Written on September 28th, 2005 at 01:09 am by Darren Rowse
Chitika eMiniMalls Review
If you read this review of Chitika eMiniMalls and sign up - you might also be interested in my Chitika eMiniMall Tips Page and my post revealing how much Chitika eMiniMalls earn me.
Over the past few weeks I’ve been a part of a beta testing program of a new ad format for Chitika’s eMiniMalls.
They are a new type of ad that many of you will find quite beneficial for your blogs - I know I have. You’ve probably seen them around. They come in a range of sizes but usually have a picture of a product and then some tabs running across the top that say ‘Description’, ‘Best Deals’, ‘Reviews’ and ‘Search’. As you put the cursor over the top of these tabs they change what the ad shows.
I’ve added one to the sidebar here at enternetusers so you can see what I’m talking about in the flesh and have added a screen capture of another sized one below.
How do they work?
- ads pay on a per click basis. The value of the clicks depends upon the product being featured.
- left in default mode - mini-malls are contextual ads (ie they look at your content and try to find ads that are relevant with it)
- ads can be set to be non contextual and to target specific keywords (this is helpful when it comes to running them in conjunction with Adsense - more information on this below).
How Profitable are they?
The terms of using eMiniMalls don’t allow me to share specific figures but I can share the following:
Overall - I’ve been beta testing mini-malls for 5 weeks now and am very happy with them. They don’t out perform Adsense for me yet - but my overall earnings with them for the month of September is more than a quarter and less than a half of my Adsense earnings for the month (regularly readers will be able to do some sums and come up with some approximate earnings there). Take into consideration that I don’t have them running on every blog I own and have not spent much time optimizing them yet and you’ll see that they have some real potential.
Cost per Click - Very good. The first day I added mini malls to and saw the amount that each click was paying I was quite surprised. They are considerably higher than my average click value on Adsense - some days they are 5 or 6 times higher. I’ve talked to a couple of other bloggers using them and they report similar click values. This is the definate strength of mini-malls.
Click Through Rate - The percentage of people clicking on eMiniMalls ads is considerably lower than what I get on Adsense. This is a bit disappointing and is probably for a number of reasons.
- Poor Optimization - This is partly my fault. I’ve just not had time to really optimize the ads properly. It is also partly because they are not currently offering channels to track ad performance on different blogs/categories/positions. As a result if I were to try to optimize the ads now I have no way of tracking the results. Channels are a feature that will be added shortly however so I’m expecting to be able to increase my CTR somewhat.
- Poor Ad matching - Chitika are still working on how they match ads with content. Ad relevancy seems to be a bit of a problem on some posts. I know this because I know they have ads for some products that just don’t show up on pages where i’d expect them to. Hopefully they’ll continue to develop their algorithm and find ways of making ads even more relevant.
- Lower Numbers of Ads - I’m suspecting that Chitika has a lower number of ads than Adsense to select from to run on sites using mini-malls. This means that sometimes ads can be a little irrelevant to your content which would decrease CTR also.
Let’s hope they can increase CTR in future.
Reports - I’ll emphasize that mini-malls are in beta at present so don’t expect too much in the reporting realm yet. At this stage they just update at the end of each day and give you some basic stats under the four headings of - Date, Impressions, Clicks and Revenue. These stats are what they call ‘unaudited’ - which means they haven’t taken anything off the total that they suspect to be click fraud or ‘dodgy’ clicks. They ‘audit’ you at this stage once per month (they have indicated that this will happen daily at some point in the future). I was only in the system for three days of last month but the auditing brought my ‘unaudited’ figures back by about 10% of what they were. Clicks are audited by some secret process that includes multiple or repeated clicks, traffic from bots and spiders as well as traffic coming from certain countries like China or Korea.
I’m not too impressed by the auditing feature. While I understand why its there I can see that this will be the cause of some tension between Chitika and Publishers. I’m sure Adsense has some sort of system in place that does something similar - but they are big enough to build it in as a real time feature so that publishers just don’t know what they lose. I’d rather not know the amount they take off for this than have it dangled before me to be taken away later.
I know from my conversations with Chitika staff that the reporting system will be undergoing significant improvements in the coming weeks and months.
Ad Formats - The currently offer 10 different size formats in some pretty standard sizes. I’ve recommended to them that they add a couple of new formats that I believe would be beneficial to bloggers but overall the options are pretty good. They also allow you to make some changes to the design of your ads by changing colors of borders, title and text to match your blog.
Payment - Payment is via Paypal in US Dollars at the start of every month - around 30 days after the end of the month you’re being paid for. You need to reach a minimum of $10 to get a payment.
Can Mini-Malls be used in conjunction with Adsense? - Most people I talk to about mini-malls asks this - it’s important as most bloggers want to use them in conjunction with one another.
I’ve talked to Google about this via email. The first email I got back from them said ‘no’ you can’t use them for two reasons:
- They look too similar to Adsense Ads
- They are contextual ads
I decided to follow the email up pointing out two things.
- They actually don’t look like Adsense ads - they have a picture in them, tabs etc. I think the mistake Adsense made at first was in confusing mini-malls with Chitika’s other ads which do look very similar to Adsense ads.
- You can actually disable the contextual element of the ads and plug in code that targets a specific product.
The email I received back said that they were sorry for making a mistake and that Chitika mini-mall ads can be used in conjunction with Adsense IF they are set to be non contextual.
I know of two others who have had this same conversation with Google with the same results.
English Sites only - at this point they are in beta test and only accepting Engine sites into the program. While this is sad for non English sites I guess they have to start somewhere. Hopefully they’ll widen it later at some point.
All in all - I’m pleased with Chitika’s mini-malls. They have loads of potential. I suspect (and until I get channels I won’t know for sure) that they will do best on product related blogs. They seem to serve very relevant ads to my gadget type blogs and struggle on some of my more ‘news’ related blogs.
