Mega Unit gives 450% revenue increase to PowerHomeBiz.com

January 20th, 2010

15 comments

Posted in: Chitika | Premium, Front Page News, Publisher Success Stories

Isabel Isidro and her husband, Nach Maravilla, reached what Isidro calls a “turning point” for their website, PowerHomeBiz.com, in the summer of 2009. That’s when they found out about Chitika’s newest ad unit, the Mega Unit – an ad unit that would go on to increase their site revenues by 450% in the first month alone. We sat down and spoke with Isidro about her experiences as a web publisher, on running Chitika ads, and on how their earnings have been impacted over the past six months.

How did PowerHomeBiz.com get started?

“We started PowerHomeBiz.com in December 1999. We saw the tremendous growth potential of the Web and knew that we wanted to start an online business. We both were scammed by work at home business opportunities advertised in magazines, and we knew that there is a huge market of people out there looking for ways to earn money from their homes. We decided to start an information resource site to help people start, run and manage a home-based business the legitimate way.”

Do you currently own any other websites?

“We have since added two other sites to our network – WomenHomeBusiness.com for women entrepreneurs; as well as Learning from the Big Boys showcasing lessons that small businesses can learn from big businesses.”

What were your first experiences with online advertising?

“We tried several CPM ad networks, but we’ve always been so disappointed with the earnings. While our traffic increased through the years, our income from these ad networks stayed at the same negligible levels – even after giving them prime “real estate” in our site.

Our mistake was in assuming that Chitika will perform just like the CPM ad networks we have joined. We joined Chitika in 2005, and we basically didn’t expect anything from it. We just joined Chitika, and promptly forgot about it. We barely displayed the Chitika ads, and if we did, we placed it in less visible pages and in less visible part of the page. As a result, income from Chitika was negligible.”

..the way Chitika emphasized that their product is compatible with Google AdSense caught our attention.”

“We were doing extremely well with Google AdSense and direct ad sales at the time we joined Chitika, and all our premium real estate were given to AdSense and to our own direct advertisers. There was no question as to which ad network we should be focusing on and giving our prime real estate.

We started thinking about Chitika when Chitika Premium was announced. Our main priority has always been Google AdSense, but the way Chitika emphasized that their product is compatible with Google AdSense caught our attention. We already know from our experience with Google Adsense that our visitors are highly responsive to ads. Plus, PowerHomeBiz.com receives a huge amount of search engine traffic. Still, Chitika remained in the backburner.”

So what changed your mind about keeping Chitika in low prominent placements?

“The turning point was when a Chitika email newsletter announced the availability of the Mega Units 500×250 and 550×250 in the summer of 2009. The newsletter also demonstrated the best practices for these new ad units, again emphasizing that these ad units are compatible with AdSense and how these units could work with AdSense on a page. I think that was the first newsletter from Chitika that I really paid attention to and read.”

The first month alone of implementing the mega units saw an increase of 450% in revenues – and that was only for a handful of our pages!”

“After reading the newsletter, we implemented the Mega Units at the bottom of a few articles to test it out. We were greatly pleased with the results. The first month alone of implementing the mega units saw an increase of 450% in revenues – and that was only for a handful of our pages! We knew that the time of ignoring Chitika was over. We are now in the process of adding the Mega Unit in all our pages.

We’re looking forward this year to seeing Chitika become a major revenue source for PowerHomeBiz.com. And we’re off to a great start – for the first half of January 2010, our unaudited earnings is already equal to what we earned from 2005 to 2008!”

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15 Responses to “ Mega Unit gives 450% revenue increase to PowerHomeBiz.com ”

1. 
   Nick Says:
   January 20th, 2010 at 5:23 pm

   I enjoyed the success story, but after visiting the website I’m not sure I could handle that many advertisements on a site (6 units on the home page alone). I’d be worried the purpose of the site was generating clicks instead of sharing valuable content at that point.

2. 
   Tracey Says:
   January 20th, 2010 at 5:33 pm

   Perhaps they are so successful because it’s hard to tell where ads stop and content begins. The site is very cluttered. In starting my blog, I was told that was a major no-no. Whatever makes money, though. Right?

3. 
   Redefine The Experience Says:
   January 20th, 2010 at 5:35 pm

   I just updated the settings on the WP Plugin. I’m looking forward to the results!

4. 
   J.L Says:
   January 20th, 2010 at 5:39 pm

   I agree with you Nick, I was confused by their content. But I like their charity ads, this is good beside earning money and you have to do some effort for helping social.

5. 
   Fuelzilla Says:
   January 20th, 2010 at 5:43 pm

   450% increase in any type of advertising without a corresponding traffic increase could only be because of a calculation error. Most likely their previous earnings with Chitika were negligible so much so that they do not provide any reliable basis for any percentage increase calculation. What I would like to see here is some concrete positioning advise rather than an exercise in a meaningless bending of statistics rules. Mega units are what they sound like – BIG – and require careful position consideration. What works best for positioning of such a unit?

