Written on October 14th, 2005 at 01:10 am by Darren Rowse
Chitika eMiniMalls Tips
A Guide to Getting increasing your income from Chitika’s eMiniMall Advertising program.
Since my initial Chitika eMinimalls review and revelation of earnings from Chitika’s eMiniMalls my inbox has been full of questions on how to use eMiniMalls effectively. As a result I thought I’d write a guide to using Chitika eMiniMalls to refer people to. I hope this is helpful. Feel free to add your own tips in comments below.
Chitika eMiniMall Sign up Process
Signing Up for Chitika eMiniMalls is pretty easy to do. Simply visit their sign up page and fill in your details. Keep in mind their terms and conditions of being a publisher which exclude certain types of sites. When you send in your application you will normally hear back from Chitika with a response within 24 hours (time seems to depend upon what time you apply and whether it is business hours in their part of the US.
Keep in mind that in signing up you are being bound to their terms and conditions that include non-disclosure of some of your earnings information (eg CTR, click values etc). Also note that at this point of their beta test they are only accepting sites written in English.
Lastly keep in mind that if your site’s readership is mainly from Asian countries that unfortunately due to a lack of Asian merchants and low conversions Chitika does not pay out for all Asian countries and the ‘auditing’ process could decrease your earnings considerably.
What sites are Chitika eMiniMalls Best on?
In my experience so far with Chitika (and from interacting with many others who are testing it) I’ve found that it seems to work best on sites that are focused upon products. Many gadget sites have signed up for eMiniMalls already but by no means are their ads limited to consumer electronics. I’ve seen relevant ads served up on a variety of sites including some focussing upon clothes, baby strollers, washing machines, jewellery and other fashion items. From what I can see - they seem to have a large supply of ads for most of the products you’ll find on sites like Amazon and Shopping.com (which is thousands of products).
Product related sites are not the only ones reporting good returns from eMiniMalls though - I know of a variety of personal and general topic blogs and sites that are reporting better than normal earnings with eMiniMalls in comparison to other ad networks that they use.
Using Chitika eMiniMalls With Adsense
Many of the questions I’ve received about eMiniMalls related to whether they can be used on the same page as Google Adsense ads. As I wrote in my review - this was initially of major concern a number of us when we first came across eMiniMalls. As a result, one of my colleagues wrote an email to Adsense for clarification. The response was that it was allowable from the perspective of Adsense to use Chitika eMiniMalls on the same page as Adsense in the following circumstances (I’m told by a YPN publisher that this is also true with YPN):
1. eMiniMalls must be made to be NON-contexual
2. eMiniMalls must have their ’search tab’ disabled IF you choose to use the Adsense Search option (update: I’ve since heard from a number of Chitika eMiniMall publishers who say that they’ve recieved confirmation from Adsense that they ARE ALLOWED to use the search tab in eMiniMalls).
This was great news as it added another revenue stream to the sites of many without compromising another important source of income like Adsense.
NB: Chitika has another ad system, called RealContext, that is NOT allowed to be used in conjunction with Adsense - don’t get them mixed up.
It is worth noting that different webmasters and bloggers have seen difference results from using Adsense and Chitika’s eMiniMalls on the one page. These results have included:
- Some bloggers have reported small decreases in their Adsense earnings. This is my experience - I’ve noticed a 5-10% decrease in my overall Adsense earnings since adding eMiniMalls. Of course this is considerably less than the overall increase in earnings that the eMiniMalls have brought me so I’m willing to take this hit knowing that overall I am in a considerably better financial position.
- A smaller number of bloggers have noticed increases in their Adsense earnings when they replaced one of multiple Adsense Ad units with a eMiniMall unit. This sounds crazy - bit it makes sense when you realise that sometimes less Adsense Ad units on a page can result in increase click values for some ads (thats another topic for another day)
- Some have found eMiniMalls to be so well suited to their site’s that they’ve removed Adsense altogether and are just running the Chitika ads (I wouldn’t recommend doing this straight away without testing things first).
How to Run Adsense and Chitika eMiniMalls on the same page
So how does one ‘make eMiniMalls non contextual’ and thereby able to be run on the same page as Adsense?
Default Code
Chitika have just made this extremely easy - in fact they’ve made it so easy you don’t have to do anything different at all because today they’ve just changed the default of their ads to be ‘non contextual’. So when you log in and click the ‘Get eMiniMalls Code’ link and design your ads they’ll supply you with the code that makes using eMiniMalls work with Adsense without you having to mess around with adding code.
The all important code in what they give you is:
ch_non_contextual = 1;
If you’ve previously inserted code into your site it might be worth checking its in it or else your ads will be contextual.
Targeting Keywords - Rotation
So the question many will now no doubt ask is ‘if the ads are non contexual - what determines what ads will now be served?’
Good question. If you look at the code that Chitika give you you’ll notice another new line of code that comes to you by default like this:
var ch_queries = new Array(”digital cameras”, “ipod mini”, “sony playstation”, “dell laptop”);
This is the line of code that tells Chitika what ads to serve your site. If you leave it as is it will rotate four types of ads through your pages - ads for ‘digital cameras’, ‘ipod minis’, ’sony playstations’ and ‘dell laptops’. The beauty of eMiniMalls is that while these ads might pay ok per click - they are not likely to be highly relevant ads to the topic of everyone’s site - so you’re able to change them. Simply remove the words between the “and” marks and insert relevant words to your site. If your site is about MP3 players try “MP3 Player”, “ipod mini”, “ipod photo”, “iriver” etc. You can insert as many keywords as you like. This will help to keep your site looking fresh and hopefully stop your regular readers becoming blind to your ads.
For example, on my cameras site, I have changed the list to be:
var ch_queries = new Array(’Canon Powershot S2 IS’, ‘Canon Digital Rebel XT’, ‘Canon Powershot A520′, ‘Canon PowerShot A510′, ‘PowerShot SD400 Digital Camera’);
You might also like to periodically change the ads you rotate to help with ad blindness. I know of a couple of sites who are changing the keywords that they target once per week to keep things fresh.
