Regular readers will know that I implemented Skimlinks for the first time almost a year ago, so I wanted to post a review of my experiences so far.
If you aren’t familiar with SkimLinks already, it’s a system that allows you to automatically monetise existing links around your site without having to do any work! It is particularly good for earning additional income from user created links, such as on a forum or in comments.
SkimLinks Review
So how has my SkimLinks Implementation been going? Well here are some of the things I’ve tried since setting it up for the first time:
- Rolled out to my MediaWiki powered site, SammyWiki.com
- Deployed to forum using new vBulletin integration
- Trialled SkimWords on my WordPress present finder site
As you can see, the SkimLinks team have been working hard to provide straightforward integration with well known forum and blogging platforms.
Another welcome update is the redesign of the reporting area. It is now much easier to quickly pull up reports broken down by site, by merchant, by time giving you a full view of how well your sites are performing.
How Much Money Can I Make from SkimLinks?
The question I expect most of you are interested in! Now clearly this is going to depend on a number of things such as how many visitors you get, how many sites you own, the “quality” of traffic and all the other many factors involved.
So how much have I earned from SkimLinks? To date, just over £400. Doesn’t sound a lot, and as a percentage of my overall income it isn’t one of my significant revenue streams. But as a hobby blogger this is still a very welcome sum of money. After tax (grrr!) this could make the difference when considering where to go on holiday or whether to buy a new tablet, etc.
And the best thing is, getting this extra revenue stream took almost no work. All I had to do was setup the appropriate plugins and register my sites on the SkimLinks website. They do of course take a commission off all sales but the key to remember is that these are sales you would not have otherwise made.
My top SkimLink earners are:
- SammyNetbook.com forum area. Forum users often post links to products on ebay, amazon and other tech sites.
- SammyWiki.com wiki and forum
- This site has actually made a couple of sales
- And in forth place, BirthdayPresentIdeas.net. I actually monetise most links here myself, however SkimWords is active and helps add a few extra opportunities into the mix.
Amazon Links
One slightly surprising addition to the SkimLinks tool box is the opportunity to override your existing Amazon links. You see, by default, all of your existing affiliate links are left untouched so that you can still gain 100% of the commission from these. This also allows you to install your own links if any particular link is proving extra successful.
This new feature automatically reroutes all of your existing Amazon links through the SkimLinks engine, thus allowing them to take their cut of your profits. Why would anyone do this? Well apparently you might want to so that you can take advantage of their reporting suite.
Personally I think I would much rather have access to the comprehensive Amazon reporting suite and keep 100% of the commission! Have you taken advantage of this option? Let us know.
Related posts: