As of 11:23AM EST on June 2nd 2009, Chitika crossed the 50,000 publisher mark. Since the launch of Chitika | Premium last May (about 13 months ago), the Chitika network has more than doubled (an almost 170% increase) from around 18,000 pubs to today’s momentous 50,000+

Do You Have Chitika Ads on Your Blog?

50000 other bloggers and websites think you should have!

Chitika's search traffic targeted advertising the easiest way to cash in on all the search engine traffic you get and it can be used in addition to Google AdSense and other advertising you might have on your blog. Chitika is targeted to US and Canada at the moment, but as long as your blog gets traffic from the North America, it's all good, so your blog can be anywhere in the world.

Chitika's ads have proved to be very successful and most of the big blogs around run them, as they work especially well on search traffic and you don't have to show those ads to regular visitors. I think at least ProBlogger and QuickOnlineTips use these, but I don't know for sure because I never see them as I rarely enter by search, nor am I from Northern America.

Free eBook from Chitika

2 years ago (2007) Chitika gathered 30 Internet and blogging experts together, turned the hints & tips and their  best practises into an eBook and published it to everyone for free. You can get the book from Chitika's website.

If you want to join the Chitika publishers and get their ads on your blog, click on the banner above or watch the video at Chitika and learn more.

1. How To Add Category and Tag Based Advertising and Content to Your Blog
2. How To Combine Google Custom Search and AdSense with the Default WordPress Search
3. How To Add Google Custom Search to Your Blog

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
Search Targeted Advertising Seems to Work For Chitika and Blogs

It is possible to install your own php instead of using the one that shared hosting offers, but if you do that, you are responsible for maintaining that php with upgrades and other maintenance. It is not difficult, but it requires a bit of knowledge and isn't worth the trouble, because at the point you actually benefit from self-hosted OpenX ad server, you probably have your own private server already or multiple even, and can even dedicate one server fully to act as ad server.

If you want to test and use OpenX, I suggest you get a free account and sign up for OpenX Hosted, which has and you don't have to worry about installations and maintenance of the OpenX itself, but can concentrate on managing your advertising.

Benefits of Having Your Own OpenX ad server

Not much really, unless you have a lot of blogs and websites and you want to manage all the advertising from one interface (and in this case, you can easily have dedicated, private ad server).

Self-hosted OpenX offers you access to the OpenX API of your own server (you know, the advanced stuff), manage all your blog advertising from that one server and of course deliver as many ad impressions as your server can handle..

OpenX Hosted can show up to 100 Million ad impressions per month for free, which is plenty for most blogs. When you reach that level of advertising, you can get your own private server and pay someone to take care of the self-hosted OpenX installations :)

But now, if you need your own ad server or having your own OpenX Server would just make you feel cool, I'll show you how to install one!

Step by Step Guide to Install OpenX

To install Your Own OpenX Server on your blog, you need to:

• Download OpenX ad server and upload it to your server via FTP
• Create a Database for the OpenX (e.g. MySQL like your WP blog)
• Configure the OpenX Server

To display ads on your blog with OpenX, you need:

• add advertising codes, banners and/or links to the OpenX Server
• add the code your theme or widget to your blog

The installation instructions and how-to videos on openx.org are very good, so consider taking a look at those as well:

• How to install the OpenX ad server

They show everything but this part creating the new mysql database..

1. Create a New MySQL Database for OpenX

In theory, you could use the same MySQL Database as your blog, but it is better to give the ads their own database, so the advertising load on the database doesn't interfere with the blog.

Go to your hosting account and create a new mysql database

to give an example, if you're on DreamHost like me, go to the control panel (http://panel.dreamhost.com):

1. Login if necessary
2. Look for "Goodies" on the left side panel and click on it
3. Click MySQL Databases
4. Fill in the information
   • database name
   • database domain
   • database user and password

You'll need the MySQL database name, hostname, username and password on later stage of the OpenX installation, so write these down or save the information to text editor.

• Database Name, e.g. cool_open_mysql_database
• Database Hostname, e.g. openxmysql.your_domain_name.com
• Database Username
• Database Password

2. Download OpenX

• Download OpenX ad server
• Unzip the installation package to temporary directory, e.g.\install\
• After the unzip you'll have the OpenX directory in the directory, e.g. \install\openx-2.8.1

3. Upload OpenX to Your Webserver

• Create directory "openx" to the root of your domain
• Upload the contents of the OpenX directory you just downloaded and unzipped into the "openx" folder on the domain

The upload will take some time as there is large amount of files in the directory

4. Check the Permissions For the images and var Folders

OpenX needs to be able to write to the files in the openx/var and openx/www/images folder to complete the installation successfully.

