We are happy to announce that with our new Advertiser Referral Program all Chitika users can earn referral revenue for advertisers they bring to the Chitika network alongside our Publisher Referral Program and of course, your monthly revenue payments from our product services.

Why promote Chitika as a platform to advertisers?
Chitika collectively serves over 2 billion impressions and reaches over 20 million uniques each month. You’ll earn $25.00 once your advertiser referral reaches $100.00 spent in their ad campaign, and there is no limit to the number of referrals you can generate each month.

Login, and get your referral link/button under “Referral Programs“.

Not yet a user? Sign up in minutes!

Since the release of our flagship ad unit eMiniMalls, Chitika has always provided products and services you can use in conjunction with other services. Thats right - we have no restrictions for using Chitika products with any other revenue-earning ad units on your website.

We’ve received many questions from users asking if Chitika | Premium can be used alongside Google Adsense on their pages. Chitika | Premium is not a text-ad; it’s an interactive, image-enabled widget that is non-contextual and behaviorally targeted. Because of this, you should be able to use both ad units on your page together without being in violation.

As was mentioned yesterday, Chitika | Premium is Chitika’s first-ever ad unit suitable for ALL types of content websites. This ad unit is the first of our ad unit suite to provide non-product content ads such as finance, travel, sports, and more!

Sign up now to get your Premium code.
Users: Login and click your “Get Code” tab to access your Premium Code!

In addition to the new Chitika | Premium ads being your highest performing ad units (eCPM), they are Chitika’s first-ever ad units suitable for ALL types of content websites.

As previously mentioned, Chitika | Premium ads will only show to your U.S. traffic, and since they are behaviorally targeted they will only display to SOME U.S. users. So how do you preview this ad unit?

You can preview in 3 steps:
1. Paste the code up on your site.
2. In your address bar add #chitikatest=mortgage to the end of your page URL.
3. Press ENTER then Ctrl + R to refresh your page.

This will show you what the ad would look like to a user who is interested in “mortgages.” You can replace “mortgages” with your keywords to view other ads, just make sure you then REPEAT STEP 3.

GET YOUR PREMIUM AD CODE!

When can I start earning revenue from Advertiser Referrals?
That question may just be answered sooner than you think. Similar to our Publisher Referral Program, where you earn 10% of your referral revenue for 15 months, we are working on offering an Advertiser Referral Program. Just like most referral programs, Chitika users will receive a referral link and/or banner to place on their website or blog in which you will receive revenue for any advertisers referred to and accepted into the Chitika network.

Fact: Some Chitika users are earning thousands off Publisher Referral Revenue alone!

We want to know if you benefit from Advertiser Referral Programs and what you think about Chitika potentially offering you one:

One month ago we announced the upcoming launch of a new, high-earning ad unit: Chitika | Premium. We are happy to say that this ad unit is now available to start earning you revenue!

What is this? A smart, personalized targeting ad solution that provides premium content. This ad unit is CPC and is designed to be your highest performing ad unit (eCPM).

Who should use this ad unit? Chitika | Premium ads are a great fit for any website with any type of content including finance, travel, sports, etc. If your website gets a lot of U.S. traffic, then Chitika | Premium ads are a perfect match for you.

When will this ad unit display on my site? Chitika | Premium ads will only show to U.S. traffic, and since they are behaviorally targeted they will only display to SOME U.S. users. When your Premium ad unit does display for a visitor it will show them advertisements they are interested in (because, after all, it’s behaviorally targeted).

What happens when Chitika | Premium does not display? The ad simply collapses into nothing. You can show an alternate URL in it’s place.

To get your Chitika | Premium code, LOGIN and click the “Get Code” tab or click below:

Chitika has built innovative technology behind an ad suite that is now made up of over 70 ad units for the last 5 years. In 2008, Chitika took online-video-branding to a new and exciting level with the Chitika | VBU. It’s interactive features, not available in any other ad unit on the web today, is just one reason the VBU was selected as a 2008 MITX Tech Awards Finalist.

With the VBU, we introduced a general-purpose framework for conversational brand marketing in the new web with full flexibility and control to advertisers. (See our advertiser case study). The units are highly customizable and offer several different options for viral marketing, including “Comment”, “Share it”, and “Rate it” tabs. The VBU also has advance targeting capabilities that perform well at the site, category and keyword levels.

