Campaign | ||
Setup |
1 Minute |
Require up to 3 business day for approval |
Installation |
Copy/Paste Java Script Supports REST API on request. Also have "Installation Checker" |
Copy/Paste Java Script Also support Flash integration |
Plug-ins & Integrations |
Tapatalk Integration ForumRunner Integration CloudFlare.com Apps Integration Plug-In's For: vBulletin & WordPress, Blogger, Tumblr, phpBB, TypePad |
Ning Integration Plug-In's For: vBulletin & Wordpress |
Merchant Count |
~32.000 active merchants |
17,278 active merchants |
Active Merchant On Start |
VigLink says, merchants are active on first day unless merchant operates by white-list, |
%100 |
Payment |
Monthly via PayPal US Check by request |
Monthly via PayPal. UK/US Bank Transfer US Check |
Payment Delay |
Net-60 days. |
Net-90 days. |
Revenue Share |
They have %25 and give you %75. |
They have %25 and give you %75.
Ahh. They forgot to say that, there is little loss about conversion of currency even if merchant pays in USD and you have your money from SkimLinks as USD, as little as %2.89 to %2.21. |
Transction Fee |
VigLink pays the all PayPal fees. |
SkimLinks pays the bank transfer fees.
Also pays the PayPal fees
After my request, CEO said that, SkimLinks will pay PayPal fees for every cases starting from next month (September 2011). |
Payment Threshold |
$0.00 |
After my request, CEO said that SkimLink will be reduce it to $10/7£ starting from next month! (September 2011). |
Referral Programs |
At Jan 2013, VigLink changed their referral commission rate to %35 of VigLinks commission for a year. In short, they increased the commission to match SkimLinks rate. This shows benefits of the competition. Equals: %8.75 of total.. |
At 1 November 2012, SkimLink decide to update their referral commisions rate with better ratio and they will give %35 of SkimLinks commission for a year.
Equals: %8.75 of total..
%10 of SkimLinks commission for text referrals. And will give %12 of SkimLinks commission for banner/badge links. For one year. Equals: %2.5 of total (for text link) %3.0 of total (for badge/banner) |
Personal Referral Benchmark |
VigLink's referral income is #1. You can track how much referral income you earn day by day and your referred client count. |
Skimlinks referral system has some issues. You can't know how much person that you gained to system and only could see how much is your referral income once at month. |
Tax |
Compatible with U.S. system. Have multiple forms for tax reporting but they doesn't collect any tax.
Also, you might need to pay your income tax at your country. Double kill!
From 10 September 2012, VigLink supports "Certificate of No United States Activities" option for keeping users to fill meaningles U.S. Tax forms. ( I believe that, this move about my advices and the web page that you are reading now. ) |
For U.K. Citizens they collect VAT.
For other countries. You can pay your income tax to your country by your country laws... |
Contextual Advertisement |
Link Weaver, generates automatic links from merchant names and product specific references. |
SkimWords, generate automatic links from merchant names and product names... |
Link Override |
Optional link override for Amazon and Ebay links. |
Optional link override for Amazon links only. |
Already Affiliated Link Warning |
Shows how many already affiliated links available at your pages but does not give any other information. |
Does not show any warning about it. |
Support |
Quick and satisfactory. |
Unfortunatelly, the support is not as good as at old days. But you will get some answer to your questions... |
Widgets & Tools |
VigLink Anywhere (Link Generator) |
Custom Domain |
Allow External Accounts |
None |
Allows external administrator, reporting and tools account types. |
Click Statistics |
Live or with little delay. |
After a day. |
Commission Calculation |
~1-2 Days |
~2-3 Days |
Affiliated Pages Statistics |
Yes |
|
Affiliates Links Statistics |
Yes |
No
CEO said that Skimlinks working on it and will supported soon. |
Merchandise Sale Statistics |
Yes! |
No. |
Truth Ratio of Purchases |
I can see almost all of my purchases at Viglink statistics reports. |
Well. Skimlinks has always some problem with this. I cannot track some of my purchases from different merchants while I am using their services. I submit support request for non-reported payments. Skimlinks used to ask merchants about situation. Also Skimlink doesn't show purchased units. It became harder to track your purchases... |
Correct Purchase Value and Commission |
Viglink system reports every purchase as it is. At least for purchass in USD. It's OK when you think almost all purchases at internet paid by USD. You don't loose a penny for conversion. |
Skimlinks has an issue on this. They store every purchase as GBP at their databases since they are UK based. |
Statistics View |
Calendar Style |
Graphic Style |
Statistics Filtering |
None |
Supports filtering by domain and merchants. |
Statistics Range |
Daily, weekly and monthly ranges available only, but not configurable by date. |
Allow custom statistics ranges. |
Statistics Export |
CSV export for a week only. |
XML,CSV,PDF export for custom ranges. |
As you can see, their service is
similar and both company has some weak and strong points...
The biggest downside of VigLink is that
you can't inspect statistics for custom range. That's annoying.
They allow statistics view for day,week and month only...Also VigLink could export statistics only
for a week. Not for custom dates... But this is just "cosmetic". I think there is no any downside of VigLink service.
Ah,I forget non-enabled merchants. You needed to fınd which merchants are not enabled on your account and you needed to send request to enable your "un-enabled" merchants for start earning from your existing links...
How could you understand which merchants are disabled on your account? I don't know. You needed to understand magically. I really don't know why VigLink do not make this process automatically for you. Does any one know?
One of the biggest downside of SkimLinks is absence of affiliated link and page statistics. While I write this, they looks like start to support "page statistics" only.
But still missing the unit and link statistics. You can't know which links attracts your users or which goods sold by your links.
It's like fishing blindly. You can't find hot topics/spots with SkimLink service.
Other one is money loss due currency translations. Since thir database need to convert every purchase to GBP, and almost all internet payments made by USD, purchases need to be translated to GBP and this means loss.
If you have your money from VigLink in GBP, this is mandatory and it is no issue. But if you have your payment in other currencies like USD than this conversion became obselete and you loose cents/dolars from every USD payment.
This means ~%2,5 reduction from your commission. So your income it not stıll %75 but it became %72,5. Than Viglink starts to looks like a better alternative to my eye.
SkimLinks is also better if they put ebay affiliate override like VigLinks too. I believe that is not so hard to do.
It looks like
SkimLink offers more features. But at the important subjects, they
are all red on comparison table, still. They know their
publishers value and they could easily break “big company habits” with
my request. (Like payment threshold reduction). Hey they are the market leader and not needed to
make such improvements by just one of jobless computer engineer (it's
me) ideas actually but they do. And the make profit from this move. They are free from arrogance. I feel
respect to them. SkimLink don't have Affiliate Link and Affiliate
Page analyze tools yet and personally those are the biggest down point of
them. But CEO Alicia said that they will work on it and soon they
will also support those statistics too. But they are still not available. I wait for a year and still waiting.
If you don't care that affiliated links statistics data, than SkimLink is good choice for you.
If you ready to ignore that conversion loss due currency translation.
But you know that all merchants are active from beginning.
At the other hand, VigLink, which has no payment threshold, you can break the program anytime because there is no transaction limit. They pay a month faster than SkimLink. Also they offer Affiliate links and page analyze tools. Give speedy statistics and pays much more for referral publisher in practice. I see 4 digit payments just from referrals in some months. Same site usually give 2 digit referral income from SkimLink. My personal choice is VigLink service, looks superior than Skimlinks, both on practice and on the paper. Because I can track my user habbits and purchases from my users. They pay a month quicker than skimlinks and for their generous 4 digit referrral income...
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