Chitika FAQ

Chitika Tips for Forums, #1

Slim Down the Width of your Forum

How wide is your forum? Is it set to 100%? You’ll most likely see an increase by using a pixel width to limit how large your forum stretches.

759px wide is a good length. This makes larger posts look more column-like and easier to read. As well your ads mesh in to the forum, as the widths are similar.

Don’t border your Chitika eMiniMalls

This is dependant on your site design though, but most forums have a border around the limits of each post. It’s better to set the entire eMiniMall to the your background color, be it white or whatever your forum background color is.

Match, Match, Match

Make sure the text is the same color as the rest of your posts. Or make it the same color as your links. It’s up to you, but they both work well.

Use Lots of Keywords

Make sure you use a long list of keywords to make sure that a visit will see different products each visit. 35 is a good amount.

Add comment November 24th, 2005

Best Spots for Chitika eMiniMalls on a Forum

Percentage of click locations on a forum case study

50-60% After the last post in a thread

30-35% After the first post in a thread

10-25% Under the forum index, above the forum listing

Add comment November 24th, 2005

Chitika eMiniMalls in a vBulletin thread

In vBulletin go in to you Admin Control Panel then Styles and Templates then Style Manager then double click on Postbit Templates then either Postbit or Posbit_Legacy, depending on which one you are using (Legacy is the one with the avatar and user data horizontal to the post)

To place a Chitika eMiniMalls after the 1st Post, on only the first page use this code.

Add this to the very bottom of the template.


<if condition="$post[postcount] == 1">

</if>


Replace CHITIKA EMINIMALLS CODE HERE with your Chitika code.

You can have more than 1 of the above codes, if you wish it to post a Chitika eMiniMalls after first and last posts, you could create two. Just have one after the other.

If Conditions (These can replace the first line in the above code to make it do different things):

After the 1st post on the first page only

<if condition="$post[postcount] == 1">


After the 1st post on every page

<if condition="$post[postcount] % $vboptions[maxposts] == 1">


After the first post, but only for guests

<if condition="$post[postcount] == 1 AND !$bbuserinfo[userid]">


After the first post, but only if the thread has at least 2 replies

<if condition="$post[postcount] == 1 AND $GLOBALS[threadinfo][replycount] >= 2">


After the first post, but only in specific forums (where X,Y,Z is a comma list of forumids)

<if condition="$post[postcount] == 1 AND in_array($GLOBALS[forumid], array(X,Y,Z))">


After every X posts (replace X with a number)

<if condition="$post[postcount] % X == 0">


After the last post on every page

<if condition="$post['islastshown']">


Between the last and second to last post on every page (need to move the above code to the very top of the template instead of the bottom, then use the same condition as above)

<if condition="$post[postcount] % X == 0">


These codes can be mixed and matched

For example, to place one after the last post on each page, but only if there have been 2 posts in the thread already use the following code


<if condition="$post['islastshown'] AND $GLOBALS[threadinfo][replycount] >= 2">


Thanks to Jake Bunce of vBulletin

Add comment November 24th, 2005

How often are stats updated?

At the current time, expect stats to be updated around 3:30 Eastern Standard Time at the latest.

The earliest reported update was 1:30 EST, the latest 3:45 EST.

Add comment November 23rd, 2005

How much will I lose to auditing?

Since Chitika has only been around for a few months, not many payment cycles have been completed.

From intial reaction though, most people found that they were audited very little. With forum owners being audited the most.

It ranged between 0%-10%.

There also needs to be more clarification on Chitika’s part about what they consider a repeated click. Is it one click per IP per your site? Or is it one click per IP per each ad (With different keywords).

From Chitika: “What we typically look for is repeated clicks from the same IP address in a short period of time. If 1 person clicks on an ad 3 times, yes it only counts as 1.”

Also remember that clicks from lesser developed countries are also discarded.

Add comment November 23rd, 2005

What is auditing?

At the end of the month your clicks will be audited.

Repeated clicks from the same IP are removed, as well as clicks from countries such as [b]China[/b], [b]India[/b], and other [/b]lesser developed countries[/b]

Gathered data estimates that you’ll lose about %0-%10 from audits.

Another issue raised is what Chitika means by repeated clicks from the same IP. Is that for your site as a whole? Or per advertisement.

I would assume per advertisment, since each keyword directs to a different advertiser. I will update you when I receive a response from Chitika.

From Chitika: “What we typically look for is repeated clicks from the same IP address in a short period of time. If 1 person clicks on an ad 3 times, yes it only counts as 1.”

Add comment November 23rd, 2005

How do I earn money from Chitika eMiniMalls?

Chitika eMiniMalls at the moment are purely PPC advertisments. PPC stands for pay per click.

Essentially each time a visitor to your website clicks on a Chitika eMiniMalls advertisement, Chitika will credit money towards your account.

As of the time Chitika eMiniMalls is not CPM, which pays you per 1000 impressions. Chitika does not plan to introduce CPM in the future either.

Thanks to Blackbug of Digital Point for the correction

Add comment November 23rd, 2005

What is a Chitika channel?

A channel is a way to view statistics based on a link code unit only.

While generating the link code you can add a channel name, which will automatically insert itself in to the code.

You can also manually add it in to your code by placing

ch_sid = "";

Within the code. Fill in the “” with what you wish to label your channel.

Add comment November 23rd, 2005

What if I click on my own ads?

Chitika has an algorithm which will remove self publisher clicks.

This of course sends a flag to Chitika regardless. Any publisher who consistently clicks on their own eMinimalls, and whose clicks are not deemed accidental will be removed from Chitika.

Add comment November 23rd, 2005

How many channels can I have?

At the moment you can 1000 channels per account.

Add comment November 23rd, 2005