After the upload is finished, set the file permissions with your FTP client..

Set these directories to "0777" = writable (OpenX needs this to store data):

• /openx/www/images
• /openx/var
• /openx/var/cache
• /openx/var/plugins
• /openx/var/templates_compiled

no need to touch the files or other subdirectories.

5. Run the OpenX Installation Wizard

Go to the directory you uploaded OpenX into with your webbrowser, e.g.

http://yourdomainnamehere.com/openx

Follow the instructions from the OpenX Installation Wizard.

1. Read the welcome page and hit Continue >>
2. Read the Terms and Conditions and the Privacy Policy.
3. System Check
   • In System Check, if you see a warning about the memory you have to go to your php.ini settings and increase the memory_limit to 128 Mb
   • If you're running your blog on shared server, you don't have access to the host's php files, so you cannot change this, unless you install your own php.
   • This is the reason this guide is for those who run on private servers or have otherwise access to their php installation.
   • If you're running your blog on shared server, I suggest you sign up for OpenX Hosted and manage your ads through that.
4. Database Settings
   • For Database Settings, enter the Database Information you saved when you created the new MySQL database.
5. Move on to the Administrator and Delivery Settings
6. Check the Configuration checklist (the defaults should be ok, but here you can customize the installation if you want)
7. Create the administrator account
   • set the administrator username, password and email + set the language and timezone preferences
8. The installation wizard installs the OpenX plugins automatically (click Continue >> after done)
9. Sign-up for the updates and security alerts (recommended)

That's it, not as easy as WordPress one-click install, but pretty close.

If you need assistance, open these documents on the side:

• OpenX Installation Quick Start Guide
• OpenX  Administrator Guide

I don't have my own OpenX server running, but I'm planning on test running the OpenX Hosted free service, as it seems like a great way to manage advertising on a blog or website. And as it's free, just give it a go if you're interested and looking for a way to efficiently manage advertising on your blog.

Further Information on OpenX Advertising and OpenX ad server

• Create and serve your first ad campaign

For the latest installation instructions and documentation, consult the openx.org website:

• How to install the OpenX ad server
• OpenX Support Documentation

1. How I Pushed My Blog from PageRank 0 to PR4 in 37 Days
2. How To Manage Ads and Track Clickthroughs with AdRotate Plugin in Your WordPress Blog
3. How to automatically backup and optimize WordPress database

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
Installing OpenX ad server for Your Blog(s)

You know, the first rule of Fight Blog Club, you DO write about blogging and making money and the second rule, you DO WRITE even more.

So here's the thing, most bloggers don't make any money from their blogs. I'm not one of those bloggers, because I have made 1 dollar 88 cents from Google AdSense during the 4 or so years I've been blogging.  And I haven't even tried, and still I made money, it's quite amazing if you ask me. As a clarification, that's $1.88 all time! It's not like I have monthly income here yet.. All this was more and less when I had my blog(s) at blogspot.

This is my all time Google AdSense earnings up to the end of May 2009. One Dollar and 88 cents.

That's one hundred million percent more than those bloggers are making who make none! It's all about positivity and working hard, so I'm planning to double my earnings during this summer, wish me luck!

Here comes the revelation, I'm 100% sure you can do this too.

How I Made One Dollar and 88 Cents ($1.88) With Google AdSense!

1. I wrote posts to my blog
2. I created Google AdSense Account
3. I generated Google AdSense ad code
4. I placed the AdSense code to my blog
5. Repeated couple of times for different placements on my blog

That's quite easy isn't it? Check out my quick and easy guide if you need additional info: How To Get Google AdSense and Display Ads on Your WordPress Blog.

I bet you can do that too and I think you're gonna love it! Getting paid for doing what you do anyway is like the best thing in the world. But I hope you do hell of a lot better than I do. You know, more than one dollar...

But you and I have a starting point right there. I think I gotta be reading some of these (you can too if you like):

• 5 Reasons You’re Not Making Money as a Blogger
• Why You're Not Making Money Online
• Why You Can’t Make Money Blogging
• Reality check: You're not going to make money from your blog
• Why You're Not Making Money Online
• Don’t Just Make Money Online - Build Business Assets that Last
• The Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Effective Adsense Link Units Optimization

How are you doing? Better than me? Not getting much? Have any plans on making more? Please tell me too.

1. How To Get Google AdSense and Display Ads on Your WordPress Blog
2. Free Google AdSense Secrets eBook
3. How To Combine Google Custom Search and AdSense with the Default WordPress Search

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
How I Made One Dollar and 88 Cents ($1.88) With Google AdSense!

