate sites. Finding the fine line in fewer affiliates and higher quality converting traffic will save a company countless dollars on less man power, for managing worthless affiliates(in their eyes) and remove thin affiliate competition from search engines.

The moral of this story is to start diversifying now, so if one revenue stream starts failing or making cuts you're not left out to dry. To an extent I'm speaking from experience and to another I'm kicking myself in the ass. Good luck and happy earning.

MoneyQuake FireFox Addon

I'm a stat hound and actually starting to leave a wear spot on my screen from checking my Adsense earnings so often. Furthermore, it's not just Google Adsense earnings I'm looking into, I'm actually more into affiliate marketing and having an addon that updates automatically in the bottom status bar is awesome. Saves my mouse from traveling further than it needs to and just makes life simpler. Only problem is that the old faithful Adsense Notifier plugin for FireFox no longer will log me in, so I needed an alternative.

Thanks to some recommendations I've found a great alternative to Adsense Notifier, it's MoneyQuake. Simply by hovering over the MoneyQuake logo at the bottom of the FireFox browser you can get instant updates on a large number of affiliate networks and Google Adsense.

List of Affiliate Programs Compatible With MoneyQuake

MoneyQuake is a powerful Firefox extension, which displays your real-time earning statistics from most popular advertisement systems like:

• Google Adsense
• Bidvertizer
• TraficCashGold
• StreamRay
• UmaxSearch
• PeakClick
• Buckster
• SoftwareProfit
• AdultAdsCash
• KlikVip
• AdultFriendFinderrn
• Begun
• Yandex.Direct
• Glavmed

To find out more information on MoneyQuake and download the plugin click here.