Pinterest is adding it's own affiliate code behind some product pins

Image: My page on Pinterest.

Pinterest is adding it's own affiliate code behind some product pins when they don't already have affiliate codes.

We agreed to it.

Pinterest Terms, Member Content:

Member Content
We may, in our sole discretion, permit Members to post, upload, publish, submit or transmit Member Content. By making available any Member Content through the Site, Application or Services, you hereby grant to Cold Brew Labs a worldwide, irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free license, with the right to sublicense, to use, copy, adapt, modify, distribute, license, sell, transfer, publicly display, publicly perform, transmit, stream, broadcast, access, view, and otherwise exploit such Member Content only on, through or by means of the Site, Application or Services. Cold Brew Labs does not claim any ownership rights in any such Member Content and nothing in these Terms will be deemed to restrict any rights that you may have to use and exploit any such Member Content.

More: Skimlinks.

via Josh Davis at [ LLsocial ]

Update from Alicia Navarro, Skimlinks’ CEO and Co-Founder:

It’s not a secret. We do monetize social discovery, and it’s great.

There have been a few articles popping up discussing Pinterest’s use of Skimlinks, so we wanted to dive in and talk about what they are doing, as it’s not a secret or sneaky or covert, but a very popular, mainstream, and valuable approach to content monetization.

First off, Pinterest’s use of Skimlinks technology is nothing new, nor is it secretive. Skimlinks has been around for almost 4 years now, we are established and relatively well-known, and a large proportion of our customers are blogs, forums and social discovery sites. Pinterest and many other social discovery sites have been working with us for a long time, and although they are fabulously popular now, we like to think we helped them get the revenues and insights that helped them grow.

Update Karen Garcia explains how affiliate linking works on Pinterest:

As soon as a pin is posted you can edit the link on your pin to your affiliate link, HOWEVER if anyone repins your pin between the time you post it and the time you edit it, the link on the repin will remain the original link (and you won’t get paid for sales through it).

This is where the Skimlinks affiliate link comes into play. Links that are not affiliate links on Pinterest and are directed to a merchant website (and they have an affiliate program, that skimlinks is approved for, etc) are replaced with Skimlinks affiliate link when the user clicks through

Her explanation is a comment on Joel Garcia's post, What Affiliates and Merchants Should Know About Pinterest Links from January 20, 2012.

Update:

Now the false accusation that Pinterest swaps out existing affiliate links is spreading. Oh my. Make it stop.


Image: Has Pinterest been pulling a switcheroo with some links?

No. They haven't. This is lazy reporting. There is no evidence of Pinterest swapping out existing affiliate links. The Washington Post is syndicating a post from The Verge, and to their credit, they change the headline into a question, but they still leave in the false accusation.

Update:

The Next Web's Matthew Panzarino writes: Pinterest does disclose it modifies links, and we shouldn’t blame it for making money

When I briefly spoke to Alicia Navarro, CEO of Skimlinks, she said that the ‘out of the box’ functionality of Skimlinks does not overwrite existing affiliate links. This appears to jibe with the way that Pinterest currently operates.