Officially, this is the first time I have been tagged. Does it count when your fiancé is the one tagging, or should I refer to him as the President and CEO of Pepperjam. Yes, yes, that sounds better. I was tagged by the President and CEO of Pepperjam. Being that I am new at this, I will not divulge the juiciest information about me just yet. I have to keep you guessing, right? Here it goes…a little glimpse into the life of Robyn Martin.

1. I occasionally volunteer at the SPCA. (not court mandated)
2. Popcorn is my all-time favorite snack.
3. My mom is my best friend.
4. I am getting married on August 11th.
5. I would eventually like to open my own company. (Don’t worry Kris, it will not be a competing business!)
6. I own a turtle and his name is turtle.
7. It took me two years at Pepperjam to be named the Director of Affiliate Marketing.
8. I am about to marry the nicest and most sincere guy in the world!

I now tag:

Andrew Wee
Amit Mehta
Lee Dodd
Andrea Schoemaker

Here are the tag rules:

* Each player must post these rules first.
* Each player starts with eight random facts/habits about themselves.
* People who are tagged need to write about their eight facts on their blog.
* At the end of your blog post, choose eight people to get tagged, list their names, and link to them.
* Don’t forget to contact them telling them they’re tagged. Also, point them to your blog post so they know what to do.

So, the entire Pepperjam executive team has traveled to NYC to support their fearless leader, Kris Jones, as he speaks at yet another conference. He is, without hesitation, definitely in demand these days. Allow me to preface the video you are about to see by saying that we have the utmost respect for the entire executive team (which happens to be all male). So much so, that we decided to act out a day in the life. Thanks for being the backbone of Pepperjam Kris, Mikey, Ken, Brock and Aaron, and enjoy!

Ok, so as the Director of Affiliate Marketing for Pepperjam, and as the Affiliate Manager who launched and manages the Rocawear.com affiliate program, I feel it is my duty to write about Jay-Z selling Rocawear.  204 MILLION…Jesus.  If the company that owns Joe Boxer and Candies, two of the most mainstream American brand names, has the balls to buy Rocawear, that should tell you that Hip Hop has not only gone mainstream, but it has become a huge part and influence of American culture.  That, my friends, is a good thing and it is about time. 

 If you know me, you know that I am all about style and culture and fashion.  What Jay-Z did with Rocawear envelops all three, and you know what, good for him that he was able to build a clothing and apparel empire that Inconix valued at such a high price.   He got out at the right time, when he is clearly still on top of the industry as well as his game, and will still remain the “face” behind the image. He is an entrepreneur, and everything he touches turns to gold. Hey Jay-Z, wanna work with Pepperjam? (although we are pretty much already gold).

The Affiliate Summit West has come to an end, and I can tell you that it was awesome. From the beginning, here it goes…So I wake up at 3:30 am on January 21st, and am out the door by four.  I picked up Tara DeGiusto, Maura Goodwin, and Brock Siegel and we were on the way to the Wilkes Barre/Scranton International Airport.  Barring that Brock’s name was not in the computer and we had to book a flight for him on the spot, things started off well.  Get on the plane and we are on our way to Vegas…so we thought.  A light amount of snow caused the navigation system at the Cincinnati Airport (CVG) to go offline, so we make a pit stop in Pittsburgh to refuel and wait (and that we did).  45 minutes later, we are in route to Cincinnati.  Because our connecting flight was scheduled for 45 minutes after we landed, we unfortunately missed the connecting flight that was supposed to take us from Cincinnati to Vegas. So, a little upset, we proceeded to the Delta Representatives to find a flight to get us to Vegas.  The lack of customer service made me want to vomit.  For all of you who know me, I am a very friendly person.  I am nice to strangers, respectful to my peers and generally fun to be around.  DELTA REPS AT THE CVG AIRPORT HAVE NONE OF THOSE QUALITIES.  They are rude and incompetent.  They also could not help us.  I ended up calling the 1-800 number for Delta and the rep on the phone found us a flight to Boston and then to Vegas.  Not ideal but she was awesome and it was all she had.  So all in all, we flew from Scranton to Pittsburgh then to Cincinnati, then back to Boston, then on to Vegas.  Total travel time…a whopping 18 hours minus our presentation booth which made it the following morning.  Our flight home on US Air was a breeze.

