Digital Inspiration has the scoop on Chitika moving back into normal contextual text ads. These are ads that they originally launched Chitika with before developing eMiniMalls but which they put on hold (and many thought scrapped) when eMiniMalls took off. Looks like they are back (or at least it looks like they are beta testing them with some publishers).
Keep in mind before signing up for them (and I don’t think there is a way to publicly do it yet) that they are contextual ads and they look very similar to AdSense and YPN ads. As a result you’ll not be able to use them on the same page as AdSense or YPN ads (unlike eMiniMalls which are non contextual and have a unique look). But if for one reason or another YPN or AdSense don’t put your buttons you might want to give them a go when they go live again. You might also want to try them as alternate ads to the other programs or even rotate them into the mix of ads showing on your blog (as some publishers are doing with YPN and AdSense – ie showing different ad programs every second or third impression).
In the interest of full disclosure, what exactly is your relationship to Chitika?
What are the terms of chitika for ads?
After my experience with e-malls. (Tinkered with a lot and got nothing out of it.) I’ll just stick with Google. Its not much, but at least I get some money off it.
Paul – I’m a publisher who runs their ads like any other publisher.
brem – no idea on the terms of these particular ads. The link I have given above is the first I heard of them relaunching text ads and I can’t find anything about it on their site. Must be testing it with a small group of publishers or something.
Adam – sorry to hear that. seems eMiniMalls works well for some and not so well for others. I guess like all ad systems its about giving things a go and seeing what does and doesn’t work and then going hard with what does.
Shouldnt they be working on fixing and releasing November payment instead? :(
Leon, the same thought ran across my mind. It seems like every month it’s something new holding up payments or somehow decreasing our earnings. They should consider working on the very basics before trying to expand.
Considering their track record, I seriously doubt that anyone could make more money with their textual ads when compared to Google and Yahoo.
Chitika has ripped off hundreds of bloggers and you’ve been helping them.
Paul – I’m not about to get into a full blown debate on this but here’s a few things I’d say:
1. Publishers have had a vast range experiences with Chitika as I showed on my Poll on the topic which found that while many had not made much that some (similar proportions to the spread of Adsense publishers) had made good money.
2. ‘ripped off’ is a pretty strong term – here in Australia it verges on meaning ‘stealing’ or doing something illegal/underhanded. While some publisher do feel this strongly about Chitika I’m yet to see anyone with any evidence that Chitika has done anything illegal etc. I agree that they have made some serious mistakes in their starting up and beta testing but I would also say that in general they’ve been pretty good with communicating what they are doing and why.
3. ‘you’ve been helping them’ – I’ve said this for the record on a number of occassions. I have no affiliations with Chitika in any way outside of being a publisher with them. Chitika’s ads have performed very well for me on my blogs (they are ideally suited to them in terms of topic and design) and as a result I’ve talked about them from this perspective. I also make good money from Adsense and have spoken about them on many occassions in a positive way. This is a blog about making money from blogs – I make money from Chitika and share my experiences.
If you read the posts I’ve written about them you’ll find numerous instances of me saying to be careful, recommending what type of blogs it works best on, sharing the things I think they could improve, announcing the problems that they are having. I’ve never said it’s ‘the answer’ to every blog. I’ve given many tips on how to improve it’s performance but always tried to keep my positive reviews of them clearly about my blogs and suggest that people try it for themselves.
If you can find a place where I’ve helped Chitika rip someone off I’d like to see that.
Chitika publishers are all over 18 as far as I know – they are adults and should take a little of their own responsibility for their actions and decisions.
I’m sorry if you’re disappointed with Chitika Paul, I’m sorry if I was the one that introduced you to them – but I’ve tried to be true to my experience of them in what I’ve said and don’t think I can be held responsible for them not living up to any expectations you might have had of them.
I hate chitika :( they have closed my account without a justification and denying response since. The charge of fradulent clicks is lame because Adsense has NEVER complained about it.
Well Im yet to see chitika pay their november amount LOL.. I give everyone the benefit of the doubt..Its january and they said novembers should be paid this month.. we will see..
I contacted Chitika directly and have posted their response to Text ads making a comeback – and as it appears – this is pure rumor.
http://www.chitikanews.com/chitika-context-ad-rumors.htm
It would be nice though – but it appears that this Rumor is false.
Sorry folks!
I’ve yanked Chitika from almost all my sites as the CTR and CPM is TERRIBLE and it was decreasing my Adsense CTR and CPM to boot.
Vic
I applied to Chitika twice and never even got a reply from them…
guess I don;t rate…but still – I would like an email that says: “Sorry, try again later.”
No need for debates, Darren. Coz the payments are out! :D
http://chitika.com/blog/?p=33
Just saw it. 20% cut after auditing
Strange. I can’t even log into my account on the Chitika website. Anybody else have that problem?
Figured out what the problem is. Chitika shut down my account for “fraudulent activity”. That’s really amazing, since all I did was put the code into the sidebar and drop blog ads into my posts. Looks like I’m going to be parting company with those folks!
Chitika works very well for me. Since I have started using Chitika on recently started product weblogs it is improving month by month. My november earnings were cut by 10% and for december it was down to 9%.
More details on Chitika earnings for november and december 2005 released
It sounds to me like Chitika are having serious difficulties at the moment. My advise to anyone would be do as i am doing and stay away from them untill they sort themselves out, (they start paying out or they go bust). I’ll stick with google adsense for now until the competition offer a serious alternative.
I hate Chitika too. They are not very honest when it comes to reporting earnings and the activity of referrals. I received a two payments, two months in a row and nothing since. It makes no sense. I tried to contact them and never receive a response. They, to me, are a shady company.