Generate revenue with your images and ThingLink’s Amazon Associates integration

By admin / Apr 13,2011

ThingLink just released an Amazon Associates integration. This means that you’ll be able to link your in-image tags to Amazon products and generate revenue on sales completed through your links. You might already be doing this with banners or text links but with the help of your images, your click through rates and the number of possible sales will go up.

ThingLink allows you to tag objects in your images and link them to products on Amazon while they are simultaneously registered with your Amazon Associates account. Whenever someone purchases a product via the in image tag link you will get a share of the revenue.

We made the process of getting started as easy as possible. To start off, you need to sign up for both ThingLink and the Amazon Associates program.

Once you have registered, you need to link the two accounts. You find your personal Amazon Associates tracking ID on the left side of the screen. Copy the tracking ID, go to ThingLink.com and log in. On your account page you will see a section that says “Your affiliate codes”. Paste your ID in the box and you’re set.

After this, whenever you create a tag with a a link to a product on Amazon, the tracking code is automatically added. All purchases made through your links will be credited to you.

However, if your personal tracking code is already included in the link that you paste in, Thinglink does not replace it. This means that if you make an Amazon.com affiliate link using some other tool (like Amazon’s own), you can safely cut and paste it into the link box.

You can check your daily earnings and visits on your Amazon Associates page. The more things you refer, the higher your referral rate will be.

Once we have more statistics on how our users are using and buying this through this new feature, we will create more tips on how to tag your images to get the best results. We’ll give you two hints for now – make your tags fun and create images where you can browse around. You can also check out how food blogger Chez Pim is using her images and the new feature to generate revenue by affiliate linking to utensils she herself uses in the kitchen.

Start generating revenue by tagging your images now.

From the lab, Instructions

Keep track of your image tag statistics with weekly updates

By admin / Apr 11,2011

Keeping track of your image tag statistics just got a lot easier. We just released a weekly update email feature, which will show our users how their images are doing and provide tips on how to increase the amount of people hovering and clicking the image tags.

The feature is an opt in service and you find the checkbox in your account preferences.

In order to provide our users with comparable statistics over a longer period of time we will release the update once every Monday. This makes it easier for users to follow the trend of the images and decide on how to turn possible negative curves into positive ones and gain even more clicks. The weekly update also includes tips on how to tag your images and news on new features we constantly develop to help your master image tagging.

Naturally, ThingLink’s dashboard will provide all users with realtime statistics in the future as well but the email update is another way of keeping track of how your image tags are doing. Remember, in order to receive the statistics update you need to opt in in your account preferences but that’s all. We’ll handle the rest.

Please let us know what you think of the weekly update by commenting on this post or on our support forum.

From the lab, Instructions

ThingLink’s help center: new, improved and decorated with buttons

By admin / Apr 1,2011

Good news everybody: we released a new help section. We realized that the old one had become a bit disorganized in the midst of all our development work and we decided to gather and update the best and most useful content all in one place. This is a continuation of our efforts to make ThingLink’s dialogue with its users sparkle.

We divided the sections into five parts: “Setting up ThingLink” helps you get started and guides you through the installation process, “Support forum” puts you in contact with our team directly to ask questions or submit feedback, “Features and integration” tells you about other services that work with ThingLink, “Developer resources” features tips on how to tune the tool to your liking and “Frequently asked questions” answers all of the most interesting and thoughtful questions our users are thinking about.

The new help section helps you find information on virtually all aspects of using ThingLink. Visit it now to see what we did.

From the lab, Instructions

Just released: Sign up and log in to ThingLink with your Facebook account

By admin / Mar 30,2011

You can now sign up for and log in to ThingLink using your Facebook account. We’re making use of the 600+ million user network to make the process of signing up and logging in to ThingLink as easy as possible.

You’ll notice that above the username and password fields, there is a new “Log in with Facebook” button, which will allow you to sign up for or log in to your ThingLink account using your personal Facebook username and password. If it’s the first time you’re signing in with Facebook, you’ll see a pop-up window asking you to allow ThingLink permission to access your account. Follow the ensuing prompts and you’re brought to ThingLink’s dashboard. To start tagging you only need to do a simple install and you’re set to go. It’s that simple!

From the lab, Instructions

Try ThingLink yourself and add sound, videos and social profiles to these images

By admin / Mar 8,2011

Everybody should get a chance to try how ThingLink and Rich Media Tags work together. That is why we left a couple of photos taken by ThingLink’s team members open for you to tag. No strings attached. Consider it a test drive before signing up.

You tag by hovering the image and selecting “Edit tags” from the top left corner. Why not start by selecting a tune from SoundCloud, or video from YouTube or a Twitter profile and placing it in the link field in the tag. What kind of media association do the images bring to mind and what tags and links could give it another dimension?