If you have blog with different categories, you might consider customizing the advertising shown on posts in spesific category or categories or posts with certain tags. And it doesn't have to be advertising, you can show different links on different categories and tags.

For example you can:

• Show links to different themes and plugins on your "WordPress" tagged posts, and
• Amazon.com Associates cookbook links on your "Cooking" category.
• Or just display your best posts in the "Fishing" category.
• etc.

The possibilites are endless, so you can do whatever you can show anything you want and need to show, based on the tags or categories of the posts.

I wanted to do this, because many of the readers who come in and check some of my World of Warcraft material, or EVE Online posts, are not necessary interested in the WordPress content. And if I write about advertising on a blog and how to utilize a plugin to do it, that gamer just wanting to know how to powerlevel mining on the new alt character, most likely does not want info on latest WordPress Premium Themes or such. So I wanted to customize the advertising, extra content and links I show on different posts.

First, I utilized the "Yet Another Related Posts Plugin" to show the related links, so that was easy and does superb job at providing the related post links.

But getting spesific advertising in those posts wasn't hard either..

If you have the same kind of situation, and want to display advertising or special links based on the categories or tags of your posts, I'll show you a quick way to achieve that. You do have to dig into your WordPress theme php-files, or find a plugin to insert the code, but it's really simple...

Category Based Advertising and Content

Example from WordPress Support forums post "Show banners/ads based on Category?":

<?php if ( is_category( 'cat') ): ?>
<!-- Insert code for cat ad here -->
Test Cat

<?php elseif ( is_category( 'dog') ): ?>
<!-- Insert code for cat ad here -->
Test Dog

<?php else: ?>
<!-- Insert code for generic ad here -->
Test Generic

<?php endif; ?>

Add this kind of code before or after the post in the single.php and edit it as you like (I didn't test it on other pages yet, but let me know if you have something like this running already):

<!-- Category based content START -->
<p>
<!-- Use Category ID -->
<?php if ( in_category('1') ): ?>
<!-- This code will be displayed if the post is in category with ID 1 -->
<!-- Category ID 1 code starts here -->
<!-- INSERT advertisement code for Category 1 here -->
<!-- Category ID 1 code ends here -->

<!-- Use Category Name -->
<?php elseif ( in_category('Gaming') ): ?>
<!-- This code will be displayed if the post is in category named 'Gaming' -->
<!-- Category 'Gaming' code starts here -->
<!-- INSERT advertisement code for 'Gaming' here -->
<!-- Category 'Gaming' code ends here -->

<!-- Use ID, Name or Category slug together -->
<?php elseif ( in_category(array(2, 'Blogging', 'personal-development')) ): ?>
<!-- This code will be displayed if the post is in any of the categories defined in the array -->
<!-- Category ID 2, 'Blogging' or 'personal-development' code starts here -->
<!-- INSERT ad code for several categories here -->
<!-- Category ID 2, 'Blogging' or 'personal-development' code ends here -->

<?php else: ?>
<!-- This code will be displayed if the conditions above don't hit (you can also remove the else) -->
<!-- Code for all other categories code starts here -->
<!-- INSERT code for generic advertising or other content here -->
<!-- Code for all other categories code ends here -->

<?php endif; ?>
</p>

Remove the unnecessary lines and comments if you like and you're all set. You can use category IDs or category names, and even category slugs work. For detailed info on how the "in_category()" works, check the WordPress Codex: Conditional Tags -page.

Tag Based Advertising and Content

Exactly like with categories, you can customize the content based on the tags of the posts:

<!-- Tag based content START -->
<p>
<?php if ( has_tag('WordPress') ): ?>
<!-- This code will be displayed if the post has a tag named 'WordPress' -->
<!-- Tag 'WordPress' code starts here -->
<!-- INSERT advertising code for posts with tag 'WordPress' here -->
<!-- Tag 'WordPress' code ends here -->

<?php elseif ( has_tag(array('How-To', 'Monetize')) ): ?>
<!-- This code will be displayed if the post has at least one tag defined in the array -->
<!-- Tag 'How-To' or 'Monetize' code starts here -->
<!-- INSERT advertising for several tags here -->
<!-- Tag 'How-To' or 'Monetize' code ends here -->

<?php else: ?>
<!-- This code will be displayed if the conditions above don't hit (you can also remove the else) -->
<!-- Code for all other tags code starts here -->
<!-- INSERT generic advertising code or other content here -->
<!-- Code for all other tags code ends here -->

<?php endif; ?>
</p>

Detailed Info and Afterword

• WordPress Codex: Conditional Tags

I wanted to get this done quick on my blog, so I only added and tested this in the single posts and placed the code to show the content after the posts.

