We are proud to announce that Pepperjam has officially partnered with the eBay Partner Network to bring eBay’s links and graphics to Pepperjam’s affiliates at www.pepperjamnetwork.com

This program is in partnership with eBay and is supplemental to eBay’s recently launched partner network.

HIGHLIGHTS: Make up to 75% of all the transactions and up to an additional $35 for every new active user you send to eBay. Pepperjam has in place a dedicated eBay affiliate management team to work with you in real-time to maximize your eBay revenue. Learn more about our aggressive commission structure by logging-in to your Pepperjam Network account!

Your complete satisfaction and success as an eBay affiliate through the Pepperjam Network is our main priority!

About the eBay Partner Network and Pepperjam Partnership:

It will come as no surprise that eBay is The World’s Online Marketplace®, enabling trade on a local, national and international basis. With a diverse and passionate community of individuals and small businesses, eBay offers an online platform where millions of items are traded each day. Founded in 1995, eBay Inc. connects hundreds of millions of people around the world every day, empowering them to explore new opportunities and innovate together. eBay Inc. does this by providing the Internet platforms of choice for global commerce, payments and communications. Since its inception, eBay Inc. has expanded to include some of the strongest brands in the world, including eBay, PayPal, Skype, Shopping.com, and others.

Coupling access to the unparalleled scope of eBay’s global marketplace with industry-leading tools and a dedicated support staff, the eBay Affiliate Program on Pepperjam Network offers success to all types of publishers, from the casual blogger to the experienced Internet entrepreneur. The eBay Partner Network is one of the most profitable affiliate programs in existence today, paying affiliates up to $35 per active new user, and 75% of its revenue on hundreds of categories of products.

COMMISSIONS: Up to $35 per active user, and 75% of its revenue on hundreds of categories of products.
ACCEPTANCE: Manual; Special consideration and attention is given to 3, 4, and 5 (transparency) bar Pepperjam Network affiliates.
QUALIFYING TRANSACTIONS: An end user completes a bid or BIN that results in a successful transaction on Participating Sites and Content within 7 days after clicking your Link. An end user (a) registers on the Participating Sites and Content for the first time within 30 days of clicking on a Link (b) confirms his or her registration and (c) visits Participating Sites and Content and places a bid or BIN to purchase an item within 30 days of the original registration.

To join the eBay Affiliate Program through the Pepperjam Network visit www.pepperjamnetwork.com

There is nothing more frustrating to a website visitor than reading through a page full of spelling typos and grammatical errors. Careless typos and errors can ruin your credibility in the eyes of potential customers and clients, meaning you can kiss sales and/or future business relationships goodbye. After all, what customer is going to take you seriously enough to spend money with you if your website is full of there’s instead of their’s or perhaps run-on sentences?

This post is for all the content writers out there who deserve the credit where credit is due. It is our writing skills that the search engine spiders love to crawl so much. With our deft writing ability, we create thrilling, informative pages and blog posts. A content writer also generates the ad copy which drives customers into shopping carts and boosts your earnings. However, that isn’t the only goal we achieve.

A great content writer can make the difference between a website ranking modestly for one, maybe two short-tail keywords, but instead ranking for a number of long-tail ones you never thought about. The best part is, the majority of these long-tail keywords can convert for you.

However, a misplaced spelling error can ruin it all for you making all that hard work fruitless after only one spider crawl. Here is an example of what I’m talking about. Let’s say you just created a page dealing with the topic of “men’s work boots” but it’s spelled incorrectly as “men’s work books.” After the search engine spiders crawl your page, you find that a website selling men’s boots is somehow ranking for books.

Something as small as the typo I just referenced can result in wasted time and money for both you and your client. Think about the negative reaction you’re going to see from customers clicking on a link with incorrect information. I don’t even want to think about the ramifications it will have on your Adwords Quality Score.

The point I’m trying to make is while webmasters and programmers take the majority of the credit for a great site and the SEO specialists will hog all the glory for the links and tags being in the right spots, it’s ultimately the hard work of the content writer who can transform an average website into an amazing one.

Take your time proofreading everything you write, even if it’s a page you know no one will read. Opting not to may come back to haunt you later on.

I delivered my first keynote speech last week in the Netherlands at an affiliate marketing conference called Affiliate Dag.

Ironic – isn’t it?