Targeting One Keyword
If you just want to target ONE keyword do so by:
1. deleting this bit of the code:
var ch_queries = new Array(’phrase1′, ‘phrase2′, ‘phrase3′);
var ch_selected = Math.floor((Math.random() * ch_queries.length));
ch_query = ch_queries[ch_selected];
2. replacing it with:
ch_query = ‘ipod mini’;
Targeting Titles as keywords:
One of the things that I’ve done on many of my sites is pick keywords that are pretty specific. ie instead of just adding “digital camera” you can add “canon eos 20d” and get ads for a specific digital camera. This is particularly useful on a page about a specific digital camera as it will increase your click through rate quite a bit.
One way of targeting specific words is to target the titles of your pages (if you use titles that include the keywords of your pages that is). How you do this will of course depend upon the system that you use to make your site or blog - but if you’re using Movable Type or WordPress you’ll find that both of these systems have title tags that will trigger the title for a particular post.
For example on a MT blog they line of code targeting keywords would look like:
ch_query = ‘<$MTEntryTitle$>‘;
In WordPress to target the title you’d use this…
ch_query = ‘<?php the_title(); ?>’;
If you use another blog platform please feel free to let us know what the code would be in comments below.
Keep in mind that this will only be effective if you use titles on your site that are pretty specific to products. If you don’t you might want to consider specifying some keywords as you might end up with empty ads or very irrelevant ones.
Other Chitika eMiniMall Code to keep in mind
Disable Search Tab - There are a variety of other pieces of code that you can include in your eMiniMalls code to change the functionality of your ads. These include:
If you want to disable the search tab (and remember if you use the Adsense search function you need to) - simple add the following line of code to the middle of the code that Chitika give you:
ch_nosearch = 1;
Make ‘Best Deals’ Tab the default - Some site owners prefer to have the ‘Best Deals’ tab showing first to readers rather than the default one. To do this simple add the following code:
ch_default_tab = ‘Best Deals’;
Rotate Random Ads - I’m not sure why anyone would use this one but if you want completely random ads use the following code. Before you do remember that this will mean you get ads that have no relevancy to your site’s content which is likely to decrease your click through rate and earnings significantly.
ch_non_contextual = 1;
ch_query = “”;
Change Fonts - Cosa in comments below suggests that you can change the font of ads like this:
ch_font_text = “Arial”;
ch_font_text = “Arial Narrow,Verdana”;
Positioning Your Chitika eMiniMalls
One of the most powerful ways to increase your Chitika eMiniMall earnings is to think carefully about where you will position them. A principle of any effective advertising is to make sure the ads are seen by potential viewers. Unfortunately many site owners ignore this basic principle and place ads in positions that go unseen. Here are some good basic tips on Ad Positioning that you might want to consider. They are applicable not only to Chitika’s eMiniMalls but to other systems like Adsense:
Above the Fold - A good general rule to keep in mind is that ads that appear above the fold (or in the top half of your page where readers will see it as soon as a web page loads) perform better than ads that appear below the fold. Studies show us that many web users don’t scroll when they hit a new page - so if the ad is unsighted immediately you decrease it’s chance of being seen and therefor clicked.
In or Near Content - I find that the most effective position for most ads is actually inside or very close to the main content of your page. If the middle section of your page is where an article or posts is - the best spot (in terms of conversion ) to put an advertisement is in the middle section. Of course this may compromise your design or clutter your site - depending up the goals of your site you may not wish to do this - however in general the closer you have the eMiniMalls to where your readers eyes will be (content) the more chance they have of seeing and responding to them. A great way to get eMiniMalls inside posts is to use one of the plugins that are appearing for blog platforms (see section below).
Left Hand Side - Studies show us that on most sites that the top left corder is HOT. It is where readers eyes will naturally wander to when they arrive at your page and as a result ads tend to do well there.
End of Articles - Many bloggers find that the position at the end of a post and above comments is a great conversion place for ads. This is because at the end of a post readers are looking to click something and move onto another page that might interest them. If you have a relevant ad there you increase the chances of a click through.
Multiple Ads - One of the great things about eMiniMalls is that there are no restrictions on how many ad units you can place on a site. I would strongly advise that you do not place too many on a page - but that you consider at least two and maybe even three depending upon the design and length of your pages.
One strategy that I’m seeing many site owners take up is to place three ads per page in the following way:
Ad 1 - this is a 468 x 60 pixel ad unit that appears at the top of articles (either just above or just below the article title). This ad would be targeted upon the title as it’s keyword
Ad 2 - this ad is often a 468 x 180 pixel ad unit that appears at the bottom of an article - just above comments. Depending upon the length of your average article - this post could also be targeting the post’s title - or if you want more variety it could target and rotate some more generic product keywords that your site is about.
Ad 3 - this ad is often one of the narrow and often small ads (maybe a 160 x 160 or a 120 x 600 depending upon available space) and appears in a side bar. These ads are usually targeting and rotating keywords that are relevant to the overall site’s theme.
For more on Ad positioning you might like to read a short series of posts that I’ve previously written on the topic of Adsense Ad Positioning that mentions some of these principles.
Designing your eMiniMalls
In a similar way to how positioning your ads can impact their performance - I’ve found that the design of ads can have a major impact upon the rate that people click on them and would advise considering blending your ads into the design of your site. I’ve found by using other ad systems that ads that blend tend to do better than ads that stand out.
Chitika does not give you as many options as Adsense in this regard yet (the main difference is an inability to change the background colour of your ads - I’m told that this will be changed shortly and more adaptable background design will be an added feature soon) - but there are three ways that they give you to adapt the look of your ads.
