Forum Moderators: skibum
These are the unaudited stats, if you can believe that.
Is anyone doing anything at all with this program?
I think their contextual targeting sucks, but I don't need that. I need specific products on specific pages and thats where Adsense is falling flat on its face.
I can do my own targeting :)
Besides which, I'm running out of Ban URL slots on Adsense.
So yeah, trying them out now. Love them so far. You have to go look for a specific product and put its exact name into the code, and I think its case sensitive too - their search thingie is never going to be much use like that either.
It reminds me of the early days of CJ where you could get paid per click and pick your products.
I think I have seen all 5 advertisers in my niche already.
Baby steps, one can assume.
If I ever do get clicks it will be better than non-performing Adsense on those pages at least.
These are forums, and the members are "ad blind"...have been for quite some time- so different is good.
Thanks for the responses so far.
I just started using Chit as well.
My stats for Friday were clearly wrong, and I emailed them. They said that much of the stats for the 7th and some of the 8th were lost but will be recovered.
The jury is still out on them. I'm curious to see what they will be after a solid week or two with them.
I have to say that I am a bit excited about their program, but for now we'll wait and see.
Was talking to a friend that is just starting to create websites and he asked about all these advertising options.
When I pointed out that Chitika is a new and exciting option to consider, but that I have yet to receive a click, he looked at me funny and said "Well, I was all over one of them as soon as I saw it. That new Canon digital camera looks awesome and there was a very attractive price in one of those ads."
I know- smells suspicious on my part, right?
Wrong.
Just trying to play by the rules and work hard to get somewhere in life.
The last thing I want is for anything to look deceitful or misleading on any of my sites or the ads I put up.
Have no idea at this point if the click was ever registered, if it will be lost in "auditing" or what the game is. Still showing nice round figures in my stats, right down the line.
Hey, if this turns out to be the best thing since...well, AdSense maybe?....I'll be the first to help others along and praise it's glory.
Right now that doesn't look to be in my immediate future.
Oh well, back to creating content.
You know- that stuff on our pages that detracts from the ads? ; )
Plus, by doing it that way as opposed to letting them choose the ad, I can have it on the same pages as YPN and AdSense.
Fingers crossed.
Buz
Wish Adsense had this feature as well....
One can only hope.
I'm finding the 2 programs together work very well off of each other....by combating the "ad blindness".
The Payout Per Click that I've experienced is about the same for each, but the overall combined click through rate (Adsense + Chitika) per page has increased, therefore my revenues have increased. Adsense CTR dropped a little bit, but Chitika has more than made up for it.
I have a few sites that Adsense has historically had trouble targeting ads. I added Chitika with my own targeted keywords and the related/desired ads are showing up for Chitika.
So far, I'm pleased with Chitika's results. My only complaint is that reporting isn't detailed enough. I'd like to be able to determine which sites/placements are doing well. Something like Adsense's channels would do the trick.
Note: I'm using Chitika MiniMalls and I'm only reporting on unaudited revenue.
They have recently fixed or improved pretty much everything I complained about, so I just gave them another quick run and they are working much better now.
They work best on product/review sites, and you can turn off the contextual part and run them in conjunction with adsense or ypn.
There was fall-off in my Chit campaign from day 1 to 2 and I suspect that maintaining fresh non-contextual inventory is going to be a pain. I'm pulling all my skus from shopping.com, and I found that to avoid missing thumbnails from shopping.com, I couldn't use keywords but rather I had to exactly specify each sku I wanted to advertise. I remember doing this with Amazon and it wasn't something I found I could keep up with.
Yeah, they usually get one or two 15-cent clicks a day. They try something different and the first day they happen to get three 17-clicks. Whoo Hoo! they shout as they run to the bank...
The CTR is not as high but the EPC is MASSIVE :)
Google Adsense has treated me very well so I have no intention to dump or supplant them. But neither do I want to keep all my eggs in one basket.I see Chitika and Adsense as a compliment to each other.
I'm making 3-4 times more per click with Chitika than with AdSense. How long that will last, I don't know. Don't know either if it is a ploy to get many of us signed up, then they will reduce commissions down the road.
Chitika addresses a critical need for someone like me who is into just basic web design. Unlike other associate programs, it gives me needed and timely products, including graphics, that I don't have to constantly update. For example, if I'm promoting photo editing software, I don't have to remember to change an ad to Photoshop CS2 when Adobe releases CS3. I can't tell you what a relief this is to me. Plus I don't have to worry about a display ad suddenly turning into one bright, orange-yellow generic blob on a page (I'm sure you know what I mean).
Right now, I'm just very pleased to be associated with these companies who give the "little guy/gal" an equal opportunity to participate in making some income.
I was pleasently surprised to find that I make in 1/2 of a day what I used to earn after 3 months with AMZ.
I put the ads below the fold so they interfer less with Adsense - seems to have had no affect on adsense revs. Once I populate all the pages and if/when I can tell which keywords are doing better than others I hope to get 10% of total revenue from Chit.
Hope
But ... i'm talking about unaudited revenue. I fear the day when they audit it. After i get the first check ... and it gets cashed ... and earnings stays about the same as they are now, I'll be able to say i'm successful. Until then ...
I've taken mine off.
I removed a number of Chitika ads from my site the past few days and put back Google ads. In key areas I placed google Link Unit ads above Chitika sky ads. Now both are doing better and I'm back to making the per day income I expected for this time of year.
You gotta give these guys credit for improving things so fast. I for one am going to stick with them. Been in this business long enough not to get swaggered by daily movements (day trading anyone?)
And: I am going to eat my own dog food. Notice that search box in the Chitika units? I am going to do my holiday shopping through that search box. I will be buying a ton of items this holiday shopping season - so why not do it through my Chitika units.
