Another update to your favorite Chitika | Premium WordPress plugin went out earlier today.  The new upgrade to version 1.3 is available for download now from the WordPress Plugin Directory:

Three new features in this upgrade are:

• Advanced channel tracking
• Limit Chitika | Premium to display only on permalinks (so they do not clutter up your homepage or category archive)
• Chitika | Premium username reminder

Advanced Channel Tracking

In addition to using a customizable channel name you can now also have the Chitika | Premium WordPress plugin add ‘above’, ‘below’, ‘above - both’ and ‘below - both’ to your channel names simply by checking a box.

Why would I want to do that? Now you can change your setting in the plugin and always know in your reports where the plugin placed the ads. You can track your ads performance this way. For Example: if you choose to display Premium ads above and below your posts, your reports can show you which placement was more successful ‘channel name above - both’ or ‘channel name below - both’ letting you decide if you want to continue to display your ads using that configuration or if you’d like to change them up to find your best placement CTR.

Only Display Ads on Permalink Pages

Chitika | Premium ads are set to display whenever you full post is displayed. If your homepage or archive pages display more than one full post the Chitika | Premium plugin will display Chitika ads for each post. Some of our users prefer to only show on a permalink page because that’s where most of their search traffic lands and this helps keep their CTR more accurate.

Did You Remember to Enter your Username?

When you first install the Chitika | Premium WordPress plugin a demo username is used in place of your Chitika account username. You’ll need to change that in order to receive credit for your clicks. The built in reminder will let you know if you forget to enter your username. We want you to receive your credit (where credit is due!)

So go on, download the update to the Chitika | Premium WordPress plugin.

Advertisers and publishers are aware of many more ad networks than the few which were part of the panel discussion that I participated in at the DPAC II conference this past October. Why are there so many networks? As an advertiser or as a publisher, should you work with more than one network? Why work with any network? What are the differences between the networks?

There ARE many networks. Because of this there are a lot of interesting innovations in technologies and service delivery. There are different pricing models. Some networks reach limited demographics and geographies, some reach broad demographics and geographies. Some networks and pricing models are best for short term campaigns and others are great for ongoing campaigns. Different networks offer different opportunities for both advertisers and publishers.

If you are an online advertiser, you likely leverage multiple advertising networks for achieving and exceeding your strategic objectives. Internet advertising is highly quantifiable and you can therefore measure the exposure, volume of traffic and quality of traffic received through your network ad spend as well as any direct ad spend. You are likely analyzing a few of fundamental items such as – How is each advertising program performing towards your overall goal? Top to bottom, which are your best programs? Which programs, if you want to press the accelerator, can allow you to scale?

Our Advertisers, especially in challenging economic times, like the fact that we are a performance based PPC keyword engine with closed loop conversion tracking. To our advertisers, we look and behave as a search engine-like sales and marketing channel. Based upon the more than 500,000,000 ads we served in September to end users who clicked from a search engine to our publishers’ sites, Chitika is trending to become the “3rd largest ad serving search engine” behind Google and Yahoo (uniquely we’re monetizing the “2nd click”).

Some publishers generate all of their revenue through advertising networks. Other publishers complement their direct advertising sales with inventory from advertising networks. With so many networks available, how are publishers deciding which to participate in? Publisher decisions around advertising network partnerships are many and include potential revenue, network mandated rules and contractual obligations, style of advertisements (is the look and feel of the ads appropriate for the publisher’s site?), content and relevancy of the advertisements, quality of advertisers, the initial setup work and ongoing “maintenance” for an ad unit, and the volume of available advertising inventory. Publishers typically have more than one advertising network relationship.

Why is Chitika’s cpc network growing so quickly? Publishers are pleased with several aspects of the Chitika Premium ad program including strong eCPMs, best in class targeting (by design our ads are always relevant to any web page on which one appears), easy deployment, and unlimited inventory from a massive base of blue chip advertisers.

I am looking forward to having an interesting discussion with you - the advertisers and publishers - about this.  Whether you are an advertiser looking to expand your reach, or improve the results from your current ad spend, or if you are a publisher looking to improve your revenue stream and maintain a great end user experience, please be sure to participate by leaving comments below.

We’re giving away 1 of this year’s hottest phones, along with $400 cash in this Adsense+Chitika | Premium placement contest!

Since one of the best ways to earn the most revenue is by using AdSense and Chitika | Premium together on the same page, we thought we would hold a contest to see who has the best AdSense + Chitika | Premium setup.

