Never one to stay away from the States for long; DigiJoe will be back on the road again in March for South by South West in Austin, Texas – for the second year running.

But this time…he won’t be alone. He’ll be joined by digi-people from 39 other UK-based companies thanks to Chinwag, UK Trade & Investment and their ‘Digital Mission’.

Digital Mission gives UK digital companies an opportunity to expand their business or seek investment in the US, with a range of activities for attendees; masterclasses, networking, marketing support and so much more.

Skimlinks was selected by the Digital Mission advisory board to make the most of the opportunity during SXSW Interactive Festival – five days of presentations from the brightest minds in emerging technology.

The entire list of companies attending Digital Mission SXSWi ‘10 can be found here, and you can follow all the Digital Mission news in real time on Twitter here.

Skimlinks is invading America.

This week, our very own @DigiJoe will be opening our new US office – the headquarters for our stateside takeover in 2010.

Situated in Palo Alto, just outside of San Francisco, the office will be filled with our shiny new States Skimteam (currently being finalized), while we simultaneously expand our London office back in the UK.

Although Skimlinks is agnostic of geography – you can sign-up, install and manage your account wherever you are – we have such a strong customer base in the US that we thought it a natural progression to set up an office with local account managers that our US customers can contact at local times.

We’re aiming for our physical presence to grow our US numbers further, and build on the amazing success we’ve seen over the past year.

The coming months will also see the launch of a series of free, new revenue-maximization tools for our publishers, so watch this space.

2010 is shaping up to be huge for Skimlinks!

Want to be a part of the Skimlinks revolution? Check out our jobs page here.

You’ll see our faces across the pond a lot in 2010 (exciting news following this post!) and we’re kicking it off by attending the fantastic Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas (our fourth time in Vegas in 12 months!)

I’ll be there meeting old friends, and new. We’re also supporting Affiliate Summit’s chosen charity National Breast Cancer Foundation by sponsoring a place at the charity poker tournament and a player at the charity ten pin bowling. (you can enter to win the place by sending an @ reply on Twitter to @skimlinks saying why you should get the free ticket to the poker or bowling)

If you’d like to meet up with me, please get in contact either via email joe @ skimlinksdotcom or Twitter – I’d love to say hello!

Joe (@digijoe)

Skimlinks got the nod from some big names when Silicon Valley came to Cambridge in November; further validating that Alicia is the master of the pitch!

Skimlinks won the award for the Best Pitch at the CEO workshop; an event organised by serial entrepreneur and investor Sherry Coutu and Linkedin co-founder Reid Hoffman.

The pair invited a group of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and investors to Cambridge, and selected 50 CEOs to attend (from the 150 that applied) with a select few chosen to present their technology business in a three minute pitch.

The entrepreneurs and investors; including Twitter CEO and Founder Biz Stone, and Reid Hoffman himself, then voted for the best pitch, and Skimlinks came out on top.

The event also featured masterclasses, workshops, debates and networking, with a focus on new and distruptive ideas within technology.

After sifting through over 400 entries in 22 categories, the Econsultancy team has come up with the impressive shortlist for their Innovation Awards.

We are delighted to have been named as one of four finalists in the Innovation in Affiliate Marketing Award, alongside eBay Partner Network, VAC Media and Webgains iSense Site Seeker.

The final round of judging will commence this week, with winners announced next week.

Congratulations, and good luck to all our fellow finalists.