So if you try it in the sidebar, header or footer, let me know how you do with it. Also if you know any great plugins that do similar, please share the experiences and leave a comment.

1. How To Add Feedburner RSS Feed to the Sociable Plugin
2. Search Targeted Advertising Seems to Work For Chitika and Blogs
3. How To Add Google Custom Search to Your Blog

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
How To Add Category and Tag Based Advertising and Content to Your Blog

Why Google AdSense?

It's not the only way, but it is the EASY way.

If you want to get advertising to your blog, the most simple way to do it is to ad Google AdSense ads to your blog. Getting Google AdSense for your blog is quite simple, but here's super simple how-to for getting those ads up on your WordPress blog.

In this post, you'll find out:

• How to get ad code from the AdSense control panel (easy)
• How to insert the code in your WordPress blog theme (advanced / hard)
• Learn how you can display the ad on top (or below) of each post, or in the blog footer or on each post on your front page, etc.
• How to display the ad using Widget in your blog (very easy)
• List of WordPress plugins you can use to automatically insert the ad code to your blog where you want the ads to be displayed  and manage your advertising and AdSence ads.
• Learn to get ads to your BlogSpot blog
• Learn why you should move to self-hosted WordPress, if you're using WordPress.com
• and much more, in a simple step-by-step tutorial with screenshots

How To Join Google AdSense

Go to the Google AdSense -site and join up, if you need instructions or help, check the Google Help for AdSense. After joining and getting familiar with the interface by browsing and using the tutorials and help on the site (which are quite excellent by the way), you can move on...

Getting the Google AdSense Code from AdSense control panel

1 Setup AdSense for Content & Choose Ad Type

• Click on the "AdSense Setup"
• Click on "Get Ads" if it didn't open as default
• On this screen you can choose what kind of ad you want to create

Choosing the Ad Type

• "Ad Unit" can show both images or text ads on it,
• "Link Unit" has only text links.

In this example, we choose Ad Unit as we like to create a banner ad.

2 Set Format, Colors and Other Parameters

After choosing the ad type you want, click Continue...

Now you get to choose the format, color and other options for your ad:

Select Ad Format, Colors and Other Options

Select values and  color you want and set the options for this ad unit:

• What kind of ad unit you want (e.g. vertical/horizontal banner, small box, etc.),
• select color "Palette" from the selection or create your own,
• select font and ad block shape (rounded corners or not, etc)

In this example we choose 468x60 banner with default Google Palette and Verdana font.

3 Set Ad Channel for The Add

When happy with ad format, color and the other options, hit Continue again..

Now you can choose an existing channel for the ad, or create a new channel like this:

Create a new channel for your ad or choose one of your old ones

Here, we create a channel "zemalf.com". Channels can be used by advertisers to focus advertising on your channel, and you can edit the description of the channel if you want. Focused advertising is mostly used for bigger and focused sites, so if you're just starting this doesn't matter much, but the channel is there "when your blog is huge" if you will..

4 Name the Ad Unit

Again, after setting the channel or channels, hit Continue. Now, name to your ad unit.

This name will help you find the ad in your control panel and the name will go into the code as well as html comment:

Name Your Ad Unit to Find and Track it Easier in AdSense

The name of the ad unit will be visible on your control panel, so it's worth it to name the ad unit in a way that you can easily see what kind of unit it is and where you are using it. For example, "zemalf.com 468x60 for Articles/Footer/Header" or such.

5 Submit and Get the Code

After naming the new ad, you just have to press "Submit and Get the Code", and copy the generated code where you want to display it. On the next part you'll see an example where you can insert the code in your WordPress and show the ad in your blog.

Copy the Code and Paste It Where You Want To Display the Ad

You can always go and get the code again from the "Manage Ads" page on your control panel if you need to get the code again for this ad.

Adding the Google AdSense Code to Your WordPress Theme

You can choose one or more places for your ad, but I recommend choosing one place / AdSense code, as you can then track the performance of the ad unit from the control panel (e.g. how many times that ad unit has been displayed and how many clickthroughs you have got with that ad and place).

If you are comfortable with editing your Theme php-files, go to the Theme editor (Appearance - Editor in WordPress 2.7.1)

WARNING! editing your theme files directly might cause problems on your site, so do this only if you know what your doing. There's easier and better way to do this with widgets and/or plugins, so this is just to show how it's done if you really want and need to...

