Wait until they discontinue from their program once they discover that the ROI their advertisers are getting from your site is not good enough in their opinion (and they won’t divulge exactly what stats they’re looking for).

It seems that I’ve been too eager to express my love to shopzilla.

I’ve been booted out of their API program without any explanation, except for the reference to the ToS that says “we can do that whenever we like…”. I asked for the reasons, but they never bothered to explain.

Now, I have a good theory of why it happened – John Chow’s TTZ media ( a big Shopzilla client) reported me as a fraudster to them, when they found out that I decided to go directly to shopzilla,instead of using TTZ Media as a middleman. And I was booted out within 24 hrs of that report, even though I never did anything fraudulent ever…

Oh well, they are the big guys….

Shopzilla is a comparison shopping site, where thousands of merchants list there products, prices, etc. Shoppers head to Shopzilla to find the best deal for what they’re looking for. Through the Shopzilla Publisher Program, you can bring the benefit of product price comparison directly to your users/readers (and make some money doing it).

The most important question to ask yourself is: Will adding comparison shopping content to my site benefit my users?

Think about the category that your site belongs to. Is there a shopping segment associated with it? For example, if you run a site about swimming, you could place Shopzilla ads for goggles. If no such relation exists in your niche, then you might find the Shopzilla Publisher Program to in fact be a sub-par advertising choice.

The reason I say this is not to discourage any participation in the program, but rather to get potential publishers thinking about how they can actually provide added-value to their readership through ads.

Once you have adopted this mindset, I think you’ll find that the money will follow shortly thereafter.

Thanks for your interest, and I hope you’ll give us a try. If you have further questions, please drop me an email at ccalvi@shopzilla.com (or just post them here).

Thanks,
Chris

I was also informed by their customer rep that it will do great for me if my sites visitors will come from the US. But one thing I didn’t know is what statska have said “They only count clicks from their own site.”

Maybe this is the reason why I got very few clicks aside from zero clicks.

But I still in doubt some days I got 0 clicks, I still earn money.

@Eric I apologize that it wasn’t made clear before you began the registration process that the Publisher Program currently only serves US sites. On the flip-side, you’re exactly right about the booming European market, and we hope to have rolled the program out in the UK, FR, and DE markets by the year’s end (Q1 of 2009 at the latest). Sorry for the delay, but we want this to be a program that people will use and love.

Here is the answer I receive :

“We are currently accepting websites with a qualified & pre-existing US user-base, sites that have a large number of internal & external links, and that are established & relevant to the Shopzilla Publisher Program.

Based on experience, to make the most of our relationship, acceptable website requirements include:

* Sites targeting US visitors (Shopzilla.com exclusively serves US merchants & offers)
* Sites with high Google page rank or Alexa trend/rank
* Registrations with an email address corresponding with the domain name in order to verify site ownership

We typically do not accept websites that represent:

* Ad Networks
* Adult Content
* Automotive Sales
* Healthcare
* Insurance or Credit
* Travel Services

These guidelines are in place to serve the needs of both Shopzilla.com and our potential partners.”

As I understand the reason, as far as I am concerned, my rank is 456 655, top 1% I guess. If not skyrocket, at least not at the bottom after a few months and being in French.

@ Christopher Calvi : As Shopzilla has a French site (http://www.shopzilla.fr/), why not open it to French speaking websites ? Europe is a market not to be ignored, I think. French market is booming : 16 millions people with ADSL and + 19% in 2007.

I find professionalism of Shopzilla is good as they answer my application and my message (due to problems in the application process) very quickly.

Even if it is a deception, thanks anyway Darren for the review.

I’m not sure that I’ve tested everything, but I’m sure that I did not find the ad format that I was looking for.

I love the CPC that SZ is paying out. But your selection of ad units …. well…. that sucks,,,

I had to hire my own programmer to figure out your API and get the format I want from SZ.

And the funniest thing…. it was worth it….

@Reginald We’ve been live since early 2007

Because of their contextual relevance, these links monetize very well.

Let us know if you need any additional assistance.