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I do well out of Adsense, but like others I'm getting really angry about smart pricing. I'm not thinking of dumping Google in a hissy fit of pique, but like all of us I'm looking for alternatives. I'm looking forward to YPN coming to the UK.
I'm surprised at Chitika - it shows promise!
1, I think the ads are informative and good looking.
2, Unlike Google, I can choose product categories that I know my site visitors would be interested in. As webmaster, I know where my site traffic comes from, I know why they come, I know the demographic, and I know what ads are more likely to work. That is a fact that Google absolutely refuses to accept - Chitika on the other hand accepts that as the norm.
3, They pay more than Google. I'm averaging 81c per click.
4, They don't have smart pricing. It's a simple, uncomplicated relationship between me and them.
OK, the reporting stats are rubbish currently. They don't have a wide advertiser base, but I can choose categories that appeal to my demographic. The ctr isn't as good as Google's, but that in the main is down to the fact I can't optimise the ads because of poor reporting. However, that apparently is coming soon.
5, They PAY MORE THAN GOOGLE.
6, Did I mention they don't have smart pricing?
I'm glad that Google has competition at last. If all of us quality publishers left Adsense, then Google would have just the scrapers and MFA's they prize so much. wouldn't that be an interesting turn? :)
somehow.. amazon still pays more. also, i am trying claxon cpm ads in my footer now.
And Chitika publish their %. I think its 60%.
On medium and high CTR pages (using AdSense as the benchmark), I run a small Chitika ad (160 X 160) somewhere in the left margin above the fold. I use a 250 X 250 or 300 X 250 Google ad block in the main text above the fold.
On low CTR pages, I replaced the Google ad with Yahoo (same ad position and placement), and keep the Chitika ad in the same place. The advantage is that Yahoo pays a lot more per click than Google. On low CTR pages, that makes a huge difference!
Then Chitika announced a referral program. I've never promoted an affiliate program before, or made money from referrals but Chitika struck me as so good that it's got to be a piece of cake convincing people to swap Adsense for Chitika.
So, I'm currently working just on promoting Chitika. I've put everything else on hold to do this.
[edited by: jcoronella at 2:20 pm (utc) on Oct. 31, 2005]
However, getting the visitors to actually click on these ads is the hard part. I've only had a few clicks in the time I've been running Chitika (about 2 weeks). I've spent the latter part of today doing a little site rearranging, choosing a larger Chitika ad with my fingers crossed. I previously was showing the 160x160 which is rather limited in features.
If anyone cares - it is not just shopping[dot]com or amazon[dot]com anymore. There are a lot of other advertisers.
I'm reaching new income highs with Chitika. I'm running it in conjunction with AS, and even though Smart Pricing is making my AdSense income virtually worthless - I'm making more.
I would prefer to use Chitika in conjunction with AS - but Chitika is literally dwarfing AdSense in terms of PPC, and I've found a few placements that perform nearly as well in terms of CTR.
Thank you Chitika! AdSense - I've always been a fan, but you're getting beat fair and square.
Its overconfidence in the algo I expect.
Did you notice how Chitika was originally designed to be mostly contextual, but when they (presumably) found out how people were really trying to use it - then non contextual quickly became the default? Because thats what we wanted.
Adsense is way too sure of itself to bother worrying what mere customers want or they would have allowed us to insert keywords long ago. All those brains at the Googleplex, that what it is. Leads to overconfidence.
There is a limit to how far you can go on brains alone. I should think they aren't much use without a pair of ears.
-Shorebreak
Product sites do better with Chitika than non-product sites. Hmm. More explanation: Chitika's database of ads is largely ads from shopping.com and amazon.com and they tend to be physical products. If your site normally attracts ads for affiliate programs, hosting services and loans it's unlikely Chitika will have a large range of ads for you.
Saying that, I have tried ads for a widgets and widgets on a site offering widget services/advice. I thought Chitika would bomb on there. It turns out that revenue wise it's doing about 6x more than Adsense (thought CTR is much lower).
[edited by: jcoronella at 9:23 pm (utc) on Nov. 3, 2005]
[edit reason] no kwds please. [/edit]
Apparently this can happen on Chitika and YPN.
Any accountants here?
Do you think it is possible to deduct the audit revenue reductions as a business loss since:
We did provide the service and the revenue was shown.
And, then it was taken away due to no fault of our own.
I just put Chitika ads on my site now along with Adsense and Ypn.
Not sure if it would be a wash or not. That's one reason I can't balance my books.
If you can do that for a while, and think about what tangible items your demographic would use, then you can make a buck with Chitika.
My main site is related to teaching english as a second language (eslsociety.com), and there really AREN'T that many tangible products for it. I tried with my normal keywords - esl, efl, and so on, and got NO WHERE. I was about to give up on Chitika.
Now, I'm getting a good % of relative ads, for related products by playing around with the keywords.
So I think that even if you're not running a site dedicated to hardware, or specific products, you can still configure C- to match your needs, and display nice little ads that are relevant to even the smallest niche. It just takes some work!
2, Unlike Google, I can choose product categories that I know my site visitors would be interested in. As webmaster, I know where my site traffic comes from, I know why they come, I know the demographic, and I know what ads are more likely to work. That is a fact that Google absolutely refuses to accept - Chitika on the other hand accepts that as the norm.
While the initial implementation didn't work for me, I'm happy to report YPN now does this effectively as well.
I love the flexibility, the service quality - and most importantly the EPC. I love using Chit with G/Y ads - it's phenominal.
Maybe the people that are looking at your site are only interested in the "service" itself. But, the service has to use some kind of tangible object or material to provide whatever they provide.
If you're getting any traffic at all from search engines, you'll also be getting people from within that service industry, who would probably click on relevant product ads.
Also, say for example the service is carpet cleaning. Maybe some end consumer wants to buy an industrial strength carpet cleaner to save themselves the long term costs and hassles of hiring someone to do the work. Maybe they don't, but the suggestion alone interests them, and they click on the ad.
Or maybe you're delivering content related to mortages. Determine the most common reasons people take out mortages and build keywords around that. Maybe they want to build a patio. Patio's need grills. Patios need furniture. Maybe they're financing their kids education. There are all kinds of possibilities.
The thing with chitika is it's not as automated and easy to correctly implement as adsense or ypn ads (and I am a BIG fan of YPN, with chitika following in at second place right now).
You really have to play around and think outside of the box a bit. Be a bit of a tangent ninja when thinking about your visitors, why they come to your site, and products not directly related to your site that would be relevant.
Like I said, I can't find a single chitika ad about teaching english. I also have another site about expats in Thailand. I can't find a SINGLE thing that's even remotely close to my se keywords in chitika. But they have a "women's expat jacket" that "fits in your backpack and comes out looking great, blah blah blah". Do you know how many times that thing gets clicked? ALOT!
I don't have any product relative to teaching english, either. But it's not just english teachers coming to my site. It's people recruiting teachers who don't speak english well themselves. Do you know how many times the electronic talking dictionary gets clicked? ALOT!
These two sites aren't even getting much traffic yet, but chitika +ypn has me at about $200 with LESS than 5000 uniques this month.
I think it's a fantastic combo. Chitika ads get higher clicks per impression, and yahoo ads get higher earnings per click!
Just go into tangent ninja mode, get inside your visitors heads, and you'll pull a nice bit more out of your site!
J
