Finalists chosen for Chitika + Adsense Contest

September 28th, 2009

44 comments

Posted in: Contests!, Front Page News

We received hundreds of submissions for our AdSense + Chitika Ad Placement Contest this year, thank you to all who entered!

This year we have decided to narrow it down to 8 finalists and have you vote for our grand prize winner who will receive a Playstation 3 Slim + NFL Madden 10, and 2 runners up who will receive $200 each.

The finalists in the running for the grand prize are:

HowToBecomeSomething.com
AskTheBuilder.com
TheEasyRecipe.com
Natural-Stone-Interiors.com

Please review the links above and vote for your favorite here:

*VOTING IS NOW CLOSED- WINNERS TO BE ANNOUNCED*

And the websites chosen as the runners up are:

ComputingUnleashed.com
AntonAmoto.com
EnvironmentalChemistry.com
InsideMyLaptop.com

Please review the links above and vote for your favorite here:

*VOTING IS NOW CLOSED- WINNERS TO BE ANNOUNCED*

About the Author: Karla Escolas is part of the CRM/Marketing team here at Chitika Inc. She also specializes in working one-on-one with publishers using simple optimization techniques to increase their revenue. Follow her on Twitter @KarlaChitika to find out more.

Tags: adsense, chitika, contest, google, online advertising, placement, playstation 3, premium

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44 Responses to “ Finalists chosen for Chitika + Adsense Contest ”

Adsense + Chitika Placement Contest 2: Win Playstation 3 Slim & NFL Madden 10 - The Chitika Blog Archive Says:
September 28th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
[...] *UPDATE: This Contest Is Now Closed* Finalists announced here [...]
AutoCritical Says:
September 28th, 2009 at 8:41 pm
Well done to the ones that made the short list!
Erick Says:
September 28th, 2009 at 8:42 pm
Not lucky to be in the list…anyhow….i have made vote for first and second place…good luck buddy….
GogruMogru.com Says:
September 28th, 2009 at 8:46 pm
We are happy for you all that you reach at this stage. All the best from GogruMogru.com
M. R. Lawrence Says:
September 28th, 2009 at 8:56 pm
This wouldn’t qualify for the adsense contest as I used a dual combo of AdBrite and Clickbank side by side for the Chitika alternate embed while Google is above to the left and the Google Custom Search is at the bottom:

http://Page1.YankeeCrier.net
oes tsetnoc Says:
September 28th, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Congrats and good luck!
Lasantha Bandara Says:
September 28th, 2009 at 9:48 pm
Good Luck !!!!
www.sunilsaharan.co.cc Says:
September 28th, 2009 at 10:05 pm
Congrats to the finalists.
CORA G. CLARIN Says:
September 28th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
GOOD LUCK! HOPE U BRING HOME THE BACON. KEEP UP THE GOOD LENT U HAVE. CONGRATS!!!
CORA G. CLARIN Says:
September 28th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK AND TALENT U HAVE. GOD BLESS U.
Laptop Guy Says:
September 28th, 2009 at 10:31 pm
Very interesting,
One site in the second pool just went from 27% to 42% in like 5 minutes while all other sites didn’t move at all.
Clear browser and vote again??? :/
EchoBlogger Says:
September 28th, 2009 at 11:27 pm
I like HowToBecomeSomething.com.

And Congrats to all the other winners !!!!

-Echoblogger.com
JWU Says:
September 29th, 2009 at 3:46 am
great article. these ad layouts are very creative and have given me some new ideas
John O'Hara Says:
September 29th, 2009 at 3:47 am
I like the layout of the ‘howtobecomesomething.com’ site. Chitika ads are placed at the top of blog posts which is one of the best locations, they are above above the fold so that people don’t have to scroll down to see them.

The best of luck to all 8 finalists, you’ve done really well to even be considered for this contest.

John O’Hara
United Kingdom
Erik Says:
September 29th, 2009 at 7:36 am
I couldn’t help notice that the Natural Stone Interiors site has six Adsense placements on that page. Someone should let them know that is a TOS violation which can get their account banned. Something Chitika might want to consider when choosing a winner - compliance with advertiser terms.
www.PuneSpider.com Says:
September 29th, 2009 at 8:09 am
Congratulations to the finalists.
All the best
EvironmentalChemistry.com Says:
September 29th, 2009 at 9:00 am
One important tip about ad placement is not to allow ad placement overrule good user experience. Nothing drives users toward ad-blocking technology faster than obnoxious ads or ads overwhelming content. Too often I find sites so cluttered with ads that I’m not really sure what is the actual content.

