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Yahoo/Overture is in the process of introducing a program designed to be similar to Google’s AdSense. Yahoo has had a “content” network for a long time now, but for my accounts the spending has always been under 1% of the level at the search network. As far as I can tell, the affiliates were legitimate sites and didn’t click on their own ads. That could easily change in the near future if Yahoo signs up the same type of affiliate that Google did.
I am advising all my clients to turn off the Content Network on their Overture/Yahoo accounts until we can judge the quality of affiliates in this new program. Short of that, please monitor your account closely and check the source of your clicks every day. You don’t want to get burned.
Anecdote: a few weeks ago I noticed some clicks on one of my accounts, which had the Content Network turned Off. The site showed the clicks in a box-style ad, just like Google AdSense. We were getting content clicks even with the Content Network in the Off setting! I complained to Yahoo and was refunded. Yahoo knew they were in the wrong, because they refunded the money right after I asked. I have got refunds from Yahoo before, but only after a lot of arguing and sending them site logs. This time, they refunded the money within two days.
One other thing: At least with AdSense, the topic of the site matches the type of ads. In this case, the topic of the site was children’s comic books while the Yahoo ads appearing were for a form of cancer. Totally irrelevant. I suspect Yahoo allowed the publisher to specify the type of ads they wanted and these irrelevant ads were chosen because they cost advertisers over $20/click. Which should not surprise anyone familiar with the type of publisher that runs content ads, and which could just be a foretaste of type of abuse and fraud to come.
Which should not surprise anyone familiar with the type of publisher that runs content ads, ...
That's a pretty broad statement Beren.
While there certainly are publishers that do the sort of things you mention, not all publishers are like that.
We didn’t know that every Billy Bob in the trailer park would see the program as an invitation to make money by getting his friends and family to visit his website and click on an ad once or twice a day.
I think you should really rethink this statement. I think the vast majority of publishers are honest.
I am an advertiser and publisher and spend about 100x on advertising than i earn on publishing and the content network converts for me. That might be because I have a pro writing my ads and he knows what he is doing.
You really should not group all publishers as bad just because there are a few bad ones. I think that is called being prejudiced