I’ve also seen them producing very relevant ads over at ShoeBlogs (remember in the interview I did with Manolo that he said that chitika ads were in some of his better performing ads). I’ve also seen a couple of bloggers so impressed with mini-malls that they’ve ditched Adsense all together as they were able to earn significantly more from Chitika (one of these is Jeremy Wright from ensight.
As with all new ad programs I would suggest that putting all your eggs in one basket is not the way to go - give Chitika a go by all means but keep in mind that eMiniMalls are in a beta test and as with all beta tests things are being tested and tweaked along the way. There is promising signs but take your time with it.
You can apply to be a part of the eMiniMalls beta test at Chitika Mini Malls Sign Up.
Disclaimer: the links to Chitika in this post are affiliate links - if you sign up using these links I earn a small amount as a commission. It does not impact what you earn from Chitika but rather is paid by Chitika. While these links are affiliate links I genuinely believe in the product and have pointed out both its benefits and weaknesses.
Update: A couple of people have asked for more information on the Adsense/Mini-mall running on the same page thing. Here is an excerpt from an email that Google sent associates and I when we asked them for clarification about running the mini-malls in a non contextual mode.
‘Yes, you can use the Chitika products that rely on keywords selected by
you as opposed to your site’s content, on your site in addition to Google
ads.For additional questions, please visit our AdSense Support site at
https://www.google.com/support/adsense or feel free to reply to this
email.’
Update II
If you’re one of the many bloggers who have just signed up for Chitika eMiniMalls after reading this review you might like to check out Quick Online Tips who have just posted tips on running Chitika eMiniMalls & Google Adsense on Same Webpage.
There they give code that helps you to set your eMiniMalls up in a way that is non contextual (and is therefore allowable with Adsense) but in a way that rotates a variety of ads which will help you to get a bit of variety in your ads which will help combat ad blindness.
I’ve been using this rotating ads code over the past day or two and have noticed an increase in earnings already.
Another thing I’ve noticed is that the bloggers that are reporting the best successes with eMiniMalls are the ones that are targeting products on their blogs. I know I mentioned this above - but bloggers with a focus upon gadgets, clothes, shoes etc seem to be doing very well from them.
Update III - I’ve added a Chitika eMiniMall Tips Page for those of you who have signed up. Enjoy.
Share what you’ve learnt about eMiniMalls below in comments.
127 Responses to “Chitika eMiniMalls Review”
Robb D
September 28th, 2005 1:32 am
I have seen these Mini Malls popping up on a lot of gadget type blogs lately. Needless to say, I have just signed up an account. I only hope it doesn’t take them three days to review my site.
Branden
September 28th, 2005 1:48 am
Darren - We’ve been using mini-malls for the past few months and have had similar results. Much higher click values but much lower CTR (in comparison to Adsense).
Robb D - Our site is a gadget site and the matching results for Mini-Malls have been so-so. Alot of the time we are showing ads for BBQs on cell phone pages. However, we talked to Chitka about the problem and they’ve done some manual tweaking to our matching criteria so that only mobile phone ads get shown. If you have similar matching problems I encourage you to give them a call.
Jeremy Wright
September 28th, 2005 2:58 am
I’ve had 10$ clicks. I’ve had 30c clicks. Overall it performs much, much better on Ensight than anything else I’ve ever done.
The auditing and reporting tools need a huge amount of work, though.
Rick Blythe
September 28th, 2005 3:08 am
I too am experimenting with Chtika mini-malls. Great results so far except they also took a chuck of my adsense revenue.
I think they’ve got a great product here, one that will be copied by many.
and yes, the auditing and reporting tools need a huge amount of work
Miha
September 28th, 2005 3:12 am
I put them on one of my blogs a few days ago and I was amazed by click values I recived. The only problem I have is that ads are not relevant all the time (3 out of 5 are good).
james
September 28th, 2005 3:18 am
Gold! Thanks, Darren. I really appreciate you taking the time to let us know how new advertising ideas work in the real world. I’ll give Chitika a spin to see how it works in my world. And thanks for posting the referral link disclaimers - it’s nice to see someone being very forward about commissions on a product they recommend.
Thomas
September 28th, 2005 3:30 am
Thanks Darren! I had never heard about this company but they look good. I’m going to give them a try.
HART
September 28th, 2005 3:38 am
I signed up last weekend as I had started seeing these ads ‘around’ the blog. As an “interested user”, stuff that peaks my curiosity always catches my attention. These mini-mall seemed strange to me and I did click these ads many times before I really understood what was going on, and that it WAS just an ad. Further, it took me more clicks to figure out that the source was through chitika. Could this explain why clicks are so high? C’mon.. didn’t any of you guys keep clicking until you figured it out? Maybe it’s me? It’s worth a try to get in on this curiousity clicking before it becomes a common anchor out there :)
Nick
September 28th, 2005 5:25 am
I signed up and was approved today. Replaced one of my Google ad units on Poker Chip Tricks with a Chitka and added the targetting feature to it. I’m always trying out new services to try and beat Google, but so far nothing really comes close (not even YPN). I’ll let you know how it goes after a few days.
Chris Scott
September 28th, 2005 5:33 am
They are nice. Too bad their JavaScript doesn’t work in Firefox. There are two errors that cause the ad to not be displayed. I sent a support request to them to let them know.
Chris Scott
September 28th, 2005 6:03 am
Following up on my comment above: I got a (very fast) response from support and they said it looked like I had a bad version of their.js file cached. I emptied my cache and the copy it downloaded after that was indeed different than the cached version.
So, if anyone else is having this problem clear your cache and reload a page w/the ads.
Andy Merrett
September 28th, 2005 6:12 am
If we can’t contextualise them on a page with AdSense, will their effectiveness decrease? there’s little point me putting ads for shavers on a site about pianos.
I like the look, maybe I need to take AdSense off my front page and use these. AdSense doesn’t seem to do too well on front pages anyway.