Option 1 Displaying the Banner After Each Post On Your Blog Frontpage

1. Go to the theme editor and open the index.php.
2. Find code like this (it might be a bit different, depending on your theme):

   while (have_posts())

3. Then look for this code after that "while":

   <?php endwhile; ?>

4. This is your "post loop", so if you want to display something before or after all posts on your front page, you can place the code inside this while-endwhile loop.
5. To get the ads on top of each post, copy the code just below the "while (have_posts())" line.
6. To get the display the ads after of each post, copy the code just above the "endwhile" line.

Option 2 Getting the Banner To Show Below Each Individual Post

1. Open single.php if you theme has one
2. To display the ads on top of the post, copy the code just below "while (have_posts())" line.
3. To display the ads below the post, copy the code just above the "endwhile" line.

Option 3 Displaying the Banner in the Blog Footer

1. Go to the theme editor and open the footer.php.
2. copy the code just above the </body> tag/line.
3. or inside/above <div id="footer"> or such, if you want to display it higher.

Option 4 Place the Code Using a Plugin or Widget (Recommended)

Editing your template might be a bit tricky and you have to re-do it if and when you update or change your template, so you should definately use either widgets or spesific plugin to add the Google AdSense code to your blog.

How To Use a Widget to Display Your AdSense Ads:

1. add "text" widget to the sidebar or any widget area your theme supports and
2. copy-paste the AdSense code to the widget (mind that the ad unit must be correct size for that widget area/sidebar),
3. save
4. done

Your code is now safe from any Theme updates and you don't have to worry about breaking anything by manually editing the .php code.

In case you want more controlled way on displaying the ads and more control on how they are displayed, I recommend that you use a ad managing plugin...

Displaying Google AdSense on Your Blog Using a Plugin

With a WordPress plugin or plugins designed to manage ads or even spesifically Google AdSense code, you can easily insert ads whereever you want in your blog and change the ads and placements with ease...

Here are some examples of plugins that you can use to manage your ads (they work in different ways, some offer easy way to manage the ad codes, but do not place them in the blog, others just place the code, some do it all). Go to the plugin homepages to learn more:

• WP Simple Adsense Insertion
• AdSense Manager
• All in One Adsense and YPN
• Easy AdSenser
• Advertising Manager
• AdRotate
• wp-insert

Some of these are easier to use than the others, and I won't go through these on this article. Go ahead and try them, or share your experiences in the comments if you have used or are using these or some other pluging to manage your blog advertising.

AdSense in BlogSpot and WordPress.com blogs

If you're using free blogging platforms like blogspot or WordPress.com, you can have ads in your blog too.

In BlogSpot/Blogger, as it is run by Google, it is almost automated for you, just click "make money" or "earn" kinds of links in your blog settings, and the system will set you up with AdSense.

With WordPress.com, you're in bad shape. As far as I know, you can't have AdSense in there, as the widgets don't allow javascript in them. So I recommend you setup your own, self-hosted WordPress.org based blog.

Unfortunately, I haven't used other blogging platforms, like TypePad, so I'm not aware of advertising options in those.

How AdSense Works and Will You Make Money With It?

First of all using AdSense is the easiest and the most simple way to get advertising on your blog. There are plenty of other options, but the easiest is definately this. You can make hundreds of thousands of dollars per month with AdSense or you might make zero or couple of cents. Of course, I hope you make a boatload of cash with AdSense in your blog, but in case it doesn't work for you, look for other means to monetize your blog.

If you need more detailed information on how it works, check the Google Help for AdSense, but in short: AdSense will customize the ads based on your website or blog content, so in case your content and/or niche is right and you have plenty of readers, AdSense can gain you nice income. But like said, without much traffic or "advertising-friendly" content and audience, you might not make much.

Only way to see what kind of results you and your blog can achieve, you must try it and then decide if it is good for you. Just remember to test different kind of ads and add placements on your blog. When you have enough data to analyze whether or not you should continue with AdSense, you can decide if you should look for other kinds of ways to make money from your blog.

Add Google AdSense to your blog and start testing different kind of ad blocks and ad placements to see how it works for you. Don't go into conclusions too fast if you don't get many clicks, especially if you don't have a lot of traffic. After getting the ads up on your blog and seeing how they do, drop back here and share your results in the comments.

Until next time, I hope this tutorial was useful for you!

1. How To Manage Ads and Track Clickthroughs with AdRotate Plugin in Your WordPress Blog
2. How I Made One Dollar and 88 Cents ($1.88) With Google AdSense!
3. How To Combine Google Custom Search and AdSense with the Default WordPress Search

Original post from Zemalf's Website optimization blog:
How To Get Google AdSense and Display Ads on Your WordPress Blog