VigLink

VigLink Press and Media Information

VigLink in the News

SF Weekly / Rachel Swan / March 27, 2013 - Haute Links: When Blogs Become Ads

“Blogging may be a labor of love, but it doesn’t have to be a free labor, says Oliver Roup, founder of the San Francisco tech company VigLink.”

eCommerce Bytes / Kenneth Corbin / March 25, 2013 - VigLink Builds Bridge Between Content and Ecommerce

“If VigLink has its way, the next wave of the Internet economy will come at the nexus between free online content and ecommerce.”

Forbes / Nancy F. Clark / February 18, 2013 - Why Is Google Ventures Investing In VigLink?

“Looking a little deeper, I can see why this field and perhaps this company are poised for growth.”

Mashable / Leyl Master Black / February 9, 2013 - 4 Steps to Monetize Your Blog Through Affiliate Marketing

“For example, if a blogger mentions a product, brand or store, they don’t have to worry about linking it themselves: VigLink will take care of that with its link insertion technology, which optimizes for both user experience and revenue.”

Review Harbor / Snurre / January 23, 2013 – VigLink Review: Join Any Affiliate Program with Ease

“The Verdict: VigLink is a great way for website owners and bloggers to make some extra cash from affiliate marketing. They do take a cut, but that’s only fair because with VigLink you can join pretty much any affiliate program without any hassle. Overall Rating: 5/5.”

Hypebot / Clyde Smith / October 26, 2012 – Worldwide iTunes Affiliate Links and Related Tools for Musicians

“VigLink is a great tool for musicians who produce a lot of blog content that refers to music, books and other stuff sold online.”

a4u / Simon Holland / October 23, 2012 – VigLink Upgrades iTunes Affiliate Links

“VigLink will now detect what country a user’s browsing from and ensure they are directed to their local iTunes store by way of the right affiliate program, where possible. The idea is to increase Apple iTunes sales and ensure publishers earn more.”

BetaKit / Humayun Kahn / October 22, 2012 – Affiliate Platform VigLink Partners with GeoRiot to Enable Location-Based Referrals

“The partnership with GeoRiot means that publishers using VigLink’s service can increase the value of their iTunes referral links, and it means that publishers don’t have to apply to local affiliate programs and post a unique URL for every country’s App Store in order to monetize in those countries. Now once a link is posted, VigLink can reroute it to the respective user’s country-specific iTunes store and product to drive sales for Apple and affiliate revenue for publishers.”

VentureBeat / Megan Hopkins / October 9, 2012 – Tech Recruiting: Bait the Perfect Engineer

“It’s not that we go especially crazy for birthdays around here, it’s that we go especially crazy for great engineers. I’ve been in this business for over seven years, and I’m especially proud of the world class engineering team we’ve built here at VigLink. Tech recruiting can be cutthroat. Without the lessons learned over the years, I’m not sure we could have built such a successful team.”

Vator News / Bambi Francisco / June 12, 2012 – VigLink Integrates with vBulletin to Access 100k Forums

“Viglink, which helps publishers make money by putting links on their content, said Tuesday that it’s integrated with vBulletin, an Internet Brands company that is the platform used by 100,000 forum websites. “Forum sites are among the best sites to talk about products and monetize wll with Viglink,” said Roup. Sites that monetize well include product and service-centric sites, review sites, hobbyist sites, consumer electronics and fashion sites. It’s often the case that on these sites, users are making recommendations, said John McGanty, General Manager, vBulletin.”

TechCrunch / Oliver Roup / May 19, 2012 – Hyperlinks are Dumb and Bleeding Money

“Hyperlinks, in many ways, are dumb. And as a result, harming your user experience and potentially bleeding money from your company — when they could be a tool for better engagement, increased revenue, and deeper analytics. Hyperlinks should make the web better — more connected, easier to navigate, and intelligent. Hyperlinks should make your site better — more actionable, insightful and profitable.”

FounderLY / Matthew Wise / February 21, 2012 – An Interview with Oliver Roup, VigLink Founder & CEO

“Anywhere links are flying around, those links can be monetized.”

