Overture launches service in Japan

[bill]

Just got some mail from Overture Japan offering discounted signups for existing advertisers that want to start up an account in Japan. There's still no online signup or login that I can see. The e-mail says I have to call Overture on the phone to register my account. It looks like they're going to be accepting new accounts starting today. No word of when they'll be opening the website and partnering deals, but it should be very soon. :)

[ade_uk]

i'll probably give it a go and report back..

[ade_uk]

all signed up, we get access to our account at the end of this month apparently

[bill]

ade_uk keep us posted. According to Overture the Japanese will be added to your control panel, so if you have an English or other language account already the Japanese keywords can be accessed and maintained directly through that account interface. In other words, you don't have to use the Japanese account management system unless you want to. If you're more comfortable with English, you can use that interface.

[ade_uk]

yes, i currently do the same (merge accounts) with my DE, FR + UK account...

i had my US keywords etc accepted by Overture Japan shortly after signing up, but yesterday they were all rejected for being too many characters! looks like they havent sorted out their guidelines etc yet

[bill]

Overture Japan [jp.overture.com] is now online and has a search box up. There aren't a large amount of bidders yet, so its tough to see the results on the partner sites. I'm ranking pretty well on the Inktomi though ;) I'll look around and see what I can find.

[ade_uk]

i'm still awaiting for them to sort out my listings!

[angiolo]

The suggestion tool is.

[inventory.jp.overture.com...]

[bill]

suggestion tool

...beat you to it over here [webmasterworld.com] msg#9, but thanks ;)

ade_uk are your listings showing up on Overture Japan or their partners yet?

[ade_uk]

no, they've yet to copy them across from my US account succesfully!

[bill]

You put Japanese keywords into your US account?

[ade_uk]

no, they're meant to be taking my US listings/keywords and changing them for the Japan account

[bill]

So you're bidding on English keywords through Overture Japan? It would be interesting to hear how you do with those.

[ade_uk]

yes thats right - an advisor told us we couldnt bid on japanese keywords unless we had a japanese version of our site

[bill]

couldnt bid on japanese keywords unless we had a japanese version of our site

I'm kind of glad they're enforcing that. It's frustrating over here sometimes for the locals who get non-Japanese results for their Japanese searches...particularly since the Japanese level of English competency is comparatively low for Asia.

I assume your site targets the Japanese market in some way? Do they enforce any guidelines along those lines?

[ade_uk]

yes - thats fair enough...

yes our site has products aimed at the japanese market - though they would be v. difficult to translate (revolving stock of hundreds each week in japanese section), and i'm happy to have english keywords and english listings which they say they do

[bill]

Honestly speaking I really hadn't thought of marketing English keywords on Overture Japan, so I'm really interested in how they perform for you. If you'd be willing to keep us posted I'm sure I'm not the only one who would want to know.

[ade_uk]

yes, i'll let you know once up and running....