On to the conference.  By the time I actually got to Vegas, I was so tired that I ordered food and went to bed.  The next day was great though.  I stayed in the booth the whole time and got to meet some of the nicest affiliates ever. The Martini’s are great, as well as the crew from Zanox.  I also had the wonderful opportunity to finally meet Shmuly.  I had multiple conversations with some of my favorite affiliates, including  Scott Hazard, and Asif who was his normal, friendly self.  I was able to meet up with some friends from 77Blue, Fat Wallet, Upromise, and last but not least, Ebates.  I also had the opportunity to briefly speak to Shawn Collins in an elevator, and he was great as usual. The Pure Imagination party was fun, and if I owned a club, it would totally look like Tryst.  I was so happy that Scott won the Affiliate of the Year, and had my fingers crossed all evening.  After about 4-5 glasses of champagne, I retired (believe it or not!) and had some quesadillas with a friend back at the hotel.The next day, Kris Jones , our CEO, spoke and it was actually the only speaking engagement that I was able to attend, but it was awesome.  He did a great job.  I was impressed.  I did hear that Shoemoney’s Q and A was also very engaging.  The speaker line up for the Summit is usually impressive.We all had a good time, I got to meet Shoemoney’s sister, Andrea, and saw Dillsmack again.  They are great people.  The best thing about the Summit is that attendees get to meet people face to face who we work with over the phone and through email.  I made a lot of new friends, connected with some old ones, and had a really great and memorable time. Can’t wait until Miami, although I can tell you that we will not be 9 people strong again. 

I would like to take a moment to thank all of the affiliates who contributed to our many merchant’s success this holiday season.  Affiliates are a huge part of my everyday life, and are sometimes not given the credit they deserve.  I purposefully omitted websites as to maintain a level of privacy.  I am sure that I will miss a few, but I would like to personally thank the following people, as you have impacted myself and/or my co-workers substantially.

1.   Daniel W, you guys are great to work with and get things done in a very professional manner.

2.   Sok, thanks for always taking our merchants and giving us great placement on your site.

3.  Dave Y, you are so easy to get along with and when we talk, I can tell you are smiling on the other end of that phone. (me too)

4.   Asif, you are on the cutting edge of technology and I admire your accomplishments.

5.  Hsufeng, you are truly a pleasure to work with and so on top of your game.

6.  Mattias, thanks for the great placement on your site.  There should be more affiliates like you. 

7.  Janna, I know all of the hard work you put in to promoting the urban fashion merchants, and I am glad that you campaign has so far been successful.

8.  Sylvia, you have seriously impressed me with your skills in search marketing.  You are wonderful.

9.  Sajnish, thanks for being so willing to promote the Pepperjam clients.  We are going to make you a small fortune in 2007.

10.   Melissa, Debbie, and crew, thanks for being so professional.

11.  Kendyl and Roger, thanks for everything.

12.  David and Stephen, not only are you guys two of the nicest people in the industry, but you are two of the smartest.

13.  Hector and Hollie, thanks for all of your efficiency and hard work.  You guys are one of my all time favorite affiliates.

14.  Hi Rod, thanks for being so creative and willing to think outside the box.  The urban programs are going to explode on your site.

15.  Len M, you are so eager to give and take advice, and that is a great quality.

16.  Greg and Cindy, what you guys have going over there in San Fran is very impressive.

17.  Elena, if it was up to me, you would have more then one Golden Link Award.  You are pleasant and very insightful.

18.  Sharon, I am glad that we formed a relationship this past year.  All of the pages your team created for my urban apparel clients were impressive.

So, like I said, there are probably at least 15 more that I did not get to mention, and I am sorry for that.  I’ll get you next year.  I am looking forward to an amazing 2007 and a chance for us to form stronger relationships.  Pepperjam keeps growing we can’t wait to take you along for the ride.  I hope that you all have a healthy and wonderful New Year.

October 31st has arrived and since we love to have fun and party, we thought that a costume contest would be a good time.  Barring one particularly questionable costume (Dean) the staff who have decided to participate in the contest are pictured below.  We are giving out a grand prize of $250.00 in cash.  I fought for a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd winner, but was out voted.  There are some really good spirited employees at Pepperjam and I am very lucky to be able to work with them on a daily basis.  Good employees make any job enjoyable, but I truly feel that we have some of the best staff in the Internet Marketing industry. Since we are not voting until 5:00, I cannot tell you the winner right now, but check it out after 5:00 and I will let you know.  We love feedback and opinions so please feel free to comment on whose outfit you think is the best.  I personally think that there should be about 5 winners, because the effort that went into some of the costumes was great! To those of you who have participated, thank you so much.  To the winner…congrats. There was stiff competition and you prevailed.  To the losers…better luck next year.  The stakes will increase.