In the short run, filling the top of a page with ads and blurring the “line” between ads and content might give a CPM boost to one’s site. HOWEVER, it also makes a site seem more like a spammy MFA (made for AdSense) site and will drive off users and reduce long term traffic levels.

Accepting a slightly lower CTR on ads in the short run, and focusing on providing a great user experience will entice users to spend more time on your site, return again and maybe even share your site with others. This will increase your long term traffic potential and increase your long term total revenues, even if your CTR & CPM are a little lower than a spammy competitor. In the end, CPM & CTR don’t matter, it is how much you put in the bank that counts.

Focus on user experience and keep those sites clean and look at long term objectives.

Just two cents from someone who has been at this game since 1995.
syamsul Says:
September 29th, 2009 at 9:45 am
Congratulations for the candinate …
Sunil Says:
September 29th, 2009 at 11:33 am
I missed that :(
Bisnis is Business Says:
September 29th, 2009 at 11:51 am
Congratulations to the finalist.
Good Luck!
Dr.Vitrag Says:
September 29th, 2009 at 1:12 pm
I’ve voted for the best.
I hope you i’ll learn something from you guys.
Please guide me ad placement for my vbulletin forum too.
Thanks.
Shireishou Says:
September 29th, 2009 at 8:31 pm
Congratz for the finalist ^^
Rajesh Says:
September 29th, 2009 at 8:48 pm
Congrats and good luck
Carolyn Says:
September 30th, 2009 at 1:11 am
Hi Eric -

Quick note on adsense compliance - a max of 3 google contextual ads as well as 3 link units. Hope that clears it up for you.
_______
Best of luck to everyone. I see some great ideas for combining adsense with chitika.

For what it’s worth, I have noticed through testing on our site, Chitika on the very top or next to images get the best CTR. There is a trade off with Chitika on the top.
———–
“I couldn’t help notice that the Natural Stone Interiors site has six Adsense placements on that page. Someone should let them know that is a TOS violation which can get their account banned. Something Chitika might want to consider when choosing a winner - compliance with advertiser terms.”
steve houser Says:
September 30th, 2009 at 1:38 am
I love this website and Tim has all the great repair info. one could ask for, from homeowner to handyman to contractor (I’m a building contractor in SoCal). Looks like askthebuilder.com is way up in the race and is riding a winning horse! Great site…great guy. Best of luck and thanks for your website.
Mutiaramail Says:
September 30th, 2009 at 1:58 am
Congratulation 8 finalis good luck.
Ingresos Says:
September 30th, 2009 at 9:35 am
congratulations to tha finalist
Strange thing Says:
September 30th, 2009 at 10:55 am
Hi all,
I think this poll is screwed up.
Take a look at EnvironmentalChemistry.com as an example.
This site received 389 votes total and 306 votes came from Maryland.
At the same time the largest state in the USA California submitted only 10 votes total!
Isn’t it strange?
I guess someone from Maryland really likes EnvironmentalChemistry.com

[sarcasm]
Disqualified!

Just my $0.02
EvironmentalChemistry.com Says:
September 30th, 2009 at 11:05 am
I live in Maine (three votes) and do not know who is in Maryland. I’ve been watching that issue and don’t know what to make of it. Also notice, however, that there are almost no U.S. votes for AntonAmoto.com. This is also very peculiar for a U.S. targeted ad network.

I see no problems counting only one vote per IP address, which is how the poll should have been run in the first place. Cookie based polling is too easy to circumvent.
EvironmentalChemistry.com Says:
September 30th, 2009 at 11:12 am
Another detail that wasn’t made clear about these polls is whether or not it was permissible to solicit votes from one’s readers as was done here: http://www.antonamoto.com/2009/09/29/vote-antonamoto-com-for-runners-up-finalists-for-chitika/

If that was okay then we have to live with the way things fall out. It would make sense for Chitika to want us to solicit votes as this would help them attract new publishers.
Strange thing Says:
September 30th, 2009 at 12:12 pm
that there are almost no U.S. votes for AntonAmoto.com. This is also very peculiar for a U.S. targeted ad network.

