Chitka: Keeping Us Busy

Writen by Joel Comm

There’s a big misconception about contextualized advertising. Too many people feel that it’s a hands-off way to make piles of cash. All they have to do is build their site, optimize their ads, set up their traffic streams and... head off to the beach. Maybe they’ll have to update the content every now and then but as far as they’re concerned, a month later, a year later or even five years later, those dollars will still be pouring in and they’ll still be spending their days soaking up the sun.

If only.

We’re probably working in the most dynamic environment in the world. Nothing changes faster than the Internet. A revenue system you set up today could easily be overtaken by something new tomorrow. If you aren’t keeping up with the latest developments, the only time you’d know about those changes is when your income suddenly starts to fall and you’re left staring at your stats, scratching your head and wondering what’s going on.

A few weeks ago, I talked about Kontera. They’ve got a system that looks pretty impressive to me. I’m still testing them out on some of my sites and think they’ve got a system to watch. But they aren’t the only ones I’m watching.

I’ve also got my eye on Chitika... and so should you. They’ve got some of the smartest looking ads I’ve seen. You get a picture of the product, a list of places and prices to buy, and (here’s the best bit)... tabs that give more information about the product when the user mouses over. Without leaving the page, the user can get a summary of the product, user reviews and a search box to look for similar products.

That’s a heap of information packed into one ad. And users love the fact that they can interact with it.

These “MiniMall” ads are contextualized (and Chitika also offers traditional contextualized ads too) but you can turn off the contextualization and pick your own ads so you can combine them with AdSense or YPN. That’s a huge bonus.

Again, I don’t know yet if Chitika can bring me higher revenues than AdSense but I’m certainly not going to ignore it!

I’ve already started playing around with Chitika and looking at ways to use their ads to maximize revenues. After all, if they do turn out to be the next big thing, I wouldn’t want to be left behind. I’ll let you know how I get on.

To apply with Chitika, visit http://www.adsense-secrets.com/chitika.html

Joel Comm is The Internet Revenue Expert. Online for over 20 years, Joel teaches people how to make money in the digital age. The recognized authority on Google AdSense, Joel teaches how to multiply your AdSense income at The AdSense Code. To ask Joel Comm a question about making money online, visit http://www.AskJoelComm.com