Have fun and enjoy your Halloween 2006.  Be careful and smart.  Oh, as an FYI, I was not one of the participating Pepperjam employees.  Not because I do not get in the holiday spirit, but I really like being me!  Bye for now.

 Robyn

                     

When I came up with the title for this posting, I had to do some serious thinking in order to compare the two.  I love both football and affiliate marketing, and I figured that there has to be some sort of a common ground between them…and I think that I have found it.
So, let’s start with the Indianapolis Colts and Upromise.  Both are very powerful organizations.  Right now, the Colts have not really had a serious breakdown (except for the 1st quarter against my Redskins last weekend) but it is come to be expected that they will prevail.  They are the big team with big expectations, strong players, and good management.  Upromise is the big loyalty affiliate, similar to the Colts.  We expect so many things from them, as we do from the Colts, however what if they do not perform.  Do we loose trust in them?  Do we abandon our loyalty toward them?  Would you give up on the Colts…never, when you are a fan, you are pretty much a fan for a long time.  Of course there are exceptions, but pretty much, you stick with your team…win or lose.  I am a Upromise fan.
Next, I would like to tackle the San Diego Chargers, and compare them to a coupon affiliate.  Both rely on a special player to succeed.  When I was at The Affiliate Summit in Orlando this past year, I sat in on a session featuring Brad, from BradsDeals.com.  Brad flat out said that he relies on coupons and will not take on a merchant without them.  In this case, Brad relies on one thing to make his site work…as do the Chargers.  They rely on LT to make their team work.  Both BradsDeals.com and the Chargers gear their organizations around one thing…but what if that one thing stops performing?  Where does that leave Brad and the chargers?  Should they be building a backup to rely on?  Now, I like coupon sites and I try to get Pepperjam merchants on them, but I also manage accounts that do not believe in coupons.  Do I get sacked?
Lastly, I would like to compare a search marketing affiliate to the Philadelphia Eagles.  The Eagles have strong players at key positions in both offense and defense.  Search affiliates utilize the two major search engines…Google and Yahoo, to draw traffic.  They realize that although one search engine may be more powerful then the other, they come with a strong presence on both.  Offense and Google tend to be more exciting, or at least more of a draw but no one in their right mind can push defense and Yahoo to the back burner.  I will compare Brian Westbrook to Google and The Dawg to Yahoo.  To make the Eagles work, both are needed, and to make Search Marketing successful for affiliates, both Google and Yahoo are needed.  You can try to survive for a little while without one or the other, but you will not win the Superbowl, nor will your affiliate business be successful.
 So that is it, my comparison of football and affiliate marketing.  Hope it was insightful and useful.  Stay tuned for more.
 

Hello to all,

We at Pepperjam are so excited to be working exclusively with eFashion Solutions that we figured it was about time to blog about the relationship and where we are headed.  Let me start off by telling you about the fashion & entertainment affiliate programs Pepperjam recently launched on Commission Junction.  So far, we have launched Rocawear.com by Jigga Man (Jay-Z), BabyPhat.com by Kimora Lee Simmons, HouseOfDereon.com by Beyonce, AppleBottoms.com by Nelly, ShopJLO by Jennifer Lopez, and PhatFarm by Russell Simmons.  After their unbelievable success, we were given the second batch which included OrangeCountyChoppers.com (which we refer to as OCC), ShopElvis.com, and PhunkFashion.com.  When I tell you that it was an affiliate fight at Pepperjam as to who was going to manage the above programs, I am not lying.  Every senior manager wanted a little piece of the action, however the ones who prevailed are Megan Rogan, Kim Noler, and yours truly!  The accounts are hard work, but are very worth it.  We are excited, affiliates are excited, and eFashion Solutions is excited.

Ok, so now, I would like to introduce you to the programs that are in the works.  The next two that we are about to launch are DKNY.com and DogTheBountyHunter.com.  We were also just given the go ahead for OscardelaRenta.com, Rafe.com, and JudithLeiber.com. We have so many good ideas and we cannot wait to get this batch launched.  DKNY and Dog should be ready to go live on Friday!

I cannot end this post without giving props to Mike Ebert.  Mike is our direct contact for any and all affiliate needs, and he is awesome!  He is not only professional, but puts up with my constant harassment on a daily basis.  Thanks Mike!

I look forward to being a “blogger” and if there are any Super Affiliate’s out there that would like to join the fastest growing and most profitable affiliate programs on CJ, please contact me using robyn@pepperjammanagement.com.  I am willing to work to make your partnership with us very profitable and long lasting!