Andy Merrett
September 28th, 2005 6:17 am
Sorry for two comments in a row - does ‘non-contextual’ mean you can’t set the mini-malls to automatically scan your page, or does it mean you can’t use it to manually promote a particular product that is finely related to the content of the page.
Here’s an example to clarify what I’m trying to ask:
If I disable the contextual feature in mini-malls, but then add a WordPress custom field that I set for each article, that is fed into mini-malls to pull in a particular product that’s relevant to the page, does that count? Or does it then just become an affiliate program, which is allowed? It’s what I used to do with Amazon.
mottebonk
September 28th, 2005 7:14 am
Andy asked> ‘non-contextual’ mean you can’t set the mini-malls to automatically scan your page.
I believe so. They claim to have a couple of choices:
1) Set your own product. You can do this using the Wordpress technique you mentioned. Another way is to pass in the title of your blog post. You can do this by adding a line to their code: (Geez. I wish they would make it simpler to do this)
ch_query = ‘ipod mini’; // will target to the query “ipod mini”
OR
ch_query = ‘ M9805LL/A’; // will target to the Manufacturer code or UPC
But hey.. not everybody wants to set their own queries. So:
2) Let their system learn over time what works. I have been using them for a couple of months now. Initially when content scanning was turned off, I set my own query based on the title of my blog. If I screwed up with my title, it would show ipods and the like. Then after a few days, the ipods stopped and I was getting more relevant results. All in all, I am happy with them. Can’t argue with more money.
Andy Merrett
September 28th, 2005 7:25 am
Thanks mottebonk.
Can I clarify, that Google considers ‘contextual’ to be any system that effectively does what it does, scans the content and serves relevant items.
I ask, because effectively passing a keyword or the title will (hopefully) cause mini-malls to provide ads that are in context to the page.
Do you see what I’m getting at?
Nick
September 28th, 2005 7:39 am
I sent them an email asking if I could specify multiple phrases for the ch_query variable. Since I don’t want the same item to be displayed all the time. Their support responded in less than 10 minutes with a simple solution. Just use a javascript trick.
I thought I’d pass it along in case anyone else wanted to use it. Replace ‘phrase1′ with your phrases
var ch_queries = new Array(’phrase1′, ‘phrase2′, ‘phrase3′);
var ch_selected = Math.floor((Math.random() * ch_queries.length));
ch_query = ch_queries[ch_selected];
mottebonk
September 28th, 2005 7:43 am
Andy> Do you see what I am getting at?
Yes. Looks like Google has a problem with other ad companies scanning pages and doing content analysis. They dont seem to have a problem with you providing a keyword or product or title. In essense, by having you provide a keyword or title, you are doing affiliate marketing without all the hassles of affiliate marketing.
Matt
September 28th, 2005 8:04 am
Well now, I’ve seen those on a couple of other blogs and thought they were nifty looking and had it on my to do list this week to find out where they came from and go get me some. How fortunate that you did all that leg work for me, Darren! So in gratitude, I have clicked upon your affiliate link and signed myself up for the program. We shall see what we shall see. Thanks again!
Andy Merrett
September 28th, 2005 8:07 am
That sounds good.
I’ve applied so will wait to see if I’m accepted. Will probably add it to my more product-based blogs and see what happens.
duncan
September 28th, 2005 10:12 am
Concur with your analysis, just on those talking about the contextual stuff you need to set up the produce manually in the code, it can be “in context” if you like but it cant be served automatically, ie by a contextual engine. It’s really annoying that Google is so strict on the rules though.
Chi An
September 28th, 2005 11:55 am
I had tried it some times ago. But Google said No that time before I got any result. Well, it seems that I should try again. :-D
Chitika and AdSense » Addicting Games Funny Junk Gag Video Clip - Kahsoon.com
September 28th, 2005 12:27 pm
[…] After reading Darren’s review on Chitika, i now have a pretty good idea on Chitika and i think i’ll start using it along with AdSense because i read from everywhere that Chitika is paying really well. […]
Andrew
September 28th, 2005 2:28 pm
Unfortunately they don’t appear to have a very wide range of products for different niches. Lets hope they will soon.
stuart
September 28th, 2005 3:08 pm
Great tip about the multiple phrases Nick — was just about to email them about that myself. I found the contextual targetting pretty awful, but being able to pick a range of products to display works for me… I think once they’ve got a better range of partners (and products) could be a nice earner.
Andy Merrett
September 28th, 2005 4:47 pm
I’ve just put it on one of my product blogs usiing the title as a reference, and it seems to be doing fairly well. In the main, even when it isn’t bringing up an exact match to the product, it brings up something relevant to the blog.
A few times it has brought up a weird item based on a keyword, but that’s to be expected. Another reason to hone my titles, or switch to inputting my own keywords for each article.
HART
September 28th, 2005 8:06 pm
Don’t forget (apparently) to turn off the contextual code by adding the line inside the script… “ch_non_contextual = 1; ” (per chitika) in addition to the random scripting Nick mentioned #16. That could be the reason of weirdness of mixed showings.
I put the code up on my products site last nite (1800HART.com/picks) and used each of the names of the categories as the random reference phrases.. about 50 of them.. instead of using product names or blog titles as the reference, like ipod etc. and it seems to be working great or at least fitting in with the rest of the products in the site.
About an hour ago I put the code on my personal site (HARTandYVONNE.com/blog) and I used 4 terms.. ‘weight loss’, ‘medieval’, ‘renaissance’ and ‘wedding’ … I seem to be getting 75% showing computers and other electronic gadgets. It may be that these topics just are not popular (yet).
Andy Merrett
September 28th, 2005 9:47 pm
Thanks for that HART - I just followed what it said in the FAQ, but it looks like a plausible tag to add.
pcunix
September 28th, 2005 11:06 pm
Looks like Google is getting some competition..
Perhaps coincidentally, and perhaps not, my Adsense revenue has increased quite a bit just recently.. making me wonder if the competition has either caused Google to do something to change it or if advertisers are having to bid more.
