Marketing Defined

Track which products and keyphrases yield higher CTRs for Chitika eMiniMalls

The ability to track best CTRs, economically, for the variety of products or keyphrases offered via Chitika eMiniMalls has been a source of frustration for many Webmasters, until I saw the light (or *glimmer* of hope) when I logged into Chitika for my results yesterday.

Of course, if you have an endless budget, website statistics tracking software like the superior Web Trends line of web stats products will give you precise results for just about any feature you care to track, including the ads on a webpage.. but since most newcomers to affiliate marketing, cannot justify this additional expense, here is a feasible alternative.

Yes! there is a temporary, free measure to work out which products pay best and induce good CTRs for those of you who have just a Blog or two, at the very least until Chitika introduces a formal tracking system, like that of Adsense channels.

but in the interim, please do keep inserting your unique identifier for each eMiniMall in the *ch_sid = ‘xxxx’;* field to have proper stats for analysis when the formal system is introduced very soon… until then here is my little find.

I recently updated this comprehensive post I wrote Chitika Code Tips and Hacks with a block of Code which allows you to rotate the Chitika eminimalls on a daily basis (and no I am not going to repeat it here… it is about halfway down the referenced post)

Here is the beauty of applying this daily rotation.. instead of using a *wide array* or choice of products for each day.. simply specify just one or at the most two *similar* products for each day.

(for example a *sony vaio laptop* and *dell laptop* on Sunday and maybe an *mp3 player* and *ipod* for Monday.. and so on… you get the idea I am sure).

Log into your affiliate stats at Chitika, and when you see 10 clicks at $1.25 each on Sunday, you know it was your *laptops* that brought in the clicks..

To make this really work it will be necessary to stick to a uniquely different product group for any given day of the week.. Alternatively, specify an *exact* model number or two from each product group, for each day.

You may then change it at the end of the week, to test another group of products for that new week.

In order for this to give accurate results, for any given day, it also pans out you will have to stick to that product choice only for the entire gammut of eMiniMalls employed site wide.

I do not profess this to be a permanent tracking system of any kind, and haven’t examined as yet how this will work if you write 10 blogs for example.. (any ideas?), but it is an effective temporary measure to work out which products best suits the visitors to your niche website.

.. and this idea is not for those who earn “hundreds” daily (their immediate solution would be an investment in Web Trends)

But for those of you with one or two blogs, this just might be the answer to working out which products your unique audience is more likely to appreciate and therefore produce the best CTRs.

Without testing and tracking results, I have witnessed Bloggers who simply give up too easily.

UPDATE: (I noticed around midday on Sunday 06 November, that Chitika is throwing just about any ad at me, rather than any of the *product array* my javascript code has clearly dictated, or asked for.. so this is obviously something that has to be watched out for)

And just another thought on a negative trend I noticed in product choices for Chitika eMiniMalls…

The entire Blogosphere seems to be uniformly advertising Ipods, Dell Laptops, or the latest Apple G4 notebook.. well, market saturation is bound to halt their CTRs sharply and very shortly!

It will only be a matter of weeks, if not days before Chitika reduces the high click-through payouts on these “much hankered after” electronics/products.. that is if *ad blindness* doesn’t set in before.

For example, what would happen if the entire Blogosphere just optimized or wrote articles around the high paying “M” keyphrase (the insiduous *asbestos cancer* disease)? I guarantee Adsense will not continue paying out around the $30 mark, it currently does for this keyword.

Spend some time researching product choices. Take the time to discover what your consumer’s need or use on a day to day basis.

Simply - for example - they must eat and perhaps some of them even drink the odd drop or two of wine, or whatever.

Some might jog and listen to music, or even play poker depending on your niche - AND - the odd woman or man for that matter, might shop for clothes and shoes, or even play basketball, fly-fish or indulge in some other type of sports (ah! they need equipment for all of this)…

.. or most of them are interested in furnishing their homes, with maybe an odd *couch* or two.

Your consumers need more than electronics, I assure you.

Find out what they need, and optimize the Chitika eMiniMalls javascript code to serve them the correct ads.. you will boost your CTRs and increase income!

You can join the Chitika eMiniMalls program here.. which entitles you to 4 weeks email assistance directly from us to perhaps optimize these ads to fit into your particular niche, or get some *real* assistance with setting up a first Blog:

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