garyr_h - 5:27 pm on Nov 20, 2005 (gmt 0)

My problem had nothing to do with YPN, it was on my own side. So.. sorry YPN, I owe you one.

Once I got YPN back on my earnings went back to normal. So, all smiles again!

For targetting I do have some tips (in no particular order):

1) Use Meta Tags Wisely
I was getting poor targetting on some pages until my meta keywords/description was fixed up a bit. I took out all words which the ads might confuse with something other than what it is intended for and the ads became more targetted.

2) Repeated Ads
If you don't like repeated ads (which hardly anyone does), use only one ad unit per page if possible.

3) GeoTarget YPN
For now, use MaxMind (easy to find when searched for) to display the ads to US visitors only. The clicks are already discounted from other countries, so you might already disable the ads for non-us ip addresses. MaxMind is built-in to many geo-targetting software such as phpads.. You may also build your own (which is what I did, didn't take too long to do.)

4) To Use, or Not to Use.
Ad Targetting is there for a reason: to help us, well, some of us. Others... not so much. Test it out. Not always what is expected will happen. For me, an ad generally related to, but not exactly the same as the content I provide, is more valuable. Visitors come to my site and find what they want, then they go on their way. I want to give them an idea of what they REALLY want.

5) Use Ad Blocking Sparingly.
I have seen many people post here that they are blocking so-so ad because it doesn't look 'good for their site'. As a famous advertiser once said, the ad copy doesn't have to be great, just the content once they get to the site does. So be careful who you block. Use it the same way you would use the Adsense blocking feature, only block competitors. If the ads aren't performing correctly YPN will figure out what to do with them.

6) Report any Problems to YPN.
This has been overlooked by many publishers. You must remember that YPN is still in BETA, and lets face it; this isn't a Google BETA, it's a normal BETA, meaning not complete. The system will have some problems, just report them and go on your way. If you can't get through them by email (which, I have never received a responce other than automated telling me my 'number') call them up and tell them whats going on.

I make around 3x as much with YPN as I would with Google alone. I admit that targettin isn't perfect (even with ad targetting), but the CPC (cost per click) is amazing.