While I speak and moderate in the United States about 15 or so times per year at major industry conferences such as Affiliate Summit and Search-Engine Strategies, my first keynote was delivered in another country.

Hmmmmmmmmm.

Does my being invited to deliver a keynote in another country say something about the power of the Pepperjam brand? I think so.

People outside of the United States look to us (companies in the US) to understand the internet marketing space…how it is evolving, who are the key players, who made the biggest mistakes, who has made the biggest impact, etc.

This is the second time in the last 12 months that I have spoken outside the United States and I can tell you – the industry is looking to innovative companies like Pepperjam for advice and direction. In both cases I received unsolicited invitations to speak.

It may come as a surprise, but in many ways the Europeans are much more sophisticated than we are here in the United States and seem better prepared to truly benefit from the globalization of affiliate marketing.

Yes, it’s true that Europeans had the benefit of watching other US-based companies fail; they have also watched as non-US companies entered the US market only to fail.

Regardless, it’s the sophistication of the European approach that really impresses me.

So – what does my minor rant have anything to do with anything.

Well, I just watched a video (see below) from the Affiliate Dag conference (the one I keynoted).

As I watched the video and thought about where our industry (search, affiliate, etc.) is headed I couldn’t help but reflect on just how big the Pepperjam brand has gotten.

Being invited to be the keynote at the largest get together of affiliate marketers in the history of Europe is one thing (I was truly honored and it says more about Pepperjam than it says about me), but it makes me think that these people…who I find incredibly poised for success and extremely sophisticated…chose “Pepperjam” over other more obvious US-based affiliate companies, including Commission Junction, Linkshare, Performics, Azoogle, and others.

While I think this is a testament to the Pepperjam brand I am humbled that the folks in Europe are looking to Pepperjam for direction on the future of an industry.

Never in a million years would I have thought just a few years ago that Pepperjam would be in the position we are as global authorities and thought shapers.

Very cool stuff.

I hope you enjoy the video.

BTW – Much of the video is in Dutch. No – I don’t speak Dutch. In fact, I was introduced in Dutch and all the other speakers throughout the conference (with the exception of me) spoke in Dutch.

All of the feedback that I have received from my presentation has been very positive. I even had a guy randomly walk up to me with a copy of my book and ask for my signature – now that was unexpected, especially considering I was nearly 4,000 miles and an entire ocean away from home!

I’ve decided that we can’t always be so serious here on Pepperjam Blog blogging about search-engine marketing, affiliate marketing, building links, and that kind of stuff all the time.

That’s why when I just finished watching an absolutely hilarious, yet extremely brilliant video between a puppet (Shel Isreal) and the founder of mega-social-news-Web site Digg (Kevin Rose) I just had to share it. Hat flip to Shoemoney for bringing this video to my attention on his blockbuster blog – Shoemoney.com.

Enjoy the video!

BTW – The man moving the puppet “aka, the real Shel Isreal” is no other than Loren Feldman from 1938media – for those of you who are interested in being entertained on a regular basis check out Loren’s brillant video work at www.1938media.com. Also, if you want to get an additional laugh you can watch a promo video with me in it that Loren shot a year or so ago for Text-Link-Ads – in that video notice how I look like a pale ghost – Loren admits that he had a bit of fun editing the video and making me look like Casper…!!! Dang – the video has nearly 25,000 views – now isn’t that just great!!! LOL.

We are proud to announce the launch of the 1&1 Internet Affiliate Program on Pepperjam Network – www.pepperjamnetwork.com

HIGHLIGHTS:

- Earn up to $300 per sale
- 3 month EPC averages $30 to $70
- Conversion ratio averages around 4%
- Low reversal rate
- Experienced account managers
- Over 30 easy-to-sell products

About the 1&1 Internet Affiliate Program:

“1&1 is the largest web host in the world, which shows in the success of our affiliates and of our affiliate program.

Now until the end of May we are rewarding affiliates just like you with the chance to win a trip to Jamaica or a number of other fabulous prizes. You only need to make 10 hosting sales to qualify. Go to www.1and1contest.com to learn more.

You get all this and more as a 1&1 affiliate! When you join 1&1 you are getting over 15 yrs industry experience and a global community of over 7 million people. 1&1 combines the web’s most affordable hosting prices with friendly service to create an unmatched value.