MissyWard / Oliver Roup / February 6, 2012 – What’s the Value of a Hyperlink? Try $58,000

“One morning this past November, as my team was reviewing highlights from the previous days’ customer metrics, something caught our eye: a purchase for $58,000. After a few minutes of digging, we found that on an evening earlier in the week, an individual browsing an automotive site had come across a post that discussed a particular pontoon boat — complete with floating bar and tiki torches. The visitor had clicked the link the site owner provided and ultimately purchased the item for a hefty $58,000.”

Idea Mensch / Mario Schulzke / January 12, 2012 – Oliver Roup – Founder and CEO of VigLink

“I just did a formal exercise to try to map this out. There is a 90-minute focused block in the morning to get a big task done and there are two 60-minute email blocks. Outside of those two time slots, I try not to do email. I also have another 90-minute block set aside for one-on-one meetings with my team. I meet with each team member once a week, alternating between a 30-minute and 60-minute check-in. The reality of the day is messier, but as the company grows, implementing a framework for how I spend my time has been critical.”

Vator News / Krystal Peak / December 13, 2011 – Top 10 Ways to Monetize, Leverage Your Blog

“Similar to the affiliate programs, a company called VigLink will hyperlink keywords in the content you write and direct the reader to a place where they can buy a product. This takes a lot of the work out of searching and connecting your in-article mentions.”

TechCrunch / Leena Rao / November 17, 2011 – VigLink Debuts LinkWeaver to Help Publishers Monetize Outbound Clicks

“LinkWeaver, which powers VigLink’s link insertion solution, detects product and merchant references within content in web pages and automatically creates a custom set of links embedded uniquely within each page. LinkWeaver technology allows readers to instantly click to learn more about a particular product or service, or even make a purchase, without leaving the website to search elsewhere.”

DigiDay / Brian Morrissey / November 17, 2011 – Can In-Text Ads Entice More Publishers?

“Google-backed Startup VigLink is hoping there’s a way to improve the in-text ad game for publishers. In its view, the in-text ad market has erred by catering mostly to advertisers, in that it has taken in campaigns and then gone hunting for keywords to associate those campaign with. That’s led to plenty of dubious matches, according to Olvier Roup, CEO of VigLink. Instead, VigLinks scours the page for keywords that might make the publisher money, then goes and associates them with one of tens of millions of products from affiliate programs.”

Press Releases

Content-Driven Commerce Grows at Double the Pace of Overall E-commerce
January 24, 2013

VigLink Maximizes Value of Content-Driven Commerce with New Publisher Tools (Fact Form)
December 12, 2012

VigLink Selected to Present at Under the Radar
November 9, 2012

iTunes Link Revenue Nearly Doubles
October 17, 2012

VigLink Launches LinkWeaver to Transform Content Monetization
November 17, 2011

VigLink Partners With CloudFlare to Help Thousands of Site Owners Monetize with Web Content via CloudFlare App
May 25, 2011

VigLink Raises $5.4 Million in Financing Led by Emergence Capital
March 10, 2011

Google Ventures and First Round Capital Backed VigLink Acquires Driving Revenue
August 3, 2010

VigLink Secures Funding from First Round Capital, Google Ventures, Angel Investors
January 12, 2010

About VigLink

VigLink is built on the idea that publishers should be compensated for the content they create and the commerce they drive. While a student at Harvard Business School, the company’s founder, Oliver Roup, developed a crawler that counted links to Amazon on the web. As a result, he learned that fewer than half of these links connected through Amazon’s affiliate program. Publishers were taking the time to link to products on Amazon but not taking the extra steps necessary to earn revenue from these links.
Roup started VigLink to help publishers make the money they were leaving on the table by not affiliating links. He led the development of a simple-to-implement technology that enables publishers to instantly affiliate their content with thousands of online merchants, effectively monetizing clicks and purchases made from their sites with little to no effort on their part.

With initial funding from Google Ventures and First Round Capital (see other investors here) and a four person staff, VigLink launched publicly in 2010. Shortly thereafter, VigLink saw an opportunity to accelerate momentum by combining it’s world-class engineering team with the extensive customer base of Chicago-based Driving Revenue. In September 2010, VigLink purchased Driving Revenue, dramatically increasing its revenue and setting the course to lead the content-driven commerce revolution.

Today, VigLink has a staff of 20, and tens of thousands of publishers choose VigLink technology to monetize links to more than 30,000 merchants.

In-depth media background available here: http://www.viglink.com/blog/press/about/