Pinterest adds "go.skimresource" to my Zazzle link

[ML2]

My issue:

While I was editing a Pinterest pin, I noticed "https:go.skimresources.com" in front of my copied and pasted link from Zazzle. This appeared in every manual pin on the top 4-5 rows. They were pinned in the last week or so.

I initially thought someone was hijacking my link. I've tried contacting Zazzle and Pinterest on this but got a standard reply to clear my cache. lol

According to Google, that is what is happening. Pinterest would be getting my extra commission if I made a sale.

Has anyone run into this?

This is my first post to community so if I've done something incorrectly, don't be too harsh.

[MasterpieceCafe]

Wow. I'm seeing that too. Not all of my recent pins have that, but many do.

I guess I'm done with Pinterest!

[ML2]

If this is true, I am beside myself.

I've spent the last 2.5 months uploading my designs to a handful of products but mostly learning, following, and correcting my posts carefully making  sure I'm doing everything correctly and then doing the same for Pinterest as their SEO is different from Zazzle's.

[CrazyMermaid]

You will still get traffic from pinterest, which will increase your chance of a sale. You probably won't get the referral fee though. If they are a Zazzle affiliate then this might override it, if they aren't an affiliate then you might get it. Even skimlinks shouldn't be able to override a cookie or tracking pixel. They are just another affiliate like everyone else. 

[CrazyMermaid]

I wouldn't be surprised if it were related to a company known as Skimlinks which is prevalent with professional affiliate marketers. Pinterest started out as a giant affiliate marketing site, which is why they initially wouldn't let anyone have affiliate links. Over the years they have changed their monetizing scheme with the wind. 

[ML2]

Skimlinks is exactly what Google said. At least they are transparent given their name. lol

But I wonder if they are transparent as far as FTC is concerned, by acknowledging they make a commission with the affiliate link.

[CrazyMermaid]

Skimlinks is not the affiliate, pinterest is. They are just a network that provides the connection from company to affiliate. When I used them on my sites, I was the affiliate and was responsible for the disclosure. 

[alissag]

Just now I checked a few of my recent pins, and didn't see that. Still it's concerning. I have a Pinterest "business account" for what it's worth.

[ColsCreations]

Whoa. Just checked some of my manually created pins to Zazzle from 2 months ago (I don't pin much) and they have these new parameters. So I Googled up about Skimlinks. They're a legit affiliate marketing platform and in a simplified view we can all probably relate to, it's like Benable, where they automatically create links that make them the referrer, they get paid by the merchant whatever % the merchant pays, and in turn they pay you a smaller %.  For Skimlinks, they keep 25% of the referral commission and pay the user the other 75%. SkimResources is their server they route everything through.  
There have been other cases where Zazzle's unique "first click" attribution method has protected us from add-ons being able to steal our referrals, but I think here, yeah, it's indeed taking the referrals from us. 

Going to one of my pins with these new parameters and mousing-over the Visit Site button, I can see the actual URL I'll be clicking on. Here it is broken down:

Still questionable as to whether that would override our own RF or "clean" referral. BUT, once clicked on, I can view the real URL I land on:

When I click I can watch the lower left of my screen and see all the things going on as the page load but it goes too fast for me to catch everything and I don't know how to screen record. But I can see it going through skimresources, pepperjam,zazzle, and something google as the page loads. 
So in my not-an-expert opinion, the redirecting is definitely taking over referral attribution. 

I can't find a single thing Googling re SkimLinks and Pinterest that doesn't date back to 2012 where there was apparently a big controversy over them using Skimlinks then without announcing it, and they (Pinterest) actually folded and stopped using them. 

I have no idea what is going on here.  I'm going to give it a few days to see if this blows up across the internet and we can find out what is actually going on. But if it's not a case of a major hack being deployed on Pinterest, if Pinterest is purposely doing this, I'm out. Deleting everything. It's not just stealing referrals, it means any random thing someone might pin/re-pin is going to become a 3rdParty sale that slashes the Designer's royalty. Two big companies (Pinterest and Skimlinks) making money and cornering the referral market while the designer/pinner gets their income slashed??? Nuh uh.  That's just completely unethical to me. Noobody should be pinning or even viewing pins on Pinterest anymore. Oh, forgot - Googling says they use pixels, too. So I am sure I am already infested with skimilnks referral marker now. 😡

[ML2]

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[MasterpieceCafe]

I found one of my referred links (my referring a Zazzler) which has my referral code also had the go.skimresurces at the front and this at the back after my rf code &xcust=scale_affiliate_link

I assume that means they are overriding my rf code. So I'm referring another Zazzler and Pinterest is getting the credit for the referral netting me exactly nothing.

Once all of this garbage is confirmed I think I will just close my Pinterest account. At least on Benable I can turn off their referral tracking so I get credit for the RF.

[MasterpieceCafe]

Looks like the scammer (Pinterest) ID is the id=291659x1778746 ... that's the same ID number I'm seeing on all of mine.

