A long time ago, like a year ago, I ran across some folks in a forum who warned me that Skimlinks is a scam and that I should stay away. Over time, I’ve come to depend on that forum less and, in fact, have come to trust others who are have success in a similar manner to mine, that is, that they make money writing online by producing quality content on an ongoing basis rather than using all manner of techniques to earn money without having to write so much.
Recently, a comment reference Skimlinks and using the company to get around being kicked out of Amazon’s affiliate program by California. As it turns out, California and Amazon cut a deal and California affiliates are back in. Sadly, those of us Colorado Amazon associates are still out.
What Is Skimlinks?
Skimlinks is a company that allows web publishers and writers to generate affiliate links automatically without signing up for a bunch of different programs. Basically, the company itself goes out and signs up affiliate relationships with merchants and online shopping websites. Us publishers use the company’s relationships to send affiliate links to those retailers instead of setting up our own.
Of course, the company keeps a cut of the revenue generated. Skim links keeps 25 percent of each commission generated. The publisher earns 75 percent of the commission. According to the company, a lot of website owners will come out ahead anyway by using the company. The higher volume of traffic Skimlinks offers allows the company to negotiate a higher commission percentage from the merchant. The idea is that if they get an eight percent commission where you would get a five percent commission, then you will make more money off each sale even if they keep 25 percent.
This is all according to the company’s materials. I have no first hand knowledge yet.
How Does Skimlinks Work?
Skimlinks works like Google AdSense by inserting a piece of JavaScript code on your website. Unlike AdSense the Skimlinks code doesn’t generate an ad, rather it monitors clicks on links to stores and other online retailers. If the click can be monetized, that is if Skimlinks has an affiliate relationship with where the link goes, then they redirect that click (silently) through Skimlinks to add the necessary code and make it an affiliate click. If a commission is generated, they split it 25 / 75 with the website owner.
An example, makes it easier to understand.
Suppose you really like makeup from Sephora and recommend it on your website. Without Skimlinks, you would sign up for Sephora’s affiliate program, and then manually link to Sephora products from your website. Sephora would pay you directly and you get 100 percent of your commissions. With Skimlinks, you don’t need to sign up for Sephora’s affiliate program. You link directly to the product on Sephora’s website without any sort of affiliate code, just a regular link. When someone clicks that link, the Skimlinks JavaScript intercepts the outgoing link, adds the Skimlink company affiliate code (and presumably some sort of tracking that identifies where the link came from) before sending the user on. If a commission is generated, Skimlinks keeps 25 percent and you get the rest.
This make Skimlinks a good way to get around Amazon Associate bans in your state. For example, I live in Colorado and my legislature decided to tax Amazon, so Amazon said, “Screw you guys, I’m going home.” (They probably even used a Cartman voice.) So, all of my Amazon affiliate links are worthless and generate no money for me. However, if I use Skimlinks, it is their affiliate code and not mine that shows up on Amazon’s system and since they are not kicked out of the Amazon associates program, a commission is generated and I get 75 percent of it.
Is Skimlinks Worth It?
The webmaster who recommended Skimlinks did so with some reservations. Like me, he had heard negative things before but has had no trouble with them personally.
Apparently one of the common complaints was that Skimlinks had a high payout threshold. I don’t know what it used to be, but it’s $10 now. If you can’t generate $10 worth of commissions, the money sits in an account until it adds up to $10. If it takes you a long time to generate that much, your websites probably need to focus on building instead of monetizing. In the meantime, I wouldn’t complain too much that someone owes me $4.35, but if that sort of thing bothers you, look elsewhere.
Also, if you are willing and able to manage your own affiliate relationships directly, you’ll get more control, better reporting, and maybe higher payouts. If, like me, you spend enough time just writing websites and don’t have more time to do anything beyond using Google AdSense to make money, then Skimlinks might be a good alternative to signing up for a bunch of affiliate programs.
I went ahead and signed up for Skimlinks. It took one day for my site to be approved. I am added some others today, we’ll see how long that takes.
If you want to try Skimlinks too, use this referal link: Skimlinks
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Any update on how skimlinks is going? I wish I’d discovered it sooner! I write about dance (it’s my personal interest, not a niche!) and it’s hard to find affiliate companies. I’ve wound up signed up to multiple affiliate networks, each offering just one or two dance-related merchants. That means they all take ages for me to reach their payout thresholds (which is $100 for some of them). I just checked, and ALL my merchants are in the Skimlinks program, so I could have combined them all and got paid out much quicker.
As it is, I’m going to transfer them over to Skimlinks as I reach payout on each one.
I’m also considering transferring my Amazon links using their plugin. I don’t make a lot of Amazon sales so I never get above the 4% level – if I can get 8% with Skimlinks then it will be worth losing the 25% .
Thanks for your comment and details about your experience. To tell you the truth, I got spooked when my sites dropped so much traffic from Google right after installing Skimlinks that I have only very timidly begun to put it back. Interestingly enough, I made 2 Amazon sales this week off of some low traffic pages that I left the code on, so I guess that might be a good sign. I need to regroup and come back at it with a more focused effort here in the near future.
Good luck with Skimlinks and keep us posted.