Or it might be that my adding YPN ads (and I’m going to go look at this Mini Mall as soon as I finish the comment) has helped combat ad blindness..
Just wondering if anyone else had noticed Google getting more profitable..
And on the same subject (which might be something Darren would like to comment on), running multiple types of ads makes tracking results much more confusing. Right now I have Google and YPN and some days Google is better than YPN and somedays the opposite, and sometimes they are about the same. I use Asrep for the Google stuff, so that helps, but now if I add this Minimall thing it will be really confusing..
Robb D
September 28th, 2005 11:48 pm
When I signed up yesterday, I hoped that it woudn’t take the entire three days for my site to get reviewed. I am happy to announce that it only took about 8 hours.
World Cup Corner
September 29th, 2005 1:37 am
We are using them for three days and can only say good things about them.
Nick #16 thanks for great tip.
Thomas
September 29th, 2005 2:06 am
The results from yesterday look pretty impressive. For some sites (including mine) it’s definately a lot better than AdSense.
But I’m getting worried of the auditing. If I really only get to keep 10 percent just like you Darren then Chitika isn’t worth it. When does the auditing happen?
I’m also a bit disappointed because they only offer PayPal payments. Do you know whether they will soon adopt other things like checks or EFT?
pcunix
September 29th, 2005 3:06 am
Darren said is was knocked back by 10% - he kept 90%.
One other thing: on the issue of Google objecting to the ads. I’ve always assumed their policy means that I can’t run other ads on the same page at the same time as Google ads.
So I rotate - 40% Google, 30% YPN and (as of today - their approval was in my mailbox almost instantly) 30 % Chitika. I’ve *assumed* that’s OK - Google never appears with any competitor.
Is that how y’all read it?
pcunix
September 29th, 2005 5:47 am
I’ve been running these for a few hours on four sites - looks very good to me, though since I won’t see any reports till tomorrow, who knows?
But I have to say *I* like the ads, and would be surprised if they have lousy ctr - they seem mostly relevant and I would think would attract interest. I’ve seen a few I would like to click on if they weren’t running on my site, and they definitely attract the eye.
But we’ll see tomorrow.. thanks for this tip, Darren - I had looked at these guys quite a while ago and never looked again..
Darren Rowse
September 29th, 2005 8:38 am
Yes - the adjustment was 10% off the total - I kept 90%. of course this was just on the first three days that I used it so it could be more or less - guess I’ll find out at the end of the month sometime.
stuart mcdonald
September 29th, 2005 10:47 am
Just a note for those with Asia-focussed websites/blogs, Chitika don’t recognise ANY traffic from Asia — confirmed by them to me by email:
“…We are out of luck here. At this time, we have noticed that clicks originating from Asia are not convertising into sales at all. Hence, no Asian countries are accepted in the eMiniMalls program at this time…. ”
At the moment their FAQ is pretty vague in this regard, but they plan to update it soon — stikes me as a pretty heavy-handed attitude.
Alternative Contextual Advertising Services | Adsenseology
September 29th, 2005 10:48 am
[…] A short time ago I read an interesting review of Chitika Mini Malls by Darren of enternetusers who has been involved with beta testing Chitika. Darren’s review is interesting enough that I will be looking into testing these on one of my sites. […]
Trigger
September 29th, 2005 3:18 pm
After reading up about the system, great review Darren, I signed up for both of my sites, and I think it is a fantastic way to increase the interactivity of contextual advertising. I also have an amazon store on one of my sites, so it would be good to see how the chitika system performs against amazon.
Quick Online Tips
September 29th, 2005 9:01 pm
I applied and got approved within 12 hrs for Chitika. I emailed Adsense about running Chitika alongside just be sure - they said NO. A repeat email with non contextual stuff and all - same reply NO. So I have emailed them again quoting this post. Let see what they say.
Quick Online Tips
September 29th, 2005 9:13 pm
Darren, how have you got that referral banner on top and the affiliate sign up link. I see no such provision in the Chitika ‘get code’ page.
Darren Rowse
September 29th, 2005 9:28 pm
The affiliate program is in beta too at the moment. I made the banner myself after being approved by Chitika as an affiliate. I suspect they allowed me to be one at this stage because I’ve been helping them to develop their system as a beta tester.
I’m hearing that the affiliate program going live won’t be too far away - within a month I’d suspect.
single mum
September 30th, 2005 10:22 am
OH MY GOODNESS!!!
I put these on my blog after reading this review a day ago and today I’ve earned just under $150 from them in a day! I know this will probably go down a little when my readers get used to them but it’s amazing!!!
Adsense was only earning me $40 a day previously!
Thankyou SOOO much for this review Darren. You have just changed my life.
I cannot express to you what this means to me. if the $150 per day continues I will be able to go off welfare payments at last and should be able to put my two little kids into some non 2nd hand clothes for the first time in their lives.
I’m a single mum and never considered being able to earn this type of money. I am so grateful to this blog Darren, you were the one who got me up to $40 a day, but this is is unbelievable. I’m trying not to count all my chickens before they hatch, but wow.
thankyou so much Darren
Darren Rowse
September 30th, 2005 1:42 pm
Rachel - thanks so much for your comment and for chatting to me on the phone just now. It’s a pleasure to be involved in helping out any way I can. I’m so happy to see that blogging is making a difference for you and really hope that the minimalls continue to pay off for you and grow.
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September 30th, 2005 10:57 pm
[…] During the past few weeks, Kevin has been beta-testing a new ads format for Chitika’s mini-malls. […]
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Quick Online Tips
October 1st, 2005 2:52 am
Darren, guided by your excellent review, I have compiled a post about using Chitika’s eMiniMalls ads &Adsense on the same page.
Darren Rowse
October 1st, 2005 12:22 pm
thanks - just linked up to it and added it to this review.
