My friend Dan recently started using Chitika ads on his blog.

He wrote an article about how the Chitika ads have been under performing in comparison to his Yahoo Publisher Network ads. (Yahoo Publisher network is Yahoo’s version of Google AdSense.)

I’m sure he is right. I’m sure on his blog, the Chitika ads aren’t doing as well as the Yahoo ads. The Yahoo ads are context sensitive. PLUS they cover a wider variety of topics than Chitika.

Chitika’s ads are called “eminimalls”. What does that sound like? Shopping right? Their goal is primarily to list physical products for sale by web retailers.

Yahoo Publisher Network and Google AdSense are content driven advertising networks. If you have a web site on any topic, and you want to drive traffic to it you can advertise using their service.

So for example on my personal blog I wrote about having my appendix out. A Chitika ad on that page wouldn’t know what to display. It would probably display some hot item like an ipod. If we were lucky it might include an ad for a vitamin or maybe even a healthcare book. However people coming to my blog to learn about appendicitis probably don’t care about an ipod.

On the other hand, Yahoo Publisher Network and Google AdSense are content based advertisers. They are going to show you ads for anyone who wants to get web traffic for people searching on Appendix, or Appendicitis. So you’ll probably see an ad for sites like WebMD.

In my opinion it depends on your content. Lets talk Astrology for example. Thats a pretty hot topic. There are tons of books available, astrology web sites, etc. I’m sure there are some subscription based sites where you can get daily personalized horoscopes, people selling ebooks, etc. There are probably quite a few people bidding on that term in the Yahoo Publisher Network and Google AdSense. However on Chitika, there are NO ads for astrology.

Now, let’s take a different topic. I like HDTV and am working on a new web site to teach people about HDTV so they know what products to buy. Chitika eMiniMall ads are an important part of my strategy to make money from that site. Instead of just seeing a text link my visitors will be able to see an ad for a plasma tv and see a small image, a small description, etc.

So, Yes I agree with Dan. On a lot of sites Chitika eMiniMalls won’t be as effective as Yahoo Publisher Network and Google AdSense. However, if you have a product or retail oriented web site, Chitika eMiniMalls can be an effective way to monetize your site. Also keep in mind you can put BOTH Chitika ads and AdSense or Yahoo ads on a site. You simply cannot use Chitika’s context sensitive ads. You have to put in specific items you want or specific categories of items you want to display on your site. See our Chitika eMiniMalls archives to get more Chitika Tips. And for AdSense tips don’t forget our Google AdSense archives.

- Ben Fitts

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