Chitika Changes Its Ads Format

Posted by Mitch Mitchell on Feb 12, 2009

If you look low enough on the left side, you’ll notice there’s a new Chitika ad at the tail end of that side. Though I hadn’t announced it, after I gave my January statistics, I had decided to remove Chitika from my blog because, well, I only made 11 cents, and it was taking up valuable space that I could use for something else.

The thing about Chitika is that it wasn’t meant for regular visitors to the blog at all. Rather, it was only for people who came to your blog via a search engine. Sure, I also had one of their affiliate banner ads on here, but I wasn’t quite feeling like giving that much love to something that wasn’t working, or at least where the payouts weren’t all that high. And, the clean out came around the same time that Shopping Ads dropped me from their marketing group.

So, why is something back? Yesterday, out of the blue, I got an email from them saying that they had noticed I wasn’t using their ads anymore, which was true, and hoped to get me back by offering two new things. One, for awhile, they’re going to pay double on any money that’s generated through their ads; hey, maybe I can make 22 cents this month, eh?

Two, they now offer ads that will be visible to everyone, and those ads will rotate products so that the same things won’t be showing up time after time. For instance, I just checked three times, and on one of those pages there are ads for iPods (I bet I’m the only person left to not have one), on another there were ads for Canon cameras, and on the final one were ads for the new Amazon Kindle, which is an ebook reader that I’ve been hearing some pretty good things about.

So, it’s another test for this blog, but I’m hedging my bet by keeping it nearer the bottom that moving it up into what I consider as valuable space. I’m also thinking that it might be time to write more posts about some of the affiliate programs I’m a part of. I would probably write a bit more than that one, as it was pretty early into the history of this blog. If you take a look, let me know what you think about the prospect.

Tags: affiliate programs, Chitika

34 Comments »

Sire:

To my knowledge Mitch they have always offered ads that were visible to everyone, you just had to select the right code. So far my Chitika are actually catching up to Google. At one stage they produced 50% of what Google did

Sire´s last blog post..Telling It How It Is A Top Commenting Rule

Mitch Reply:
February 12th, 2009 at 11:50 PM

Sire, if they always offered it then I’d been missing it. No matter, as I have it there now.

almir Reply:
May 5th, 2009 at 5:08 PM

I think they have two different ad options the one that people can see and the ones that others can’t

almir´s last blog post..Review Of “The One And Only” Atomic Blogging 3.0

Mitch Reply:
May 5th, 2009 at 5:12 PM

Lately I’ve only been able to find the one that I can’t see; not sure if they moved things or changed things.

almir Reply:
May 5th, 2009 at 5:48 PM

the one you can’t see I think is the one that is only seen to the readers through the search engines and than it is made available on the website

almir´s last blog post..Review Of “The One And Only” Atomic Blogging 3.0

Mitch Reply:
May 5th, 2009 at 6:17 PM

Oh, I know that. However, they used to also have one that you could see, that looked a lot like Adsense, but I haven’t been able to find it since they switched over to premium ads.

February 12th, 2009 | 11:34 PM

Sire:

Well, I believe I have been using Chitika somewhat longer that you, I could be wrong and I am sure you will correct me of any errors I make , and I have always made use of both types of ads, those seen and unseen.

Mitch Reply:
February 13th, 2009 at 12:15 AM

Truthfully, I just know I hadn’t seen it before. Still, with where I have it, if it really makes me any money it will be a major league fluke.

almir Reply:
May 5th, 2009 at 5:10 PM

I prefer to use Google Adsense instead of Chitika because the conversions I assume are much better

almir´s last blog post..Review Of “The One And Only” Atomic Blogging 3.0

Mitch Reply:
May 5th, 2009 at 5:13 PM

I’m not sure either way, but Sire believes he makes better money with Chitika, which is why I decided to give it a try.

almir Reply:
May 5th, 2009 at 6:08 PM

Oh really I tried it out myself about a couple months back but didn’t make as much as I was planning on making which is why I stopped using their service. But I don’t see why or how it can be more effective than Adsense but I guess what works better for one may not work as well or better than someone else.

almir´s last blog post..Review Of “The One And Only” Atomic Blogging 3.0

Mitch Reply:
May 5th, 2009 at 6:19 PM

The idea behind it is that if someone comes to your site through a search engine, it’s supposed to mean your traffic is more targeted, and thus supposedly you can make more money from someone clicking on an ad, much like you’ll make more money if your Google Ads are clicked on by targeted traffic. That, plus it’s supposed to be less intrusive to your regular visitors, who of course won’t see it because they’re not coming back through search engines.

The reality, though, is that fewer people are seeing those ads, so they may not be doing what they purport to be doing.

Sire Reply:
May 6th, 2009 at 12:50 AM

Actually I don’t think I ever said I made better money, just that the money I was making was catching up to Google and was all extra revenue. I think at best it made 40% of Google’s earning for one particular month.

Sire´s last blog post..Wassupblog April Statistics Still Pretty Good

Mitch Reply:
May 6th, 2009 at 1:17 AM

Didn’t I already prove this one to you once?

Sire Reply:
May 6th, 2009 at 2:00 AM

OK, are we differentiating between ‘better’ money and ‘more’ money? Either way I don’t believe I ever said Chitika was better.

Sire´s last blog post..Wassupblog April Statistics Still Pretty Good

Mitch Reply:
May 6th, 2009 at 2:17 AM

No, I’m picking on you a little bit, Sire, for that one month when you’d said you made more money from Chitika than Adsense, but you didn’t remember saying it. As for Chitika being better, well, you did kind of say it in that same post I pointed out before, only you added the caveat “the answer this month would have to be yes”. Here’s the link, as a refresher: http://wassupblog.com/is-chitika-better-than-google-adense/

Ain’t I a stinker?

