Today is the launch of the Pepperjam affiliate marketing network. Pepperjam appears to be different from other networks and that is very exciting.

Right now they have more than 40 merchant programs, mostly fashion merchants, but also some others including several well known brands. I feel that it is good that they have so many programs right from the start, it might just be the right critical mass to get the network successfully out of the starting gate.

The first thing that strikes me is that they have about 50 merchant programs. They’re mostly fashion and apparel merchants with a mix of others including many well known brands. It’s an impressive number of merchants to launch with. The last network that launched in the US started with one or two, if I recall. And that didn’t get them very far.

There are five features that makes me happy as an affiliate:

• Real time reporting! If you intend to drive traffic though Pay Per Click advertising then it is nice to be able to tweak without factoring in delays.
• Product feeds. Nothing makes it easier to set up a site faster.
• It is simple to create deep links. It is nice to be able to create those with out using an interface.
• Superb support. It is a hard claim given the network is new, but it has the potential.
• And most importantly the interface is the best I have seen. I was never in doubt on where to click to get things done.

As of now Pepperjam is a US only network, that does not mean that you can’t sign up if you are located outside the US, but all of the programs as far as I can tell are for the US market.

Some merchants I find interesting:

• SEOmoz - A well know SEO/SEM company pays 50$ per lead!
• English Laundry - A fashion store pays 10% per sale.
• Pepperjam - They pay $5 for each lead.
• Dog the bounty hunter - The crazy redneck bounty hunter you know from TV pays 6% per lead.

All in all I find Pepperjam to be interesting and worth a closer look. I am getting paid to write this blog post, however I would have written the same blog-post even if I had not gotten paid.