LinkShare Corporation provides ecommerce businesses with a range of online marketing services including Search Marketing

Search engine marketing

Search engine marketing, , is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages through the use of paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion...

 (SEM), Lead Generation and Affiliate Marketing.

LinkShare boasts that it has created the largest network of affiliate partners of any program provider—over 10 million partnerships—in addition to becoming the first affiliate network provider to achieve sustained profitability. LinkShare also lays claim to being a pioneer in online affiliate marketing. The LinkShare network is touted by the company as the largest pay for performance affiliate marketing network on the Internet .

LinkShare clients are Fortune 500

Fortune 500

The Fortune 500 is an annual list compiled and published by Fortune magazine that ranks the top 500 U.S. closely held and public corporations as ranked by their gross revenue after adjustments made by Fortune to exclude the impact of excise taxes companies collect. The list includes publicly and...

 and prominent companies doing business online, and include J.C. Penney

J.C. Penney

J. C. Penney Company, Inc. is a chain of American mid-range department stores based in Plano, Texas, a suburb north of Dallas. The company operates 1,107 department stores in all 50 U.S. states and Puerto Rico. JCPenney also operates catalog sales merchant offices nationwide in many...

, 1-800-Flowers.com, American Express

American Express

American Express Company or AmEx, is an American multinational financial services corporation headquartered in Three World Financial Center, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States. Founded in 1850, it is one of the 30 components of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is best...

, Avon Products

Avon Products

Avon Products, Inc. is a US cosmetics, perfume and toy seller with markets in over 140 countries across the world and sales of $9.9 billion worldwide as of 2007.-Business Model:...

 and many others.

History

The LinkShare Corporation (LinkShare) was founded in 1996 by Stephen Messer and Heidi Messer and is headquartered in New York City, with offices in San Francisco, Chicago, Tampa, Tokyo and London, UK.

Ownership

LinkShare Corporation is the wholly owned U.S. division of Rakuten

Rakuten

operates and manages business to consumer electronic commerce site, Rakuten Ichiba, and consumer to consumer auction site, Rakuten Freemarket. Its business is centered in Japan, although it has began international expansion through acquisitions. The chief executive officer is Hiroshi Mikitani...

, Inc., a top Japanese shopping portal. Rakuten acquired LinkShare in 2005 for $425 Million in cash.

Services

LinkShare offers a number of services to online merchants. The primary services are:

• LinkShare Affiliate Marketing Network - Affiliate Program Management and Tracking platform which uses LinkShare's patented enterprise grade tracking technology
• LinkShare Lead Advantage, a Lead Generation solution which offers Advertisers looking for customer leads LinkShare technology and services
• LinkShare Search Advantage, which includes Paid Placement, Paid Inclusion and Search Affiliate Management Services
• LinkShare MediaTracker, which provides tracking and reporting beyond affiliate marketing, including email campaigns and display advertising campaigns

LinkShare Symposium East

The LinkShare Symposium East is an annual conference that provides LinkShare advertisers and publishers the opportunity to meet face-to-face and develop key business relationships. The two day event includes keynote speakers, educational seminars, live networking at the LinkShare DealMaker, and the annual LinkShare Golden Link Awards dinner and ceremony.

LinkShare Symposium West

The LinkShare Partnership Summit has been rebranded as the LinkShare Symposium West for 2009. This annual event will complement the LinkShare Symposium East with educational seminars, keynote speakers, and the LinkShare DealMaker, the premier networking forum for LinkShare advertisers and publishers.

LinkShare Industry Appearances

LinkShare exhibits at a variety of tradeshows in the U.S. and U.K.

LinkShare Golden Link Awards

LinkShare hosts the annual Golden Link Awards ceremony during the LinkShare Symposium East conference, to celebrate extraordinary achievements in performance-based marketing. The award is given to companies and individuals in the following award categories:

• Innovative Advertiser of the Year
• Innovative Publisher of the Year
• Best New Advertiser
• Best New Publisher
• Advertiser's Choice Award
• Publisher's Choice Award
• International Advertiser of the Year
• Best Performance-Based Search Strategy
• Best Integrated Lead Generation Campaign
• MVP - Most Valuable Publisher for Lead Generation
• Best Integrated Multi Channel Marketing
• Best Overall Online Distribution Strategy
• Performance Marketing's Most Vocal Advocate
• Technology Genius

Awards History and Rules
The first LinkShare Golden Links Awards ceremony was held in New York City during the LinkShare Symposium 2004. Nominations for awards are limited to LinkShare advertisers and publishers in good standing and can be made via a public nomination form. The winners are determined by the E-commerce Council, which consists of representatives of the LinkShare network, LinkShare advertiser and publisher partners, representatives from the affiliate community and other distinguished industry professionals.

Awards Winners: LinkShare Golden Link Awards 2007 - LinkShare Golden Link Awards 2008