wyweb - 1:12 pm on Jun 26, 2007 (gmt 0)

I'm still using YPN. I have been since the start. I'm not using it extensively but I do keep it on a few pages just to sort of keep my finger on the pulse... er, to see if a pulse returns, I mean.

Around the 13th of this month my YPN earnings fell to appx. half of what they had been for the past several months. I'm assuming this was a result of their quality based pricing [webmasterworld.com ], but I certainly don't know that for sure. The significance of this, to me anyway, is that now for the first time YPN is actually paying less per click than Adsense. Combine this with YPN's notoriously poor targeting and, well... is there a doctor in the house? How about a hearse driver?

Two years ago YPN publishers were reporting earnings per click 4 and 5 times higher than what they'd been making with adsense. My YPN earnings per click were seventeen times my adsense earnings per click. I was making 50% more money in total monthly earnings and doing it on 75% fewer clicks. My page views went up (fewer visitors leaving via adsense and remaining on site longer). My blood pressure went down. Life was good. That lasted what, three months? It's been downhill since.

I do understand it's a beta test. It will probably go down in history as one of the longest beta tests ever conducted. I suspect the actual testing is finished though. YPN seems to think their targeting is dead on and act surprised when you tell them it sucks. I think in their own minds they think they've got all the bugs worked out. What they're doing now is simply stalling. Buying time in the hopes that their advertiser base will increase enough to accommodate their publisher's ad space. If they can't even supply enough ad inventory to satisfy a limited beta test, what do you suppose will happen when they go global?

Is anyone still using YPN? Sure. It's a second opportunity for click fraud artists to get back in business after adsense shows them the door.