VigLink or SkimLinks for a UK Forum?

[Donny]

I'm in a bit of a pickle.

I've used SkimLinks for a few years now and had consistent revenue from them, mainly via Amazon UK and eBay UK. A few months ago Amazon UK seems to have stopped working with SkimLinks for link-skimming. And I'm on the understanding that SkimWords doesn't work with XenForo. Which apparently Amazon UK does still pay out via.

So that leaves mainly just eBay UK paying me via SkimLinks.

Now I've tried to setup their showcase tool, which seemed handy. But I can't deselect Amazon UK, and most of the products showing seem to be coming from Amazon UK. So that's rendered that useless for me too.

I'm wondering if any of you guys that have UK-based websites with UK-traffic have ran into this issue, and whether you've tried switching to VigLink or some other option. Or perhaps even managed to get eBay and Amazon's direct affiliate schemes to work via some link-skimming code of some sort?

Help.

 

[CTXMedia]

I was advised that there were some integration issues with Amazon UK last year so commissions are now consolidated into a single day (each month). This seems to be the case for CycleChat when I search over the past year or more on the hub.

 

[Donny]

The hub shows that I haven't been paid from Amazon for months now. I have a ticket that said their Amazon UK and EU services stopped working with Skimlinks going back to about October last year, maybe before that I'd have to check.

Used to get quite a bit from Amazon but now am only getting eBay and some other random shops which don't generate much.

I've implemented the showcases box in a sidebar on one of my forums, and it's bringing up Amazon loads. Which is clearly no good if I'm not getting paid via Amazon.

Is there a Skimlinks staff member on XF anywhere do we know?

Edit: this was their reply to a ticket I opened about it, in October 2016.

Imdad MiahOctober 04, 2016 10:45
Hi Daniel,

Many thanks for your email.

Amazon.co.uk and Amazon EU are currently Skimwords only merchants. Unfortunately they do not pay out commission via Skimlinks.

I would advise contacting Amazon to see if they offer a commission rate via their own affiliate program for Amazon.co.uk.

Please don't hesitate to get in touch if you have any further questions.

Kind regards,

Imdad
Skimlinks Support Team

Then I asked if I should remove the Amazon search box, as that searched the UK store on my forums.

Their reply..

Imdad MiahOctober 04, 2016 15:16
Hi Daniel,

Thank you for your email.

I would also advise removing the search box as this also links to Amazon.co.uk.

Unfortunately I am unaware of when this change happened, however our merchant team are always speaking to Amazon,
so hopefully they can get www.amazon.co.uk back on board for Skimlinks.

Please let me know if you have any further questions and I will be happy to help.

Best regards,

Imdad
Skimlinks Support Team

So for me, in the UK with a UK forum, their showcases boxes aren't going to work if they're bringing up Amazon stuff. And the Amazon search box doesn't work. So it's kinda just become a go-between for my forums and eBay.

I may as well go to eBay directly if I can find a way to skim the links still. Or have a sidebar box showing related products or something. And then perhaps go to Amazon UK directly too. And get that lost revenue back.

Wondering now whether I'd actually get a better % too, or whether SkimLinks pays better as they can use their buying power to haggle. Not really sure on that.

I'll keep digging but if anybody knows if VigLink works with Amazon UK AND eBay UK. Let me know, as I'll switch. I've opened an account and am checking it out in the meantime.

 

[CTXMedia]

I don't know if this would be useful for increasing clicks to qualifying merchants for you (don't know your forum niche) - but I use it to link to key Skimlink merchants in posts (displayed to guests): https://xenforo.com/community/resources/keyword-management-keyword-replace.4066/

I also take advantage of the Skimlinks 'Favourites' feature to shortlist merchants that bring in the best results and to select Offers (which you can set-up email alerts for too).

 

[Donny]

Absolutely brilliant. I can see how that could be awesome! Thanks for the heads up on that one. I'll go find some merchants that deserve a bit of traffic.