Yesterday I was looking around the internet for ways to monetize my blog. I came across Chitika. They are a fairly large advertising network for advertisers and publishers. I filled an application and received the acceptance email today.
So I’m in - and as you can see I am using Chitika on this blog now. Chitika pays Paid Per Click (PPC). Once you put one of the ad scripts on your website, it will show relevant ads / text ads and if a visitors click on those, you get paid based on how valuable the clicked keyword was. The interesting thing about Chitika is taht it can integrate into your website without having to show seperate ad boxes for it.
There are 6 different options for how you can integrate Chitika into your web pages.
1- Search Engine Chitika Premium:
It provides a search box on your web page and user can search for what they are looking (on the web) without leaving your website: Here is an example of how it works. This to me seems like a good option for a search box in directories.
2- eMiniMalls:
Direct product promotion. A box which the a relevant product to your web page’s content will show up. Here is an example of it. I don’t like this option much as it makes the web page look bad and primitive.
3- Multiple Product Units:
Simple the same as eMiniMalls with just more products. Here is the Multiple Product Units example.
4- Linx:
Linx is what you see on my blog. The script automatically detects targeted keywords in the content of the web page and hyperlinks them. Once a user hovers over the link a box with more information about the product appears. If the users click on the products link the publisher gets paid.
5- Whitespace Ad:
As the name implies, the ad will appear in the white space of the page. This ads only show whenever large whitespace appears when viewing your site on high resolution monitors. When visitors click on the ads, the publisher earns money. Here sare some screenshots of how it would look like.
6- Chitika For Parked Domains:
Used for advertising on parked domains. Here is the example of it.
I will post updates of how succesful Chitika is on my blog and any pros and cons that I find out about it. One thing that I have noticed already is the fact that my web pages take longer to load. So that is one negative side to it.