- Borders - if you have a site with a white background I would highly recommend that you make the borders of your ads white also. This gets rid of a visual barrier between your ads and your content. This is widely accepted as one of the most powerful strategies for Adsense optimisation and I suspect it works well with eMiniMalls also.
- Title - the title of an eMiniMall ad is also a live link and therefore I would recommend that you choose a color that is the same as that of the majority of the links on your site. In this way you blend your ad into your page and make it clear that it is indeed a link.
- Text - this is the color of the description of the products in the ad. Once again I’d recommend choosing a color that is similar to other text on your site. Some Adsense ‘experts’ also recommend making text in ads a slightly lighter color than the text on the rest of your site so as to allow the ‘title’ to stand out more. It’s worth experimenting with this and seeing how it looks on your site.
Tracking your Chitika eMinimall Results
As with all potential income streams on your site it is very important that you track your result. This enables you to see what is working and not working and make changes accordingly.
Unfortunately Chitika are yet to roll out channels on eMiniMalls. I’m told that they are not far away and I personally am really looking forward to it as they will enable us to track how an individual ad unit is going. This will give you an idea of what ad positioning and design works best as well as giving you an idea of what keywords pay best. You will be able to name each channel whatever you choose.
The channel system is already running (its just their reports that are yet to go live) and I’d recommend adding the channel code to your ads now so that when their reporting system goes live you’ll already have some data to analyse. All you have to do is to add the following line of code to your ad unit code on your site. The ‘xxx’ is where you put a name of your channel. ie I might call a channel on this blog ‘enternetusers left side bar’ to help me track how an ad on left sidebar might work.
ch_sid = ‘xxxx’;
Choosing keywords to target
One of the key elements to effective use of Chitika eMiniMalls is getting ads showing on your site that have a high relevancy to your content. If you’re using Adsense you will of course not be using contextual ads so this becomes a challenge. One way of doing this is to use your titles to trigger keywords - however if you’re running multiple ads on a site you won’t want them all to do this as you’ll end up with multiple versions of the same ad. As a result some of your ad units will need to have keywords inserted into them (as outlined above). How do you decide what keywords to target in order to get a good supply of ads but also higher paying ones.
The simplest way to do this is to do some research in some of the advertisers using the minimalls system. For example Amazon.com and Shopping.com have ads that show up in eMiniMalls. I’ve found that most times if I do a search for a product in those systems and find a corresponding product that if I plug in the name of that product as it appears on their sites that it will come up in the minimalls on my blogs.
I’ve also heard a number of bloggers say that if you search the ‘best selling buys’ in the different categories of these online stores that you will find higher paying ads. I’m not sure if this is the case - but there is some sense in this. In any case with the coming of channels we’ll soon know what type of keywords trigger what level of click values.
For example, on my digital cameras site, I visit the digital cameras section of shopping.com, and put this query into the list: “Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-H1 Digital Camera”
PlugIns and Tools for Chitika eMiniMalls
A number of eMiniMall users have developed tools that can be used by chitika publishers that might be helpful. These include (I have not tested these extensively so do not endorse them specifically but share them because they may be useful to you):
WordPress Plugin - This plug in allows you to add eMiniMalls to your posts in Word Press
WordPress Plugin - This plug in uses the custom fields features of WP to insert eMiniMalls
WordPress Plug in - This is like the first one but by another developer
Chitika eMiniMalls on Movable Type - MT plugins that can help MT users.
If you know of other eMiniMall plugins and tools please let us know in comments below.
Add your Chitika eMiniMalls Tips
This post is a work in progress and is from my own experience of using eMiniMalls. Every day that I use them I learn something new so will add to this page over time and will add some of the more helpful tips that readers leave in comments below - so share your knowledge so we can all improve our eMiniMall earnings.
Disclaimer: the links to Chitika eMiniMalls 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.
103 Responses to “Chitika eMiniMalls Tips”
Jason
October 14th, 2005 2:12 am
I have a list of tips at BlogIntro.com. Shows how to change the default tab shown and a few others things.
ch_default_tab = ‘Best Deals’;
Darren Rowse
October 14th, 2005 2:17 am
Good tip Jason - had it included in the ‘Other Code to keep in mind’ section.
Do you find using this code helps? I’ve tried it on one of my blogs but until the channels come out don’t know if it helps or hinders.
Nick
October 14th, 2005 2:58 am
In WordPress to target the title you’d use this…
ch_query = ‘<?php the_title(); ?>’;
Chi An
October 14th, 2005 3:26 am
I change the code
ch_default_tab = ‘Best Deals’;
to
ch_default_tab = “Deals”;
it works
cosa
October 14th, 2005 3:49 am
another addition, you can change the font style for the ad text and title with ch_font_text and ch_font_title. For example:
ch_font_text = “Arial”;
ch_font_text = “Arial Narrow,Verdana”;
Chi An
October 14th, 2005 4:03 am
Basically I don’t optimize much on Chitika eMinimall. I just simply put it at sidebar. Not even above the fold. Yet, it still generate quite good revenue, outperforms my adsense sometimes.
Jason
October 14th, 2005 4:11 am
Darren- We dont really make anything off our ads to be able to tell if it makes a difference = )
Khurrum
October 14th, 2005 4:32 am
I have placed an eminimalls ad on my forum (under first post) and I have noticed it getting more clicks than the google ads I replaced. It may be because it is something different for the regular visitors. I will keep monitoring it over the next few weeks to decide what is more helpful.
thanks for the post :D
GpsNews
October 14th, 2005 5:19 am
On Jackens’ Blog there is another tip for adding target ads from specific Keywords of a post in Wordpress
Great !
Bruce
October 14th, 2005 6:16 am
Darren, you’re way too nice. A lot of opportunists out there would’ve made this into an ebook and sold it for $99.97 apiece.
HART
October 14th, 2005 7:05 am
ch_query = ‘’; ??
Nick - is that allowed? it looks close to being borderline on contextual.. but geez would help on one of my sites.
