VigLinks, SkimLinks. Value? With XF?

[DBA]

The thing is I never could understand why a company (Ebay) would pay for traffic already coming to them.

For example a user posts an Ebay link on your forum (which isn't monetized via Viglinks/Skimlinks), other users click this link and are taken to Ebay.

In the other scenario; a user posts an Ebay link on your forum (which is then monetised by Viglinks/Skimlinks), other users click this link and are taken to Ebay. Ebay pays you for this click.

In both those scenarios Ebay got the traffic, but they only had to pay for the one.


One thing I could see being a benefit to Ebay though is the Skimwords feature where non-linked phrases/words are turned into links that direct traffic to Ebay.

 

[Wildcat Media]

That's not really the point of affiliate links (for anyone, not just eBay). Our forums provide a place for other members to share links. If they see something they like, or they find that other forum members like, they'll share it. That is additional traffic which the seller may not have had. On some sites, publishers use an RSS feed to populate lists of related items, or manually build a page with items of interest for members. This gets more exposure for the sellers as opposed to a typical Internet user just wandering into a site and blindly buying something. A site that publishes reviews of products will link to the product. The publisher has provided the service of "selling" the product (or if the product is not so good, the site may suggest an alternative). This is like a "value added" service where the publisher provides something beyond what the seller offers on their own, which is often basic product information and biased end-user reviews.

The point of eBay vs. Amazon vs. others is that as publishers, we might build pages of reviewed or recommended products, or related products, and if we find that seller A pays a better revenue than seller B, we are more likely to redirect our traffic seller B than seller A. Many eBay affiliates have done just that--they see diminishing returns with eBay links, so they are starting to use others.

One thing to keep in mind about VigLink (and likely Skimlinks as well) is that they deal in such large volume that they can negotiate higher payouts with these sellers. VigLink gets a substantial premium over "book" value for eBay affiliations, even though it has been cut. For me, 75% of a much higher payout pays me better than 100% of a bottom-tier payout. They often run "specials" with retailers also. Granted, much of it is not related to my site, but for those who run, say, clothing sites, some of their specials make worth the publishers' efforts to feature these items on their pages.

That is pretty much what affiliate links are all about, even without VigLink or Simlinks in the picture. We provide a venue for links that goes far beyond letting users find thing on their own, or simply click random links in a website. Monetizing those links gives us publishers incentive to encourage those links, and/or create content that includes even more links back to the seller's site. While a $10 item might not seem like much, every little transaction adds up, and these companies are hoping us publishers will include a link to them over their competition on our sites.