Affiliate Voices
Greg Hoffman | January 24, 2012 | Listen Here
I love Skimlinks. I’m happy to say we work very well with Skimlinks in every one of our affiliate programs. We especially like the fact that Jenny Williams is readily accessible to discuss any issues that might come up with sales. I was at first a bit skeptical about the technology because I was worried affiliates I did not like would use skimlinks to steal the low hanging fruit sales from my programs. But that never happened. During the fall of 2011, Kim Salvino, recently crowned Pinnacle Award Winner for Affiliate Manager of the Year at buy.at, introduced me to Jenny from Skimlinks. We’ve found times to talk via Skype while she lives in London and we are on east coast time in the US.
If you have any questions about what Skimlinks is and how to best work with them, please listen to this podcast and then follow up with questions directly to Jenny. She is ready to hear from you.
Here’s some more info on Skimlinks:
Affiliate marketing becoming all work and no pay? Let SkimLinks affiliate your links – so you don’t have to!
- You add normal links to your content and we’ll convert them on-click.
- No affiliate links to create or manage – we do the work for you.
- No more network sign ups and approvals – get instant access to 17,000 affiliate programs.
- Our centralized reporting makes it easy to see which retailers your readers love.
- Our scale allows us to negotiate better commission rates for you.
Jenny was at Affiliate Summit West this month but with more than 5,000 people in attendance, we couldn’t find each other. Hopefully we’ll meet at Affiliate Summit East.
Skimlinks automatically converts product references in blog posts into affiliate sales links. The London startup just closed a funding round of $4.5 led by Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments, the investment arm of media giant Bertelsmann AG.For example, Skimlinks converts every mention of “Modern Warfare 3” in a review of that game into a link to a site like Amazon where the game can be bought. The blog earns a cut of every sale driven from the review. That commission can range from 4 to 15 percent of the price of the product, and Skimlinks takes 25 percent of the blogger’s fee.
New investor Bertelsmann AG owns the RTL Group, Europe’s biggest broadcaster, and Random House, the world’s largest trade book publisher, as well as numerous magazines. Another investor in this round is Dave McClure of startup accelerator 500 Startups, in a departure from his normal focus on very early stage companies.
Skimlinks’ main competitor is Google-backed VigLink. Skimlinks CEO Alicia Navarro doesn’t seem worried. “VigLink does much of what we do, although we innovate faster,” said Navarro. “We launched our link-insertion product, SkimWords, over a year ago, and they launched a soft version of it a month ago, but it isn’t commercially as ready or as lucrative for publishers as ours is. We also differ in that, as we are London-based, with offices in New York and San Francisco, we have a very international mindset.” Gaining the backing of a media behemoth like Bertelsmann, which has revenues of over 22 billion and employs 100,000 people, certainly helps counter the Google threat.
Skimlinks was founded in 2008 and has 30 employees.
paidContent:UK
Robert Andrews | Nov 11, 2011 | View article
Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments is buying in to affiliate marketing network Skimlinks, leading a $4.5 million second round investment.
The company is taking money to finance U.S. and global expansion and for R&D.
In the same ballpark as Vibrant Media, CEO Alicia Navarro’s company converts product-related text in web pages in to hyperlinks with affiliate links, so that publishers benefit from users’ outbound visits to merchants’ sites.
She claims an average of 2.3 percent of people who click through to a merchant site end up converting to purchase the merchant’s product that was specified in the link.
Navarro founded the company in London, where she still counts 25 staff, but has since moved HQ to San Francisco Bay, where it counts three alongside two in New York.
“We’re starting to do very well across Europe, Navarro tells paidContent. “Having a partner like BDMI can make it easier for us than any other VC could.
“You look at something like Vibrant Media, which everyone hates even though they make publishers lots of money. We can be high-yielding for publishers, we are much more of a user utility that happens to make money as well.”
“The words we turn in to links are always very specific. Historically, intent advertising is just about highlighting generic words and showing big brand-name ads. We’re going further down the line of transactional e-commerce.
Skimlinks has now raised $7.5 million in total. New investors 500startups and Venrex join Bertelsmann and previous backers Sussex Place, The Accelerator Group and Nesta in this round. Previous backers gave under ÂŁ700,000 in seed funds in February 2009, then a further $1.5 million first round in December 2009.