Chitika eMiniMalls Tips: Blog Tips - enternetusers
October 1st, 2005 2:49 pm
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Ravi
October 1st, 2005 5:16 pm
Hi,
I have a basic question. Can I run non-google - in this case chitika ads in a blogspot website ? I have a blog maintained in a blogger account and I am interested in running this ad there. Will google cancel my blog if I run non-google based ads on a blog account of google ?
Thanks
Ravi
LiewCF.com
October 2nd, 2005 5:40 am
Make Money with Chitika
Chitika is quite hot recently since Darren published his Chitika Mini-Mall review. What’s so great about Chitika?
…
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October 3rd, 2005 3:01 pm
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Chitika eMiniMalls - How Much Do they Earn Me?: Blog Tips - enternetusers
October 5th, 2005 5:41 pm
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Jason
October 6th, 2005 12:06 am
Blog Intro has a list of Chitika tricks going. He has a way of changing the default tab order in the miniMalls.
Joel Comm
October 6th, 2005 4:59 am
Great post, Darren! I have applied today and intend to test thoroughly. If this is as good as you say, I’m sure my AdSense Secrets readers will want to know about it!
Joel
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October 6th, 2005 1:14 pm
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Gavin Choate
October 7th, 2005 1:55 am
Darren, thanks for the informative post. I’ve been looking for an alternative to AdSense, and thus I’ve applied for Chitika. I’m waiting for them to respond… thanks again!
Adventures in Net Marketing
October 7th, 2005 9:42 am
Chitika eMini-Mall Wordpress Plugin
The Chitika eMini-malls seem to be working well for people with product sites, especially gadget-related sites. (If you haven’t heard of the Chitika eMini-malls, Kevin has an in-depth review here.) I was looking at Wordpress plugins today, and …
Satish Talim
October 7th, 2005 11:56 am
I am unhappy with one of their conditions. They say that “Every month Chitika audits the clicks that we receive from all of our publishers sites. In the audit process we remove any invalid clicks such as: repeated clicks from the same ip, clicks from countries such as China and India, etc. This is done to protect our advertisers from fraudulent clicks”.
All clicks originating from China and India are invalid. All? Why have they singling out China and India only? Click fraud can happen from any country. Why can’t they just block out such IPs, instead of blocking out the entire country? I still have to get a convincing answer from Chitika on this.
Darren Rowse
October 7th, 2005 12:33 pm
It’s an unfortunate fact that in their testing that they’ve found that clicks from some countries are more likely to be either low converting or plain fraudulent.
I don’t see them saying that all clicks from India and China are fraudulent ones - however I guess they’ve found that there is an increased likelihood of it and it’s something that their advertisers have decided that they will not pay for.
The problem with blocking IP’s is that some people go to lengths to disguise their IP addresses or rotate them.
I think you’ll also find that Adsense (and other ad systems) have some sort of checks and balance system in place for this type of thing also. I’ve heard that clicks from some countries on Adsense are very very low value because of this issue.
I think you’ll also find that it’s not just India and China but a variety of other countries.
It must be frustrating for genuine publishers from these countries I know - I feel for them - but really I don’t see that they can do much more than they do. It’s a case of the action of a small group of people impacting the lives of other honest hard working people. If they allowed all clicks then the whole system would fail.
Satish Talim
October 8th, 2005 9:49 am
Darren, Chitika replied to my query on clicks from China and India -
“Please do not think that India and China is being singled out. The problem is that, at this time, we dont have merchants who are willing to accept leads from India, China and Asia in general. That said, when we do manage to strike partnerships in Asia and build the merchant base who accept clicks from Asia, this program will be expanded to accept clicks from Asia. We have to start somewhere (and as you well know US is the place to start). As this program matures and we add partnership, this program will expand with it. If I remember right, isnt that how Adsense also started ? “
World Discussion Blog » Chitika eMiniMalls Rave Reviews
October 9th, 2005 2:48 pm
[…] 2. enternetusers is doing well with eMiniMalls Click Here […]
Website Byte » Blog Archive » Chitika Mini-Malls Advertising
October 9th, 2005 5:21 pm
[…] For an interesting opinion, read this review from enternetusers.net. Overall - I’ve been beta testing mini-malls for 5 weeks now and am very happy with them. They don’t out perform Adsense - but my overall earnings with them for the month of September is more than a quarter and less than a half of my Adsense earnings for the month […]
Dan Sherman » Chitika eMinMalls - Are They Effective?
October 9th, 2005 5:47 pm
[…] I’ve been reading about Chitika’s eMiniMall ad serving service. It’s all the buzz on the blogs. More about them here, here and here. […]
Iggy Uncensored
October 9th, 2005 7:30 pm
Here is why I won’t use Chitika
I had previously stated that I had a concern in regards to using Chitika advertising on this site. My reason was do to the fact that on several occasions my …
Jacken
October 12th, 2005 5:31 am
Due to the fact that using using another advertising service that uses content matching is against the rules, I needed some other way of doing it. I have added the possibility to my WordPress blog so I can add Custom tags directly in the blog article. So when the article shows, you get targeted ads automatically. You can enter as many custom fields you need, and the system takes one randomly. I have written a guide on my blog, check it out.
Now it’s easy to add specific ads, without violating the Google AdSense contract.
http://www.jackenhack.com/blog/archives/2005/10/11/add-targeted-ads-from-chitika-in-wordpress/
Jacken
Is Adsense Performing Poorly?: Blog Tips at enternetusers
October 14th, 2005 12:07 am
[…] Chitika eMiniMalls Review […]
Chitika eMiniMall Tips: Blog Tips at enternetusers
October 14th, 2005 2:00 am
[…] Chitika eMiniMalls Review […]
VoIP Blog - VoIP News, Gadgets
October 15th, 2005 3:11 am
Chitika on MovableType
If you’re interested in adding Chitika code to your MovableType blog, here is how I did it. First, some hat tips to enternetusers.net for promoting the Chitika code and bringing it to my attention. Props to LiewCF.com as well, a…
tabo @ aureal :: hacking for fun and profit
October 16th, 2005 4:42 pm
[…] After reading this review of a new advertising company called chitika I added them to the site. The ads are more relevant than the adsense ones for the visitors (since I can manually select the products advertised) and they look better. I have doubled this site’s income since I added chitika’s eminimalls so I am quite happy with them. […]
Affiliate Stuff » Chikita’s Viral Marketing success
October 18th, 2005 3:55 pm
[…] The area of affiliate marketing has been witness to a great example of viral marketing in the recent release of Chikita’s eMiniMall service! This is exciting to affiliate marketers, both for what it brings and the message that comes with it.What it brings is an exciting new pay per click product, that has been getting good response by most who try it. Importantly this new product is compatible with the 800 pound gorilla of website monetization, Google Adsense. I will add more about this product in my next entry. Arguably, even more exciting is the message that it brings with it. That message is about Viral Marketing. It is that paying generous referral rates can very quickly generate a massive amount of mind-share and with it business. The full details of the business produced is not clear at the moment, but the mind-share growth, as anyone who frequents webmaster forums can tell you, is huge. A few weeks ago, Chikita was a small second or third tier advertising company, that was only known about by a small proportion of web masters. But the company wanted that to change, they wanted eMiniMalls, a new PPC service they were about to release, to be used everywhere. But how do you it. How do you get a lot of people to notice your product in a hurry? Viral Marketing. Chikita decided that the best way to get a lot people aware of their product was to get some key market figures to start using and advertising their product. To get people to do this you have to make it worth their while, so Chikita decided to pay these key influencers for referrals. They also let these people, have access to the service early. So that they could get some actual results to tell people. One of these key infruencers was Kevin at enternetusers.net. Darren wrote an entry about eMiniMalls on September 28. Being an expert eMarketer Darren didn’t leave it at that. He added threads about the Blog entry at several webmaster forums, and followed his Blog entry with others as he gained new information. What followed was a small revolution in webmaster ranks. A quick search of forums reveals Chikita threads to be getting nearly as much traffic as Adsense. So now you know what has happened, it’s time to think about what can be learnt. The big lesson is that viral marketing can work! It doesn’t matter if you are a vendor or a publisher. Getting good word of mouth advertising can greatly increase your business. […]
Blogging for Dollars: Blog Tips at enternetusers
October 18th, 2005 5:11 pm
[…] Chitika eMiniMalls Review […]
Search Engine Journal » Chitika eMiniMalls and Google AdSense
October 19th, 2005 9:39 pm
[…] If you’re interested in the Chitika eMiniMalls program, here’s a rundown of their advertisement method on the Blog Search Engine. I also recommend reading Darren’s review at enternetusers.net. […]
Blogging resource
October 22nd, 2005 5:24 pm
Darren,
I have tried Chitika (which by the way sounds like some sort of curry) on a couple of sites. I have found that it works best on product type sites where the main focus is the product. The CTR is much lower than Adsense but the CPC is higher.
big4guy
October 22nd, 2005 7:14 pm
The only problem with chitika is that it gives a lot of electronic product ads. This might not suit a lot of blogging sites.
big4guy
http://www.big4guy.com
Adsense Tips for Bloggers 8 - Miscellaneous Adsense Tips: Blog Tips at enternetusers
October 28th, 2005 8:03 pm
[…] Chitika eMiniMalls Review Chitika eMiniMalls Tips […]
Troodon
October 28th, 2005 10:36 pm
I wonder how long ot takes the Chitika team to review an applicant’s site and provide a response. In my case, more than 36 hours have passed since I have submitted my application and there is still no feedback from them (except, of course, the initial confirmation email). How long did you guys have to wait? Thanks.
Chitika releases sample keywords for ads — Sun.Star Blog Chronicles Archive
October 30th, 2005 4:44 pm
[…] If you display Chitika ads in your site, check this link for a catalogue on keywords you can use. The keywords will help you target the type of ads that will be displayed in your blog. If you’re still not using Chitika, apply for an account in their home page. If you still haven’t heard of Chitika, here’s a review from someone who earns more than $700 a day from the program. ——————— Max Limpag is the Sun.Star Cebu online editor. He is also a copy and section editor of the paper. Max runs Leon Kilat: The Cybercafe Experiments. […]
Mark
October 31st, 2005 6:07 am
Wow. I just found out about Chikita after getting my first commercial web site up and running. About a week after I went online, I learned about adSense and was amazed to learn that one could make money that way.. Luckily, I’m getting pretty good traffic for a newbie so i can tune throughout the day and see the money ‘ad’ up - oh man, that was funny….I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but this newbie does have two questions. 1. Can somebody please tell me what ‘non-contextual’ sites are? An example would probably be most helpful. 2. Can anyone recommend a truly good book on how to exploit monetizing vehicles like Adsense and Chitika?
Mark
November 2nd, 2005 8:18 pm
Hi er, Mark. Non-contextual refers to the type of ads shown rather than the type of site. Adsense, for example, reads the context of the page and serves ads appropriate to that content, but with Chitika you can set contextual on or off (see other Adsense Chitika comparisons here: http://www.experienced-people.co.uk/1098-affiliate-programs/chitika-adsense.htm).
I don’t know about a book - there are millions of them about, many with dubious information - but you can take up the free site review/optimisation at http://www.experienced-people.co.uk/1098-affiliate-programs/chitika-eminimalls-help.htm for a personalised report on how YOUR site can make more money from Chitika/Adsense.
