Chitika Loses Some Credibility in My Book

It seems that you are the exception rather than the rule. I have 100's of referrals and make less than $5 a day. My earnings dropped almost 75% last week... right before I dropped them.

A few people are still doing really well... some are even doing better than before. However, it seems that the majority of Chitika users are doing worse and/or dropping them all together.

 

I can't find any hint in where to go if I want to sell products on chitika.
Thats a bit strange.

Looks like that they are under exclusive contracts of a few companies.

Could it be that MSN is behind that deals?
Maybe we will see a big surprise after the Beta version is over.

 

A previous poster who also wanted to get his products on chitika, went with shopping.com and got them listed that way.

 

Why the bypass???

 

So, shopping.com is an ebay company. We are coming closer to the truth.

 

Everything on shopping.com seems to be in chitika already, so I guess there is some kind of deal.

 

I get an email within 4 hours from them.......seriously.

 

SVZ - you must be on the "A" list!

Maybe I should have you email them for me to see what is taking sooo long for my request to be reviewed...

Caryl

edited to add: I really am starting to wonder about the legitimacy of this company. Could it be that they really don't have their own advertisers? Are they really running some kind of affiliate thing with Shopping.com?

It certainly seems that it would be to their own best interest to have a representitve check in on this forum. Afterall, they themselves link to here.

 

Do you guys do it through the ticketing system? I usually tag it critical

 

Still no blasted audits!!! Get with the program Chitika... at least update your blog.

I'm leaning towards the sneeking suspicion that Chitika is ran by a couple teenie boppers with very little business sense, and has no real chance.

... and to think - I'll have to consider myself affiliated with them for another 30 days

I'll be relieved when my account balance is zero with them. Then I can work on forgetting their URL.

 

Hey guys,

I’ve been on Chitika now for about a month. At first, I was a little skeptical. But I slowly started tweaking the ads and saw more and more clicks. I think if anyone is planning on hoping on the chitika bandwagon, you need to have a site that lends itself to product shopping. The theme of your site is critical! I’m not saying you can’t make money on say an “Internet Marketing” site and place the standard Ipod and digital camera ads on it, but a product oriented site works better.

I also target my ads to the theme of my site. For example I have a site specifically design for the horse industry. I tend to target ads that are relevant for that industry. So you will find ads on my site that are cowboy hats, western belts, cowboy boots, horse grooming products etc. They perform better, way better! I use a script that enables me to target different products on different pages. It is a bit of work to set up but once it is done, BINGO … autopilot.

Another little trick I found is to go to the publisher sites. I would say that between 30%-50% of the publishers for my target audience have affiliate programs, and its probably better to sign up as an affiliate than run their chitika ads. So if you can, set up alternate ads with those affiliates. I am going to start doing it with my adsense and slowly with chitika. Some of these affiliate pay anywhere between 7% to 15% or more on sales. In my industry, the average purchase is around $100, so $7 in the kitty is better than say 35 clicks at .20 cents 3 months down the road.

Anyways what I am getting at is,

1) Make sure you have a site that lends itself to products
2) Take the time to target your ads specifically for the theme of your site
3) Automate and alternate your ads so you don’t always show the same ads
4) Have a mixture of affiliate ads, chitika and adsense on your pages
5) Pop a cold one and watch what happens
6) Repeat

If you want to see an example of what I have done and work in progress, try this site (still tweaking but you can see what I mean:

http://www.horsetackshops.com/lma/directory.php/Belts,_Boots_&_Hats/Belts,_Boots_&_Hats.html

Anyways, just my two cents worth others may have better ideas.
Cheers
Frank

 

By the way I want to note I am still seeing good personal performance with chitika. The handful of referrals I have has dropped off to nothing though. I am still very happy with them on my sites.

I am just not keen on the unprofessional image that is projected when you use your support blog to tout a third-party get rich quick monger. As others have contributed there are other issues that bring questions to Chitika's credibility as well.

I too would like to see a representative stop by... And as I mentioned I would like to see them use their blog to actually provide benefits to their publishers not push other people's products on us.

 

aeiouy -

I agree with you and perhaps Chitika should have not pushed Joel's ebook. I don't personally see any chitika rep dropping by to address the issue, but would love to hear from them as well - just for the heck of it.

I'd also be interested in seeing what kind of revenues Joel's recieved with Chitika's little recommendation.

 

I think Chitika did it because they thought it would make them cool. Hey, we go out and visit websites, check out this eBook! etc. Unfortunately it backfired.

 

They can't even reply to e-mails, accept or decline sites or resolve tickets that have been open for months. Don't hold your breath waiting for them to show up the forums....

 

Sucks... the ads look so good on my site too

 

Well, my app was rejected today.

probably not a bad thing...

Good Luck All!

Caryl

 

Thier site is loading slow so they must be....

... yup their updating. Got mine just now. Only 10 hours late.

 

Thanks, Frank. Great advice. I may even get stuck in a 5-6 loop, but all's well!

 

No prob techlh ... be persistant and things do payoff, hopefully sooner than later.

Mcdar - you were rejected? Did they give you a reason? Was it your sleeping bag site?

Frank