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From statska.net:

If you have a tech/gadget related site and are running only AdSense on it, you are leaving a lot of money on the table. And you probably already know that, since everyone writing about how to make money online is telling you this. But it doesn’t make it any less true. By putting just one new ad unit I almost doubled my blog income overnight.

To supplement my blog income I have been running another CPC network - Chitika - ads for more then a year now. And the income from it never amounted to much and was certainly not comparable to what AdSense was generating. Until this January. When Chitika started earning almost the same amount of money as AdSense, which effectively doubled my blog income.

What happened? Well, Chitika introduced a new ad format, called “Related products unit” (RPU). It looks like this:

If you are writing some product related posts, RPU’s are a perfect fit. You put this ad right under your post text, style it with CSS and it doesn’t look like an ad at all. So you get a very good click through rates. For tech products, the CPC of RPU ads are even better then the average CPC I get from AdSense. And when one of my blog posts was dugg, Chitika RPU pulled in two times more then all other ads combined.

High CPC + High CTR = High eCPM = Very good additional income stream.

And you can get an even better CTR, by making Chitika serve contextual ads. It needs some hacking, but is pretty easy to do:

1. In your blog theme files, find your Chitika ads code and then find a line that says: var ch_queries = new Array( ). The keywords that you entered when configuring your ad in Chitika console, will usually be displayed between brackets.
2. Delete those keywords
3. Enter php function that displays your blog post title, like this: var ch_queries = new Array( “<?php the_title(); ?>” )
4. That’s it. Sit back and enjoy increased CTR

Now whatever you write in your blog post title will be be sent to Chitika as keywords to match their ads against. So if you write a post “Motorola RAZR V3 Review”, Chitika will look up and serve the ads for motorola RAZR phones.

If you don’t want to use post title and you are using some tag plugins, then you can send the post tags as keywords. This hack for Ultimate Tag Warior plugin is described in detail at Techtites.

Some of you may have heard a lot of bad things about Chitika in the end of 2005. There was a huge uproar in the blogosphere when Chitika started auditing and cutting publisher earnings by as much as 70%. Which was a really stupid thing to do and cost them dearly.

But that was more then a year ago and since then Chitika got its act together. Sure, it still audits publisher monthly earnings 3 weeks after it publishes them. And after the audit, my monthly earnings get a 15 to 20% haircut. Which sucks.

But with the level of income Chitika is generating me with new RPUs, I think I can live with a little smaller paycheck, then what I saw in my monthly results panel.

Also from the Chitika RPU FAQ:

Related Products Unit (RPU) Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ):

1. What is the “Related Products Unit”?

   The related products unit (nicknamed: RPU) is a little ad unit that is placed at the end of blog/news stories and that shows related products and offers. More information and a screenshot is available here: http://chitika.com/rpu_overview.php

2. Why should I be excited about it?
   We tested it out on a couple of blogs and the performance was excellent. It turned out to be a great new incremental source of revenue and a big hit with readers.

3. Who else is using this and what do they have to say about it?
   It is currently being offered to only a select bunch of Chitika publishers. Some featured clients testing this out (as of September 22nd 2006) are i4u.com and gpsreview.net. i4u says: “The CTR and eCPM is pretty good.” and gpsreview.net says: “Well so far I’m certainly a fan of RPU. :)”

4. Is this Google/Yahoo compatible? How is the targeting done?
   Yes. Like eMiniMalls, it is completely non-contextual.

5. How do I track the returns from this?
   The returns on this is tracked using the channel tracking feature. From the reports, you can select the channel name and it will show how the unit is performing.

6. Are all other eMiniMall features supported in this unit?

   Most eMiniMall features are supported. Including:

   • Channel tracking

   • Alternate URL

   • Look and Feel (colors, fonts, etc)

   • Category targeting

   The features NOT supported at this time are:

   • Localization (as in European countries will continue to see US merchants at this time)

7. Can any publisher get this unit?
   Not at this time. This is being offered only to select Chitika customers who have crossed $1000 in revenue [Oh yeah — we do make exceptions for engadget and gizmodo!]

Code Integration Questions:

8. Can I create the code myself?

   Yes. Login to your account and hit this code generator: https://chitika.com/affiliate/rpucode.php
   (It does not have all the advanced hacking features mentioned in this FAQ — but should be a good start).

9. Where can I place this unit?

   At this time, the unit can be placed in one spot and one spot alone. And that is: At the end of the blog post or story. This unit does not make sense in other spots. You would have seen “Related Articles” content on some blogs. The line of thinking is similar.

10. Can I set my own CSS (so as to EXACTLY replicate my site look and feel)?

    Yes. You can create your own CSS and pass that in. The template CSS we use is here: http://chitika.com/support/rpu.css . You can download it, modify it and put it up on your own website. Then pass it in like this:

    ch_alternate_css_url = “http://yourdomain.com/rpu.css”;

    For more in-depth information on editing the MPU CSS, click here.

11. Does it cannibalize my other revenue sources?

    Possibly. However, in tests till now, the net effect has been positive. In other words, publishers who are trying this out are getting bigger checks (not smaller!)

12. I hate it when prices are shown; can I disable that? [Why are you showing the prices anyway?]

    Yes. You can disable the prices using this code:

    ch_noprice = 1;

    The prices are being shown because some feel that it presents a clearer picture to the end users and opens up new alternatives.

13. Sometimes my article titles are horrible and are not product related. What happens then?

    You have two choices:

    1. There is a fall back category that you will specify. We will pick related products from that category. (this is similar to the eMiniMalls category hint feature).

    2. It is recommended that you specify a fall back query in the list. Example:

    var ch_queries = new Array( “TomTom to get Tiny GPS”, “garmin gps” );

14. Can I supply more than one query in the list?

    Yes. We will always run with the first one. The others will be used as backups.

15. Can I have it in other sizes?

    We offer four different RPU sizes: 468×120 (the default size), 468×90, 300×250, and 250×250. More information on the various sizes can be found by clicking here.

16. Can I customize the text to say something other than “Related Products”?

    Yes. Here is the example code:

    ch_att = “Popular Related GPS”;

17. Can I remove that text that says “Related Products”?

    Yes (though it is not recommended). Here is the code to use: (Notice that it is a string with a space — it is NOT an empty string)

    ch_att = ” “;

18. Can I remove or hide that “What’s this?” link?

    No. If it makes you feel better, the link is referral enabled anyway (so if somebody likes that unit and signs up, you get credit)

19. Can I have the links open in a new window (right now they open in the current window)?

    Yes (though we don’t recommend it). Here is the code to use:

    ch_target = “_blank”;

20. If the query does not yield any related products, can I collapse that space?

    We believe the space can be collapsed using the alternate URL feature (similar to Google’s Collapsing Ads) However, we have not tested it out as yet. So if you do figure it out, do send us a note.

Dude!: