DesiDime founders' new project CueLinks helps bloggers monetise content

Mehul and Jimish Jobanputra, the founding brothers of Mumbai-based Parity Cube Pvt Ltd which runs a user-driven online shopping referral community DesiDime, has unveiled CueLinks, a content monetization solution for bloggers and publishers.

The company claimed that it has partnered with over 200 publishers and equal number of merchants for CueLinks since its launch last September.

CueLinks co-founder Mehul Jobanputra told TechCircle.in that it was launched as a product for performance marketing.

Jobanputra claimed that CueLinks makes it easy for publishers to monetise content, as it eliminates the concept of deep linking and sub-ID tracking.

"Affiliate marketing takes significant efforts for any publisher as it involves a lot of interaction with merchants and affiliate networks for payments, campaign updates, reporting, etc. Besides, the publisher needs to understand affiliate marketing concepts like deep linking and sub-ID tracking, and create and insert ugly looking affiliate links on his website, which reduces the click-through ratio further. Our product eliminates all these problems."

CueLinks provides bloggers with a small snippet of Javascript code to insert on their site. All outbound traffic of CueLink's merchant partners is automatically monetised and publishers get commission for every sale or lead generated via the website.

The publishers just need to insert the normal URL which they would share with the readers.

At the backend, CueLinks automatically converts it into an affiliate link, which then gets tracked all the way until a purchase happens on the merchant's end. The automatic conversion of the link happens only when the reader clicks the link (which gets redirected in less than 0.1 seconds), Jobanputra explained.

Besides the publishers and content owners, CueLinks will also enable content monetisation for deals and coupon sites or any website, which sends outbound traffic to online shopping, travel, finance or matrimony websites.

The company targets both individual writers and corporates with its solution. "We have built a marketing platform, which can be used by big media houses as well as individual writers. We pass on to our publishers 65 per cent of the revenues we get from our merchants or affiliate networks. For top performing publishers, we pass up to 75 per cent. Our technology is completely free for content owners and we make money only when they make money," he said.

According to Jobanputra, content marketing and affiliate marketing are still nascent in India. He expects that affiliate marketing channels will be used by more e-commerce and travel merchants as the competition grows and hopes it will drive CueLinks's growth over the next few years.

Mehul oversees business development at CueLinks, while Jimish overseas technology. The company has roped in Chicago-based early stage investor Mark Friedgan as an advisor. CueLinks currently has 10 staff and is planning launch the product in a couple of Asian countries, too.

Meanwhile, the founders claim their previous venture DesiDime, which is essentially user driven online shopping community, currently attracts over 1.6 million visitors monthly.

The site is a platform for users to collaborate, make friends and share information while shopping. It does not sell any product on the site or comes in as a marketplace but acts as a referral site with shopping links with other e-commerce firms including marketplaces.

(Edited by Prem Udayabhanu)