6. 
   deviaries Says:
   January 20th, 2010 at 11:17 pm

   I’ve joined chitika for about six months, but I haven’t implemented Chitika in any of my website. After reading this success story, I think I am gonna use Chitika ad code soon..

   Thanks anyway.. :)

7. 
   alex Says:
   January 21st, 2010 at 2:37 am

   450% ?? LOL. or they don’t make money with adsense.

8. 
   Deepak Says:
   January 21st, 2010 at 6:26 am

   true i agree..mine have been increased atleast 70% everymonths though i earn very less.. but going up and up..

9. 
   Replace Says:
   January 21st, 2010 at 9:27 am

   Oh.. thax for information

10. 
    Gong Show Says:
    January 21st, 2010 at 1:38 pm

    Our Chitika revenue had doubled in the past six months and we do not use the big mother ads.

11. 
    Are Morch Says:
    January 21st, 2010 at 3:15 pm

    I tested out some different option after reading the ebook. So far my experience is that the Mega Units perform best. Can’t say I had an 450% increase yet. But I am starting to see an positive trend with Chikita.

    Just have to figure new ways to bring it to the next level.

    Cheers.. Are

12. 
    Isabel Isidro Says:
    January 21st, 2010 at 4:33 pm

    >>450% increase in any type of advertising without a corresponding traffic increase could only be because of a calculation error.

    No. First, our traffic has increased significantly last year. Early in 2009, we were in the 42,000 range in Alexa and now we are ranked 25,715.

    Second, and more relevantly, when you only have the Chitika code in 10 pages and then you put it in 100 of your highest traffic pages, Chitika ad impressions will jump significantly. As I specifically mentioned, “We barely displayed the Chitika ads, and if we did, we placed it in less visible pages and in less visible part of the page. As a result, income from Chitika was negligible.”

    It’s not an exercise in “statistics bending rules.” It’s simple:

    a. Use Chitika and put it in your pages

    b. Put the right code in the right spot

    For the mega units, because of its size, what worked for us is putting the code at the bottom of the articles.

    >>”Perhaps they are so successful because it’s hard to tell where ads stop and content begins.”

    Our first goal is to provide information. The second is to earn from the site. We don’t aim to be the prettiest side on the block.

    Our site was created in 1999, and it sure has the feel and look of 1999. We do admit the site is antiquated. Heck, our ads are hard coded on each page! But it works for us. Why tamper with something that works? The last thing we want is to make the site pretty, and then lose our earnings. We already did a pretty site, but metrics and revenues from those sites pale in comparison to PowerHomeBiz.com You’ve got to find a balance somewhere – and remember why you created the site in the first place.

    >>450% ?? LOL. or they don’t make money with adsense.

    Trust me, we do earn money with Adsense :o)

13. 
    Terri Ann Swallow Says:
    January 21st, 2010 at 5:47 pm

    @fuelzilla
    >> Mega units are what they sound like – BIG – and require careful position consideration. What works best for positioning of such a unit?

    As a publisher as well as a Chitika employee I completely agree the mega unit is big (that’s where the name came from; we named it before we knew how well it would perform across the board.)

    As far as the best positioning for such a unit: The mega unit is often best placed at the bottom of the content for the typical publisher. It fits the standard width of a content area of an article or blog.

    Positioning it between the end of a post and the links to related posts, comments or tags makes it’s search targeted relevancy very clear to the viewer since they’ve just read the post as a response to the terms they had searched for. That’s one of the mega unit’s biggest advantages it feels like content rather than an ad; but don’t get me wrong it doesn’t mean it will work for every site and every publisher that’s why you need to test ad placement!

    Big thanks for Isabel and Nach for sharing their story.

14. 
    Fuelzilla Says:
    January 22nd, 2010 at 12:37 pm

    Hi Terri and thanks for your comments. I have to admit I have tried mega units positioned right as you advise – at the bottom of the pages. It is actually a good spot for large ad units on most sites. However, my test was in a middle of your testing the quality score (I hope you guys are done playing with it) and the Mega units tanked my QS so much that I got scared and pulled them off. I think what happened was that positioning an ad at the bottom means that you are naturally going to get lower CTR and that was drugging down quality score (and earnings) for the entire account and all Chitika ads wherever they were located. Can you confirm that this situation will never happen again. Or at least that, should you implement QS again, you will treat mega units in a special way?

15. 
    Terri Ann Swallow Says:
    January 22nd, 2010 at 3:02 pm

    @Fuelzilla

    Oh really? I can’t think of any reason the mega unit (itself) would have caused a quality score drop. The quality score is not directly reflective of CTR but rather the effectiveness and quality of the clicks the ads received.

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