Mothercare announced this week that they are closing their affiliate programme with Commission Junction and move over to Tradedoubler, just weeks ahead of Christmas.

The Commission Junction programme closes on November 16th, consequently forcing publishers to update every link out to Mothercare, and fast, if they want to take advantage of seasonal sales.

Publishers are regularly inconvenienced by changes or closures of  merchant programmes. Across the networks; there can be literally hundreds of alterations to update every day.

But Skimlinks publishers don’t have to lift a finger.

Any change to any programme will be implemented automatically, and because publishers don’t have to create affiliate links with us, they don’t ever have to update or change their links.

Our publishers can spend less time on affiliate administration, and more time creating content about Christmas presents for babies. And that’s the way it should be!

It was announced today that Skimlinks has made the shortlist in three separate A4U Awards categories.

We’re up for Innovative Publisher of the Year, Best New Entrant in Affiliate Marketing, and Best Use of Technology within Affiliate Marketing.

The A4U Awards 2009 winners will be announced on the 2nd of June, at the Hilton, Park Lane.

See the entire shortlist here.

Skimlinks has been shortlisted in two categories for the New Media Age Effectiveness Awards 2009!
We are now in the running for two awards – Best New Business, and Special Award for Technological Innovation.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London on Thursday, June 25th.

View the shortlist

Alicia has just been announced as one of ten finalists for The Entrepreneur of the Year Award category of the National Business Awards South of England Regional Programme 2009. Subject to intense scrutiny by a team of  business experts, Alicia’s achievements caught the attention of the judges and secured her a place in the finalists stable.

She now goes through to the next stage of the judging process; a presentation and question/answer session with the judges on Wednesday, June 10th.

The winners will be announced at the South of England Regional Finals at the London Hilton on Tuesday, July 14th. Wish her luck!

The Skimlinks team is keeping busy with Joe and Alicia both speaking at events this month.

Joe will give a presentation at Geek n Rolla today on “Monetising your startup from the word go with advertising and affiliates”.

Alicia will be attending the A4U Expo in Amsterdam next week where she will be speaking about “New Ways to Monetise Social Media”.  Social media – blogs, forums, web applications, Twitter, etc – are increasingly powerful ways to drive community, loyalty, and activity, but with the earning potential from advertising diminishing, publishers are looking for incremental revenue streams, that don’t impact the user experience.

In her talk she will be exploring new and innovative methods for monetising social media, looking at case-studies of what has worked with major European and American publishers, and what can cause user-backlash. She will also explore the ethical guidelines that should be adopted to ensure optimal revenue generation without compromising on integrity or long-term community loyalty

We’re also working on something back in the office – keep an eye out for updates on a special Skimlinks event in the coming weeks.