It was just a few months ago that we launched our charitable project Good.ly, a URL shortener that monetised links with the commissions going to charity.

We created Good.ly to encourage Twitter and Facebook users to tell their friends about their favourite products; in turn, generating sales, and raising money for charity.

To take the next step with the service, we have now created a new incarnation that offers unprecedented accessibility for online retailers.

‘Chat for Charity’ is a small widget that appears on the retailer’s sale confirmation page; encouraging the buyer to post about their purchase, with the incentive that a percentage of any resulting sales would go to the charity of the retailer’s choosing.

Our first partner in the project is the brilliant Prezzybox.com, with the widget going live on their site late last week.
It’s a fantastic way to do CPA-based social media -  to get people talking about your products willingly and honestly; only paying for it when it results in a sale. And you’re giving to charity!

Prezzybox.com’s Marketing Manager Zak Edwards had this to say: www.thebeardedwarrior.co.uk

As with Skimlinks itself; the Chat for Charity widget is easy for retailers to install, with many big names already showing interest in the tool.

We hope you love it like we do!

Last night Skimbit in association with Commission Junction, hosted The Sway for the second time – our little meet-up for online publishers and bloggers and those that can help them make money for their sites.

We held the event at our favourite Shoreditch venue; The Great Eastern Dining Rooms, and we had a great turn out with lots of VIPs (Very Interesting Publishers).

Despite the unfortunate events that unfurled earlier in the day (the rain came out and the sun stopped Shiny-ing) guests still enjoyed having a good ol’ chat about anything and everything online.

Alfie Dennen of Moblog kicked off the proceedings with a glimpse behind the scenes of his success, and pushing the point that using existing technology and a bit of innovation; you can give your paying clients what they really want; column inches.

Rob Hinchcliffe presented ‘Seven Things I’d do If I Was Going to Start a Blog Tomorrow’ which proved to very practical for the guests! His encouraged everybody to think outside the internet and do things in ‘real life’ with readers. I think there will be a few new events popping up soon as a result!

Katie Lee started the Sway Debates with her view point on the Shiny Media collapse, Sian Meades of Domestic Sluttery asked how long you should wait before you start making money from your blog, and Gemma Cartwright of TheNod.com spoke about utlising the pull of celebrities to get readers and revenue.

Matt Bailey from iLevel finished things off with a discussion on the issue of branding.

The evening ended with some time for networking, and the intimate nature of the event ensured everybody is free to pick the brain of everyone else and make the most of each other’s experiences.

Thanks to Commission Junction for allowing the event to happen, and also to Alicia and Katie who provide the drive and direction for the event. Last but not least, thanks to everybody who came along to join us, it’s all for you guys!

The Skimlinks team was out in full force last night, at the first ever TechCrunch Europe Europas.

We arrived at the soiree, dressed as waiting staff (who came up with that idea?) and proceeded to drink the bar into bankruptcy.

A right who’s who of the tech startup industry in Europe, the Delfina Restaurant was packed full of…let’s be honest, a whole lot of males.

We started with a little mingling; a little elevator pitching; and a lot of canape eating, before moving into the hall (disappointingly devoid of chairs!!) where we jiggled from side to side in our killer high heels…well, just Alicia and I, the boys were wearing much more sensible footwear, I must admit.

The very raucous ceremony kicked off with some trophy-handing-out, and continued that way, unsurprisingly. Alicia presented the award for Best Entertainment Application, pausing for dramatic effect, of course, and the winner was SoundCloud, with highly commended going to eRepublik.

Spotify was the big winner of the night, scooping four awards, which is great, because we use them all the time. Nice work guys! You can see the entire list of winners here.

Classic Michael Jackson had everybody on the dancefloor, with our very own Irish import Ciaran busting out a dance routine that would have made Michael Flatley blush.

We had a lot of fun, and met a lot of very cool people, so well done to Mike Butcher, Petra Johansson and the rest of the TechCrunch team!

Oh, and if you haven’t seen it already, here’s the video you were meant to see last night…

(Thanks for the photo Piers!)

Skimlinks won’t be up for any awards at the first Europas – the TechCrunch Europe Awards, but we’d like to congratulate all those who did make the final shortlist; we’ll all be there to celebrate with you on the night!

In our category; Best Enterprise/B2B Startup; BlueKiwi, FreeAgent Central, Huddle, VideoPlaza and Zendesk are up for the award, and while Alicia won’t get the chance to compete in the Best Startup Founder, the guys from Huddle.net, Soundcloud, Spotify, Amiando, Last.FM and Moo will fight it out for the trophy.

We are very pleased to mention Robin Klein has made the shortlist for the Best Investor Personality, and as we are sponsoring a category; Best Entertainment Application or Service, we’d like to wish the very best of luck to the nominees – eRepublik, Moshi Monsters, Playfish, SoundCloud and WeeWorld.

We’ll see you all on Thursday!

Our little event that could; The Sway is on again in July, after its debut in May.

This time round, The Sway will feature some more great names in the industry who will present their ideas, opinions and experiences; including Mr Alfie Dennen, of moblog.net fame, Sian Meades, the founder of fledgling site Domestic Sluttery, and Gemma Cartwright of TheNod.com, the brand spanking celebrity focussed site based in London.

The evening will include presentations from a couple of our speakers, and then we’ll get our teeth into the ‘Sway Debates’ the section that allows everybody in the house to have their say.

This month, The Sway is made possible by the brilliant folks at Commission Junction, who are our exclusive sponsors.

Commission Junction is a leading UK affiliate marketing network working with hundreds of advertisers.

In addition to their UK advertisers they also have many thousands of international merchants from their offices across the globe including Dell and Expedia.

Since its inception in 1999 Commission Junction has been focussed on building sustainable relationships based on performance. They work closely with the affiliate industry to support innovation and share these developments with merchants and agencies to generate profits.

Part of the ValueClick group, Commission Junction uses its learnings from across each of the ValueClick businesses to better understand the overall online marketing landscape. This enables Commission Junction staff to understand their clients’ unique requirements which, in turn,  facilitates long-term partnerships based on honesty, trust and performance.

They’re a great bunch to work with, and we’re thrilled to have them partner with us for The Sway.

If you’d like to join us at The Sway, visit our site.