A reader finds a useful review, clicks the link to a pair of shoes and buys them. The retailer gets a sale. The publication may get a commission. Somewhere between the recommendation and the receipt, Skimlinks does its work. Its proposition is wonderfully unglamorous: let writers use ordinary product links, then handle the affiliate machinery that makes eligible purchases pay.
That machinery was once a side project. Before Skimlinks became part of Taboola’s commerce business, its founders were trying to persuade people to use a social shopping service called Skimbit. The service struggled. The way it earned money attracted interest. In the wreckage of one product sat the beginnings of another.
The customers wanted the plumbing
Alicia Navarro’s original idea helped people collect things they found online and make decisions together. Think shopping research with friends attached. In her 2015 account of the business, Navarro was admirably plain about the outcome: “It failed.” Yet the team had built a way to monetize the links people shared, and she realized that this was the useful invention.
The sales conversations were giving her the answer. As Navarro explained to Mixergy, prospective buyers resisted the licensing fee for the white-label Skimbit service. When she discussed sharing affiliate revenue instead, they became interested in how the link technology worked. They still did not want the original product. Investors, too, perked up at the monetization mechanism.
The financial crisis of 2008 forced a decision. Navarro and co-founder Joe Stepniewski redirected the business toward automatically affiliating links for other publishers. There was pressure behind that choice: Navarro recalled having customers and salaried staff before raising the seed round. This was a business with bills, trying to find the thing somebody would buy.
There is a practical lesson here, with less romance than the usual pivot story. Ask what part of a sales conversation makes the buyer lean forward. Then test whether that part works as a separate product. Skimlinks had already built the technology for its own use; the leap was recognizing who else needed it.
The price of making links easy
Today, the publisher proposition is one contract and one integration, with access to a company-reported 48,500 merchants across more than 50 affiliate networks. The website script converts eligible organic links into affiliate links. That saves a publisher from assembling every merchant relationship and tracking link separately.
Skimlinks charges publishers through a typical 75/25 commission split. The publisher keeps 75%; Skimlinks keeps 25%. There is no publisher signup fee or monthly subscription. The distinction matters: the percentage applies to commission, not the shopper’s entire order.
One order. Two shares.
Illustration: a $100 order, with a merchant commission rate you can change. This is an example, not an earnings forecast.
Total affiliate commission: $10.00.
For a $100 order paying a 10% commission, the commission pool is $10. Under the standard split, the publisher gets $7.50 and Skimlinks gets $2.50. Whether that is attractive depends on what the publisher could earn directly, how much administration it avoids and the rates available through Skimlinks.
Nor does a recorded sale mean money arrives tomorrow. Skimlinks’ payment guidance explains that retailers must approve commissions and affiliate networks must pay before funds reach publishers. Returns, validation and payment timing sit between the celebratory dashboard glance and cash in the bank.
A toolbar for writers, a dashboard for the business
The script is only one entrance. The Editor Toolbar lets a writer check whether a merchant participates, inspect commission information and create an affiliate link while browsing the retailer’s website. It keeps that small commercial chore close to where product research happens.
The Link Generator provides another way to create trackable URLs. Skimlinks’ social-media guidance describes using short links in Instagram bios or Stories and YouTube descriptions. Newsletters can carry generated links too. The company’s creator page also points influencers toward ShopYourLikes, its sister service, reflecting the different workflows of a newsroom and a social creator.
Inside the Publisher Hub, reports organize performance by merchant, page, link, country and device. Editors can see which older articles still earn and which links need repair. The Product Bought report can reveal that a reader bought something other than the item originally recommended - a reminder that the shopping journey has a mind of its own.
Dynamic Link Optimization can update eligible broken links, with geographic restrictions on some features. APIs and data tools support publishers that need information in their own systems. The expertise spans software and commerce operations: tracking activity, understanding merchant programs and helping an editorial business decide where its maintenance effort will pay.
The software comes with people attached
Skimlinks serves editorial brands, independent publishers and shopping platforms. Its public client examples include Condé Nast and Hearst. News UK says its relationship began in 2017 as a way to monetize content efficiently, then developed into collaboration on innovation and advertiser relationships. That is a broader job than installing code.
