Skimlinks better than viglinks?

steven s

Well-known member
I'm seeing a very small return using viglinks. I have one forum that is entirely ebay links.
Has anyone compared both?
 
"For viglink all you do is add some code to the footer. You don't need a plugin."

According to the skimlinks site, it works the same way.

(The editor is not loading, forum access is intermittent)
 
For viglink all you do is add some code to the footer. You don't need a plugin.
You can use Skimlinks like that too, but the plugin enables control over the Skimlinks integration, such as limiting which usergroups get to see it etc.
 
http://www.skimlinks.com/
  • Add the Skimlinks plugin to your site in minutes
  • Create content with links to products and services as normal
  • We turn your product links and product references into affiliate links
  • You earn a commission when users click on these links and make a purchase


http://www.viglink.com/
  • If one of your users clicks through to a product or service and buys something, you earn a commission. You only pay us a share of what you earn.

Taken directly from each site.
 
So even a bum like me who is not technically oriented can make money with this stuff ??

I wonder if it works retroactively, in other words just put the code on the site and it searches for what ??

Do I have to be hooked up with all the affiliates via a network to get paid ?
 
So even a bum like me who is not technically oriented can make money with this stuff ??

I wonder if it works retroactively, in other words just put the code on the site and it searches for what ??

Do I have to be hooked up with all the affiliates via a network to get paid ?
I have used Skimlinks in a forum. They provided their own vBulletin plugin and it worked just fine. For the non vBulletin installations, all you will need is to add some javascript in your global template (header/footer etc.)

You do not need to sign up with any affiliates. Just create an account with them. They have various payment options (check, direct bank transfer, paypal). Usually they pay 2 months after you have accumulated your earnings - similar scenario as Adsense.

The plugin scans the content of your forum and when it finds a hyperlink it sends it back to Skimlinks. Their engine identifies the domain and the link in general and if the link is that of an affiliate that they work with, they transparently 'hijack' that link. If a user clicks that link in your forum Skimlinks knows about it. If the transaction ends up in a purchase, you get a commission and they get theirs.

Perhaps 'hijack' is not the right word to describe it but hey it is late and I am tired. At least you get the idea of how it works.

From my personal experience, their staff has been very helpful, polite and the product did not interfere with the forum at all. No complains from the users whatsoever.

I hope the above helps.
 
I'm glad you've explained it, because I was under the impression it was one of those "scan the page and link lots of key words" type offerings - you know, with the double-green underlined links that have pop-outs and can be quite annoying.

This sounds like a stealth linking system that would go pretty much unnoticed by forum members.

I might consider this for the Geeks site when it launches. I want to try and monitise this new site in ways that won't annoy people/turn them off. (I appreciate it won't make much at the outset, but if it's there from the beginning then no one will notice it being "introduced" later.)

Thanks,
Shaun :D
 
I'm glad you've explained it, because I was under the impression it was one of those "scan the page and link lots of key words" type offerings - you know, with the double-green underlined links that have pop-outs and can be quite annoying.
There are companies that do that. Vibrantmedia is one such company.

This sounds like a stealth linking system that would go pretty much unnoticed by forum members.
Goes completely unnoticed as far as I can tell.
 
Could anyone explain the technicalities of how this works?

I'm always concerned about the speed of my sites so anything that slows down page loading, etc. needs careful consideration.

Do the links get modified at the time of posting and get injected into the database with the skimlink in place? This would be my preference as there would be no per-page processing required.

Yours,
Interestedly ... :)
 
I think Viglink and Skimlinks are basically the same thing. I honestly have had decent luck with viglink. I honestly never knew about skimlinks till the one post in the off topic forum that lead to the other forum software's site and touting how they teamed up with skimlinks.
 
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