CARE International has launched an appeal to help the 16 million survivors of the worst floods in Pakistan’s history, and our Skimlinks team is trying to contribute to the cause, as we compete in the CARE Challenge next weekend.

On September 4th, we’ll be taking part in a ten hour multisport event to help CARE International, including hiking, biking and canoeing the distance of a marathon in Somerset’s Exmoor National Park, with all money raised from the event going to CARE – as they attempt to raise over £10 million for Pakistan.

CARE has already rushed water purification tablets, tents, family hygiene kits, kitchen sets, tarpaulins and mosquito nets to thousands of survivors, but there’s so much more to do as the disaster continues to unfold.

You can read about CARE International’s efforts on their website here, or visit our fundraising page to help us raise £1,500 for the cause.

We’d love to do everything we can to help CARE, and hope you’ll give generously.

Affiliate Summit East and West are over for another year, but they’ve certainly made their mark on the affiliate landscape of 2010!

Shawn Collins and Missy Ward finished up with Affiliate Summit East, and they did it on a high; with more than 3,500 attendees in New York City – their biggest turnout ever.

Our co-founder Joe Stepniewski was lucky enough to get a slot to present his session on innovation in affiliate marketing, with loads of awesome content.

There was  lot of buzz around Joe’s session before the Summit, on Revenews, the eBay Partner Network Blog, Affiliate Advocacy, and he was even interviewed for GeekCast.fm ahead of the conference!

The presentation was well attended and received, with Udi of Industry Review saying he thought Joe’s presentation was one of the best at the the conference!

Just in case you missed the session, or want to see it again, we’ve pestered Joe to give up his slides, and they’re available now on SlideShare. Check them out!

We love clever little snippets of technology that help our publishers make money – so we’re very pleased to introduce the Skimlinks Ebay and Amazon Search Widgets.

These smart ‘boxes’ allow your users to search for products from two of the world’s most popular retailers directly from your site, turning an ordinary search into an affiliate-enabled one – so you make money every time a purchase is made. Smarter still, the searches are geo-targeted, so users arrive at the local version of the sites making them more likely to buy.

Quick and easy to install in minutes, these widgets provide endless opportunities for you to earn and they’re handy tools for your users. If you want one for your site, just login to your Skimlinks publisher interface, and click on ‘Widgets’ under the Tools menu.

Watch out NYC – Team Skimlinks will be on your doorstep in a matter of days!

Our own Jeff Sullivan and Joe Stepniewski will be representing at Affiliate Summit East!

The sold out event will house hundreds of affiliate fanatics, with speakers including Jim Kukral, Jeremy (Shoemoney) Schoemaker, Scott Stratten of UnMarketing, and what d’ya know – our Skimlinks Co-founder Joe!

Yep; Joe will be speaking, and he and Jeff will also man the Skimlinks stand at the Meet Market; so make sure you drop by and say hi!

The event runs from the 15th to the 17th, and it’s organized by affiliate superstars Shawn Collins and Missy Ward. If you don’t already have your ticket, you’re probably out of luck – but you can still try and register here in case there are any cancellations.

See you there!

We’re a little bit crazy here at Skimlinks.

We play ping pong in our lunch breaks, Fleetwood Mac every Friday at 5pm, and our office is decorated with a deflated dinosaur, a stuffed lion and a dusty bag of salted licorice.

We also sign up for marathon charity events.

Come September 4th, five Skimlinkers will take part in CARE New Media Adventure Challenge. The challenge, aimed at teams from across the new media industry, will raise money for leading international aid and development agency CARE International. CARE helps 59 million people a year, in 70 countries, find routes out of poverty.

The team; Mark Macdonald and Tom Allin from the account management crew, Tom Joy from the developers corner,  Hannah Keys of marketing, and Jenny Williams from the sales squad, will be faced with the ambitious challenge of hiking, biking and canoeing the distance of a marathon in ten hours. The challenge will take place in Somerset’s beautiful Exmoor National Park.

Says Skimlinks’ Team Leader Jenny Williams, “We’re doing what now?”

CARE hopes to raise a staggering £40,000 through the CARE New Media Challenge and Team Skimlinks aim to raise at least £1,500.

To encourage donations to the worthy CARE cause, the Skimlinks crew are offering up a spot on their shirts for your company logo, motto, or perhaps even a big picture of your face.

Every £20 increment you donate will give you one entry into the draw to win the prized space on the back of the Skimlinks t-shirts, to go along for the ride with the team, have your logo in all our photos, and right in front of all of the other teams when we beat them. *cough*

Anyone who wants to support Skimlinks can visit www.justgiving.com/skimlinks/

About CARE International

CARE International is a leading aid organisation fighting global poverty and delivering emergency aid to survivors of war and natural disasters. In over 70 countries around the world, CARE works with communities to improve basic education, prevent the spread of HIV, increase access to clean water and sanitation, improve maternal and child health, expand economic opportunity and protect natural resources.

Places are still available on CARE Challenge events this summer- for further info visit www.carechallenge.org.uk.