What do you mean by AdSense + Chitika | Premium setup?
We mean anywhere on your site where you are running AdSense and Chitika | Premium on the same page.  For example - look at this screenshot:

What are the Prizes?
There are 3 prizes:
GRAND PRIZE - Winner will receive their choice of:

• Google/T-Mobile G1 Android phone
• Blackberry Storm
• Apple iPhone 3G 8Gb

RUNNERS UP - 2 runners up will receive $200 each

How do I enter?
You can submit your entries by posting a link to your site in the comments below, or send an email to “specialprojects [at] chitika [dot] com” with the subject “AdSense + Chitika contest”.

All entries must be received by 11:59 pm US EDT on Sunday, Dec. 21.  We look forward to seeing what you all come up with!!!

If you don’t have Chitika | Premium code yet, you can grab it here.  Also - if you are unfamiliar with Chitika | Premium, you can learn how it works here.

Spread the word about this contest and earn revenue!
You can link to this page with your Chitika referral ID and earn referral revenue from people who sign up.  Just use the link below, and substitute “username” with your Chitika username:
http://chitika.com/blog/2008/12/12/adsense-chitika-contest?refid=username

***UPDATE***: The contest is now closed.  Winners announced December 22nd 08.

We have just updated our Chitika | Premium plugin for WordPress to version 1.2, and it is available for download now from the WordPress Plugin Directory:

This version includes the following updates:

• Fixed bug that caused the Chitika | Premium ads not to display
• New option for ad position:  Above content, Below content, or both above and below (new)
• Better explanation of the “Preview tool” section

Get the new version of the plugin now by clicking here.

Have questions or feedback about the plugin?  Please leave us a comment below!

***UPDATE: Version 1.3 now available with various fixes/improvements. See full list here.

Always check our WordPress page for up to date information.

Chitika publisher Jean Harris of PopularWealth.com has been a computer fanatic since 1982 when he wrote his first program on his first machine, the Vic-20. He’s been an owner/webmaster & a designer of content-based websites since launching his first business in 1997. Starting to blog in 2007, he found it to be a challenge because he was used to digging into code & sharing statistics, not sharing his personal view on things, but found it to be a lot of fun.

Jean soon decided to take the “next step” and start using affiliate programs like Chitika to monetize the traffic to his site and earn revenue.

TESTING
“I’ve tried every major affiliate ad network and service as well as most of the second tier or smaller services. I’ve been disappointed a few times and pleasantly surprised a few others. Chitika Premium has been a most welcome surprise,” says Jean.

Jean, being the “techie” that he is, likes to test and re-test every line of code on his sites for maximum results. So when he started using Chitika Premium one month ago he found it to be easier than he thought. He notes, “using the Premium code has been the best no-brainer move I’ve ever made online.”

RESULTS
“My CTR reached 4.60% and eCPM peaked at 7x average AdSense levels. Which is why I feel that Chitika is in a group all it’s own, it can’t be compared to other services because of its unique delivery approach,” says Jean

The ‘unique delivery approach’ Jean is referring to is how Chitika Premium ads are ONLY displayed to his search engine traffic; which means his regular readers are not bothered by any additional ads. He notes “it doesn’t scare off the regulars while at the same time it helps search visitors a great deal. It’s a win-win-win situation.”

He believes that Premium gives the freedom to help visitors find what they want instead of forcing them to see what he wants, “this is key moving forward and Chitika Premium fits that mold perfectly”, he adds.

You can read more about Jean’s success using Chitika | Premium on his PopularWealth blog here.

Login Now to get Premium ads | Sign up for your own Chitika Account

_________________________________________________________
Have your own success story to share? We’d love to hear from you.

Zedomax.com increased his revenue by 25% by experimenting with the placement of his ads. And now he has recently released his Adsense and Chitika Optimization Heat Map Version 2, which he says is a “new simplified version of the heat map that will make you more money“.

Also check out Chitika’s heat map for our recommendations for where to place Chitika | Premium ads on your website.

Chitika users click here to get your Premium Code | Or sign up now.

We know you are busy getting ready for the holidays (as are we), so we thought it would be a good idea to offer you a tool to help you save some time, so you can tend to more important things (like, eating lots of left-over turkey!):

Here is your new WordPress Plugin for Chitika | Premium so you can get Premium ads on your website easy and fast!

What is Chitika Premium?

* CPC Search Targeted ad Unit (see how it works here)
* High-targeted relevant ad that converts into high eCPM.
* Use on the same page as Google Adsense. Learn More.

***UPDATE: Version 1.3 now available with various fixes/improvements.  See full list here.

Always check our WordPress page for up to date information.