HART
October 14th, 2005 7:05 am
oh - i don’t know how to display code in comments - refer to comment #3
feedbuzzard
October 14th, 2005 7:08 am
For blogspot blogs, if you want to set the query to your post title, use:
ch_query = “”;
feedbuzzard
October 14th, 2005 7:10 am
Oops
that should read:
ch_query = “”;
without the spaces
brian
October 14th, 2005 7:31 am
I’d just want to thank you for making me notice eminimalls, my adsense revenue is pretty much the same as before, but eminimalls now outperform adsense, so I’ve more than doubled my earnings.
One tip that I’d like to share is that I use adsfreestats.com to see what eminimall ads are clicked, that way I can find related products and this has improved my CTR greatly. I have no affiliation with that statistics service and there are proberly others and better ones out there, but it really helped me.
Julieanne
October 14th, 2005 7:52 am
Thanks for all this information on Chitika mini mall adverts Darren. Chitika were very fast in their response when I applied for them - about 1 hour.
Does anyone know if Chitika approve of putting their ads on different websites?
I applied to put the adverts on one website, and would like to put them on another as well. Both websites have the same Domain name - just different sub domains. When I applied, I told them about only one sub Domain.
i.e. http://subdomain_one.domain_name.com
http://subdomain_two.domain_name.com
Thanks,
Julieanne
Darren Rowse
October 14th, 2005 8:25 am
you should be fine to put them on multiple websites Julieanne - I have them on most of mine on the one account.
Thanks for all the tips everyone.
Chris @ Deliberate Chaos
October 14th, 2005 8:31 am
I logged into Chitika this morning to make a new mini-mall and noticed that the default setting for the ads is now non-contextual. You can email Chitika to change that setting, if desired.
Darren Rowse
October 14th, 2005 8:33 am
Oh and Bruce - to be honest I was pretty close to doing this as an e-book. I’m not sure it’s worth $97.99 - but I know it is worth something.
But in the end I decided that the enternetusers community has given me a lot and that this was a way of giving something back. Hopefully it’s true what they say about ‘what goes around comes around’.
Jon
October 14th, 2005 8:59 am
I’m not sure, but more expensive items gives more $. A boring book versus a Camera?
AdMoolah News and Views » Chitika eMiniMall Buzz
October 14th, 2005 9:43 am
[…] Bloggers have been buzzing about Chitika eMiniMalls lately. Today Darren at enternetusers posted some Chitika eMiniMalls Tips and Jennifer at JenSense has posted the Inside scoop on making Chitika eMiniMalls AdSense & YPN compliant. […]
Chitika eMiniMalls Review: Blog Tips at enternetusers
October 14th, 2005 9:56 am
[…] If you read this review of Chitika eMiniMalls and sign up - you might also be interested in my Chitika eMiniMall Tips Page. […]
Chitika eMiniMalls - How Much Money Do they Earn Me?: Blog Tips at enternetusers
October 14th, 2005 9:58 am
[…] (update: the third most asked question is ‘how do I increase my earnings?’ If you’re asking this you might also like to check out Chitika eMiniMall Tips for increasing earnings) […]
Nuthatch
October 14th, 2005 11:33 am
I put Chitika eMini malls in my sidebar on my Typepad blog, disabled the search box, and made them non-contextual, using keywords and products targeted to my audience. However, I can’t get Google Adsense to show up in the same sidebar. Adsense and Chitika are each their own “typelists.” If I put one in the right toolbar and one in the left, they each appear. But once they are in the same sidebar — whether near each other or not — only Chitika shows. I’ve also tried putting them as different items in the same “typelist”, and that doesn’t work either. My Typepad account level doesn’t permit tinkering any further with the stylesheets, etc. Chitika support isn’t sure why this is happening. Anybody have any ideas?
Jennifer
October 14th, 2005 1:46 pm
I love the configurability of the emalls. Calling my own keywords is a treat.
Meanwhile, I tried to find adsfreestats.com but no luck. Is that the right URL??
Ahmad Zaki
October 14th, 2005 3:03 pm
Hey,
Just wanted to share something. Here’s how the title targeting keyword code would look like for Blogger users:
ch_query = ‘‘;
Ahmad Zaki
October 14th, 2005 3:05 pm
Oops, sorry…
ch_query = ”;
ignore the space…
MySchizoBuddy
October 14th, 2005 7:22 pm
What about putting it right below a media player, cause users will use the play pause button and right below it will be the ad. I have a popp window with a movie and an ad below it. users don’t scroll down Its all visible. However if u feel I still need to put it above my content let me know.
MySchizoBuddy
October 14th, 2005 7:31 pm
none of these work for me
ch_default_tab = ‘Best Deals’;
ch_default_tab = “Deals”;
If i use them my ads disappear totally
MySchizoBuddy
October 14th, 2005 7:47 pm
Oh got it working.
thanks.
One more question if u search for Samsung SCH-N330 and it returns a holster for the phone rather than the phone itself. Anyway I can get it to display the phone and not the accesories
Matt
October 14th, 2005 9:00 pm
I had that problem too, schizo… how did you get it working?
Matt
October 14th, 2005 9:08 pm
Okay, I figured it out.
If anyone else has that problem, I used:
ch_default_tab = ‘Deals’;
Single quotations on the Deals instead of double. And the Best Deals one doesn’t work at all for me (disappears completely as our schizo friend mentioned).
Great tips, Darren. Thanks again for the help! On a side note, I’ll say that I am concerned that you thought about doing an e-book and selling this idea. enternetusers has been a tremendous help to so many people and it would be a tragedy if you suddenly went completely commercial on us and started selling your tips instead of sharing in this excellent community that has grown up around enternetusers. One of the reasons that I think you have credibility and respect is that you do openly share some of how you are successfully navigating the blogging waters. Obviously, some people probably would purchase many of the tips that you’ve got here on enternetusers either as a subscription service or as ebooks. I think I’d lose some of my respect for you, though. Which probably doesnt’ mean much, but there it is.
