VentureBeat

Paris-based Zlio, a company that helps you easily create your own web page “shops” to sell merchants’ goods online, has raised $4 million from Mangrove Capital Partners.

See our previous coverage here.

The site now attracts more than 2.5 million unique visitors per month. More than 100,000 shops have been created — double the number of shops it had in March — according to chief executive Jeremie Berribi. Zlio provides a simple tool for you to pick a “shop” name, choose a template and select products from a catalogue of merchant products, for example an iPod or a book. Then, you can choose from a wide range of merchant’s goods to resell on your own site. Here’s a sample site, for scuba gear:

Zlio creates makes money through revenue-sharing with merchants and users. This is a way for community sites, such as forums and blogs, to make money: They can pick and choose merchant products most relevant to their readers.

Amazon apparently banned Zlio in May, upset about its policies: Zlio was making half its revenues through Amazon as an “associate” partner, where it referred users to buy things at Amazon and received a fee. Additionally, Zlio had been providing rebates to users (splitting revenue with users is part of its model). However, Amazon’s terms don’t allow partners to return referral fees to users. The Amazon-to-Zlio ban letter, via Mashable:

It has come to our attention that you may be paying some of your referral fees back to customers as a form of rebate. While we are certain that your idea would meet with some success, we have decided against working with any Associates who employ this rebate model.

A similar idea about online merchant-stores popped up during the (first) Internet bubble: Sequoia-backed Affinia.com. That company imploded, as this “site explains, pissing off thousands of loyal customers.

When we wrote about Zlio in March, Berribit told us that he was looking to close a $3.5 million round in April. Two months later, a half a million dollars more, a ban from Amazon — and some solid growth. Congratulations.

We’ve written about the emerging set of companies, like Agloco and eMax, that promise to make you wealthier as you surf the Web.

Zlio, of Paris, France, is the latest company that wants to help you make cash while you sit back and do nothing. It lets you create an online store, to sell just about anything from your web site. It gives you some simple tools to pick a shop name, design a template for your shop, and then select products from a catalogue — giving you a choice from more than 85 merchants in France, 35 in the U.S. Products range from NBA products to iPods and Spiderman paraphernalia.

Next month, Zlio will finish raising $3.5 million in venture capital, founder Jeremie Berribi tells VentureBeat.

Berrebi, 28, reports the tool has see significant growth in Europe. Since Sept., when the service launched, users have created 47,000 shops. About 450 new shops are being created every day. And the revenues are flowing: $50,000 last month, not bad for a company of seven employees.

You make money as follows: Zlio has cut deals with various merchants, including Yahoo Shopping Europe (Kelkoo), so that when customers buy products from your Zlio shop, you split the commission with Zlio. In France, Zlio also gets paid when users click on product links at the store, from which you also get a cut. That part will soon be available in the U.S., Berribi says.

Below is an example of a part of a Zlio store called Yoga Gifts Select. You can also customize a widget, so that it goes on your blog.

Berrebi became known in France for building Net2one, one of the first news search engines, which let you subsribe to articles carrying chosen keywords. He was 21 at the time.

Zlio started in 2005 as a way to let you recommend products to friends in exchange for a cut of a sale (like FavoriteThingz and MyPickList.com). But it wasn’t that effective: After a couple of friends bought that book you recommended, the sales were pretty much done. So Berribi junked the idea, in favor of Zlio. Zlio eventually will let you sell just about anything, he says. Amazon does something similar to this, but only lets you do it for Amazon products.

Chitika is another competitor, but it is mainly for use larger site owners (you have to apply, and Chitika recommends it for owners with at least 10,000 page views a month).