- Up to 5 FREE Domains
- FREE Photo Gallery Creator
- FREE Easy Site Creators
- FREE software worth $900
- Incredible Shared web hosting
- Powerful Dedicated web servers
- Affordable Email solutions

With so much value, its easy for our affiliates to sell for 1&1 and its easy to see why 1&1 consistently ranks as one of the fastest growing, most reliable hosting companies in the world. Join now and start earning today!”

Commission: Up to $300 per sale
Cookie Duration: 45 days

Not a member of Pepperjam Network? Are you crazy? Start promoting 1and1 Internet and hundreds of other top advertisers by joining PJN for FREE at www.pepperjamnetwork.com

Michael Arrington over at one of my daily read’s TechCrunch announced about an hour ago that Microsoft is set to step-up big in its quest to unseat Google AdWords as THE go to performanced-based paid search platform.

According to Arrington’s insider information Microsoft is going to introduce a service that will give users cash back on any purchases made from advertisers.

Unlike the typical cost-per-click (CPC) model pioneered by GoTo.com and later revised and blackboxed by Google, which requires advertisers to bore the risk of return-on-investment, Microsoft’s supposed “CPA” model will be based on pay for performance. Similarly, unlike the typical CPC model that does nothing to incentivize users, Microsoft’s “cash-back” approach just may be an answer to take away some of Google’s market share.

I dare say it but it sounds like Micrsoft may be planting the seeds for the launch of a next major affiliate marketing network.

However, it’s my hope that instead of launching their own network they work with key strategic affiliate network partners like Pepperjam Network and others to help deliver “advertiser” inventory to users.

BTW – JellyFish.com launched right around the same time as Shogging.com (a Pepperjam property). JellyFish (was? the site is down for repairs) is a shopping comparison cash back Web site that partners with major affiliate networks like CJ, Linkshare, and Pepperjam Network – they offer users cash back to shop through the site. It is likely that they were acquired by Microsoft for this exact initiative, which to me is a potentially brilliant way to do something different than the 11,000 pound elephant….if you can’t beat them with technology, develop a new innovative model and incentivize users to use your service.

We all know Microsoft (and Yahoo, once they are acquired by MSFT in a few days) has the reach to compete with Google. The real question is does this new model have what it takes to eventually win at least a fraction of Google’s loyal user base.

My thought is that this may (if done correctly) be the straw that breaks the camel’s back.

I just published a blog post from my hotel room in Amsterdam called “the Future of Affiliate Marketing says Kris Jones.”

Hey – I’ve got a few hours of “vacation” time left here in Amsterdam before my wife Robyn and I fly back to the States tomorrow.

Therefore, in order to read what I have to say about the Future of Affiliate Marketing you’ll have to journey over to the Pepperjam Network Blog for more. BTW – if you are a regular reader of Pepperjam Blog I strongly encourage you to join the Pepperjam Network RSS feed since a small army of Pepperjammers are over there blogging quite often.

Now Robyn and I are off to the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam and then off to a trendy restaurant (food and people here in AmDam have been great) for dinner.

When will the Microsoft and Yahoo drama end? Is it just me, or are other people getting sick of this buyout/hostile takeover/partnership fiasco?

Yesterday Microsoft announced that it is (again) in talks with Yahoo. To what extent, that is all speculation…but what we do know is that it will NOT be a complete takeover/buyout as originally planned. (or so they say…. for now) Microsoft made clear in a statement released yesterday that the offer “would involve a transaction with Yahoo but not an acquisition of all of Yahoo.” However, the statement continues, “Microsoft is not proposing to make a new bid to acquire all of Yahoo at this time, but reserves the right to reconsider that alternative depending on future developments and discussions that may take place with Yahoo or discussions with shareholders of Yahoo or Microsoft or with other third parties.” (Ah Ha!)

So what options are speculated to be on the table if not an all out takeover?