On the merchant side, Marks & Spencer described using incentivized rates with publishers including Condé Nast, Hearst UK and Reach. In the case study, which discussed plans for 2023, the retailer welcomed more traffic but wanted to improve conversion. More visitors had created another task: persuade those visitors to buy.
A separate CouponBirds case study reports 40% more merchant partnerships and 160% year-over-year revenue growth. Those are company-published outcomes, not proof that another publisher would get the same result. The described intervention included outreach, advertiser access and execution support. The human work is part of the product.
“Skimlinks’ culture is one of our most important assets.”
Alicia Navarro, speaking about the CEO handover in 2018
That emphasis on relationships also appears in the founders’ account of company culture. Navarro stressed cultural fit when bringing in investors. When she handed the CEO role to Sebastien Blanc in 2018, she singled out his appreciation of the team and customers. Collaboration was part of how she explained the business, not merely a recruitment benefit.
The lesson for a publisher is to assess the service as both a tool and a working relationship. Who helps resolve a merchant problem? Which reports identify an article worth updating? How quickly can a commercial team get useful information to an editor? Those questions are more revealing than the number of links a script can convert.
Merchants can pay to get noticed
There is another revenue stream alongside the publisher commission share. Skimlinks’ optional merchant support plans list monthly prices of $200 for Preferred, $1,100 for Premium and $1,800 for VIP, each with a three-month minimum. Higher tiers add services such as a dedicated growth manager, analysis and promotional opportunities.
These plans sell visibility and assistance inside a crowded marketplace. They do not buy a guaranteed lift in sales. Skimlinks also tells merchants that higher commission rates may encourage coverage, while acknowledging publishers’ editorial independence. The commercial incentive is obvious; the publisher still has to decide whether the product deserves the reader’s attention.
From venture funding to Taboola
In February 2015, Skimlinks announced a $16 million Series C led by Frog Capital, with participation from BDMI, Greycroft, Sussex Place Ventures and Silicon Valley Bank. It reported $24 million in total equity funding at that point. The announcement also said publishers had generated more than $625 million in retailer sales during 2014. That was merchandise sold, not Skimlinks’ revenue.
Connexity bought Skimlinks in May 2020, bringing together affiliate budgets and direct retailer advertising relationships. The announcement emphasized access to cost-per-click budgets alongside commission-based sales. It was an expansion of the ways shopping audiences could generate revenue.
Taboola completed its Connexity acquisition in September 2021. The announced $800 million consideration covered Connexity and included retention incentives. It should not be mistaken for a standalone Skimlinks valuation. Within the larger group, Skimlinks occupies the connection between publishers’ recommendations and merchants seeking customers.
The click still has to count
Skimlinks is not the only way to automate affiliate revenue. Sovrn Commerce also affiliates existing merchant links and helps publishers create new ones. A publisher can instead manage programs through networks such as Awin, CJ Affiliate or impact.com, which also work with Skimlinks. The choice turns on coverage, net earnings, reporting and the work the publisher wants to own.
For that comparison, earnings per click is more useful than staring at a headline commission rate. Skimlinks includes the metric in its reporting guidance because it brings conversion and order value into the picture. A generous percentage on a product readers rarely buy may produce less money than a modest rate on something they want. Compare the outcome for the same audience and a meaningful period, rather than selecting the most exciting percentage in a merchant directory.
Automation also cannot manufacture buying intent. A site with little relevant shopping traffic, weak product recommendations or poor merchant coverage may earn little. A publisher with excellent direct deals may find that giving up a commission share costs more than the saved effort is worth. Those are commercial calculations, not installation problems.
Then there is tracking. In its discussion of fair attribution, Skimlinks identifies browser settings, ad blockers, consent flows and gaps between websites and merchant apps as reasons sales can go uncredited. It describes working with Moonpull to audit tracking accuracy. A persuasive article can influence a purchase without receiving the final attribution.
The sensible starting point is a small, measurable trial: identify useful buying guides, check relevant merchants, track realized commission and keep the links current. Judge the result after approvals, not just clicks. Skimlinks can reduce the work of collecting a recommendation’s commercial value. The recommendation itself still has to earn the reader’s trust.