Having 13 blogs that I maintain or own, I believe I have a wide range of topics where at least one or two would show benefit from using Chitika. I signed up, I placed the ads as suggested and nothing! The only money I was making from them was from other people signing up under me. I felt more like a pyramid scheme than an affiliate marketer and blogger. I'd be very interested in hearing from folks who've actually had success with this program outside of others signing up - that doesn't count as success in my book. What kind of site does it actually take to find success with Chitika? I feel I gave them an honest shot because I left them linked over a year - whereas most other affiliates that don't generate a profit within 6 months, I typically nix. Gayla
It would be interesting to know if you are making any money off of the referrals. If you are, then you know someone is making money at least.
Sites about products. Even better sites about electronics. (TVs, stereos, laptops, printers, etc.) Those are the sites that can do really well with Chitika. There is also much more "work" that can be done in terms of optimization that you can (and should) do with Chitika. With programs like AdSense the variables are format and placement. With Chitika there is another whole dimension to optimization.... the query. It takes awhile to really figure out which queries work well. Taking the time to set a specific query to a specific page can really make a big difference. If you have a page about HDTV don't use a query of "iPod" on the page for example. And if you have a page about Sony HDTVs don't use a query for "Panasonic HDTV"... you will get better results by targeting the ad to exactly the same product as that page on your site talks about. And if the site doesn't talk about specific products to allow that level of optimization then it won't likely do as well with Chitika.
Yep. That's where it's at. I'm using Chitika on a few product based sites (gadgets, consoles etc), and it's great. I tried Adsense on the same sites and made next to nothing.
Kerosene, That's interesting you say that - I've been reading alot of posts tonight relating Chikita and most of the people experiencing low generated revenue from Chikita seem to be the ones who do not have a review products site. I (like yourself) review products (my line is PUMA sneakers & clothing) and I thought that Chikita would be a pretty good idea to start with. To be quite honest - I don't like the way Adsense is set up, just contextual links and that's it! Correct me if I am wrong folks, but if you are reviewing products and you have a pretty good site with constant unique traffic and good positioning on google - Chikita would be a good place to start no? I just applied tonite and I'll wait and see... my best, -Joey Dee
joeydee, As long as there's some Puma or sneaker related product ads on Chitika then it's totally worth a shot. IMO Chitika is ideal if you're pushing a certain product, whether it be sneakers, plasma TVs, armchairs, whatever... It's all about brand names and products, if you use it on the right site it will work.
We loved chitika when it first came out a few years back (was that just last year?). Anyway, they suddenly changed their ad layouts to reduce "curiousity" clicks and of course they have that whole thing where they don't calculate your valid earnings until like a month later... Bottom line, they went from a mediocre earner, to a bottom feeder. If you are not one of the few seeing success with them, move on to another program. They are not worth the trouble IMOP.
Sockmoney, You are right. Chitika will not do well for just anyone. If you have a product-based blog or website with at least 10,000 impressions- you could do quite well with the right products showing and a few optimization tweaks if needed, in which we rock at giving. If you feel you are not getting what you should from Chitika we will work with you here.. in fact we are working with hundreds right now on optimizing their Chitika revenues.. some Publisher Success Stories have even come out of our optimizations pretty cool huh?