Move Over AdSense!
Yahoo Publishing Network
It's here.
AdSense lovers and former AdSense lovers alike have been waiting for an alternative to the grand daddy of pay per click advertising, and now they have it.
Rolled out by Yahoo, the program is titled the Yahoo Publisher Network.
Right now the program is still in "Beta" or the last software testing phase before a production rollout.
While it is still early, YPN is getting high scores in most categories.
Members of the program have been reporting via message boards that Yahoo seems to be going above and beyond in their efforts to respond to and work with publishers. In fact, Yahoo has been cold calling members just to get an idea of how they feel about the program. Very impressive.
The user interface or control panel is simple and somewhat similar to AdSense. It offers channels (called tracking categories), numerous performance reports, and payment history. Another neat feature is that from the control panel, publishers can transfer funds from their YPN account to their Yahoo Search Marketing account.
As far as designing ads, users have full control over ad design and layouts. However, there are only ten ad types and nothing similar to AdSense link units as of now.
Now, the good stuff.
As far as earnings, most webmasters are reporting high earnings per click, in some cases four and five times more than that of AdSense. The earnings have caused quite the buzz within webmaster circles, but some speculate that Yahoo intentionally but temporarily launched the program with high earnings to draw from the AdSense publisher base. Time will tell, but earnings are definitely high.
High EPC is a perfect segue to the bad news: Targeting.
According to many publishers in the program, ad targeting, the program's ability to place ads relevant to your page, is challenged to put it mildly. The reason that targeting is so important is because targeting is the number one factor in how many site visitors click the ads also known as the clickthrough rate.
Sites that have been getting relevant ads are reporting tremendous earnings with YPN. Those without good targeting are getting less, but, interestingly, many are keeping YPN ads on the pages claiming that the higher EPC is compensating for the low CTR. On our site http://www.NJLawman.com, we have found this to be true.
Every site will be different. Testing, testing, and more testing will be the determining factor for your site, but we highly recommend that you sign up with YPN and give it a try.
AdSense is a trusted friend, but it's kind of nice to now have a choice.
Good luck, and good earnings!
About the author: Sean Labrock is a long-time small business owner and police officer with extensive experience in marketing. He currently runs one of the nations largest law enforcement websites, http://www.NJLawman.com, and has authored many articles for both http://www.NJLawman.com, and other periodicals.
