Chitika roll out BlogContext - A Contextual Ad Program for Blogs
BlogContext
Chitika, who launched back in November last year have just released details of their new Blog program BlogContext
Chitika is an aggregated contextual ad network currently partnered with FindWhat, Espotting, Shopping.com and Commision Junction and a few others.
This from the press release:
In real-time, BlogContext intelligently selects the most relevant ad for the content from the over 500,000 ads in Chitika's network. It adapts as the content of the blog changes, ensuring timely and related advertising. The ads are displayed to the user regardless of how the blog content is being viewed. Alden DoRosario, Co-Founder and CTO for Chitika points out, "Bloggers publish their content on their website, but in reality, they receive most of their viewership through feed technologies such as RSS or Atom. The unique value that BlogContext brings is that the contextual text-based ads are also distributed as a part of these feeds, significantly increasing revenue potential."
Ads are In Feeds Also...
According to Chitika the ads will be seen however a blog is viewed. This from co-founder Alden DoRosario:
"Bloggers publish their content on their website, but in reality, they receive most of their viewership through feed technologies such as RSS or Atom. The unique value that BlogContext brings is that the contextual text-based ads are also distributed as a part of these feeds, significantly increasing revenue potential.
Pitching Blog Companies to Incorporate Directly into Systems
Threadwatch member Eadz, who runs the PHP/Smarty based blogging system bBlog told me that he'd been approached by them, as had a number of other larger blog software players to incorporate the new ad network directly into their systems. Smart move if they'll bite, apparently this would be on a commision basis (well what else?) but I didn't manage to get a figure before eadz dissappeard on me :)
It sounds rather good don't you think?
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Chitika launches contextual ads for blogs
Chitika approached me as the developer of bBlog http://www.bblog.com/ , to see if I would be interested in incorporating their service into my software : When this gets incorporated into bblog, clicks on the ad generate revenue. You get a cut and your users (who sign up with our service) get a cut
Thanks Eadz
I've asked Alden DoRosario to stop by and give a bit more detail. Me, im off to bed, catch you all later..
More details - from Chitika
It's great to be here. Thanks Nick. The high level details are on chitika.com so I will cut to the chase.
I would love to hear your feedback -- the good, bad and ugly. To reach me directly, please leave a comment on the Chitika Blog or send me a pm here.
Quick clarification (forced in here by my CEO:) : Chitika was started in 2003 and offered its first service in March 2004. Our "network of networks" model was launched in November 2004 and that is what Nick was referring to when he said "Chitika, who launched back in November last year".
Chitika
Thanks Alden, nice to see you here :) Please introduce yourself and Chitika in this thread
One thing that worries me about this, not much, but a bit - is how it might impact RSS readership - bloggers are a funny lot, and anything intrusive may get a very swift unsubscribe action for it's trouble. I guess it's a little too early for any relevant stats huh? :)
Im going to check out the blog, subscribe to the feed and give this some further thought, from what i've read, i think it sounds cool. Thanks again..
Ok...
Now i have some questions!
Well, that's probably enough to be getting on with eh? heh...
More info
> How are the ads inserted?
The simple way is to copy paste code that we send to you. This code is pasted right into the article text. This allows the publisher the most flexibility in deciding where and how he wants the ads appearing.
The easy way is to install the plugin. The nice thing about this is that you set the option once and then forget about it. Also, the plugin has a lot of features and bells and whistles.
> Does it mean pasting code into each entry you make or...?
If you dont have the plugin, yes. Pasting the code allows the blogger complete flexibility to decide where he wants the ad. For example, on our Chitika blog, we had it centered in the middle of the post.
> What about FireFox - If all the ads go through blogads.chitika.net then it will be very easy for anyone with FF to just use adblock and never see them again right?
This is true and is true for most ad networks.
> How are the ads affected by the new explorer patch that blocks adsense?
Not a problem. The code is a simple anchor + image.