Webdesignblog » Blog Archive » Kommt Affiliate Programm Chitika eMiniMall auch in Deutschland
November 3rd, 2005 7:12 pm
[…] In Amerika läuft dieses Programm bei Website Beitreibern schon äußerst gut (Chitika eMiniMall Review auf enternetusers.net), daher hat es mich interessiert, ob dieses Modell auch in Deutschland rauskommt. […]
The Buzz about Chitika eMiniMalls : Internet Home Business :: HomeOfficeVoice
November 3rd, 2005 11:59 pm
[…] In his review of the service he says that only after a few weeks of testing Chitika out-performed AdSense by a good margin. […]
ebooks
November 16th, 2005 7:17 am
Just found this ebook by joel Comm - chitikasecrets.com - Sounds interesting - I will give a review when I have the time. Excellent info
Quit Smoking
November 16th, 2005 7:44 am
This sounds amazing. Can it help me if I run an article site. Say a page about quit smoking, Health articles etc.
Chitika eMiniMalls - How to Increase CTR: Blog Tips at enternetusers
November 17th, 2005 11:06 pm
[…] Chitika eMiniMalls Review Chitika eMiniMalls Tips […]
charging phone case
November 18th, 2005 3:14 am
I’ve just signed up at Chikita now. I need to wait a few days for the approval. That sounds very interesting ! I’ve just found about Chikita in another website and was checking the review. Then I reached your blog. I will try as soon as I got my approval.
mac
November 19th, 2005 2:09 am
Note that chitika just changed their rules, now you only get paid if you generate a sale. That means that you make an affiliate sale for them and you give them the money, then they give you xyz cents… My guess is that it’s the end of chitika, they’ve been too greedy on that one. I removed all mine and replaced by affiliate products instead. ( 5$ commission per sale instead of xyz cents for chitika )
source: http://chitika.com/blog/?p=23
Tracy - SEO Expert
November 21st, 2005 2:47 pm
Sounds interesting…. Can I use a news portal instead of a blog site ?
Thanks
Tracy
John F
December 1st, 2005 5:03 pm
mac said… “Note that chitika just changed their rules, now you only get paid if you generate a sale. “…
I don’t see that anywhere…? It just says they are trying to help increase merchant sales.
A Bad Week for Chitika : Home Office Voice - Home Business on the Web
December 2nd, 2005 12:43 pm
[…] Chitika’s eMiniMalls was seen by many to be the real deal in it’s competition for Pay-Pay-Click advertising on blogs, none more so that Darren Rowse’s enternetusers - Here, Here, Here and Here, who has been a fervent admirer of Chitika and has been pushing them endlessly. […]
mac
December 5th, 2005 1:23 am
http://chitika.com/blog/?p=23
“To help minimize so-called “curiosity clicks” that typically do not lead to conversions on the merchants’ side,”
translation: If a click does not convert, you get nothing, you may as well put affiliate products!
Darren Rowse
December 5th, 2005 7:57 am
thats just not true mac - they do pay for clicks that don’t convert. They key word in the quote is ‘typically’. They are not eliminating all payments on all clicks that don’t convert. They are trying to increase the % of converting clicks by changing the design. This doesn’t mean you don’t get paid for non converting clicks - it just means there will be less of them.
Eagle Passlite
December 14th, 2005 2:30 am
Yes Kevin the rights. But I never reflected on their methods. But it seems to me they are really good…
Glenn Dixon
December 16th, 2005 7:43 am
How long does it take Chitika to approve an account request? I signed up last week (using your affiliate link btw) and haven’t heard a thing!
Dmitriy
December 20th, 2005 10:58 pm
Pay for clicks? It is stupid…
My Advertising and Affiliate Earnings Graph - August 29 to December 19: Blog Tips at enternetusers
December 21st, 2005 10:21 am
[…] Chitika eMiniMalls Review […]
ed
January 6th, surf zone.4:19 pm
Chitika is pretty good company and it looks like it here to stay. Lets see if Chitika gets more popular in the future.
John F
January 7th, surf zone.5:54 am
Glenn Dixon-
Took them about 3 - 4 weeks to get back to me. Maybe longer.
cubchai
January 12th, surf zone.6:01 am
Maybe I am still a beginner. They did not approve my site.
keitai
January 15th, surf zone.9:50 am
I just started my weblog and I am wondering how many visitors or views you must have to pass chitika’s requirements? And is it possible to sign up more than once over time?
How Much Do I Earn from Blogging?: Blog Tips at enternetusers
January 15th, surf zone.10:54 pm
[…] Chitika eMiniMalls Review […]
Ryan
January 16th, surf zone.8:38 am
I just recently started using Chitika on http://www.cybernetnews.com and it seems to be performing very well. It is definitely competing with my Google Adsense.
redapple
January 30th, surf zone.4:07 am
The past week Chitika gave us permission to publish eMinimall in our italian blog…
For the first week we earned 1/10 of adsense revenue… I’ll let U know if something will change in the next weeks…
Victim
February 2nd, surf zone.2:55 am
Here is what CHITIKA is FRAUD :
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?p=609187#post609187
Darren Rowse
February 2nd, surf zone.9:54 am
Victim - Sorry to hear of your negative experiences with Chitika.
I’ve not had any problems with them. They’ve always paid me each month and their returns are good. Perhaps this is because I’m a larger publisher but I do have contact with many other publishers who have nothing but positive things to say about their experience with Chitika. It sucks that there are so many diverse experiences people are having and I’m sorry others don’t have the same good experience that I do.
As I think about it though - there are some people who have negative experience of most ad networks. I get emails every week or two from people who have been banned from AdSense without any explanation apart from (inappropriate clicks) - my advice to them is that there isn’t much they can do about it and instead of wasting a lot of energy complaining to get on with developing quality sites and find other income streams that do work well for them.
I think it’s good to share both positive and negative experiences of things like this but maybe it’s time for people who have had negative experiences to move on. I know that sounds harsh but as someone who has crusaded against things online before I know how much of a distraction it can be to my more productive web activities.
Just my two cents worth.
mona
February 7th, surf zone.9:00 pm
Do many of you also experience what i call the “cheatikadsense” ?
