Luminate Alternative¶
Luminate, which began in 2008 as Pixazza, turned the photos on publisher sites into interactive, shoppable images. Yahoo acquired it in September 2014 and shut the service down the same month, and publishers lost a way to earn from their images. Mentionlink picks up where in-image commerce left off: it uses AI to find the products in your photos and makes them clickable with hotspots, then links the same products wherever your article mentions them.
| Category | Luminate | Mentionlink |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Shut down in September 2014 after Yahoo acquired it | Available today, for any website or WordPress |
| What readers see | Apps and ads layered over the image | A caption and hotspots on the products in the photo, plus links where the article mentions them |
| What gets monetized | Images | Images and text |
| Product recognition | Visual algorithms combined with crowdsourced human taggers | AI vision, when the page loads |
| Where the click goes | Advertisers and retailers | The store in the reader's own country, in a new tab, while your page stays open |
| Paid on | Ads and commissions | Commissions on purchases |
| Integration | One line of JavaScript | One line of JavaScript, or the WordPress plugin |
| Revenue Model | Revenue-sharing | Revenue-sharing |
In-Image Commerce, Rebuilt¶
The idea behind Luminate still holds: a reader who sees a jacket, a lamp, or a pair of sneakers in a photo wants to know what it is and where to get it. Mentionlink answers that question on the image itself.
- Captions. Each photo gets a caption that names what's in it, inside a
<figure>that works with your existing markup. - Hotspots. The products in the photo become clickable regions with visible labels. On a small image or a phone, labels that don't fit collapse to a dot, so the photo stays readable.
- Text and image together. When a reader hovers over, or focuses, a product mentioned in the article, the hotspots for the same product light up in the photo.
- Product cards. A strip of product cards can follow the paragraph or caption that mentions them.
See the Tech Spec for how captions and hotspots are added to the page.
Where Higher RPM Comes From¶
Revenue per 1,000 pageviews (RPM) from affiliate links breaks down into five numbers:
Luminate earned only from images. Mentionlink earns from images and text, so it has more chances to turn a reader's interest into a purchase. Plug your own numbers into the Affiliate Revenue Calculator to see what that's worth on your traffic.
Clickthrough: Photos and Mentions¶
A reader can click on the product in the photo, or on its name in the sentence that recommends it. Mentionlink uses AI to link only high-intent mentions, so readers see a handful of links that are worth clicking rather than a wall of them.
Conversion: The Right Store for Every Reader¶
Mentionlink links to the product in the photo, from well-rated listings, and sends each reader to the store in their own country. In the US, it even takes into account that prices vary across more than 40,000 ZIP codes. A reader who lands on the item they wanted, in a store that ships to them, at the price they'll see at checkout, is a reader who buys.
Order Value and Commission: Earn on the Whole Basket¶
Mentionlink matches each product to the affiliate program with the best fit, such as Amazon Associates, Fanatics or Lids. Programs like Amazon Associates pay on the qualifying purchases the reader makes after the click, not only on the product that was linked, so one photo can earn on a whole shopping basket.
Stacking: Add Revenue Without Taking Any Away¶
Mentionlink adds no ad slot, so it doesn't compete with your display ads for space or attention. It only links text that is not already linked, and it never interferes with Skimlinks, VigLink or other link converters. Every dollar it earns is added on top of what your page already makes.
A Better Reading Experience¶
Shoppable images only work if they don't get in the way of the photo. Mentionlink keeps them useful and unobtrusive:
- No ads on your photos. Hotspots point to the products in the photo, not to whoever bids the most for that reader.
- Works on phones. Hotspot labels sit on the photo, with no hover required, and adapt to the size of the image.
- Looks like your site. Links match your fonts and colors, so they read like part of the article.
- Fast. The script is about 35 KB compressed, loads with
defer, and waits for the page to finish loading. See Performance. - Accessible. Links, hotspots and product cards conform to WCAG 2.2 Level AA.
- No cookies. Mentionlink sends no cookies, so it doesn't need to be in your cookie consent banner.
- Disclosed for you. A footer on every page discloses that it may contain affiliate links.
Brand-Safe by Design¶
Before Mentionlink captions a photo or links a product seen in it, an image safety classifier reviews it. Photos of political, religious, assistive tech, or violent subjects are left exactly as you published them: no caption, no hotspots, and no links.
You stay in control:
- Links per page: cap how many affiliate links Mentionlink adds to a page.
- Sections: enable Mentionlink only on the sections where it fits, by URL pattern. See Configuration and Customization.
- Individual links: refine, remove, or add links one by one.
- Search engines: every link carries
rel="sponsored nofollow", so it has no impact on SEO.
Try It on Your Own Photos¶
- Start a pilot on a few sections of your site, rolled out by URL pattern.
- Compare affiliate RPM on the pilot sections against similar sections without Mentionlink.
- Widen the rollout section by section once you're happy with the results.
Mentionlink is a revenue share with no upfront cost and no locked-in contract, and our team handles the installation for free. Email us at hello@mentionlink.com to set up a pilot.
See also: Mentionlink vs. AdSense, Mentionlink vs. Outbrain, Mentionlink vs. Pixazza, Mentionlink vs. Raptive, Mentionlink vs. Skimlinks.
Get Started
Schedule a free demo or email us at hello@mentionlink.com