Anyway, still love enternetusers and appreciate everything you’ve explained that has helped me so much!
MySchizoBuddy
October 14th, 2005 9:12 pm
for Best Deals u need double quotes
ch_default_tab = “Best Deals”;
this will work
Mark Goldstein
October 14th, 2005 9:54 pm
I’ve noticed that targeting the title sometimes doesn’t work quite as expected.
For example, on this page:
http://www.photographyblog.com/index.php/weblog/comments/canon_powershot_a620_review_at_cnet/
Ads for the Canon Rebel XT are shown, instead of the Powershot A620.
I *know* that Chitika will display more relevant ads if I enter the keyword, so why doesn’t it target the title properly (which is “Canon PowerShot A620 Review at CNET”)?
Ariane
October 14th, 2005 9:55 pm
Further tips and hacking : http://gotgoodlist.com/2005/10/09/chitika-tips-tricks-and-hacking-guide/
Elle
October 14th, 2005 11:03 pm
Hi Darren, thanks for the comprehensive tutorial.
I did notice on another forum that some adsense users had had confirmation from Google that there was no need to disable the search tab. Bascially it isn’t an additional web search tool, but a tool to search on specific products.
So it looks like we have the option to include the
ch_nosearch = 1;
or not.
Darren Rowse
October 14th, 2005 11:17 pm
Matt - yep I hear you - but I guess one does sometimes wonder about the amount of time that they are throwing into articles like these and what the pay off is.
of course I’m not just writing enternetusers for the money (I’d be a fool if I was) - but at times when the mood hits I do wonder if it is really worth the three or four hours that such a post takes when i could be doing things with a more direct pay off.
In the end this ended up being a freebie - but there will be times where I think it’s appropriate to make a little money from the knowledge I have if I feel I can present something unique and helpful for people and make it worth my time also.
Kevin Carr Senate
October 15th, 2005 1:11 am
Darren,
IMHO you’d be crazy if you didn’t at least *think* about how you could make some money off of your knowledge…haha, this is a blog about making money isn’t it? Admitting that you thought about it actually makes me respect you more, not less.
Not sure why so many people think that everything in the world should be free, but I for one don’t see any reason you shouldn’t at least consider charging a small fee for some of your perhaps deepest money-making secrets.
On the other hand, I couldn’t possibly afford to get in on the Six Figure Blogging program, and I’m a little sorry about that, but that doesn’t mean I begrudge you making some well-deserved money : )
Keep up the good work, mate!
Matt
October 15th, 2005 2:26 am
I guess, maybe my point is more that I like enternetusers like it is. As long as you’re not going to put up a post like “Hey, I’ve got a great tip on how to use the minimalls effectively… give me $10 and I’ll share it with you”, I don’t begrudge you making money from your knowledge. enternetusers is such a cool community (even though you provide the guidance, I’ve learned a lot from the comments of others as well). My general feeling has been that you probably provide more indepth knowledge in your six figure blogging program and I respect that. I don’t think anyone expects a free ride. But the tips and hints and guidance here at enternetusers, I think is incredibly helpful to those just getting off the ground.
It’s kind of like a crack dealer handing out freebies to get people hooked. enternetusers and it’s information can get you started. Six Figure Blogging will show you the promised land. There’s probably good synergy there. I would just hate to see enternetusers become so commercial that it seems like you’re just trying to soak every penny and nickel out of your readers.
Right now, enternetusers feels more communal. It would lose that if everything was about paying Darren for what he knows. It might make you more money, I don’t know. It might even make it worth your time. But I am hopeful that you feel like giving back and helping others is worthwhile in its own right. That was one of the things that attracted me to enternetusers upon reading it the first time. It’s what has kept me coming back and helped me to realize that there might be something to blogging for dollars. If I had had to pay for every tip that you’ve given over the last few months, I don’t think I would still be plugging away at it.
Thanks to you, last month was my first two figure month. This month is trending towards a 40 or 50% increase over that month (despite some weird issues I’m having with AdSense targeting). Traffic is increasing slowly, but steadily. Things are looking up. WIthout enternetusers, more or less as it is…..at the risk of repeating myself, I would not even know what to be looking at to tell that things are looking up, or that my traffic is increasing, or where it’s coming from or going to, or how to have put useful ads on my site, or anything like that.
So…. ummm… yeah. This is a long post. Sorry about that, Darren and everyone else. Just thought I’d share why enternetusers is important and why I (and I suspect many many others) would like it to stay just as it is (more or less) and how much we appreciate the time that you do put into this and into helping all of us understand what you have learned. enternetusers ROCKS!
LcF
October 15th, 2005 4:26 am
I just made a new blog category “Chitika tips” to keep all my chitika tips and tricks.
Quo Vadis » Chitika Tips #2
October 15th, 2005 5:14 am
[…] If you want to find out more about Chitika, I really do suggest reading Darren Rowse’s Chitika eMiniMalls Tips. […]
Darren Rowse
October 15th, 2005 9:55 am
Thanks Matt :-)
Alfred
October 16th, 2005 1:59 am
Hey Darren, Thanks for sharing all the useful tips. I just started my Chitika EminiMall journey. It helps me a lot.
Roseanne
October 16th, 2005 3:03 am
I too have seen publishers getting the OK from Adsense to use the “search” tab in eMiniMall ads. I am debating whether this will be a positive addition or not — would you opt to use the Search tab in light of this?
Have also read on LiewCF blog that clicking on certain “white” or “text” portions on some of the eMiniMall blocks would invalidate the click and return a non-paying result for the Publisher. He goes on to say the 468×60, 468×180 and Leaderboard blocks are the safest to use, as all areas of these 3 formats are OK?
I have just written to Chitika asking for a confirmation on the invalid click issue, and wonder if you knew anything about this. It certainly would be a huge “thorn” in an otherwise excellent product, particularly for a smaller publisher like me who only has the one Blog where every click-through counts!
