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Here are some ideal locations to position the eMiniMalls (as has been statistically proven for boosting CTRs in all types of Advertising on blogs and other web sites):

* Above the Fold - a good general position to place ads as viewers tend to look above the fold first, before scrolling down to read the content

* Left Hand Side - the Left Hand Side Bar is still statistically proven to be the *hottest* spot to attract high CTRs, as studies have proved a reader’s attention is initially, instantly drawn to the top of the l.h. sidebar.

Content - Inserting smaller ad blocks in the middle of paragraphs or content also brings in excellent CTRs, as does adding a smaller eMiniMall between the end of the Post and the Comments form

* End the very end of Posts or Articles - Your viewer has finished reading your article or post and is presented with a *call to action* to either click on an *income generating* ad or click through to another page on your website.

* Multiple Ad Choices - I have found that just one small ad on a page does not induce many CTRs. For example on a Blog, you might include a “468 x 60″ on the top and bottom of each Post and then include either a long “120 x 600″ skys

craper in the Sidebar, or if your sidebar does not permit the longer skyscraper then go for the smaller “160 x 160″ square format eMiniMall.

If your Blog displays well with a small block *between the paragraphs of content*, then this option should be high on your list of choices.

Adsense, testing and constant tweaking is going to bring in the desired high CTRs, and I eagerly await the formal introduction of their *tracking system.* For example, to avoid *ad blindness* with your regular viewers, simply change the *array* of products on a weekly basis.

There is no limit to the products you can enter, and highly trafficked blogs insert as many as 10 products per ad block. As soon as the eMiniMall ad *click through rates* slowed down in this Blog, I make some changes to the product choices and have instant, positive results. Funnily I am now noticing that the lower priced products are attracting more CTRs.. however, this will naturally be an individual choice based on the content of your web page

Designing Chitika eMiniMall Ads

As with Adsense the key ingredient here to induce high CTRs is to *blend in* the Ad blocks with the rest of the web page. For the moment, until Chitika offers more choices here are a few ideas:

* Backgrounds - should preferably be kept to the same colour as the rest of your page, using the code provided above. My personal preference for this Blog is to keep the background a “stark” white or very light gray. In my experience, nothing helps more with keeping a viewer reading our pages than dark text with plenty of surrounding *white* space.

* Borders - here again use good old “FFFFFF” by not selecting a colour for the Border. Separating an ad from the rest of the content with a Border does not induce positive CTRs.

* Title - as the Title of the eMiniMalls are in effect a *live* link, it is recommended to use the same colour as the rest of the hyperlinks on your web page. This blending of hyperlinks by far has proved to be the winner for high CTRs on blogs with major traffic levels. You may also change the font to match that of your web page, with the applicable line of code provided above.

* Text - Use the same colour as the text on the rest of your webpage. A tip I have seen mentioned on ProBlogger is to use a slightly lighter shade than the colour of the content used on your web page, which highlights the title and makes the Ad stand out. Again, the font itself may be changed to blend in with the content of the web page.

Income and Earnings for Chitika Ads

Initially the idea of electing mainly the following three formats has been tossed around, to ensure a high proportion of *valid* CTRs. This is particularly recommended if your traffic levels are still growing and you need to ensure payment for a high percentage of click throughs:

* Leaderboard 728 x 60

* Blog Banner 468 x 180

* Banner 468 x 60

This is in part due to the fact that certain parts of the eMinimalls have portions of the text that do not count if they are clicked on, which will result in an “unpaid” click through.

Chitika have now disabled the URLs on the images in the eMiniMalls, which when previously clicked on would return an “invalid” CTR . We can only hope Chitika works on these small issues, to make the eMinimalls work best both for publishers and the consumer, but do read Chitika’s following confirmation on the above concerns..

Here is the direct quote from Chitika when I asked for a confirmation on the concern *which areas of the eMiniMalls when clicked on, will lead to non-payment?*:

“There are some non-paying links in the eMiniMalls.

Specifically, the *Review links* (which are provided more as a service to the consumer — remember we need to keep the consumer in mind here!).

Also in the *Search* tab, the suggested links or results are non-paying. Again, guiding the consumer. Nothing else I can think of. Every other link that leads to a merchant is payable”

A “blanket” boycott of the “Search” tab is not recommended — this will be a personal choice, purely dependent on your traffic, and the level of service/choices you wish to offer your readers (by offering more product choices via the “Search” facility in the eMiniMalls as a service to your viewers, but forfeiting a paid CTR).

Naturally, individual Publisher income requirements/expectations will also guide in this decision, as will a decent daily traffic flow to a Blog or web site. Personally, I’d like to wait until the Channel reporting system is in place prior to deploying the Search tab on some of our eMiniMalls.

Chitika also confirms, “Currently, our merchants don’t accept clicks from all of Asia” — my thinking is: this should not stop a Publisher from Asia applying for the program, in view of the international nature of a Blog’s readership base.

Unless I am “blind”, I don’t see the geo targeting aspect of the ads at work, and would love to see the eMiniMalls take on a more international flavour and allow accurate geo-targeting like Adsense, thus allowing for example, Australian readers to be presented with a choice of Aussie merchants. I am certain their future plans will allow for such geo-targeting.

Chitika pays publishers a 60% share of revenue, which means a whole lot more than Adsense per click. I can certainly vouch for that. Each click-through on this Blog’s Chitika ads has been on average between 3 - 10 times better in income generation than that seen from comparable Adsense blocks.

Originally by Roseanne van Langenberg from Marketingdefined.com on October 14, 2005