“Chitika has always provided TechEBlog with a variety of eye-catching ad units that provide a nice stream of revenue. Their latest product, VBU is definitely no slouch, giving our readers a chance to comment on the great products shown in the ad units.” -Steve, TechEBlog.com

*UPDATE: Read more in our MITX Tech Awards Finalist Press Release.

Chitika is very happy to be selected as a finalist for a 2^nd time. Chitika was first selected as a MITX finalist in 2005 for our eMiniMalls ad unit. MITX Awards have grown into one of the largest and most prestigious awards competitions in the country for technology innovations, and celebrates the best creative and technological accomplishments emerging from New England.

NEW! Now when you login to your Chitika account and click on your Reports, we are now providing a breakdown of how your Chitika ads are doing in different parts of the world. You will be able to see how well your ad units did for your US Traffic, All Supported Countries, and Non-US Supported Countries so YOU will know where to focus your efforts to increase your revenue:

Just a reminder, here is a list of our supported countries:
(Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, UK, US).

Because this is a new feature, you will only see a breakdown from different countries from traffic after 4/24/08. Login and see how your traffic measures up!

Excitement has been brewing since we first announced that CPM Graphic Banners will soon be integrated into your websites. As we rolled this out you saw excellent results and we have seen an immediate increase in revenue across the board.

This new service is designed to help publishers earn more revenue. All Chitika publishers are automatically enrolled in it unless you opt-out (keep reading for opt-out options). How it works: The Chitika ad on your page will display a CPM banner/graphic ad on your page only when it makes sense - when it can earn you more revenue.

For example, if you are in Canada, and viewing a page with a Chitika ad on it, we will most likely show you a CPM Graphic banner because we are seeing more revenue from graphic ads for Canadian traffic.

If you are the type of person who does not like graphic ads on their site you can opt-out of our CPM program, just LOGIN and click on your “Account” tab near the top of the page (opt-out option is located at the bottom of the page). However, we do not recommend doing this, because it will result in less revenue for you.

As always, if you have any questions about this please contact your account manager or contact Chitika Support. We are extremely excited about this, and we look forward to increasing your revenue further as we continue to bring new sources of advertising into our network.

Chitika has partnered with TiECON East to launch an exciting contest for bloggers, The Blogpreneur Contest.

We are hosting this contest to feature the success of bloggers.
To keep a successful blog today is by no means an easy challenge, and in this contest you will get a chance to share the secrets to your very own success, how you were able to get your blog up and running and what you think entrepreneurs can learn from you.

For 3 Winners:

• You will be featured as “blog stars” in a promotional spotlight during the TiECON Entrepreneur Forum (TiECON East is attended by over 5,000 people!)
• Online video footage of your winning feature from the TiECON Conference to showcase on your blog
• Extreme visibility for your blog on the TiE Boston website via news story, The Chitika Blog & Newsletter
• A winning award badge for your blog & a plaque (awarded at TiECON East 2008; if the winner cannot attend, the plaque will be mailed to you)
• A free one-year subscription from our friends at Technology Review Magazine

It’s very easy to participate and as simple as posting a blog post,
Click here to LEARN MORE

We are making a small change for people who are viewing Chitika ads from unsupported countries. If you live in one of the following supported countries THIS WILL NOT AFFECT YOU, so feel free to stop reading anytime now (go outside, or play some video games, enjoy life!):

The supported countries are: USA, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, France, Italy, Netherlands, New Zealand, Spain, Sweden, UK

However if you DO NOT live in a country listed above, then you will notice a change in some of your Chitika ad units.

To reduce stress on our servers and infrastructure, if you are viewing Chitika ads from a country that is NOT on the list above, you will now see a default ad or PSA.

IMPORTANT: THIS WILL NOT AFFECT YOUR REVENUE AT ALL! Since we do not pay for clicks from unsupported countries, this will have ZERO impact on your revenue - it will only change the way Chitika ads appear to people viewing from unsupported countries.

This change will allow our servers to run a lot smoother and faster, which will make for a better experience for all of your users. Another very positive note: Over the coming weeks, we will be focusing on securing advertisers to fill these spots, and earn you revenue for traffic that we could not monetize before. Stay tuned! :)

**UPDATE**: I should have posted this originally (sorry for the oversight!) - but here is a VERY easy way for you to show an alternate ad (or graphic, or whatever you want) to traffic coming from unsupported countries. Just add this line into your Chitika code:

ch_alternate_ad_url = “INSERT YOUR URL HERE”;

You can read more about using this variable here.

-Ryan Travis, Director of Client Services