Inside scoop on making Chitika eMiniMalls AdSense & YPN compliant

Date October 13, 2005

A few people have run into issues with making eMiniMalls compliant with AdSense & YPN, since it is NOT compliant with their terms/policies in its “out of the box” form. Here is what you need to do in order to use eMiniMalls & AdSense or YPN on the same page without racking up any policy or terms violations.

For both YPN & AdSense (both regular ad units & Ad Links), you need to disable the contectual targeting by adding this line to your eMiniMalls javascript:

ch_query = “keyword keyword2″;

Obviously, you will specify your keyword(s) either per site or per page. This will disable the contextual targeting of the ad units, which would make it against the AdSense/YPN terms otherwise.

Rotating the keyword ads

You can also take this a step further and include lines for roating keywords, which is great for templates as well as showing fresh products on each page view, helping to prevent banner blindness on pages that are viewed frequently, such as blog index pages or forums:

ch_non_contextual = 1;
var ch_queries = new Array(’keyword1′, ‘another keyword’);
var ch_selected=Math.floor((Math.random()*ch_queries.length));
ch_query = ch_queries[ch_selected];

Don’t forget to not only use generic keywords but also brand names.

If you are running AdSense for Search on the site (even if it isn’t on the page you are running eMiniMalls on), you need to add this line to your javascript:

ch_nosearch = 1;

This will disable the search tab from the ad units, so you are within the AdSense terms. If YPN releases a similar “YPN for Search” product, you will also very likely need to disable this search tab to make it YPN Search compliant as well.

Update: You do not need to disable the eMiniMalls search tab any more

If you are not familiar with Chitika’s eMiniMalls, I wrote an overview here.

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6 Responses to “Inside scoop on making Chitika eMiniMalls AdSense & YPN compliant”

  1. Audri said:

    You might be interested in this new free tool that helps you figure out what keywords to use for different pages. Until now, you basically had to use trial and error — and even similar keywords could lead to VERY different results.

    You can quickly test and collect keywords with this tool to see what eMiniMall ad will be displayed.

    For example, when I typed “BMW” into the tool, I got an ad for a MINI Cooper. But when I typed “MINI Cooper” into the tool — I got an ad for the $5 amazon toy! ;-) http://www.eminimalls.org/eminimalls_tool.html

  2. Sham said:

    Will it still be against Google TOS if i put in the keywords to Chitika based on page title..

    such as ch_query=”page title”

    Can somebody answer me here pls.

  3. paul wells said:

    Sham - by adding the “ch_query” you’re selecting the keywords yourself and not using chitikas routine, so it’s no longer “contextual advertising” no matter which words you use.

  4. boycottgoogleads.com said:

    Chitika Referral Program!

    To add more fuel to the buzz about Chitika, they now offer a referral program! Unfortunately at least one of my webmaster friends signed up based on my recommendation before this development, but this is still a great deal for publishers!
    So if you …

  5. James Moore said:

    Whoo hoo! Chitika now has a referral program - now they’re even more awesome!!!

  6. Search Engine Guide Blog said:

    Chitika eMiniMalls

    Not familiar with this new advertising option making the rounds in the contextual advertising blogs and forums? Jennifer Slegg has some information on the latest new Chitika eMiniMalls features in her blog from a post this weekend. New options like…

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