VigLink launches auto links to monetize content

VigLink will hyperlink keywords in the content and will direct the reader to a place where they can buy a product. So, if you're writing about the Apple iPhone or a book on Amazon, the word "iPhone," or the book title, would be automatically hyperlinked to Apple or Amazon, whereby a reader can buy a product. VigLink takes roughly 25% of the affiliate fee paid out by partners, Apple or Amazon, and the publisher gets the remainder. Typically, Amazon pays Viglink about 8.5% of products sold vs. 4.5% paid out to sites with low traffic.

This type of advertising sounds well and good, and incredibly tempting for publishers, who'd love to find non-intrusive ways to monetize their content. The question, however, is:  How relevant are those links to the reader? For instance, if you're reading about a mortgage crisis in the financial markets, the last website you want to be directed to is a place where you can get a zero-down-payment loan. 

This is a problem that some publishers have complained about with the Kontera service. Kontera a Sequoia Capital-backed firm with $30-plus million in venture financing, also provides in-text advertisements. One of the slight differences between VigLink, which has raised $6.5 million in financing, mainly from Google Ventures, is that Kontera's links typically create a pop-up ad while VigLink's links connect a reader to another website.  

“Kontera publishers are interested in maximizing revenue in expense of their readers," said Roup. "We look at the content and determine what's most appropriate to link to for the particular content." In other words, VigLink tries to ensure that advertisements are relevant, though it cannot guarantee that. 

To this end, VigLink, which currently hs signed on 5,000 publishers, has focused its sites on publisher sites where there's more product reviews. Publishers of automotive, home and garden, fashion and electronic news and reviews are typically where in-content advertisements work best, said Roup.

Roup would not disclose what the click-through-rates (CTRs) are for the links, though in an interview with Kontera some years ago, we were told that CTRs for in-text ads are between 12% and 20% (though that seems incredibly high and some people believe that's a "hover rate" or the times a person hovers over a keyword), compared to two-tenths of a percent for contextual ads around the text.

Roup also would not disclose the median check that VigLink sends to publishers, only to say that it's a wide range, with some publishers receiving fractions of a dollar to upwards of $50,000.