Sugarrae has posted an Interview with Josh Siegel of Yahoo Publisher Network (YPN).
Rae starts off by asking a good question about ad relevancy – a topic that I’ve heard quite a few YPN publishers complaining about (in fact I’ve done it myself after running YPN here at ProBlogger for a month or so and seeing pretty poor results). Josh doesn’t really admit to any problems:
‘JS: I’m glad you bring this up because we’ve found that the majority of our publishers have been very happy with the ads served on their site. We do find typically that sites that have little content are harder for our crawlers to find matching ads to serve. Additionally, if your site has terms that we deem sensitive then we will serve generally targeted ads. My suggestion to help improving the ads targeted in your site is to use our Ad Targeting feature (which allows the publisher to influence the type of ad category) and make sure your content is well described and updated regularly.’
The other question that interests me in the interview is one Rae asks about YPN’s absence from the international scene. The question is a good one but once again Josh’s answer is fairly much the standard line we’ve been getting – ie the US is the focus of the beta test so that they can hone the formula for a wider rollout… challenges in going global… can’t say when we’ll release more widely…
While I understand the mammoth task of rolling out something globally I’m starting to sense a growing bitterness among international publishers towards YPN at a grass roots level. I know every time I mention them I get emails and comments on this international issue. From what I can tell the international rollout seems to be some time away and and I do wonder if they are going to have to do something to appease the international publishing community who could well go on a cyber-riot if they don’t get some attention.
Darren,
I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments regarding the international issue! It could create ill will in the short to mid term, and Google has an opportunity to further cement existing partnerships.
John
Interesting post Darren. I agree though that YPN’s targetting is very lacking in comparison to Google’s, but I don’t think Yahoo is about to admit that their competitor is better than them.
YPN is fine but Google AdSense rules.
YPN is probably profitable, once it remains that way , I guess YPN might get lazy and take forever to go truely international – like PayPal
BTW, an International distaste already exists for PayPal for this same reason.
I should clarify – I’ve experienced YPN on a number of blogs and in my experience it does pay more per click but it’s CTR is significantly lower (even with exactly the same design and position ads as where I previously had AdSense).
So on some topics where they seem to have plenty of inventory of ads (and the CTR is a little higher) this means YPN out performs AdSense and on others the total earned with AdSense out performs YPN.
I have not written off YPN – in fact we run it on some of our b5 blogs where it does better – but on most of the blogs I’m involved with to this point AdSense seems to be doing better.
I’m hopeful (and pretty sure) that this will change as they continue to increase their inventory – but I’d always advise that if you’re lucky enough to be in the beta test that you should test both options as different blogs will always be better suited for different ad networks.
Also note (I always get asked this) that I’ve been able to test it, even though I’m an Aussie) because I am part of a network that is registered in the US.
Darren, I’ve heard of pblishers getting dropped for having too many clicks on YPN ads from non-US IP’s This, plus Yahoo’s rude and abysmal customer service has prevented me from even giving it a try, although I was approved initially for the beta.
The idea that a publisher is responsible to control who clicks on ads on his/her site is insane. Even on a tiny techical subject US based blog at least half my readers come from outside the US. I have been mystified by this refusal of Yahoo to deal with the fact that the Internet is international.
To restrict publishers to the US for some period until they have payment systems in place, etc., ok, makes sense. To penalize publishers for where the clicks come from? Nonsensical.
I’ve also heard a number of people say YPN outperforms Adsense on certain topics.
So they do have a few things going well. Now YPN, please don’t rest on your laurels.
I like Yahoo, they are a good competitor to google adsense
A ‘cyber riot’ – the mind boggles :)
Right now, for bloggers with the majority of readers living in the US, YPN is much more blog friendly than its competition.
I say this because:
* the eCPM is comparable or better than BIG competition
* relevancy is ok, not as good as BIG competition, but ok
* much lower CTR%
How does this better my pro blog?
* low CTR% = more blog action : more people are taking different actions on my blog instead of clicking away from it to the sites of advertisers
* more readers are bookmarking & leaving comments
* since less readers are clicking on the YPN ads (when compared to BIG competition), they are following links and privately sold ads, making those ads more powerful
* more readers are following organic links to sites and other blogs which I cover in my posts, hence further empowering my blog as a referring authority
* ads are easy on the eyes, no long promotional links like YPN’s BIG competition
* YPN advertisers, backend and usability is only going to get better, especially once a dash of social media is added to the mix
CORRECTION:
Right now, for SOME bloggers with the majority of readers living in the US, YPN is much more blog friendly than its competition.
[…] Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net has some interesting posts on the Yahoo Publisher Network but as it stands, it seems as though we’re one of the few who don’t have glowing praise for YPN. Anyone else have experiences worth noting with YPN? […]
i really hope YPN could go international soon, this is my only hope with Yahoo! now…