I noticed that yesterday. I took one of the leading sites with 100 votes. After that I went though all USA states and counted only 12 or 13 votes.
Where other 87 votes came from?

I see no problems counting only one vote per IP address, which is how the poll should have been run in the first place.

Agree 100%.
Log the IP address and allow only votes from countries in the Chitika network.

Another detail that wasn’t made clear about these polls is whether or not it was permissible to solicit votes from one’s readers as was done here

If I would place a post like that on my site, I would get a few thousand votes easy. :)
But I didn’t.

Cookie based polling is too easy to circumvent.

Yep, just clear the browser cash and vote again and again.

I live in Maine (three votes) and do not know who is in Maryland.

Sorry for misunderstanding, I wasn’t blaming you at all. I think it’s just the poll itself is messed up.
http://environmentalchemistry.com/ is a well established site with great PR and Alexa ratings. I really doubt that the owner of this reputable site has time for crap like that.
EvironmentalChemistry.com Says:
September 30th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Sorry for misunderstanding, I wasn’t blaming you at all. I think it’s just the poll itself is messed up.

No offense taken. I too would have been peeved if multiple voting swayed the poll results. There is getting out the vote and then there is stuffing the ballot box.

The polling widget Chitika is using does appear to have an option to log IP address so it should be reasonably easy to weed out all duplicate votes from the same IP. This would mostly resolve any issues.

I’m sure there is a way to download a spreadsheet that shows who each IP address voted for and then do a group by such that each IP address was counted only once. That would be as fair as possible to everyone involved.

I think the most important thing about this polling is to get publishers to think about the different ways other websites are deploying Chitika. This could give publishers, especially the less experienced ones, ideas on how to improve their ad usage.

Maybe ad placement and theory would be a good topic of discussion in the Chitika forums if we could actually get seasoned publishers to participate.
Karla Escolas Says:
September 30th, 2009 at 2:43 pm
Hey everyone! Thanks for voting! This year’s contest has turned out really well :)

We understand your concern for the multiple voting and we will be taking action on getting the proper numbers. Voting is open for approx 8 more hours and winners will be announced shortly thereafter.

-Karla :)
Who Am I? Says:
September 30th, 2009 at 2:49 pm
“Hi all,
I think this poll is screwed up.
Take a look at EnvironmentalChemistry.com as an example.
This site received 389 votes total and 306 votes came from Maryland.
At the same time the largest state in the USA California submitted only 10 votes total!
Isn’t it strange?
I guess someone from Maryland really likes EnvironmentalChemistry.com

[sarcasm]
Disqualified!

Just my $0.02″

I’m just wondering if Strange thing says the negative side of EnvironmentalChemistry.com. I think it’s a better way on how to promote your favorited/owned site through commenting system.

I’m too really excited to hear some comments for the rest of the candidates.
EvironmentalChemistry.com Says:
September 30th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
So that we can carry on discussion of ad placement strategies beyond this blog post and contest, I have started a thread on the Chitika forums at: http://chitika.com/forum/index.php?topic=2021.0

Please join the discussion.
You Voted: Winners of PS3, $400 in placement contest - The Chitika Blog Archive Says:
October 2nd, 2009 at 10:22 am
[...] After hundreds of submissions, Chitika’s Special Projects Team narrowed it down to 8 finalists - you can see them here. [...]
acne site Says:
October 4th, 2009 at 3:45 am
congratulations….success for the winner
kevdeville Says:
October 10th, 2009 at 2:17 pm
Congratulations Kevdevilleonline.com is next
Chinthu Says:
October 22nd, 2009 at 3:26 pm
Congrats to the winners.
Yolanda Says:
November 1st, 2009 at 5:57 am
All the best ‘n Congratulations to the finalists…
Concept Car One Says:
November 1st, 2009 at 6:02 am
GBU to the finalists, keep up the good work and talent u have…
Accounting Teacher Says:
November 6th, 2009 at 11:51 am
who is the winner?
emetu Says:
November 13th, 2009 at 9:55 am
My name is precious i have not seen any google ads on my site and any chikita primium since i created it almost two months why? and i am not happy about it please do something about it
Anish K.S Says:
November 18th, 2009 at 2:54 am
Congrats to all winners.