Make Money Online: Shopzilla, My First Impression Review
Over the last two days I’ve been experimenting a new advertising network called Shopzilla. Shopzilla is at the number 1 or 2 most visited shopping site in the US. Owned by the E.W.Scripps. Company, Shopzilla, inc. allows to publisher program to complement their content with their large collection of product listings.
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The first time I saw Shopzilla ad unit as first impression I throught that it was similar to Chitika’s eMiniMalls and WidgetBucks. This image highlights the similarities with Chitika’s and WidgetBucks.

Shopzilla is ideal for technology and shopping related sites and blog. Sites that cover GPS, Digital Cameras, television, mp3 players etc, all seem to enjoy good success with their program. If you are new to Shopzilla it can be confusing at first trying to understand all the different terms that are used to describe things. Publishers have access to a growing selection of content types. Presently, publishers may select from:
- Pre-configured banners and merchandising pods available in a range of IAB standard advertising unit sizes.
- Pre-configured shopping search boxes
- Pre-configured text links
- Custom Text Links
The Sponsored Shopping Content will allow you to display:
- Category specific products (including top brands and top models)
- An assortment of shopping categories such as Outdoor Furniture, Bedroom Furniture, Living Room Furniture, etc.
- Shopzilla branded advertising messages
- Seasonally appropriate advertising messages
- Shopping Deals, Specials & Offers
- Online Store Ratings
Money is generated with a cpc model(cost per click). You generate earnings by placing Sponsored Shopping Content on your website. Readers clicking on the product will be taken to the store offering the product for sale.
Just a quick refresher:
- Shopzilla Publisher Program is a CPC (cost per click) model.
- It can be using on sites that focusing upon products.
- It allows to choose between a wide array of ad unit sizes.
- It allows to choose between a good range of categories of products to target.
- It allows to customize some of these ad unit(colors/design).
- You can track each ad’s performance through features similar to channels on AdSense
- They offer an API so that you can customize your ad units even further to your blog
- Your monthly earnings will accumulate until you get a minimum payout of $50. Payment is via PayPal or check.
It must be emphasized that Shopzilla does not accept all publishers. Every account is manually verified by the Shopzilla management team. Generally they approve international sites hosted in server located in US. For example my web site is hosted on liquidsix that have a server located in US.
Get $25 With Referral Program
Shopzila referral programs have impressed me very much. It allows users that have an Shopzilla account to earn $25 for each account that they refer to Shopzilla publisher program.
Conclusion
In my view, I think that can complement Adsense pretty well, and can be a real promise and be a good alternative to Chitika’s and WidgetBucks. However if you try it - give us a shout with a review in comments below to let us know how you find the service and features.
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April 12th, 2008 at 2:14 am
Thanks for the write-up, Nicola!
I just want to clarify the referral program- it’s currently $25 once $50 in Shopzilla earnings have been generated by the referred publisher. The referral program is active, but we haven’t fully announced the release yet since assets haven’t been made for it yet. Stay tuned to our blog - they’ll be rolling out soon.
Please feel free to get in contact with us should you encounter any problems down the line.
BTW, love the reCaptcha you’re using below… the words that users enter are also used to validate the scanned words of old books. I used to use it on my personal blog (http://www.politivi.com/) before I switched to the Disqus comment system.
Cheers,
Chris
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