One of my biggest blog money makers is Chitika. I’ve reviewed and written about them many times. They’ve always done very well for me on product related sites – however on sites that don’t have a product focus they have never performed.
I’ve been nagging the Chitika team to get them to produce ads for non product related sites and they’ve been hinting at a new ad unit for a while that will meet this need. In the last week or so they’ve released it – Interactive Premium Listing Units.
They look like this:
The ads are quite like their other units but they are ads for all kinds of other products. I’ve included a live one lower on this post (although not all of you will be able to see it – read on to find out why).
The ads are getting good reviews from publishers that I’ve been chatting with who have tested them although at this stage they will only be served to US readers (some of them). At this stage the ads target at US readers and even then they are ‘behavioral’ and not all US readers will see them. If Chitika feels it’s more profitable to you they show other ads.
The ads pay on a CPC basis and you can specify different keywords when generating your code for the ad. On the following ad I’ve chosen ‘Search Engine Optimization’ as the keyword.
To test out these new ad units Apply to Join Chitika Today.
as someone with a non-product related blog, this sounds like some cool news for me. i signed up for their service before only to realize it wasn’t really going to work for my needs.
Well..I couldn’t see it…But while I was looking at the page carefully to make sure that I haven’t missed the Chitika ad, I noticed ‘What Topic Do You Want Covered’ Polls on the sidebar…Something that missed my eyes, up until now…So I will go vote on that – Though I missed Chitika, I found something else.
This will be great for my blog because I’m not selling a product. Hopefully I will get some relevant ads displaying.
Thank you for the indise scoop.
Fascinating – I can’t see it either, which I guess is cos I’m in the UK! Not sure The Office Diet currently sees sufficient traffic for me to implement more advertising ;-) but I’ll definitely keep an eye on Chitika.
Ali
I’ve been using it for a bout a week on my electronics blog. The ctr on these are huge! compared to the other Chikita ads and even adsense. I just wish it did incorporate more vistors. They give you the ability to mix it with other ads and show you how to so it will show if avail. but will show other ads if its not.
I know someone here is tired of shameless plugs for this company. Is this your Auction Ads Darren?
They would look great if they stopped being so restrictive on who they let into their network. Small gnats like me don’t cut the mustard for even getting an application processed.
I run a Las Vegas travel blog and it would be nice if Chitika now applied. may have to revisit them
I can’t see it :) but from pic i thinks it looks cool!
I forgot about Chitika long time ago since I sold my tech-blog and started an entertainment one, seems that they have much more appealing oppurtunities for blogs like mine..
Thanks for the heads up Darren,
Allen
I might be mistaken but I’m sure I’ve already seen these units on my site.
I have been running the new ads since they launched not to long ago.
They seem to be performing well, I have other ads being shown for non-US visitors.
Wow, they really are trying hard these days to make better use of their services. I think they’ll do good!
They don’t perform that great on my few blog, it think it depends on your blog niche… it’s best on gadget blogs Dar.
I use it initially,but after that i don’t see any performance on that then i decided to take out,perhaps i am not selling any gadget,so is not suit for the readers.
I couldn’t see the ad either even though I am in the US and came to this page via google. From what I understand the ads are shown based on what you searched for in Google so they probably don’t have any ads relevant to “Chitika Interactive Premium Listing Units”.
I do get about 80% of my traffic from product related google searches so it could be worth trying these out to see how they perform.
They work well for me, no problems at all!
I like Chitika, and this will really help get more relevant ads on to my blog… the technology stuff didn’t seem to click too well with moviegoers…
Is anyone running Chitika Interactive Premium Ads on the same site as Google Adsense? How does the CTR compare between the two of them?
I’m debating whether or not to sign up for a Chitika account when I get up to sufficient traffic levels.
I’m off to try it. Wish me luck – not like it makes a lot of difference in this business. LOL.
So what would “enough traffic” equate to in order to incorporate this (or really any advertising) on a non-product blog?
WIth all the attention blogging has been getting (re: Dooce on TV and mommy blogging), I don’t want to look like I’m trying too hard and to make a buck (even though I am trying tastefully), and scare people off. Where’s the balance?
Darren —
Can these ads be run in conjunction with Google Adsense?
I like their new features. I am looking forward to make more money with them.
These are some pretty awesome ads, but I do wish that they would show up for all viewers. And, for that reason, I’m sticking with the eMiniMalls (and my blog talks a lot about products).
Thx for the nice overview Darren! That is correct, for now, this ad unit is set up to show up for select US traffic, ONLY when it can deliver the highest eCPM. However, we do have a demo preview feature that you and your blog users can use to preview the ad unit on any page/post, and see matching results.
In your case, to preview the ad unit on this blog post and see results for “search engine optimization” query, please copy the full url, shown below, paste it into the address bar and shift refresh the page to update the content:
https://problogger.com/chitika-interactive-premium-listing-units/#chitikatest=search+engine+optimization
(btw, this #chitikatest= preview hack will work for any page running premium ads)
Quick note: Our premium ad units have been designed to work best when used above blog post title (unlike other Chitika units designed to work under blog content)
We are very excited to be able to now also cater to sites with non-product content such as travel, finance, mortgage, etc. We are adding several new features and also working on expanding our premium ads inventory to regions beyond US. Stay tuned for exciting new developments!
Best,
Venkat Kolluri
Chitika, Inc.
Chitika used to work pretty well for my blog (paddling with a camera) since I was able to target very specific products (waterproof cameras in my case).
However, the Chitika performance went really down recently (avg Cpc reduced 2-3 times) and the recent changes are making things even worse. I just don’t want some trashy ads for mortgage or jewelry in my blog. I have troubles to target specific items as I used to before. The new ads format looks rather unattractive in comparison to former eMiniMalls. Maybe, things will improve, but I started to remove Chitika from my blogs.
I experimented with these ads on my site for about a week and didn’t get much success. I had them so they would only show up based on the search engine traffic. I suppose it would help if I got more of that :P. I’m not sure, I hear great things but I guess I should keep working on improving my traffic for awhile first.