Product Passion vs. Product Promotion

We often receive questions from publishers asking if the label or header above their eMiniMalls unit is acceptable. One question you should ask yourself is, “Am I asking my readers to click on this, or am I simply providing a source for product information?” Let’s say, for example, techie-blogger Jimmy took a trip to California to visit his family for the Thanksgiving holiday and realized that, although he forgot to pack his laptop, his new Apple iPhone allows him to still check his email and keep up with his blog. Well, Jimmy could then decide to write a blog post about his new-found appreciation for his iPhone followed by an eMiniMalls unit; this to me is called “passionate product endorsement”. This would be a great way to incorporate Chitika | eMiniMalls with his personal experience in a way his readers could enjoy.

What would not be acceptable is an article about the iPhone followed by an eMiniMalls unit at the end, with a header saying “Click here for deals on the Apple iPhone”. This sounds more like blatant product promotion. There are many different & acceptable approaches publishers can take to displaying an ad on their pages. This user wrote a review followed by a box labeled: “Advertisement”. This is an acceptable way of labeling your eMiniMalls ad unit – this user is not asking or “incentivising” clicks on the ad in any way. Publishers should use different methods to labeling their ad space because no one way works for everyone.

So what has worked and not worked for you?