They replace their minimall by adsense tagged by their adsense account !!!
incredible but true.
kris
February 27th, surf zone.10:14 am
Since everybody is talking about figure, i’d like to ask a question to see if i’m doing something wrong. Well currently on my site i get around 400 unique visitors per day, and around 800000 page impression, but i currently make not more than $10 dollars per day using google ads.
Is there something i’m doing wrong, should i be making a lot more for that traffic?
Darren Rowse
March 1st, surf zone.1:06 pm
Kris - you have 400 visitors who view 800,000 pages?
That’s 2000 pages each!!!!
The page impressions numbers sound very high to say the least.
400 visitors for $10 sounds normal though.
kris
March 2nd, surf zone.2:11 am
Darren - thanks for your reply. Well the site is a dating site and we have almost 5000 members, so yes it’s easy for us to get that amount of page view.
We get about 400 unique visitors per day. I also think that our click through is low ’cause of our target audience.
Macky
March 2nd, surf zone.10:47 pm
My only problem with them is the size and breadth of the ad inventory.
: enternetusers Blog Tips
March 31st, surf zone.10:46 pm
[…] […]
SnakeOil Labs » Alternatives to Google Adsense and why you need them
May 7th, surf zone.12:09 am
[…] Of course, now that I was free of AdSense’s contextual restrictions (as explained by the superb Darren Rowse), I was able to open up my Chitika settings. Furthermore, I was able to re-evaluate my current advertising strategy. If I was too reliant on one advertising provider I could easily end up in the same situation again 3-6 months down the line. I had 3 providers (Chitika, Adsense and a MyReferrer account that was reliant upon purchase rather than clicks to generate revenue) and was down to two. I’ve decided that what I’m going to do is stick with Chitika for now, set up Adbrite and replace the MyReferrer block with Clicksor, although I might swap it with the Adbrite block further down the page if it doesn’t perform too well. […]
Zach Shine
May 26th, surf zone.3:56 pm
Chitika turned me down due to not enough traffic on my blog. Fortunately I found a similar service based on a much more fair and open market. DataFeedFile.com is a similar service with much more options and banner sizes to choose from. What I like about DataFeedFile.com is they allow you to choose what merchant to display products for. DataFeedFile.com seems to be a colaboration of hundreds of merchants from the affiliate industry. Check them out yourself, http://www.DataFeedFile.com.
Zach Zach
Greg
July 5th, surf zone.2:28 am
SnakeOil Labs and Zach,
Good info on the various affiliate networks you’ve used and found best practices on. I’m currently learning the ropes of AdSense but it’s good to know of these other options. I’m currently working on a reference website http://www.LocoLibrarian.com to provide popular links to various topics (news, blogs, podcasts, reference, etc.).
I’d be curious to get your thoughts on how frequently you swap your advertising positions amongst the different partners and if you see greater success with certain types of ad layouts? Chitika functionality is pretty good for drawing eyeballs.
Alexis Bellido
July 6th, surf zone.7:47 am
Good review Darren, thanks for sharing.
I’ve just signed up to Chitika and I’m waiting for approval. My site is not about gadgets but this has put me thinking about launching one.
Regards!
Acemi Blogcu » Blog Arşivleri » Yeni bir reklam türü: Mini Dükkan (eMiniMalls)
July 16th, surf zone.2:33 am
[…] Chitika eMiniMalls Review […]
LinkForever
July 22nd, surf zone.8:05 am
Someone wrote here “Chitika turned me down due to not enough traffic”. I wonder is there any guidelines what traffic would be enough. I also wonder if only English sites are approved… Must read more.
Контекстная реклама: какой сервис работает лучше - AdSense, YPN или Chitika? » Миша.Мчедлишвили
August 20th, surf zone.5:33 pm
[…] г) Mini-malls можно размещать рядом с рекламами AdSense, если они не поставлены в контекстный режим. Более подробная информация о Chitika MiniMalls и первые впечатления от этого сервиса от Даррена Рауза. […]
Karaoke Man
August 24th, surf zone.12:26 pm
Signed up with Chitika month ago. Still have no even 1 mail from them. Probably they do not like to sing karaoke that my website is related to.
Cell Phone Planner
December 7th, surf zone.1:53 pm
I have tried chitka and at first seemed impressed, but now went back to adsense on sites I dont sell any of my products. It’s good to know there is other options to generate income from a website without selling any products… what well they think of next? How to buy real estate with no money down?? oh…wait lol
Chitika eMiniMalls - JohnTP.com
January 5th, 2007 4:09 am
[…] From what I heard, they give good Cost per Click but low CTR but can perform very well for sites focused upon products. Check out Darren’s review on Chitika eMiniMalls and his Chitika eMiniMalls category for more info. […]
Making Money from Your Blog - Direct Methods
January 5th, 2007 8:56 pm
[…] Other CPC Advertising - There are a variety of other ad systems that pay on a per click basis which are not contextual in nature (which is important as systems like AdSense do not allow you to run contextual ads on the same page view as them). These systems include Chitika’s eMiniMalls (aff) which I reviewed here. […]
Raj
February 3rd, 2007 9:20 pm
I tried signing up for Chitika for my site www.explore-mobiles.com
They did not accept me as they said that they require a certain amount of traffic to the site before one can signup.
I have seen and know many sites which have a very low traffic but still have Chitka ad program.
Maybe, I will try again
Chitika eMiniMalls / Web Words / WizarDev
February 17th, 2007 12:34 am
[…] Chitika eMiniMalls Review (enternetusers) […]
papiliving
April 21st, 2007 3:05 pm
I’ve signed up with Chitika but they require more traffic. :(
Group Writing Project This Week! - Here’s the Prize
May 6th, 2007 9:04 pm
[…] for enternetusers 2. I believe in them and have no hesitation in recommending them (see my previous review of Chitika and tips on how to use them). 3. Readers have previously fed back that ‘cash’ was the […]
John M Weaver
May 8th, 2007 5:02 am
Is anyone else gaining a significant amount of revenue from Chikita? I have not heard much on which company to go with the most. Text Link Ads?
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