Somehow, I cannot see Chitika being this short sighted — as issues like this will certainly instil a sense of mistrust (on my part anyhow).
Cheers
Roseanne
Content Attack! »
October 17th, 2005 7:53 am
[…] There is also a Wordpress plug-in available that integrates eMiniMalls right into your blog post. PermalinkTrackBack […]
Chitika eMiniMalls Affiliate Program Launches: Blog Tips at enternetusers
October 18th, 2005 8:39 am
[…] Thanks to all of the readers here who have signed up via my affiliate links. I know many of you have gone out of your way to do so as a way of showing your support to enternetusers.net. I hope that you find them to be as helpful a tool as I have - don’t forget to check out the eMiniMall Tips post I wrote last week which I’m hearing has helped a few Chitika publishers double their income. […]
Web Stimulation | Guide To Using Chitika eMiniMalls
October 19th, 2005 1:17 am
[…] Guide to increasing your income from Chitika’s eMiniMall Advertising program. […]
Marcus
October 19th, 2005 9:57 pm
One thing I did was went to the sites that Chitika uses (amazon.com, shop.com and in my case gearguys.com) and copied the titles of search results directly.
I put the ads above and below the forum threads in my site which were previously making only about 1 dollar a day using Adsense. With the new Chitika ads they made about the same, however using the specific keywords from search results has brought their daily yield to over $15. A 1500% increase isn’t bad :)
Joshua Waller
October 20th, 2005 4:02 am
The code for getting the title from a blog (www.blogger.com) is:
ch_query = ”;
Only problem is that blogger doesn’t seem to give you much control over your site and page titles, and every page will always have the name of your blog in the title…
Thanks for the information, Josh
Joshua Waller
October 20th, 2005 4:04 am
oops code should be:
ch_query = '';Joshua Waller
October 20th, 2005 4:06 am
' L D BlogPageTitle D R 'where L is left bracket, R is right bracket and D is dollar
ch_query = ' ' ;feedbuzzard
October 26th, 2005 10:41 am
For those using Chitika eMinimalls on Blogger blogs, I have put up a how-to on my feedbuzzard blog
http://www.feedbuzzard.com/blog/2005/10/24/chitika-blogger-how-to/
Sandra
October 26th, 2005 2:32 pm
Thanks for these tips. I’ve been using the mini-malls for a week and it is reporting zero clicks from about 100 impressions per day. I hope it improves!
Darren Rowse
October 26th, 2005 2:40 pm
sorry to hear that Sandra - perhaps try putting them in the middle of your blog’s individual pages above comments.
It might also be a problem of topic - maybe food blogs don’t do as well…
hope it improves for you
Mark
October 27th, 2005 2:04 am
Sandra, I’ve had a look at your site. The thing is Chitika don’t have a great deal of high priced products in your niche. Given your current targeting (brandy chocolate ad on a chocolate recipe page) I believe you’d see at least a 3-4% CTR if you integrated the ad into the main body rather than the right column.
Ryan
October 27th, 2005 6:09 am
Question about their payment.
Currently they say they divide 60% of their revenue among their users based on how many clicks you send.
Well, it doesn’t take a math genious to realize that if N is number of users,
the limit as N approaches infinity of:
($$$$/N) * whatever formula they use
Eventually goes to 0.
Currently replacing adsense on just my main page (www.noslang.com) has brought in double what adsense used to for my entire site, but should I expect these numbers to significantly drop once chitika becomes more popular?
Darren Rowse
October 27th, 2005 7:47 am
The 60% share is already accounted for in your stats. ie if you see you’ve earned $10 so far - the only way it will decrease is during the auditing process (for me it went down by about 10%).
No idea if the figures would go down in time.
Ryan
October 28th, 2005 6:45 am
It would be really nice if they had a feature that let me know which ads out performed others on our site,Example, ipods was clicked 7 times, cell phones 3… so we knew what keywords to target. It’d be beneficial to us, them and their advertisers, as their adveritsers would get more clicks.
Elliot Lee’s Blog » Making Money from Blogs
October 28th, 2005 7:02 pm
[…] Also, tips for Chitika. […]
Joel S. Hollingsworth » enternetusers’s Hot Posts of the Week
October 28th, 2005 8:51 pm
[…] Chitika eMiniMalls Tips: Blog Tips at enternetusers […]
Mark
October 29th, 2005 3:45 am
Ryan, I wouldn’t worry too much about the 60% payout dropping. If anything, it will go up. Here’s my reasoning: This market is maturing rapidly and the erstwhile Adsense “monopoly” has been replaced by competition between Adsense, Adsonar, Chitika, YPN, Clicksor, Claxon and my grandmother. It’s becoming a market where competition will decide the pay-out. In that scenario they will all pay roughly the same percentage and I estimate that it will be between 60-70%.
Why 60-70%? Because that’s what the oldest, pretty settled down program is paying. Adsense has always paid circa 70% (but the dollar value of that tends to be lower than Chitika’s 60%).
Mark
October 29th, 2005 3:45 am
Ryan, I wouldn’t worry too much about the 60% payout dropping. If anything, it will go up. Here’s my reasoning: This market is maturing rapidly and the erstwhile Adsense “monopoly” has been replaced by competition between Adsense, Adsonar, Chitika, YPN, Clicksor, Claxon and my grandmother. It’s becoming a market where competition will decide the pay-out. It may pan out that they all pay roughly the same percentage and I estimate that it will be between 60-70%.
Why 60-70%? Because that’s what the oldest, pretty settled down program is paying. Adsense has always paid circa 70% (but the dollar value of that tends to be lower than Chitika’s 60%).
swen
October 29th, 2005 9:58 pm
I don’t know if the guys behind chitika did some changes at the code, but inserting ch_default_tab = ‘Best Deals’; in order to make the “deals” tab the default tab didn’t work for me.
