Shopzilla is an ad network (currently in beta) that pays per click (CPC). I have been using it since last month and it has done really well on my product related site – DigitGeek.

I have tried many ad networks on DigitGeek like AdSense, Kontera, Amazon, TTZ Media, Chitika and WidgetBucks and none have done as good as Shopzilla. It has to be because Shopzilla has clickable images on their ads which gets it more clicks.

Both Chitika eMinimalls and TTZ Media used to have clickable images, but stopped it later. They even made their ads display only for some countries. I hope Shopzilla wont do this in the future as it can reduce the Click Thru Rate a lot.

As long as they don’t do it, Shopzilla will be a good alternative to programs like Chitika’s eMiniMalls, TTZ Media and WidgetBucks.

They offer different content types like ‘Top Search Results’, ‘Custom Text Links’, ‘Search Boxes’, “Banners’, ‘Product Pods’, and ‘Text links’.

Shopzilla has a similar feature to the AdSense channels called Placement IDs which are helpful to find out which ads are performing the best.

Screenshots

‘Top Search Results’ ad: 336×280

Banner: 468×60

Watch this video:

You can watch the above video in higher quality here.

Here’s how you can get Shopzilla to display ads related to the posts on WordPress blogs (thanks Tim):

For WordPress users, you can automatically use the Page Title as the keyword (or “Search For” as they call it) for Shopzilla ads. These are for the ‘Top Search Results’ ad type. Create the Top Search Results asset using just the letter “a” in the “Search For” field as the keyword. Pick the banner size, set your colors, etc, and then get the HTML code. Look in the HTML code for the following:
/keyword-a/
Replace that with this:
/keyword-<?php echo(urlencode(strtolower(single_post_title(”,FALSE)))); ?>/
That code should take the title of the WordPress post and use it as the keyword for the ad unit.

Shopzilla will perform best on product related sites, so if you own one make sure to register for Shopzilla.

They currently do not accept everyone, but you can register and see if they accept you. DigitGeek was accepted in a few hours.

Register for Shopzilla.

Hi John,

I have one doubt. What plugin do you use to create the Archives page http://www.johntp.com/archives/

I have searched many places but didn’t find an answer.

I don’t use any plugin to create the Archive page, I just use this code:

<h3>Browse by Month</h3>
<ul>
<?php wp_get_archives('show_post_count=1'); ?>
</ul>
<h3>Browse by Category</h3>
<ul>
<?php wp_list_cats('hierarchical=0&optioncount=1'); ?>
</ul>

You may also use a WordPress plugin called Clean Archives. I have not tried this plugin but have seen some bloggers using it to display all the posts of their blog on the archive page.

Here are two easy to use WordPress plugins that should make managing your 125×125 ads a lot easier: WP125 and UBD Block Ad (this plugin does not exist anymore).

Watch the below video to find out how they work:

You can watch the video in higher quality from here.

If you like the video, please rate it on YouTube and you may also want to subscribe to my YouTube videos to be notified of any videos I upload to YouTube in the future.

You could do this  by IP or maybe even cookies.  The best method I find for WordPress blogs is to use this code :

<?php if (!$user_ID) { ?> your Google Analytics code here <?php } ?>

This code will prevent adding analytics code to a page when it’s requested by a logged on user. I am currently using this code on my blogs and it’s working well.

You can watch the above video in better quality from here.

Thanks to thinlight.org for the code.

Since this is my first screencast, do not expect the video to be perfect

Note: You can watch the above video in higher quality here.

This video was created using Camtasia, which I took some time to learn but it was fun and worth it. I will try to put up more video posts again.

I hope you like the video and if there’s something you don’t understood, leave a comment.

1. send traffic to lower traffic sites: AdSense for Search lets you specify a list of sites to search across.  Using this option you can send some traffic to your lower traffic sites by placing AdSense for search on a site with more traffic. When a user makes a search, they will get results from all the sites you specified. I have added the DigitGeek URL for the search on this blog, so if you do a search for a keyword like ‘nokia’ you will find results for both this blog and DigitGeek.

2. search results: If you are using WordPress search, you will find that the search results are displayed according to post date – the newer posts show first. One the other hand, AdSense for Search displays results that best matches a users search query.

3. opening of search results page: With AdSense for Search, you can choose whether to open search results on Google or within your own site. By opening the search results on your site itself, you wont lose your visitors.

4. easy to use: In many WordPress blogs, I have seen half of the post shown as description for a post on the search results. This makes it hard for users to go through all the search results. In AdSense for Search, the description is shown only a bit and so it makes it easy for users to go thorough the search results.

5. make money online – Ads that are relevant to search terms are shown

6. search engine users -  AdSense for search displays your site search results the way Google search results are shown, so search engine users will be able to find what they are looking for easily.

7. top queries – AdSense for search displays a list of the top queries made on your sites. This could give you many post ideas.

Are you using AdSense for search ?

The Twitter counter may help you get more followers just like the FeedBurner FeedCount helps you get more subscribers for your blog. I currently have my Twitter Counter displayed near my FeedBurner FeedCount.

Here’s a sample of how the Twitter Counter looks like:

If you use Twitter, don’t forget to follow me

I currently have the Video units at DigitGeek below posts on single pages and find both the YouTube videos and the AdSense ads are related to the content. I am not sure how well they perform though.

Hove you tried the AdSense Video units? Did they do well for you?

I never thought about it until I read this post on CopyBlogger that made me realize that ‘Subscriptions generally cost money’.

By asking your readers to subscribe, some might get the feeling that you are asking for money.

To know if its true, I asked a few people (who did not know much about blogging) what they understood by the words ‘Subscribe via RSS’ and ‘Subscribe via Email’.

Their responses were:

for ‘Subscribe via RSS’ – “what is RSS?”, “RSS? what’s that?”, “I don’t know what RSS is”

for ‘Subscribe via Email’ – “you are asking me money for sending something via Email?”, “What are you asking money for?”, “I am not sure.The site visitors have to pay?”

They had no idea what RSS was (which I already knew), but the interesting response was to ‘Subscribe via Email’ – all of them thought that I was asking my visitors money for sending something via Email!

Another interesting thing was when I asked one of them to click the ‘subscribe via email’ button at DigitGeek. He was taken to the FeedBurner Email Subscription Request page and had no idea what to do next. He looked confused and said that if he ever landed on such a page, he would just close it and visit another site!

Make it clear to your site visitors

So how do we make it clear to our visitors that we don’t charge money for subscribing? By removing the word ‘subscribe’ ofcourse!

At DigitGeek I replaced the ‘subscribe via RSS’ button with a small RSS icon linking to the FeedBurner feed as the people who know about RSS will only need this.

I also replaced the ‘Subscribe via Email’ button with ‘Get FREE daily updates via Email’ and put an email form below to subscribe via email. The email form should reduce a bit of confusion.

It depends on your niche

The number of readers who misunderstand what you mean when you ask them to subscribe depends on your niche. Like for example, blogs on ‘blogging and make money online’ will have readers who are bloggers themselves and so most will not be confused with the word ‘subscribe’.

Educate your readers about RSS

Also it is a good idea to educate your readers about RSS by putting up a page explaining about it and then linking to it next to your ‘subscribe via RSS’ link. You may have already seen this on Problogger and other blogs.

Are you using the word ‘subscribe‘ on your blog? If so, what will you replace it with?

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