1. What happened to my traffic from October and November?!? It’s gone!!

The “unaudited” (or ‘raw’) data is cleared from your account every 60-90 days. The reason for clearing your past months of unaudited data is to speed up loading of your current reporting data.

However, your audited stats (which is what payments are based on) will never be cleared from your account. Here’s a great knowledgebase article on how to view your audited data.

To view your “audited” revenue stats in your reports simply click on “Change Report Metrics/Settings” and select “Audited Revenue”:

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2. What happened to Chitika | eMiniMalls?

Chitika | eMiniMalls have been upgraded to Chitika | Premium ads over the past year. With this change we can now cater to ALL types of websites - finance, health, automobile, etc., instead of focusing on websites centered around shopping products & product reviews. Since this upgrade our publisher network has grown from 17,000 to 39,000!

Learn more about Premium and its award-winning innovative technology here.

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3. How come I see “mortgage” ads in my Premium ads? My site isn’t about mortgages!

Premium Ads can only be seen on your page by visitors who enter your site from a search engine, and the ad displayed in this unit will be based on the term they searched for. To preview the ad, we created a Preview Tool that will show you a “test” of how the ad will appear to a search engine visitor reaching your site. The default term for this ‘test’ is “mortgages”.

To use the Preview Tool- Add this text to the end of your URL: #chitikatest=mortgage
Then click ENTER, and Ctrl + R to refresh your page.

You can change the term for this ‘test’; if you change the word “mortgages” to “cars”, you would see an add for cars, etc.

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4. I tried logging into the support section, but it wouldn’t let me!

The log-in for our Customer Support System is different from the account section of chitika.com - this way, non-members can submit questions.

FIRST, click “Submit a Ticket“, to contact support. After you submit your question, you will receive an email with a user name (your email address) and password to log in to the Support section. If not, try checking your spam folder (sometimes the spam monster steals our emails).

We want to encourage anyone who has an issue with their ads or any part of Chitika services to let us know so we can work on fixing it right away. You may have noticed our Feedback tab throughout our website - thank you all for your great feedback!

The end of the week can be tough, as the last few minutes and hours of the day count down and the weekend seems soooo far away…so, here’s something adorable to brighten up the rest of your day:

The first picture of eMiniMalls Escolas!!

Congratulations to Karla and Mike on their 6 lb, 5oz bundle of Chitika branding power!

(Okay, so they didn’t name her “eMiniMalls”, but we’re very, very happy for them!)

Three quick facts about us here at Chitika:

1.) The first-ever Chitika staff meeting took place at a Wendy’s in Waltham, MA.

2.) One of the names considered for the eMiniMalls ad unit was ‘MiniPortal’ (but nobody understood what the heck it meant).

3.) Karla Escolas, who has done such an incredible job as the editor of this blog for the past two years, will be leaving very soon on maternity leave. We wish Karla, her husband Mike, and their new baby-to-be (who will, no doubt, be named eMiniMalls Escolas) the best of luck and best of health over the next few months!

^{First picture taken of eMiniMalls Escolas, circa 2010}

The interim editor of this blog, Daniel Dore, will introduce himself in a self-indulgent post on Monday. Stay tuned!

For absolutely no reason at all, and with no prompting whatsoever, we here at Chitika wanted to mention our referral programs. We have one of the longest and highest-yielding referral programs of any advertising company. In fact, we have two!

Publisher Referral Program

By referring others to the Chitika program you will earn 10% of what they earn for 15 months! (Don’t worry, the 10% comes from Chitika, not your friends; they get the same amount) Any Chitika publisher can benefit from our referral program. Spread the word with one of our referral banners (as seen above), pass out your referral link, or by using our ads - the “Chitika” link in the top right corner of our ad units is also a referral link!

Advertiser Referral Program

Chitika users can earn referral revenue for advertisers they bring to our network. 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.

Not yet a user? Sign up now!

Facebook has announced modifications to their advertising initiatives, along with new privacy tools, which serve to protect the exploitation of user’s profile information.

Facebook users now have the option of tailoring exactly who in their network has access to sensitive profile information, including phone numbers and photos.

The social network has also, finally, responded to complaints stemming from the controversial SocialAds program. With SocialAds, marketers create Facebook pages/profiles which users can ‘befriend’; when a user becomes friends with a marketer’s page, the action is broadcast to the user’s network via RSS news feeds.

Facebook also gives marketers the ability to purchase profile information, which is used to target ads based on respective users’ interests or location.

Facebook initially promoted the integration of SocialAds with the justification that, “SocialAds make advertisements more interesting and more tailored to you are your friends.” I agree that I would rather see a Nieman Markus ad over an ad for the latest John Deere lawn mower, but the thought of all my friends seeing what products I’m a fan of is just plain creepy.

