Bloggers have been trying to make money with blogs since shortly after blogging started. In the earliest days this was through tip jars and donations. Things have gotten slightly more advanced, and competitive now. The most popular ways for bloggers to earn money include Google AdSense and BlogAds, both of which have performed reasonably well for me in the past.
However, I make most of my ad income off a newcomer to the blog advertising space: Chitika.
Thanks to Darren’s chat with the Chitika guys, I can now reveal exactly what Chitika is earning me, though I can’t report traffic or CTR.
In fact, here are the overall earnings for Ensight for September:
Chitika: 500$
LinkAds sales: 700$
Direct-sale ads: 250$
This is my biggest month since I stopped putting 10 hours a week into direct-selling ads. In fact, my biggest month ever for Ensight income was about 1500$, and this is just shy of that.
My overall experience is the same as Darren’s:
The CTR for Adsense is significantly higher than it was for the eMiniMalls
The click value for eMiniMalls is significantly higher than it was for Adsense
Your mileage may vary. But, if you’re looking for an alternative to AdSense, this may be the way to go.
#1 by Rob Barac - October 6th, 2005 at 10:35
Jeremy,
I would have to echo those sentiments. While my subscriber/reader list is significantly lower than yours, I have had similar results with the Chitika/AdSense ratio.
I would like to point out that by it’s very nature, Chitika works better with product or topic specific sites. I get significantly more clicks on cafegeek.com (1 blog) than I do on intersplice.com.au (2 blogs). Conversely AdSense does better on generalised personal style blogs.
The value of the click throughs is substantially better with Chitika. Almost 3 times better.
One point to make is that you MUST add a line of code into your Chitika ads if you are to run them on the same page with AdSense to not violate your terms with Google. This code basically allows you to assign categories or keywords to your Chitika ads and makes them non-contextual.
ch_queries = new Array(’Gaggia’, ‘Saeco’, ‘Solis’, ‘Krups’, ‘Coffee’);
Or you can rotate among several keywords by adding the following code to your Chitika code.
var ch_queries = new Array(’keyword1′, ‘keyword2′, ‘keyword3′, ‘keyword4′, ‘keyword5′);
var ch_selected=Math.floor((Math.random()*ch_queries.length));
ch_query = ch_queries[ch_selected];
#2 by Jon - October 6th, 2005 at 11:27
Is there any indication that the Chitika will keep these better ratios in the long term, or is this just a jippo to get people involved while they are beta testing?
#3 by x74.org - October 6th, 2005 at 16:00
If you’re interested, I developed a plugin that lets you put an eMiniMall right into your post, using WordPress’s Quicktags Toolbar. I’ve seen direct integration into the post improves CTR. Visit this link for more information on the eMiniMall Plugin for WordPress.
#4 by Matt - October 6th, 2005 at 22:40
I’ve put a minimall onto my blog. It is actually making more money than all of my AdSense ads and is achieving about the same CTR. But then, you know… when you only have 30 visitors a day…. 1 click is one click. LOL
#5 by Patrick - October 7th, 2005 at 10:53
Not too good here. But, that may have to do with my placement. I am planning to re-evaluate my ads in the near future, as soon as I get time.
#6 by Scott - October 9th, 2005 at 21:11
I am taking a big chance here everyone and jumping on the Chitika bandwagon. And in a big way.
After coming out of the highest Adsense earning month for one of my websites I have decided to give Chitika a try for one month. Over the weekend I removed all Google adsense from my site UsedMac.ca and replaced the ads with Chitika ads only.
Let’s see if the gamble pays off.
#7 by Ian - October 11th, 2005 at 15:44
Help please.
Can anyone give me the total script they are using.
I have the script from Chitika and the bits to add, can someone please just show me what a whole script looks like when assigning keywords
Thank you
#8 by Michelle - October 11th, 2005 at 17:09
Ian,
Here’s the full script (for the 300×250 unit) that you can use to assign your own keywords:
Please replace “userid” with your own userid.
Also please double keywords before you use the code. You can test the selected keywords using the the search tab on the unit on http://chitika.com/
For more details on how to select keywords please check out: http://chitika.com/blog/index.php?p=9
#9 by Michelle - October 11th, 2005 at 18:02
Ian,
I am not able to get the code to display in this comments section. Please check out this post on the Chitika Blog:
http://chitika.com/blog/index.php?p=12
Thanks
#10 by Mark - October 26th, 2005 at 13:16
Jon, it’s likely the 60% share will stay. It’s not particularly high - Google pays a slightly higher percentage - but Chitiks 60% is 60% of a higher amount (than what the Adwords advertiser is likely paying for that same keyword).
There is no reason to believe that the 60% will drop. In fact, it’s highly unlikely. The market is hotting up; there’s YPN, MSN’s AdCenter etc and the competition will ensure the percentage stays high.