15 Comments

ReveNews Cafe: Podcast with Kris Jones of Pepperjam

Mar 10, 2008
by

Kris Jones of the Pepperjam Network joined me in a conversation about the recent controversy between Pepperjam and Commission Junction.

The podcast runs about 30 mins.

Play

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

About Sam Harrelson

Former ReveNews and CostPerNews Publisher, Former Affiliate Marketer, Current Middle School Science Teacher, Current Publisher of AffiliateHack

Twitter: sbharrelson22
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing + Civic Responsibility + Internet Strategy + Interview + Sounding Off
  • http://www.revenuetoday.com Lisa Picarille

    good interview. i’m hoping that someone from cj will agree to voice their side in the same type of forum with you. i think that would be very helpful for those of us that continue to reserve judgement since we don’t have -and may never – all the facts. regardless, this issue will come up again and perhaps there is a lesson in here if we can get to the bottom on this situation.
    30 minutes of my time well spent on this podcast.

  • http://www.revenews.com Sam Harrelson

    Thanks, Lisa. I thought about going the Hardball style of questioning, but I think this approach is much more fruitful for long term archiving of the situation.

    And I definitely hope that someone from CJ will come on and give their side of the events. Open invitation!

    Sam

  • Jonathan (Trust)

    Just want to put this point out there. It felt a little like watch out new networks because the bigger ones will pull stuff like this when I think the problem was more the prior relationships with the merchants. Because, and sombody can correct me if I’m wrong, Linkshare was the only one I know about that had any sort of exclusivity for most of the merchants on their network. CJ was pretty open. You could always find merchants that were at CJ, over on Shareasale, Performics etc. Newegg that opened up at CJ, is now opening up at Buy.at while maintaining the program at CJ.

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  • http://sageblogger.com Vlad

    Great interview Sam. Look forward for the follow up interview with CJ.

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  • Joni K

    Commission junction has every right to reach out to its existing partners and tell them that they’re not permitted to work with certain parties, including PepperJam. Kris Jones threatening CJ with legal action is a complete joke and if PJ ultimately decides to sue CJ, nothing will happen other than lawyers getting rich at everyone’s expense.

    Kris should stick to making promotional videos for PepperJam with the big Inc 500 poster behind him, and stop crying for help.

  • Jim Star

    Kris Jones is unbelievable. He has a law degree and is “testifying” about what he says MAY be a lawsuit. For the few people out there that don’t know this “NEVER ever talk about pending litigation! NEVER” That is the FIRST thing that Law Students learn and Kris is YAPPING all over the place!! Hey Kris, if you are serious about a lawsuit SHUT UP! Now, send me $500 for that legal advice, via my CJ account. He says that he is speaking to his attorneys and then he doesn’t listen to them, what a joke. He thinks we a morons, that we have no clue that he is just complaining so we feel sorry for him.
    CJ has every legal right to contact current customers and if they CHOOSE to put them on the spot in “such a way” then they should leave CJ, no questions. My bet is that they won’t, Pepper Jam isn’t a good enough company to support it’s clients , I say this from personal experiences with PJ. PJ has treated me from the beginning like I’m a waste of PJs time. The Head of Affiliate Marketers emails me to tell me if I have a problem email someone else on her team, when I do email the “Team” I get no response. Three times!

    PJ should go back to the catering business, peeling onions, so when they start crying they won’t look so bad.

    The lack of business sense will take PJ down.

  • http://www.experienceadvertising.com Evan

    Wow…major trashing going on! I couldn’t agree more, I thought that his explaination was like they are the victim, but its nothing personal, just business..Don’t launch a network and claim its all that and a bag of Doritos, and expect to continue to work within CJ. We’ll see what happens but this could be good for little old affiliate management companies like mine that are trying hard to affordably, grow affiliate programs for merchants.

  • http://www.partnercentric.com Linda Woods

    Evan –

    I have a pretty large affiliate management company that manages many CJ programs and frankly, I don’t think what has happened here is such a good thing for companies like mine or yours. Whether you think PJ had it coming or not because they started a network, the point is that the 500 pound gorilla that many of us depend on for our livlihoods could decide they don’t like something we do and do some other kind of hostile act to thwart our growth. What if they decide they don’t like that I manage programs on LS, Performics, SAS or PJN and have always billed my services as “platform agnostic”? What if they’d rather “have” my business too, and sell their managed services to my clients behind my back (or yours)? They have assured me I am not to worry about this that they totally support the OPM agency relationship and our long time association, but PJ had an 8 year relationship with them, as I have had as well. I wouldn’t be in such a hurry to think this is such a great thing for non-network aff management companies. They could still throw their weight around if we become “worrisome” in some way. That is the point from my perspective.

  • http://www.partnercentric.com Linda Woods

    Oh and Sam – thanks for the podcast…very well done and even handed. I really do hope CJ will respond. They have reached out to me positively, but I’d like to hear what they say about the situation in public also.

  • http://www.experienceadvertising.com Evan

    Linda, when Pepperjam launched a network it crossed the line of conflict of interest. CJ has a very good policy regarding their merchants but clearly should allow this. CJ has no issues what so ever with OPM and never have, they welcome it and if done properly it only generates more revenue for them by getting programs producing more. PepperJam now must really start performing for their clients that they manage on their own network.

  • http://www.1115media.com Mike Buechele

    Do these clients have exclusive agreements or non-compete clauses with CJ? If not then CJ may have crossed the legal line in giving their clients an ultimatum. If the story Kris is telling is true, it appears CJ may have realized this when they wanted PJ to sign an agreement not to go public with how CJ contacted their customers. All of this is a separate issue to PJ launching a competitive network. Should CJ worry about a partner becoming a competitor? Of course they should. Do they have a legal right to do what they did? That is very debatable. Regardless if PJ is a competitor or not, if CJ did do this, I don’t see how strong arming your clients is good business reaction to competition.

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  • http://www.cumbrowski.com/ Carsten Cumbrowski

    Regarding the networks job to provide the means for advertisers and publishers to hook up, not owning any “publisher date”, transparency etc. … I actually blogged about that already, but thanks for the suggestion Kris. You cannot repeat this too much I guess, until it becomes reality.