Are you familiar with the Pepperjam network? They’ve been around in some form or another for the past 20 years.
From humble beginnings as an e-commerce startup started by college friends to sell spicy jelly, developing their own affiliate network, and being acquired by eBay.
The company was then renamed ‘eBay Enterprise Affiliate Network’ before being spun off and rebranded as the Pepperjam affiliate network.
So, let’s see if Pepperjam is an affiliate network that’s worth your time.
Getting Started at Pepperjam
Table of Contents
So, how do you sign up to be a “Pepperjam Partner”?
The first step is to determine which of the following categories you belong to.
- The merchant is either a brand or an advertisement.
- Affiliate Agency – you’re a company.
- Publisher or influencer – affiliate
We’d want to work with you, so please click the big orange/red button (BECOME A PARTNER- CTA).
You’ll have to give them some basic contact details.
Then some information about your company and your affiliate marketing website.
By the way, it’s a good idea for new affiliates to put some thought into how they define their website/business.
Affiliate networks are more concerned with the amount of traffic your site generates than with anything else, but any additional effort on your part can assist.
Publishing Channels at Pepperjam
It’s now time to define your ‘Publishing Channels,’ which entails selecting:
- What categories does your website belong to?
- How do you get customers/sales?
- Tell them how to pay you by telling them where the majority of your traffic originates from and what social media sites you use.
However, because PayPal is the only “obvious” method of payment, you really only have a choice of which currency you receive paid in.
Pepperjam, once an eBay company, always an eBay firm, eh? Finally, agree to their terms and conditions, check all of the boxes, and submit your application.
We appreciate that the complete application procedure is contained on a single page because it expedites the process.
According to our recall, Pepperjam processes affiliate applications quickly, so you shouldn’t have to wait more than a few working days to hear a “Yay” or “Nay!” from them.
Affiliate marketing networks that require you to go through hoops during the application process typically take longer to approve than those that do not.
Which brands are you able to promote?
For some people, this is a deal-breaker, while for others, it isn’t. However, seeing at least a few huge brand names on an affiliate network is reassuring — it’s that type of social evidence that tells you they’re a real company.
Puma, Lindt, and Nordstrom are among the surprising big names on the Pepperjam network. However, there are numerous smaller brands with whom to collaborate.
As a result, Pepperjam’s offers are diverse enough to cover most areas. And the hidden affiliate benefit of these smaller programs/businesses is that they usually represent products and services you wouldn’t have considered otherwise.
The one disadvantage is that there are fewer than 1,000 advertisers on this site, which means you can run out of possibilities if you’re targeting a niche like online dating.
The Ease of Using Pepperjam
You shouldn’t have to use an affiliate interface or dashboard because it’s supposed to make your life easier.
The problem is: most of these interfaces are created by “the data guys,” which means they’re clumsy, cluttered, and lack even the most rudimentary UX considerations.
Pepperjam, on the other hand, offers one of the more user-friendly interfaces we’ve reviewed.
The left-hand menu contains all of your key operations, leaving the main “workspace” area free for alerts and information on recently started programs.
And when you click on one of the menus, it stretches down instead of popping out, which we are immensely happy for. This frees up the top menu for non-essential information and functions.
- Earnings
- Customer service
- Mail to Advertisers
- Feedback
- Account information
- Logout
So we are giving them high scores for their affiliate dashboard — it’s new and clean, but it doesn’t sacrifice usefulness for a gimmick. Let’s take a peek at what it’s like to actually sign up for an affiliate program or three.
Affiliate Programs to Join at Pepperjam
This is one of the parts of affiliate networks that fascinates me the most, simply because it’s the one area where you’d expect them to put a lot of effort. They should make it as simple as possible for affiliates to identify and join an affiliate program.
In this sense, Pepperjam performs a decent job, although there is space for improvement. Click on “Advertisers” and then “Find New Advertisers” to acquire a list of affiliate programs. The search tool defaults to looking for programs with which you have “No association,” which saves time.
You can also look for affiliate programs based on the following criteria:
Category:
- Attribution features, and offer type.
- Status of the term Mobile tracking
- Premier Advertisers
- Currency Countries
- Program ID
At first glance, this appears to be a pretty comprehensive set of filters. And it is, except that you have no means of knowing how profitable a particular program is because you can’t view its EPC data. As a result, you end up with a lot of filters you don’t need, but one of the most important is missing.
Or is it possible that Pepperjam is hesitant to reveal that information since it isn’t quite glowing?
Another thing that stood out was the fact that they only had 937 sponsors, not the 1,500 that we’ve seen elsewhere. As a result, we’re hoping Pepperjam prioritizes quality over quantity.
Getting Paid at Pepperjam
“Show me the money!” exclaimed a respected economist. Don’t look it up on the internet; you’ll be disappointed. Let’s have a look at how Pepperjam pays its affiliates.
Timeline for Payment
Affiliate payments are made on the 1st and 15th of each month, or the closest possible date if weekends fall on those dates. In general, it can take up to a week to receive paid after these dates, so plan accordingly.
Affiliate payments are only processed on 30, 45, or 60 days for locked commissions, which can cause extra delays in getting paid.
Pepperjam is supposed to be a net 60 payment plan, but it varies.
Methods of Payment
You have the option of using PayPal.
Payment Options for the Pepperjam Affiliate Program
Yes, having PayPal as a payment option is convenient, but paying their exorbitant fees is a drag. Affiliates can also choose to get paid via direct deposit or check, but you must contact Pepperjam to do so.
Why add a manual step to a modification that the user should initiate? This is one of the stupidest things I’ve seen in a long time, and I’m sure it wastes their customer service team’s time shuffling paper.
Payment Stipulation
Before making a payout from your account, you must earn at least $25 in affiliate commissions.
Conclusion
And with that, we’ve come to the end of our Pepperjam affiliate network assessment. Pepperjam excels in some things while failing miserably at others. The missing EPC data and the strange concentration on PayPal payments, for example.
However, they offer a comprehensive set of affiliate and customer service/support capabilities and represent a number of well-known brands.