Sire Reply:
May 6th, 2009 at 2:36 AM

Yes you are Mitch You know that Title was there just to get peoples attention.

Sire´s last blog post..Wassupblog April Statistics Still Pretty Good

February 12th, 2009 | 11:53 PM

Sire:

Yeah, I must admit, the positioning doesn’t cause the add to jump at you at all. Still, once you get a few comments going I reckon people will get to see it.

Sire´s last blog post..January Statistics For WassupBlog

Mitch Reply:
February 13th, 2009 at 6:40 PM

That’s what I’m thinking, Sire; that, plus is used to be higher, and I got nothing from it.

Sire Reply:
February 13th, 2009 at 6:52 PM

How about using their plugin so that you can display the ads from within your post?

Sire´s last blog post..Changing Your Lifestyle Doesn’t Have To be Painful

Mitch Reply:
February 13th, 2009 at 7:16 PM

Sire, you know how hesitant I am to add those types of ads within posts until some time has gone by. Doesn’t mean I might not tri it much later, but I’d feel much better handling it like I handle some of the Adsense blocks I go back and put into older posts.

Sire Reply:
February 13th, 2009 at 7:25 PM

There is a plugin for that as well, and even though it was designed for adsense I’m sure it will work with Chitika. I think I did a post about it somewhere

Sire´s last blog post..Changing Your Lifestyle Doesn’t Have To be Painful

Mitch Reply:
February 13th, 2009 at 7:28 PM

Of course you did; remember, I commented on it, and actually worked with you on sizes and such.

Sire Reply:
February 13th, 2009 at 7:31 PM

I remember, I was wondering if you did? How silly of me to think that perhaps you had forgotten.

Sire´s last blog post..Changing Your Lifestyle Doesn’t Have To be Painful

February 13th, 2009 | 12:18 AM

Scott Thomas Photography:

Kind of a self-fullfillng prophecy isn’t it to bury it way down below? In fact, looks like it’s kind of hard for most of your affiliates, isn’t it?

Maybe you should think about putting one at the top and see what happens. Rotate them by the month and see if one does better than the others.

I have my Goggle ads at the top of my Disney website and it generates enough to cover running the site and some paid promotions. On other pages, I have rotating ads in the same location and in the sidebar. All show where a person would see them when first opening a page on the site.

Scott Thomas Photography´s last blog post..Secret to Sharp Photos

Boyz II Men Reply:
February 13th, 2009 at 9:28 AM

This was something I was going to bring up. In placing the ad so low because it didn’t make many conversions, it’s not going to make many conversions. It might be worth trying to place a random one of the ads further up on the page to see if they can get attract more clicks.

Boyz II Men´s last blog post..Keith Mitchell: After 7′s Untold Story

Mitch Reply:
February 13th, 2009 at 7:10 PM

So I don’t repeat it, I’ll just say to read the other comments I’ve written. lol

Mitch Reply:
February 13th, 2009 at 7:10 PM

Scott, I’ve written in previous posts about placements of ads. Chitika used to have two prominent places on my blog, and they didn’t generate anything. Same with Adsense, which I not only had at the top, but at the top in two different places, one on each side. I’m always rotating my ads and changing things up, but truthfully, at this point, I think that my own products are going to stay at the top left because that’s usually the most recommended thing for people who do create their own products. The other ads will rotate, though, and with the length of many of my posts, most of them will be seen I figure.

February 13th, 2009 | 8:47 AM

Karla Escolas- Chitika, Inc.:

Mitch,

I am not sure where you were placing your Chitika ads in the past, but you probably won’t do very well keeping at the bottom left of your site. It’s a very ineffective location. Just like a couple of your readers said above, you should try using it higher and see if that works better.

Feel free to email me if you have any questions!

Best,
Karla Escolas – Chitika, Inc.
karla(at)chitika(dot)com

Mitch Reply:
February 13th, 2009 at 7:12 PM

Hi Karla; I’ll say the same to you that I did to Matt. Before, one of the ads was in the second spot on the left, and another a few spots down, and they weren’t getting any attention. And I had initially replaced one of my Adsense blocks with Chitika, then added Adsense back, but lower. I’m always moving things around, and if it’s not working, it gets moved.

February 13th, 2009 | 10:55 AM

Dennis Edell:

They seem pretty responsive (commenting and all), maybe I’ll give it another look as well.

Dennis Edell´s last blog post..New Comment Policy – You Want To Read This

February 13th, 2009 | 2:44 PM

Scott Thomas Photography:

I know you have set a goal for this year. The problem that I see is these afflilate ads are not targeted (with the exception of the ads found at the bottom of your posts. Which do seem to try and find a common subject.).

I think I have success with Google is because my site has a well-defined niche and people coming there are more apt to click the ads because they are all about the same niche.

This blog is very general in topics so probably your specific products are more suited to your audience. Do you get better results in your niche sites with ads such as these?

Scott Thomas Photography´s last blog post..View 60: Winterfest Ice Carving

Mitch Reply:
February 16th, 2009 at 9:19 AM

Scott, this blog really isn’t meant to be a niche blog, so there’s really no targeting being done here, I’d have to admit. However, I do test these things on other sites, and truthfully, the only thing that’s actually been working on other sites is Adsense, plain and simple. It’s rare that anyone even clicks on one of the affiliate ads.

February 16th, 2009 | 8:52 AM

almir:

I’m an affiliate of Chitika but not a user of the program because adsense is simply the most effective program

almir´s last blog post..Review Of “The One And Only” Atomic Blogging 3.0

May 5th, 2009 | 5:17 PM

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