Skimlinks Continues Rapid Global Growth, Raises $7.5 Million To-Date for Its Leading In-text Monetization Platform
SAN FRANCISCO, California, Nov. 11, 2011 — Skimlinks, the leading in-text monetization platform for Web publishers, today announced it has raised $4.5 million in Series B funding. Led by Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments (BDMI), the new investment will help continue Skimlinks’ rapid growth in existing and new vertical markets within the United States and around the globe. It will also finance product research and development that will deliver even higher yields for publishers, improve consumer experience, and increase ROI for advertisers.
The new funding round continues Skimlinks’ strong investor momentum, bringing its total investments to $7.5 million to-date. In addition to BDMI, new investors 500startups and Venrex Investment Management and existing investors – Sussex Place Ventures, The Accelerator Group, and NESTA (National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts) – also contributed to the latest funding round. For more information on Skimlinks’ investors, visit http://skimlinks.com/investors.
“We chose BDMI to lead this round because of its stellar experience in both online publishing and advertising,” said Alicia Navarro, CEO of Skimlinks. “We’re delighted that all of our investors continue to believe in the value Skimlinks delivers, and we look forward to using this investment to continue our rapid expansion throughout Europe and the United States.”
“We are excited to be investing in Skimlinks. The team is energetic and inventive, and the space is open for technical innovation,” said Urs Cete, managing director of BDMI, who will be joining the Skimlinks Board.
The investment continues Skimlinks’ momentum and comes fresh on the heels of SkimWords 2.0, the company’s newest in-text monetization product for Web publishers. SkimWords 2.0 is the first real-time, fully automated content monetization solution to feature in-text product and price comparison across multiple vertical categories. With SkimWords 2.0, publishers earn incremental revenues, consumers are directed to the optimal retail site to make their purchases, and advertisers receive highly qualified traffic. Publishers can sign up for SkimWords 2.0 for free here: http://skimlinks.com/skimwords
Skimlinks’ technology also monetizes product links on publishers’ sites by converting them into affiliate links. For more info on the Skimlinks product, visit: http://skimlinks.com/skimlinks
Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe acted as legal advisors for Skimlinks.
About Skimlinks
Founded in 2008, Skimlinks is a leading content monetization platform that rewards publishers for the role their content plays in creating purchase intent. The company is creating an “intent-driven exit click economy” that accelerates consumers’ journey from content to commerce. Skimlinks processes 110 million clicks a month on over 700,000 sites around the Web, including AVForums, WordPress, Ning, Technorati, Hearst Digital and many more. In September 2011, Skimlinks was responsible for almost $20M in consumer sales from nearly 17,000 merchants across 27 affiliate networks. Skimlinks is a team of 30 based in London, San Francisco, and New York.
About Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments (BDMI)
Bertelsmann Digital Media Investments (BDMI) is a strategic venture investor focused on innovative digital media technologies, products and distribution channels across the globe. BDMI is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bertelsmann AG, a leading international media company with over $22 billion in revenues and over 100,000 employees across more than 50 countries. BDMI is a division of Bertelsmann, an international media company with yearly revenues of euro 15.8 billion. For more information, visit: www.bdmifund.com.
SkimWords 2.0 Increases Publishers’ Revenue, Improves Users’ Online Shopping Experience
SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. – Oct. 26, 2011 – Today Skimlinks launched SkimWords 2.0, the newest innovation in its highly advanced in-text monetization solution for Web publishers.
SkimWords 2.0 is the first real-time, fully automated content monetization solution to feature in-text product and price comparison across multiple verticals – including consumer electronics, fashion, beauty, mothering, automotive, and lifestyle categories. With SkimWords 2.0, publishers earn incremental revenues, consumers are directed to the optimal retail site to make their purchases, and advertisers receive highly qualified traffic.
Innovative Technology
Coupling innovative technology from the company’s recent acquisition of AtmaLinks with its advanced computational linguistics and semantic algorithms, this new version of SkimWords quickly analyzes page content and now delivers in-text price comparison in real-time. With unparalleled accuracy and speed, SkimWords 2.0 automatically detects product references in content and turns them into monetizable affiliate links.
“We have completely re-engineered SkimWords so it can now automatically and in real-time detect very specific product phrases, and deliver in-text product and price comparisons from the most relevant retailers,” said Alicia Navarro, CEO and Co-founder of Skimlinks.
“The net result for publishers is a more lucrative monetization solution that is also an informative user tool, helping consumers find the prices and retailers for the products they are reading about. Our new version of SkimWords achieves the right balance between high yield for publishers and high utility for consumers.”
