Liz Gannes

Recent Posts by Liz Gannes

PinDollars Brings Affiliate Links Back to Pinterest — But Gives Money Directly to Pinners

Here’s a little hack meant to nudge Pinterest into sharing revenue with its curators. PinDollars is a substitute for Pinterest’s bookmarklet that scans pinned items and attaches affiliate links to related products when appropriate.

In a bit of an ironic twist, the affiliate links are managed by Skimlinks, a service Pinterest had for a short time experimented with, without disclosure to users.

Pinterest forbids use of its site for commercial purposes, and it is fighting off an onslaught of spam, so this may not be a welcome hack. But PinDollars creator Chris Hedgecock (who also founded ZeroPaid and Yumm) said he came up with the side project after seeing his girlfriend spend two to three hours per day on Pinterest.

At the moment, Hedgecock is not planning to take any revenue for himself, though he said Skimlinks retains about 30 percent. Hedgecock said he has about 100 Pinterest users signed up now after launching this weekend, but he hasn’t yet talked to Pinterest about what he’s doing so he’s not sure how long he will keep it going. We asked Pinterest as well, and will update if we hear back.

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