MomCrunch
What’s That Pinterest? You Made My Pin An Affiliate Link?
Everyone knows that Pinterest has exploded in recent months; in the fall quarter of 2011 retailers reported that more traffic to their sites came from Pinterest than from Facebook – probably because of Pinterest’ 4000% increase in traffic during that time period.
But fast on the heels of any social network’s success with traffic comes the question, “But how will they make money?” Usually start-ups like Pinterest take a fair amount of time to begin generating revenue, but Pinterest has leapt ahead of the game. How? By making links to products that are pinned affiliate links.
Social media blogger Josh Davis uncovered this practice through some crafty sleuthing, and he posted about it on his blog. He explains how they do it:
Pinterest is able to do this across their site by using the service skimlinks. This service is rather innovative in that they automatically go through a site and add affiliate links wherever there is a link to a product that has an affiliate program associated with it. While many forums, smaller web sites and even Metafilter have taken advantage of the service, I have to think that the volume of links skimlinks is modifying for Pinterest, has to make Pinterest their biggest client and perhaps the majority of their business. skimlinks makes money by taking 25% of any affiliate revenue generated.
I spent some time trying to spot an affiliate link in the pins of the folks I follow, and I wasn’t able to. I think it’s likely because most of the folks I follow are extremely savvy (and highly self-promotional) and already have links sent to their own blogs and sites (which likely have their own affiliates). So it appears that Pinterest is only adding affiliates when folks link right from a site selling the product.
It’s rather amazing that Pinterest is doing this – they could very well be the first social network still in invite-only beta to generate an income this way. The problem is, of course, that they did NOT disclose this fact. Which violates the user’s trust, and likely FTC regulations as well.
Pinterest has yet to comment on this issue; I’m very interested in what they have to say. What do you think? Is this a smart business move on Pinterest’s part, or a bad public relations move?
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4 Comments
NicholeAnn.com commented on Feb 08 12 at 3:00 pmI think it’s smart move on their part – I’d be tempted to do the same if I was them. And let’s face it, they’ve created a valuable/fun service and should be compensated somehow. But I agree, disclosure (even in T&C/FAQs) would probably be wise.
Stephanie commented on Feb 08 12 at 3:47 pmThis does not bother me. I have lost track of less bookmarks since using Pinterest, ! more easily plan my weekly meals and have been motivated to finish projects. Pinterest has been a huge help to me and if they want to make money by attaching affiliate links to my pins they can go right ahead as long as the site remains free for me to use!
Lisa @Smart Spending Spot commented on Feb 08 12 at 9:09 pmI’m not sure. It kinda makes me snicker, because you know those folks only posted it there in hopes of generating more income for themselves…….so karma maybe? It’s not supposed to be about self promotion, and posting a direct aff link, what else is that besides self promotion. Anyway, who posts just an Amazon link on Pinterest???
Honestly, I don’t even like the whole idea of skimlinks because so many bloggers that are in states where Amazon isn’t, use it to promote Amazon. At worst that’s probably illegal, at best it feels kinda scammy and just not right.
Debbie commented on Feb 08 12 at 11:15 pmBrands can choose whether or not to partner with Skimlinks, so there is disclosure to the brand. Polyvore also uses affiliate links. Brands have opted to participate.
Pinterest users also could use the site to make affiliate revenue or ad revenue by linking directly to their own site or blog post instead of directly to Amazon or a brand site. In fact, you could argue that Pinterest switching out links directly to brand sites will effectively reduce spam on Pinterest. Haven’t you noticed the number of Twitter accounts that are purely spammers sending out Amazon affiliate links and other company affiliate links? By switching the links, Pinterest has taken away the incentive for users to pin products solely for profit.
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