Key Benefits
For content publishers, SkimWords 2.0 delivers:
- Advanced semantic technology that matches content with 20 million products in real-time
- Highly relevant and accurate in-text product links with price comparison
- Incremental revenue stream that won’t impact existing ads
- Fast, easy setup for a single site or a network of sites
Publishers can sign up for SkimWords 2.0 for free here: http://skimlinks.com/skimwords
“We have been using Skimlinks’ technology for a few years now and have had great success,” said Phong Vu, Sr. Director, Shopping Division at Internet Brands. “We are excited to start using the new version of SkimWords which we believe will help the users in our community better connect with the products that are featured and discussed in our forums.”
Skimlinks’ technology also monetizes product links on publishers’ sites by converting them into affiliate links. For more info on the Skimlinks product, visit: http://skimlinks.com/skimlinks
About Skimlinks
Founded in 2008, Skimlinks is a leading content monetization platform that rewards publishers for the role their content plays in creating purchase intent. The company is creating an “intent-driven exit click economy” that accelerates consumers’ journey from content to commerce. Skimlinks processes 110 million clicks a month on over 700,000 sites around the Web, including AVForums, WordPress, Ning, Technorati, Hearst Digital and many more. In September 2011, Skimlinks was responsible for almost $20M in consumer sales from nearly 17,000 merchants across 27 affiliate networks. Skimlinks is a team of 30 based in London, San Francisco, and New York.
Media Contact
Eric Doyle |Â 310-804-8228 |Â eric at wavesquad dot com
By Lisa Picarille, Performance Marketing Association on July 11th, 2011
Performance Marketing Association
Lisa Picarille  |  July 11th, 2011  |  view article
Website publishers, bloggers and online content creators looking for simplified solutions to monetize their website through automated in-text linking solutions, have two main competitors that are working hard to beef up their offerings and both jockeying for a leg up in the competitive and lucrative space.
To that end, UK-based Skimlinks last week acquired New York-based Atma Links for an undisclosed amount.
Venture capital backed Skimlinks launched in 2008 with tools to help online publishers monetize their content by automating the creation of affiliate links both on words and existing links in text. The purchase of Atma’s in-text link product linking and price comparison platform will be integrated into Skimlinks offerings. Atma’s founders Erik Nygren and Chris Dickson will join the Skimlinks team.
By Shawn Collins, AffiliateTip on July 7th, 2011
AffiliateTip
Shawn Collins  |  July 7th, 2011  |  view article
Skimlinks, a service that enables site owners to automatically convert existing, direct links to merchants into affiliate links has announced the acquisition of Atma Links.
With the acquisition, Skimlinks will merge the Atma Links technology with its own affiliate marketing platform to offer its publishers and partners real-time in-text product identification and price comparison service.
By Revenews.com, Revenews.com on July 8th, 2011
Revenews.com
July 8th, 2011 Â | Â view article
The UK and US affiliate markets got a little closer Thursday with the announcement that London-based Skimlinks acquired New York start- up Atma Links. A stand-out in the industry, Skimlinks now looks to combine its affiliate marketing platform with Atma’s “real-time in-text product identification and price comparison service.”
Skimlinks CEO and co-founder Alicia Navarro told The Guardian, “They (Atma) had spent the last two years building this really impressive technology for in-text product linking and price comparison, and we realized there was huge potential if we integrated their solution into our platform and across our network of partners. We think its an exciting move in this industry that’s been heating up recently.”
Affiliates4u.com
Chris Johnson  |  July 7th, 2011  | view article
Atma Links’ in-text technology to enrich Skimlinks’ product suite, offering publishers a ground-breaking service.
By merging the Atma Links contextual monetisation technology with Skimlinks‘ own affiliate marketing platform, Skimlinks will be able to offer its publishers and partners the first real-time in-text product identification and price comparison service.
It’s the first acquisition Skimlinks have made as a company, and believe it’s an exciting move in this industry as the content monetisation area has been heating up over recent months. The team at Atma Links have now joined Skimlinks, and are set to roll out the combined solution to some of their publishers with a full release coming soon.
By Geno Prussakov, AMNavigator.com on July 7th, 2011
AMNavigator.com
Geno Prussakov  |  July 7th, 2011  | view article
Earlier this morning Skimlinks has announced that it has acquired Atma Links. Both are essentially monetization tools/platforms that have performance affiliate marketing model at its core.
With congratulations, and several accompanying questions, I reached out to my good friend, Alicia Navarro, the CEO and co-founder of Skimlinks, and put together the following interview where she clarifies the details of the arrangement for us.
