Talk is cheap
It started out with a quote by Shawn Collins about the new PepperJam network.
“Even after all these years using Commission Junction on the merchant and affiliate side, I still find it terribly clumsy to find what I want. With Pepperjam Network it is quick and easy. Pepperjam Network is what an affiliate network would look like if it were built from a wish list from both the affiliate and merchant perspective.”
Pepperjam uses this quote pretty heavily in their marketing….ok, that’s cool. Can’t blame them there.
CJ’s GM, probably a bit annoyed, personally calls Shawn Collins and asked what he was referring to. They follow up with a call from a principal product manager and determine that Shawn’s primary complaint is that it’s tough to get at some reporting data.
Apparently what Shawn needs regularly is a few clicks deep into the CJ interface. They surely pointed out that the way the site is designed is that reporting pages, and any report result page, actually has a bookmark-able url. And you can even save and name the reports that you often run and call them up pretty easily.
Shawn wrote a quick blog post, sounding genuinely appreciative of their quick response, happy to have a solution, and gave credit where it’s due for a nice personal touch from CJ’s management.
In his blog, Kris Jones from Pepperjam congratulates CJ for their quick response to an issue, but at the same time chides them for offering up a “web 1.0 solution” of a bookmark.
Sam Harrelson mentions this in his AffiliateForutuneCookie podcast, and again in the GeekCast.fm podcast today ribbing CJ for their Web 1.0-ness and seemingly permanent residence in 1999.
In the latter podcast, Shawn wishes out loud that he wasn’t in the middle of the drama.
C’mon guys.
This was essentially a tech support call with an individual. A publisher had an issue, they had a phone call about it, and they offered up an immediate workable solution. He blogged about it.
I really like the Pepperjam interface, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. While it shows promise, I wouldn’t say it yet has much over CJ’s reports. They both require you to drill down to get to the useful data. And hey, good news! — Their reporting interfaces both allow you to bookmark any results pages to get quickly to the report that you want.
Are you too cool for bookmarks?
And where’s this web 2.0 stuff you speak of? I don’t see much web 2.0 anywhere near here making for killer reporting, aside from some animated shockwave bar graphs.
The Real Deal
For the record, my reporting experience is pretty much the same on both networks.
On CJ, it goes like this:
1. Log in
2. Glance at the header to see my overall balance.
3. Look at the homepage to see what happened yesterday in total.
4. Click ‘Run reports’, select one of my saved reports, go.
I routinely look at what happened yesterday across all programs, then I look at transaction detail reports for yesterday and then usually a few times for the current day as the day progresses.
No report is more than three clicks away. Could be better, but not what I’d call clunky.
On PJN, it goes like this:
1. Log in
2. Glance at the header to see my overall balance.
3. Look at the homepage to see what happened yesterday in total. I can see what happened yesterday across all programs right there. That saves me a few clicks.
4. To see transactions details, I must select a report from a drop list of reports, select the date range, and click go.
My daily checks to see what’s going on for the current day are about 3 clicks each.
Pretty much the same experience.
I would like to see a little more details when I log in to CJ, and hopefully they’ll take this to heart. But still, I’d give CJ a leg up on depth of useful reporting data. For example, if I’m looking at a Monthly advertiser performance report, I can drill down and see every day for that advertiser for that timeframe. Here’s an example for one merchant.
I don’t think I can do that on PJN. We could probably go through this exercise all day long with pot shots going in both directions. Hopefully the product managers at the respective networks are doing just that and working on improvements.
It’s Web 2.0 you want?
But you want to talk about Web 2.0? Let’s talk about APIs and automation. I automate a lot and don’t even want to touch into the network’s reports for things like transaction-based SID tracking. I want quick and easy access to advertiser’s product data, and again, no web interface. I want datafeeds and APIs for product data.
I have no doubt that PJN plans to have these things in place, but they cannot yet go head to head with CJ (or the other networks) on that one yet. CJ has all sorts of APIs.
Pepperjam does so far have some new features that do set the bar higher for affiliate marketing, specifically around transparency. Opening up communication is always a good thing.
Show me the Money
I love that a new affiliate network is on the scene pushing innovation. But actions speak louder than words. Let’s see these great new features and let them speak for themselves.