1. Microsoft buys Yahoo’s search business: some have alluded to Microsoft buying out Yahoo’s Panama technology and rolling into their own search efforts in order to take on Google as the leader in search. My Opinion: Yahoo makes out like a bandit with this option, but overall it’s an awful idea. Their search business is sub par at best. Combine that with Microsoft’s search technology and it is still no where near the likes of Google.
2. Yahoo outsources its search to Microsoft instead of Google (whom they are in talks with currently): The Sillicon Alley Insider reports that “Microsoft has proposed a cooperative pact in which Yahoo would likely display advertisements sold by Microsoft alongside Web search results delivered to Yahoo’s users. The intent, these people say, is to head off talks between Yahoo and Google Inc. over a similar relationship.” My Opinion: Not a bad idea. This deal would ultimately take Google out of the picture for the time being and eliminate the regulatory fight that would likely ensue if Yahoo/Google team up. However – wouldn’t this mean that Microsoft has to outbid Google for this portion of Yahoo’s business? Is the cost/benefit really there for Microsoft to make this sort of bid? I’m not so sure it is.
3. Microsoft resumes complete buyout talks: been there done that. Will round three be the charm?
4. Microsoft walks away…. for good: highly unlikely. Don’t you think?

The answer to this question may be revealed on Wednesday at Advance08, but until then it is all speculation. But by God, I hope they do something soon. I don’t know that i can take one more RSS feed on this topic! (she says as she just adds fuel to the fire.)

What are your thoughts? Anyone else care to weigh in on what tricks Microsoft might have up their sleeves? Or which option Yahoo should concede to?

A few months ago I was invited to deliver the Keynote at Affiliate Dag, an affiliate marketing conference being held in Utrecht, Netherlands (outside of Amsterdam).

Sure enough I accepted and arrived today with my wife Robyn in Amsterdam (for the first time) a few days ahead of the conference.

My presentation will focus on the future of affiliate marketing in the United States and Europe, including the dramatic growth of the European e-commerce industry, as well as affiliate marketing.

Did you know that by 2010(ish) the size of e-commerce in Europe is predicted to be larger than the United States?

I’m really excited to be here in Amsterdam and among other things look forward to seeing my friend Joost de Valk, as well as taking in some more of the culture here in Amsterdam.

The face of social media as we know it is about to change. Within the past week MySpace, Facebook and Google all announced plans to make social media more portable by opening it up to third parties. So what does that mean exactly? Great question Kat! (why thank you)

I had to dig a little deeper myself to find out how each of these giants planned on taking my profile information and share it with the greater world wide web. The underlying theory is this: You use one social network as your “main” Profile, connect this profile to other third party sites, and when you update your “main” profile, it updates the info on the third party sites too. Presumably all profile privacy preferences (say that three times!) will transfer to the third party sites as well. Since I’m a visual person I thought this mockup of a Twitter/MySpace profile (provided by Tech Crunch) would be a useful illustration for you as well.

So what are MySpace, Facebook, and Google offering? Well let’s start with a brief recap of each program and go from there.

First up: MySpace Data Availability

Before I begin, what marketing guru thought that the name “Data Availability” was going to be a winner? But I digress. MySpace is essentially making key user data, including (1) Publicly available basic profile information, (2) MySpace photos, (3) MySpaceTV videos, and (4) friend networks, available to partners (Yahoo, Ebay, Twitter and Photobucket, so far) via their (previously internal) RESTful API, along with user authentication via OAuth. See above mock up to make sense of the previous sentence.

Next up: Facebook Connect

Facebook Connect will allow members to use/connect their profile information – including profile pictures, names, photos, friends, groups, events and other information – on external websites and other social networking sites, such as Digg. Additionally, Facebook Connect will let members put feeds from other sites onto their Facebook profiles.

And Lastly: Google Friend Connect

Again – what marketing guru came up with this name?? It is not very “google-ly.” Google Friend Connect is a tool set or application, for lack of a better explanation, that allows a website owner to turn any static page into an interactive or social site by adding simple social features to the
website. For a demo, check out this YouTube video tutorial.

And done… well almost.

What does all this mean for us? Are any of these solutions really going to simplify our social networking? If MySpace is partners with Twitter and Photobucket, but not Digg, won’t I have to simultaneously update both my Facebook and MySpace pages? The only way I can see this working, or at least working well enough to make it worthwhile, is if we can get these social network giants (Facebook, MySpace, Hi5, Bebo, MyYearbook) to play nice. But is that even what we want? Do we want one universal social networking site? Or would we rather compartmentalize our social media footprint – one network for my love of dogs, another for my love of baking, and another to network with other internet marketers, and so on? Isn’t this latter model what Ning is banking on? So many questions, so little time!

That being said, who are you putting your money on? Do you think data portability will one day rule the social media landscape? Or will users keep their profiles private?