[ColsCreations]

Yep, that's the SkimLink member ID.  And unless we see news that  someone hacked into Pinterest and planted the SL script on the site to snag the referrals, then I have to keep assuming Pinterest did this.

[tamirazdesigns]

I have a Pinterest business account also.

I noticed this "strange link" too yesterday while on my Pinterest boards after I just happened to click on one of my own pins that I shared from my Zazzle store's Pinterest icon link, and noticed it right away at the top of page (even though it was small and quickly went away once I landed on the Zazzle page for that pin).  It said "go.skimresources.com"  It was a bit disturbing and given it's name!  I've never seen that before.  So then I clicked on more of my recent pins I had shared on Pinterest via their Visit button to get to Zazzle for the item, and many of my other pins had that same strange click through link name top of page.  Then I had clicked on some other pins that I recently shared from other designers Zazzle stores via the Pinterest button and got that same strange link top of page.

-- But then after clicking on more of the Pinterest board pins I had recently shared from Zazzle I also had noticed when a Zazzle item pinned to Pinterest has that "strange click through link" it also says "Paid Link" underneath the item, and when you click Visit on the Pinterest page you get that strange link top of page, and once on Zazzle’s site for that pinned item it goes away and changes to zazzle.com

Also wasn't happy yesterday clicking from Pinterest on my own Zazzle item pins that I had shared to my boards...and getting onto the Zazzle landing page for that item, and seeing at the top of the page tons of "Other designs you might like" in a scrolling row, directly above my "pinned" item that brought me to Zazzle's site, and then loads more of items directly underneath my item called "Other designs from this category" which are NOT my category designs, and then "way far down on the page" underneath "Product Information" finally you come to "Found in this collection", which also gives the name of MY Collection, and where that "original pinned item link" that I had clicked on from Pinterest that brought me to the Zazzle item page (is where that item would be found inside of my collection), would be nice for customers to actually see our Collections!  No one would ever keep scrolling past tons of mishmashed items by loads of other stores all mixed together  all the way down the page -- so chances are slim they'd ever get to see our Collections!  They're bombarded with tons of other people's designs all over the place on one page!  It looked worse than ever.  Same thing happpens with other designers pins after clicking through via a Pinterest pin to Zazzle's landing page for that item.  

The item pin via Pinterest that brings you to Zazzle gets lost in the shuffle!  It's a big mess looking at all of that on one page, and doubtful the potential customers ever get to see the "actual item" they wanted to see after clicking on it from Pinterest and getting directed to Zazzle's landing page where they would "expect" to see that item they were interested in seeing and reading more about!  No wonder sales and referrals are way down, and made way worse by the new 4/2025 TOS.   Very sad indeed.

ETA:  As if things weren't bad enough over the years here with so many changes sadly working against designer's at Zazzle, and after their latest TOS...  But I agree, if Pinterest is doing this to designer's also, then I'm done sharing items from Zazzle to pin to Pinterest boards!  They too have made too many crazy changes over the years, it used to be better years ago.  Guess we'll have to see if this continues or not by them.  Wonder if they thought no one would notice?

[Wollastonite]

Wow, "SkimResources" is such a comically shady name to use too. Was embezzlement.com taken?

[CrazyMermaid]

I agree the name is shady, however if you have your own blog, it is a great way to monetize it. It has access to hundreds of companies and pays well. I used it all the time. 

[MasterpieceCafe]

Just found this Reddit topic on this subject.

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskMarketing/comments/1ped9ww/critical_exposure_pinterest_is_deliberately/

[Wollastonite]

I guess the strategy would be to go back to running a blog where you showcase the item and linking to that instead of to Zazzle directly.

[Jadendreamer13]

How many people read blogs these days? I haven’t visited a blog in about 10 years….

[Wollastonite]

They might not get traffic on their own, but the idea is to host the links to the actual products in your own article. Then your Pinterest links funnel shoppers to your site, and your site has the referral links onto Zazzle. Pinterest shouldn't add its referral theft rerouting to your personal site links, cause they're not shopping links and it wouldn't affect anything.

I'm not a prolific Pinterest shopper, so I'm just guessing about customer behavior, but I assume a customer interested in a cool item would still click through the pinned link, even if it doesn't go directly to the purchase page. 

[MasterpieceCafe]

Zazzle needs to not allow referrals from these "skim" links. They are stealing referrals, they are not earned. Somehow they need to be stripped before crediting the actual referrer.

[Jadendreamer13]

Is that something that Zazzle can do? Once a link leaves Zazzle’s site, do they still have control over it?

[CrazyMermaid]

While Zazzle can leave the Skimlinks program and not allow affiliates through that channel, that might have a consequence you don't want. Pinterest does not have to allow everyone to post pins on their site. They may well say, that Zazzle pins are no longer welcome if they can't monetize them. There was a time when no affiliate links and few commercial links were allowed on Pinterest. In the beginning it was only Pinterest's affiliate links and that is how they made all of their money. 

[MasterpieceCafe]

If Pinterest wants to steal my referrals I have no use for them.