I had to change it to:
ch_default_tab = “Deals”;
Swen
» Bloggers: Use Chitika! by Blueprint for Financial Prosperity
October 31st, 2005 3:41 am
[…] I like these ads because they contain a lot more information about the product than typical Google Adsense advertisements. It’s a well known fact that images next to a Google Ad drives a reader’s eyeballs to them so the fact that the Chitika ads have images in them helps improve “real” impressions. Darren has a lot of tips on how to make the most out of your Chitika ads and the Chitika Blog also has a few pearls of wisdom. […]
Sloane Fleming
November 1st, 2005 5:28 am
All of your advice is always greatly appreciated - I am new to this and need as much help as I can get and truly thank you for giving this information for free - I am doing the same with “living well for less” ideas on my site to keep quality content while providing a shopping resource. Your site is really a great example of what my ulitimate goal is - great content, and if I make a little money at the same time I will be thrilled! Thanks again for your help and advice to us novices.
Joseph (Web Stimulation)
November 1st, 2005 7:36 pm
Chitika have just released 10 different banners that you can use to help you promote eMiniMalls.
Cigar Jack
November 2nd, 2005 3:42 am
Thanks for tips and information on Chitika. I’ve been looking for something I could use on my site since Google Adsense won’t accept me because I talk about cigars. Which irks me because they will take my money for AdWords when I was using them to drive traffic to my site.
Bob
November 3rd, 2005 12:51 pm
Darren I enjoy reading your blog and have learned a lot. I have signed up for Chitika eMiniMalls.
The Buzz on Chitika eMiniMalls : Internet Home Business :: HomeOfficeVoice
November 4th, 2005 12:02 am
[…] Additional Resources: - Chitika’s eMiniMalls FAQ - enternetusers’s Chitika eMiniMalls Tips - BlogIntro.com’s Five Chitika Tricks - eMiniMalls Plugin for WorldPress - Free Chitika eMiniMalls Tool - JenSense on eMiniMalls - Threadwatch.org on eMiniMalls - ReveNews reviews eMiniMalls […]
Dhira
November 4th, 2005 8:41 am
Hi Darren.
Thanks for the useful tips.
Question:
How soon are the channel reports coming?
You said that we can set it up with the code using
“ch_sid = ‘xxxx’;”
Where EXACTLY does that go? On any line within the code?
Thanks,
Darren Rowse
November 4th, 2005 12:58 pm
You can pretty much make it any line within the code as far as i know.
And as far as when they’ll be released - I’m hearing whispers that they are close - but what that means I’m yet to find out.
john
November 9th, 2005 3:38 pm
Thanks for the tip - I signed up using your link so you should get a small kick back. Just a drop in the pond for the kind of money you bring in - very impressive work.
Swanie
November 9th, 2005 5:32 pm
Hi Darren,
Thanks a lot for your tips. They have been very helpful for me. But since some of them (may be because typos) do not work (like ch_default_tab = “Deals”;), I tested all of them one by one and searched for other tips as well. I combined all of them and posted them in my blog. I hope it’s useful for all the fellow bloggers.
Cheers,
Swanie
Ryan
November 16th, 2005 2:22 am
The thing I don’t like, is their ads are always showing their highest priced product for each keyword.
Example, my site about poker shows an $800 set of poker chairs.
My Free text message site shows a $400 cell phone.
Call me crazy, but I doubt I’m going to get high click through rates with those.
They need some actual “deals” or lower priced products.
I’ve since abandoned the program and gone back to adsense.
Serge
November 16th, 2005 2:25 am
In the article you say ‘not to put too many chitika ads on one page. I run 6 ads on one page (just started), is that ok? I run 5 on the content page - one under each of 5 displayed posts, and I run 1 on the right navigation side as a ‘Book Spotlight’, that is book (subject relative) specific. Please advise if that’s too much. In advance, thank you.
http://sergykalstudios.com
Darren Rowse
November 16th, 2005 8:08 am
Ryan - but you can target whatever product you like - I find that if I put in the name of the product I want to target that I can control what shows including what type of priced product it is.
Serge - you are technically allowed as many ads as you want - Chitika recommends no more than 3 but leave it up to you to decide.
I don’t go above 3 on most of my pages but do have a few pages where it is worthwhile me having more because they are long pages. I’d be careful about over doing it though
Chitika eMiniMalls - How to Increase CTR: Blog Tips at enternetusers
November 17th, 2005 11:11 pm
[…] Chitika eMiniMalls Review Chitika eMiniMalls Tips […]
Kunal
November 18th, 2005 2:07 am
Hi Darren,
Can you please tell me if my placing of ads on the site are done properly. I am trying to implement all your tips slowly and steadily.
Entrepreneurship, blogging, and college - College-Startup.com
November 19th, 2005 8:20 am
[…] enternetusers.net Chitika eMiniMalls Tips - Darren makes big money with his blog and knows what he’s talking about. […]
Jonathon White
November 23rd, 2005 9:56 am
Thanks for the information. You have given a good insight on how to earn from eMiniMalls well.
I have not added the code to my site as of yet, but am in the process.
I hope all goes well!
Joe
November 25th, 2005 3:19 am
For Nuthatch…
I had the same problem on Blogger.
I put after the first ad and they both showed up in my sidebar as planned
Hope this works in your program. Don’t know.
Good Luck,
Joe
Joe
November 25th, 2005 3:25 am
That was whatever code you need for break break…
It didn’t show as the code I typed in, Sorry
Vinay
November 28th, 2005 12:00 am
How can I place contextual ads of chitika eminimalls. I am not able to get the code. By default, it shows the non-contextual ads.
LotionBarBunny
December 2nd, 2005 1:03 am
Darren, I was referred to your wonderful website by some moms at IBM. I am really impressed! I am bookinmarking your site to help me to better understand and market my blog.