Once you’ve tagged the image you’ll be able to share it through Twitter, Facebook and email. You can also choose to embed it wherever you like. Get busy!

ThingLink and SoundCloud Announce Innovative Collaboration of Technologies

By admin / Mar 8,2011

San Francisco, March 8, 2011 — ThingLink, the provider of image interaction tools, and SoundCloud, the fast-growing audio platform, today announced an innovative collaboration of technologies that enables anyone to add sound and music directly to their images. For the first time, it is possible to link a SoundCloud waveform player to any photo or picture, thereby connecting the subject to sounds, music and effects, voice annotations and narrations.

This collaboration means that SoundCloud’s more than three million registered audio creators will be able to bring additional context, interactivity and meaning to both their sounds and the images that inspire them; whether it’s to a promotional flyer, a memorable photograph or an album cover artwork. By simply scrolling over the uploaded image, a series of ‘hotspots’ appear, each one linking to a sound that can be played directly from within the picture. By using Thinglink, users can also include links to social networks, blogs, news and commerce web sites, as well as email.

“Images and sound are a natural combination and really compliment each other,” said Ulla-Maaria Engeström, ThingLink CEO. “Context invites clicks, and sound adds a new dimension to images, be it fan shots, fashion photos, or family albums.”

Alexander Ljung, founder and CEO of SoundCloud said, “This simple concept of linking sound to the images that are meaningful to you opens up endless opportunities to audio creators. Not only will it change the way artists promote themselves, their music and their live shows, but it will also allow people to add narrative to their holiday snaps, verbal descriptions to their designs or funny soundbites to their illustrations.”

An example of how this new collaboration of technologies is already being embraced, includes: Paper Garden Records, a NY-based record company and music promoter, who has created an interactive flyer for their bands at SXSW. They use ThingLink tags to link the flyer to their music samples on SoundCloud, as well as website, party venue, Facebook page and sponsors. When flyers are shared onwards via Facebook, Twitter and email, the interactive hotspots follow and bring traffic back to Paper Garden Record’s website. Further sound-filled images, including Moby, Beck and The Smashing Pumpkins, can be viewed at gallery .thinglink .com

Want to add your sounds to your website’s images? The process is quick and easy:

Set up a free account at ThingLink .com and Soundcloud .com.
Install a few lines of ThingLink javascript on your website or blog
When you input a SoundCloud URL into a tag’s link field, a player appears in your tag. Click it and it starts playing the track in the background

For more information, or to sign-up for FREE, please visit ThingLink .com and SoundCloud .com

About ThingLink

ThingLink, launched in 2008 by Ulla Engeström, develops tools for image interaction that allow content sharing via online images. ThingLink technology changes the way people interact with photos by transforming them into a surface for advertising, commerce, entertainment, search and social connection. Brands, publishers and bloggers utilize ThingLink in their images to share links, drive traffic, and set up image-based advertising campaigns.

About SoundCloud

SoundCloud, launched in 2008 by Alexander Ljung and Eric Wahlforss, is an audio platform that enables anyone to create, record, promote and share their sounds on the web, in a simple, accessible and feature-rich way. SoundCloud allows sound creators to instantly record audio; upload large files; share them publicly and privately; embed sound across websites and blogs; receive detailed analytics, plus feedback from the community directly onto their waveform player.

For more information, please contact:

Neil Vineberg (ThingLink)
631-377-1494
Email: neil (a)ThingLink.com
Alice Regester (SoundCloud)
+44 7758 834 646
Email: alice(a)soundcloud.com
Christopher Buttner (Vineberg Communications)
415-233-7350
Email: chris (a)vinebergcommunications.com

From the lab, Instructions

At your service: ThingLink’s new community support

By admin / Mar 2,2011

First of all: thanks for all the good questions we have received by email in the past months! To make sharing questions and answers easier, ThingLink now has community support on Get Satisfaction. Our community page allows you to post service- and feature-related questions and comments to us directly, and check how other questions have been answered.

You don’t have to create an account to post your questions. However, by creating an account you can get updates on when your question was answered, and you too will be able to answer questions.

Just hover on the image below to see some of the features that the community forum offers:

Looking forward to see you on the ThingLink community page!

Highlighting Thinglink’s new features

By admin / Jan 25,2011

Thinglink recently launched a new front page and we’re proud to highlight some of the features. The updasite makes it easier for brands, bloggers and publishers to get started with Thinglink and signing up is just one click away. We’ve listed some of what’s different in the image below. Feel free to browse around.

We are also testing out an Amazon affiliate model with image tags . Drop us a line at info@thinglink.com and we’ll tell you more on how you can try it out.

We would love to hear what you think, so please comment here or let us know on Twitter.

From the lab, Instructions

Category : From the lab