Facebook has also recently responded to complaints over the ad program Beacon. Beacon tracks, and then broadcasts, Facebook users’ third-party online purchases, at sites such as ebay.com, or Blockbuster.com.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has publicly backed down on the Beacon advertising program, admitting, “we’ve made a lot of mistakes building this feature, but we’ve made even more with how we’ve handled them…We simply did a bad job with this release, and I apologize for it.”

Facebook now requires Facebookers to ‘opt-in’ before Beacon can share a user’s purchase activity, and the respective advertisements, with friends.

The fact that Facebook monetizes user’s profile information has been a hot topic in the press, and Facebook has been aiming to find a happy medium between monetizing of ad space (and information for targeting ads) and enhancing users’ privacy.

Part of Facebook’s move to grant “higher priority to user privacy over monetization,” is a new privacy tool that allows users to decide who can view their photos. Additionally, if a user only wants a sub-group within their network (ie; everyone that’s not my biology Professor) to access a particular photo album (ie; spring break in Aruba), they can appoint access solely to that group.

So, Facebook seems to be heading in the right direction in terms of cleaning up the “exploitation of user information” mess that has escalated since the 2006 launch of the RSS news feeds debacle, which inform members of changes to their friends’ profiles (ie; Jimmy and Caitlin’s relationship is ‘complicated’…again?).

Now, let’s see if MySpace can reduce the mêlée of flashy, bright, and obnoxious banners ads that give me a head-ache every time I log-in. Hmm, great place for a Motrin ad.

By Tessa Rudd, Strategic Partnerships Coordinator - Advertising Media Division

As Chitika’s network has successfully pioneered into the blogosphere, I was intrigued to learn our network’s thoughts on micro-blogging, or furthermore, on the ‘Twitosphere’, and the future of mobile blogging.

In a recent survey, 50% of Chitika’s network reported that they currently use Twitter to communicate with their social network.

Read more about mobile marketing and Twitter in Chitika | Pulse XI…

By Tessa Rudd, Strategic Partnerships Coordinator - Advertising Media Division

Helio – youth-oriented mobile carrier – has announced a partnership with mobile site provider Buzzd to launch a new local nightlife search site. Helio’s new service will offer a mobile Web site (linked from the home page of the carrier’s browser) allowing users to search for bars, clubs, and restaurants in major cities.

Data queried in Helio’s new search will come from current Buzzd partners, specializing in event/entertainment information services, including Flavorpill, TimeOut, and Citysearch.

The service, which will be ad-supported, will also bundle-in real-time “event feeds” with night-specific deals and pricing for respective hot-spots; updates will range from how long lines are to the current mood of the bouncer. Think informational social networking (ie; “the hostess told me one hour…and it’s been like threeeee!)

Currently the service requires users to provide location or street intersection. Helio, however, is looking to pull GPS into the mix, since Helio handsets are already equipped with the technology. Then bar-hoppers wont have to know their actual point-A vicinity (as some, peculiarly, do not) to be directed to point-B.

As location-based mobile services are becoming more accessible and widely-used, I expect this new Buzzd powered service will be a hit among Helio’s youth oriented demographic (ie; those who adore all of the elements outlined above; cellular devices, social networking, night-life).

Chitika has already added real-time mobile technology into our mix; and plan to venture further in the mobile arena soon!

What do you think about location-based mobile services?

By Tessa Rudd, Strategic Partnerships Coordinator - Advertising Media Division

Exciting, challenging, and fun!

We believe in the “Work (not Hard but) Smart and Play Hard” mantra. Our head quarters, also fondly known as the Chitika Village, is located in the Marlborough Technology Park, a campus like environment with 85 acres of park filled with water fountains, pools, and spacious offices. Our offices are filled with pool, air hockey, and foosball tables, Ninetendo Wii, in house movie projector, fitness balls and tons of other fun stuff. Don’t be surprised if you see a penguin wearing sun glasses greating visitors! We also don’t hesistate to take the time off to organize and have fun at company parties, picnics, outings, games, movies …

Read more

Familiar with Chitika’s product categories? There are 44 different categories you can choose from that make your life easier when customizing your eMiniMalls code. When you choose one of these categories your eMiniMalls will automatically display products from that category.

Now our “Seasonal Specials” category is updated with some great gifts for Valentines Day for both men and women. You have 17 days till Valentine’s Day to promote some great gift ideas to your visitors; all you have to do is:

1. Login to your Chitika account.
2. Click the “eMiniMalls Code” tab
3. Select the “Seasonal Specials-Valentines Day” category and copy your code!

Check out the latest Chitika coverage in the Wall Street Journal. Columnist Kelly Spors explains that she has, “talked with several publishers making so much money from their blogs that they left their day jobs.” In her article, “Bloggers Get Creative to Make Dough,” Spors credits this to new tools and services bloggers can utilize to earn money from online traffic to their blogs. Read more and respond to her post with your own blogging success story!

-By Tessa Rudd, Account Executive - Advertising Media Division