Thank you!!!
Shannon
LotionBarBunny
December 2nd, 2005 1:05 am
Oops, inputted my blog address wrong. ;)
Chitika Audit Issues: Blog Tips at enternetusers
December 2nd, 2005 8:32 am
[…] Chitika eMiniMalls Review Chitika eMiniMalls Tips […]
Vinay Chhabra
December 12th, 2005 3:43 pm
After reading this article, I signed up with chitika. I placed the ads of chitika on my website. Initially for the first few days it reported 1 or 2 clicks per day when I checked my reports. For the last 15 days it is showing ZERO clicks. To check whether it is really reporting properly, I deliberately clicked on one chitika ads. NO CLICKS WERE GENERATED IN MY REPORTS.
After that I asked my friend to click on a chitika ad from his system. STILL NO CLICKS WERE SHOWN IN MY REPORTS.
I FEEL THEY ARE NOT REPORTING CLICKS PROPERLY AND IT IS NOT A GOOD SYSTEM.
Darren Rowse
December 12th, 2005 4:14 pm
What part of the world are you in Vinay? They seem to have started filtering clicks and are not paying for clicks from some countries (ie Asia, Israel etc)
If in doubt send them an email and let them know your concern. I’ve found they respond well to questions.
xblog
December 12th, 2005 9:09 pm
Great tips and very useful for my site. Really helps a lot.
Thx, Gambatte ku teh sai
Sagar
December 15th, 2005 6:00 pm
great info on placing ads……..
thanx
Glenn Dixon
December 17th, 2005 5:59 am
Darren,
I *finally* got a response from Chitika and am setting up my ads now. I signed up through your link so check for your 10% of my revenue shortly. I estimate this will add up to about $0.42 per month right now. *heh*
Thanks for this article!
Chitika-News.de » Blog Archiv » Mehr Geld verdienen als mit Adsense
December 23rd, 2005 7:39 am
[…] Weitere interessante Chitika-Artikel beim enternetusers: Chitika eMiniMalls Review Chitika eMiniMall Tips […]
Paul
December 25th, 2005 12:13 pm
I believe Chikita is not yet up and running as a true competitor to Adsense, or anything else.
I’ve used product specific phrases to get (for example) various HP printer models to display on my ink cartridges site. And then the next time I look they are showing Flat LCD screen products!
Even more evidence is available on a gifts site where I have included a load of product names from shopping.com for jewlery rings etc; they show up and then days later I get fecking ipods! And they’re still there.
Chikita is a bunch of crap as far as I am concerned, if you need to target specific product items.
Forget their support, they don’t respond. (Not the web based stuff anyway).
I am sure there are folk making money, but I reckon you’ll need a fair amount of traffic and a broad products based site considering the inability to focus on e.g. printer models, as I have found.
I’ll leave them alone for a few months.
BillyBLOGirlardo » Blog Archive » Will It Be AdSense, Chitika, or Both?
December 31st, 2005 12:07 pm
[…] But I regress… I thought I was sold on Chitika, but after Darren’s eMiniMall Tips at enternetusers caught my attention last week, I see now that it might be possible to have my cake and eat it too. Of course, after receiving the confirmation email from Chitika just this afternoon, I came across the Adsense Tips article that Gina from LifeHacker just released. I’m sure there are lots of Adsense Success Stories out there designed to sway me (although I’ve heard plenty of them before already), but now I know better than just going with the biggest name out there. Wish me luck! […]
Chitika eMiniMalls - Geld verdienen mit der eigenen Website » Webdesignblog
January 8th, surf zone.11:48 am
[…] An dieser Stelle empfehle ich den Artikel von Darren Rowse: Chitika eMiniMalls Tips […]
xblog.x-sysonline.com » Chitika eMiniMall Tips and Tricks Guide #1 - How to use some of their features?
January 13th, surf zone.5:16 am
[…] Lastly, i would like to thanks to enternetusers as their information provided are very helpful. As for the DigitalPoint Forums, their forum’s member and admin are very helpful too as well. Some of the information that i posted here are refer from enternetusers and DigitalPoint Forums. […]
★ On.the.nite.like.this ★ » Blog Archive » Chitika Hacks
January 17th, surf zone.8:15 am
[…] Chitika eMiniMall Tips […]
stas bekman
May 12th, surf zone.9:51 am
This article is a great addition to my review of Chitika, I’ve added it to the related links section. Thanks Darren.
Morning Glory » (take||leave) it
June 22nd, surf zone.10:56 am
[…] From Chitika knowledge-base; Chitika cannot speak on Google’s behalf. However, some of our clients who have contacted Google have been informed that it is ok to use eMiniMalls with Google Adsense when used in non-contextual mode (1, 2). By default, the eMiniMalls code is set to be non-contextual. […]
Tiger
August 30th, surf zone.8:46 am
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Only do not judge strictly, please. Best regards. GOOD LUCK.
Chitika Blog » The Chitika eMiniMalls Blogging Toolkit (a.k.a. Batman’s Utility Belt)
September 18th, surf zone.11:38 pm
[…] Many thanks to my fellow rookies Daniel and Leo (who joined Chitika with me last week), Feedbuzzard and enternetusers.You guys are awesome! […]
iPod Downloads
October 1st, surf zone.11:44 pm
Ive tried all those versions to show up Best Deals as the initiall load up has no border around it until you mouseover! It looks bloomin awfull and despite me mythering them to fix they dont seem to have bothered.
Is it just me or is anyone else having this problem?
G
Chitika eMiniMalls - JohnTP.com
January 5th, 2007 12:39 am
[…] « Exploit discovered in WordPress Template.php Posted on January 4th, 2007 Chitika eMiniMalls I applied for Chitika 3 days back and got approved yesterday. As I was new to it, I did notmuch idea on how to optimize it for better CTR. Thankfully Darren has shared good Chitika eMiniMalls Tips onenternetusers.net […]
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