What Chitika can learn from Google

First of all, let me congratulate the folks at Chitika. Whether or not it was by design, they've managed to successfully position their eMiniMalls service as an add-on for AdSense publishers. In other words, you can use eMiniMalls without abandoning AdSense, which gives you a great reason to join — like AdSense, it's free, and so why not see if your site is accepted? That's what I did, and I've earned a few dollars from it so far, even though I don't really push any merchandise on this site. (For those who missed it, be sure to check out my previous article Embedding Chitika eMiniMalls code in your postings for some advice on using eMiniMalls.)

Still, in some ways I find Chitika has a long way to go when compared to Google. Alright, Google has many (many!) big brains working for them and literally billions of dollars sitting in the bank, which gives them a lot of luxury to fund and think about things. This is a big advantage.

But one thing Google's always done right is incorporate good design in what it does. Their home page is famously simple, and simplicity is a large part of what makes a good design. But I'm more interested in AdSense, not in the other parts of the Google empire.

Compare the AdSense management console to the eMiniMalls management console. They have similar purposes, but the AdSense console feels so much more professional in its layout. Simple things make a big difference. Look at both console's use of whitespace, for example. Here's a highlighted box from the AdSense console:

Here's a similar example from the eMiniMalls console:

The Google folks always make good use of whitespace to keep things nice and readable. A small thing, perhaps, but it's what distinguishes the great sites from the average sites.

Chitika can learn from Google in other areas, of course, such as in reporting. The delay in reporting stats right now is pretty significant. It's probably a horsepower issue, of course, and the fact that Google has oodles of cash makes it easier for them to throw more hardware at the problem than a small company like Chitika.

I'm sure Chitika will improve over time. I hope they're taking a close look at what Google does.

Eric Giguere is the author of Make Easy Money with Google, a real (printed!) introductory AdSense book for non-technical people, available at all fine bookstores. Be sure to download the free sample chapter for more information about the book. Or add it directly to your Amazon shopping cart!

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