Skimlinks

1. What is Skimlinks?

Positioning: A leading content monetization platform primarily for publishers and content creators, focused on automating affiliate marketing and maximizing revenue from commerce-related content through its vast network of merchants.

Functional Panorama: Covers automated affiliate link conversion, product linking solutions, comprehensive performance analytics dashboards for publishers, and access to a global network of over 48,500 advertisers. It integrates seamlessly with existing content management systems, where its technology transforms regular product mentions and links into monetizable affiliate links, requiring minimal manual effort from publishers. As part of Taboola’s Connexity business unit, it also benefits from broader commerce media ecosystem integrations.

2. Skimlinks’s Use Cases

• Content Publishers: Can use Skimlinks to automatically convert existing product mentions and outbound links into affiliate links, monetizing their content without direct affiliate program management.
• Forum Owners & Online Communities: Can implement Skimlinks to generate passive income from user-generated content that includes product recommendations or links.
• Affiliate Marketers: Can leverage Skimlinks’s extensive merchant network and reporting tools to streamline campaigns and identify top-performing content and products.
• E-commerce Retailers & Brands: Can gain exposure and drive sales through Skimlinks’s publisher network, reaching a broader audience interested in their products.

3. Skimlinks’s Key Features

• Automated Link Conversion: Converts regular product links into affiliate links in real-time, enabling publishers to earn commissions automatically. Speeds increased by continuous optimization of network routing.
• Access to 48,500+ Merchants: Provides a single point of access to a vast global network of affiliate programs, simplifying merchant onboarding and management for publishers.
• Enhanced Reporting & Analytics: Offers detailed dashboards for tracking clicks, commissions, top-performing content, and merchant performance, helping publishers optimize their strategy.
• Skimlinks Anywhere: Allows publishers to create affiliate links directly from the Skimlinks platform for specific products or pages, useful for social media or email marketing.
• Integration with Taboola’s Commerce Media Ecosystem: Benefits from expanded capabilities and reach through its parent company, Taboola and its Connexity unit, offering broader monetization opportunities.
• Universal Cookie Technology: Enhances commission tracking across different merchants and user journeys.
• Simplified API Access: For larger publishers or developers who want to integrate Skimlinks functionality into custom applications.

4. How to Use Skimlinks?

1. Sign Up & Account Setup: Visit the Skimlinks website and complete the application form for publishers, providing website details and agreeing to terms.
2. Install the Skimlinks Code: Once approved, copy the provided JavaScript code snippet and paste it into the header (before the tag) of every page on your website where you want Skimlinks to operate. For WordPress, use the official plugin.
3. Generate Links: Skimlinks will automatically convert existing product links on your site into affiliate links. For specific links, use the “Skimlinks Anywhere” tool within your dashboard to manually generate affiliate links.
4. Monitor Performance: Log into your Skimlinks dashboard to view real-time clicks, commissions earned, and top-performing merchants and content.
5. Pro Tip: Regularly review your Skimlinks analytics to identify high-performing content or underperforming merchants. Focus on creating more content around successful topics and consider diversifying your merchant partnerships.
6. Pro Tip: Ensure your website is compliant with affiliate disclosure guidelines by clearly stating that your content may contain affiliate links, which builds user trust.

5. Skimlinks’s Pricing & Access

• Commission-Based Revenue Share: Skimlinks operates on a revenue-share model with publishers. Publishers receive the majority of the commission earned from sales, while Skimlinks takes a percentage as its fee for providing the technology and network access.
• No Upfront Fees for Publishers: There are typically no subscription fees or setup costs for publishers to use Skimlinks. Revenue is purely based on performance.
• Standard Commission Splits: The exact percentage Skimlinks takes varies, but it is generally a standard industry practice for affiliate networks to take a share of the publisher’s earned commission, though specific rates are not publicly disclosed and can vary per merchant or region.
• Web Dynamics: Publishers typically need to reach a minimum earnings threshold before payouts are processed, usually on a monthly or bi-monthly basis. This is standard for most affiliate networks.
• Access for Approved Publishers: Access to the platform and its network is granted upon successful application and review of the publisher’s website content and audience.

6. Skimlinks’s Comprehensive Advantages

• Effortless Monetization: Skimlinks excels in its “set it and forget it” automation, requiring minimal manual effort from publishers to convert content into revenue streams, unlike managing individual affiliate programs. This significantly reduces administrative overhead compared to competitors like Amazon Associates where each link must be generated manually for specific products.
• Vast Merchant Network: Provides access to a single dashboard for thousands of merchants globally, far surpassing the reach of individual affiliate programs and offering broader product variety than platforms focusing on specific niches.
• Superior Analytics: Offers robust, centralized reporting that consolidates performance across all merchants, providing a holistic view of commerce content effectiveness, which is more comprehensive than tracking fragmented data from multiple individual affiliate dashboards.
• Industry Recognition & Trust: As a long-standing leader in the affiliate marketing space and now part of Taboola/Connexity, Skimlinks maintains a high level of industry credibility and trust. Skimlinks technology has been consistently rated highly for its ease of implementation and stability in various industry reviews.
• Optimized Performance: Skimlinks’s technology dynamically selects the best-performing merchant links and optimizes for higher commission rates where available, aiming to maximize publisher earnings automatically.