We’ve been champions of the service SkimLinks offer for some time now; providing in-depth information on their service to both staff and merchants as well as profiling them in a recent AWin Newsletter. So we were delighted for them when they swept the board at last night’s A4U Awards, winning in the Innovative Affiliate of the Year, Best Use of Technology within Affiliate Marketing and Best New Entrant in Affiliate Marketing categories. Following what we are sure was a heavy night for the team, we caught up with Alicia Navarro, Founder & CEO of skimlinks.com.

You had an amazing night at the a4u awards, picking up every award you were shortlisted for, how are you feeling today?

We are feeling rather dazed and extremely pleased! We have been working so hard since our launch, so its really amazing to be recognised for the very things we have been striving to achieve.

There was a lot of celebrating at the Awards – what were your highlights from the evening?

The event was incredible, well done to the team at Existem for putting on such a great event! The chocolate dessert was definitely a highlight, but the group hug on stage after our third award was the best part.

Now in their third year it is clear to see that the a4u Awards have grown in popularity and prestige. How do you feel they benefit and shape the industry and will they have an affect on Skimlinks?

There really isn’t another industry group that acts as both a community and self-policing mechanism for affiliate marketing, and its members are passionate and creative. We have thrown ourselves into the community, and its been a rewarding and inspiring experience for us.

You were awarded the Best New Entrant in Affiliate Marketing, how does it feel being the new kids on the block?

A complete honour. There are some incredible players in the space, so to be recognised after such a short time is a shock. It makes us want to work harder to validate the faith everyone has in us.

How have you found the industry…tough nut to crack or a welcoming community?

Welcoming – we’re always learning from those around us.

Once hangovers are out of the way, what are your plans for the remainder of 2009/2010?

We are always coming up with new products that can push us towards our goal of helping publishers monetise in simple, effective user-friendly ways. We’re focused on growing our core services, but we do like to be innovative at any opportunity, so watch this space, we have some game-changers in the pipeline!

What do Skimlinks think the future holds for Affiliate Marketing?

I think its becoming much more mainstream and attracting more quality editorial and user-generated sites. My forecast: affiliate marketing will be like free PR services paid by CPA.

For those of you previously unaware of Skimlinks, here is some information on their service. Their basic premise is to provide technology to publishers that simplifies affiliate marketing; when a publisher writes about or displays a URL to a merchant’s website, Skimlinks turns these URLs into their affiliate link equivalent at the moment it is activated by a user. In a nutshell, Skimlinks can apply affiliate tracking to links on websites, after the merchant link is clicked on. This allows many website owners from bloggers to newspapers to earn affiliate commission without any effort to add affiliate tracking. There is a demonstration video here for those still unsure of how the service works.

The technology Skimlinks have developed is giving many more companies the opportunity to work as affiliates, thus raising the awareness of the affiliate proposition. As more content sites become engaged with affiliate marketing, the more opportunities there will be for merchants to work with them on a performance basis, rather than the traditional CPM model. Skimlinks are champions of the affiliate industry and can only help raise the profile of the CPA model further and last nights success was testament to their hard work over the last 12 months.

If you are interested in working with SkimLinks or have a question about the service they provide then you can contact either the Partnerships Team here at AW partnerships@affiliatewindow.com or contact@skimlinks.com directly.

This entry was posted by sleigh on Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009 at 5:07 pm and is filed under A4U, Profile, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.