[CrazyMermaid]

Pinterest is just another affiliate using Skimlinks. They can't override a cookie or tracking code anymore than I can. Yes, it is probably far more difficult to compete with them. The same by the way goes for them making it harder for Zazzle to pick up a cookie. So we will see what happens. Worse case Pinterest just drives traffic and we make sales. 

[alissag]

But is there anything to override if the shopper is not coming in on a clean link?

[alissag]

This is all very disturbing. I do notice that while I don't get a ton of referrals, the majority tend to be on older items. I wonder if this could explain it. 

[Amanda23]

This is a VERY intriguing hypothesis!

[Cat]

OK wow. Maybe this explains why products that I have extensively promoted on Pinterest (video pins created by hand) do sell significantly better than other products, but I have NEVER received a referral for any of the sales. 

[Jadendreamer13]

So now two sources are apparently dipping into the small royalties designers earn. Is it even worth it to be a POD designer any more — on any platform? 

[Ricaso]

Back in 2012 Pinterest stopped this, now it's back.. 
According to a search when I put in 'skimlinks / skimresources pinterest and affiliate links' 
"In 2012, Pinterest used Skimlinks (parent company Skimresources) to automatically replace clean merchant links with its own affiliate links, effectively "stealing" commissions that might have gone to the original pin creator or other affiliates. This practice, which was done without explicit disclosure to users, caused a media storm and led Pinterest to drop its partnership with Skimlinks shortly after." 

[ColsCreations]

Right! Where is the media storm now? I searched again last night and still couldn't find a peep about this, no tech blog, seo blog, affiliate community etc questioning this? (The Reddit thread linked above is about something else.)

[CrazyMermaid]

That was when Pinterest was the new new thing (it was founded in 2010) and no one could figure out how they were making money. A lot of affiliates and businesses wanted to post links to get some of that traffic and Pinterest said no. Then someone showed it was a giant affiliate marketing site and for some reason that offended people. After they went public, their affiliate policy changed to allow links. It looks like it might be changing back. This isn't a Zazzle thing. It's a Pinterest thing. So I don't know what people expect Zazzle to do. A lot of Zazzle affiliates might use Skimlinks and that isn't a bad thing as far as I am concerned. I have always been about the sale and royalty and not referrals, So that is why it's a non-event for me. If I counted on referrals I would be having a massive anxiety attack now. 

[ColsCreations]

I agree this is a Pinterest thing not a Zazzle thing, Zazzle has no control over what Pinterest chooses to do. .  I also agree that there is nothing wrong/bad/shady re the Skimlinks program itself - when people are voluntarily using it.

But this is a case of a platform using it to override the affiliate links of its content creators without a big fat notice to their users disclosing what they're doing. That's so shady and unethical, it's shocking to me. 

You create an artwork. Then you use it to create a design on Zazzle. You publish it, create all the meta data for it. Probably make some custom cover images for it. Then probably make a different image for it that better fits Pinterest's preferred size, and you manually pin it, adding your own description and such ... Maybe you've spent years building an audience on SM who follows you for your content. And now .. you Pin something and for all that work, two big companies make a buck off you while at the same time your own profit is reduced 35-50% because of the MRF. That's baloney even if they openly tell you that's what they're doing. 

[StaciFarrell]

I find it hard to be optimistic about a medieval overlord grabbing a huge percentage of a small royalty. A small percentage out in the open, that would make sense. Everyone needs to make money and nothing is for free. You can direct your pins into your own landing page then into a gallery affiliate store link i think. Maybe something to research going forward. That should be protected i think but it requires more work. You could pin it as a discovery pin if you don't link directly into an affiliate item from Pinterest, they can’t redirect that as far as i know,  In regards to the pins you already have it seems like even if you edit the pin back to your own affiliate information it will sort of create a split in the pin and the old link will still be out there maybe (?) I think it’s like playing whack-a-mole with Pinterest bots…which sounds like pure hell. 

[Ricaso]

Very shady practice. 
Wouldn't mind if they created their own original pins as any 'normal' affiliate would do, but hijacking our pins/work is bad. 
 

[Martin]

Question is, will Zazzle chip in and give us a definitive answer? Hopefully, but I won't hold my breath as I'll snuff it before they do.🙄 

[Jadendreamer13]

I also think that it’s unlikely that Zazzle will weigh in on this topic. But you might increase your chances by starting a new thread with a subject line like “SkimResource tags added to Pinterest Links - Can Zazzle Weigh in on This?”

[ColsCreations]

Tech question - maybe @CrazyMermaid knows the answer as your're experienced with these type affiliating platforms -

With links being rerouted through SkimResources, is that what will show as referring site in analytics instead of Pinterest?

[CrazyMermaid]

I never used analytics, Skimlinks had a great interface and I used that to see the Skimlinks merchants I worked with and what I sold. I just took a look. They now work with over 48,000 merchants and 50 affiliate networks globally. No wonder I burned out as an affiliate!