Beta testing the Yahoo Publisher Network

A look inside...

[Jenstar]

I have been one of the small handful of publishers beta testing the YPN, and it was worth the wait :)

YPN is very similar to AdSense in a lot of ways, but it has some quirks to work out during the beta period. It has ten ad unit sizes (same as AdSense) and similar reporting features in the control panel, including downloadable reports.

You can also block advertisers, customize channels for tracking (although only 50 of them), and create ad unit styles for display.

Ad units look similar to AdSense, although the text is larger, and hence shows fewer ads. For example, the large rectangle only shows three ads with YPN instead of four.

A couple cool features - you can transfer your earnings to your Yahoo Search Marketing account.

The home page of the control panel features your total daily earnings, and it tells you what time your earning stats were last updated, which is great for stat junkies.

Now, the question everyone wants to know. YPN is open for beta testing by invite only. But you can apply to become a YPN beta tester [advision.webevents.yahoo.com] and hopefully be one of the ones invited:

If you're interested in being considered for the Yahoo! Publisher Network beta program, please enter your information below. Participants of the program must be a resident of the U.S., with valid U.S. Social Security number or Tax ID.

I would assume they plan to open it to those who don't meet the above criteria when it launches out of beta by the end of this year.

[Nabeel]

[qoute] ah. I typed some stupid numbers. I just want to test the CPC [/quote]
SO what the the results?

[bnhall]

I was just accepted into the beta program today. I do have a question - Jenstar? can you help? To be clear on the adsense TOS, If I have a domain with AdSense on it, am I allowed to run YPN anywhere on that domain? or do I have to pick either AdSense or YPN to run 100% across a domain?

[sailorjwd]

This aint jenstar but I just got an email back from G support saying it is ok to have YPN on a site, just not on the same page as Adsense.

The only thing I know that is banned site-wide is if you have Adsense for Search on your site then you can't have any other search.

[ownerrim]

"This aint jenstar but I just got an email back from G support saying it is ok to have YPN on a site, just not on the same page as Adsense."

I had the impression that the last tos change didnt' allow this...but then again the change was fairly fuzzy. This might be a good thing.

[fischermx]

This aint jenstar but I just got an email back from G support saying it is ok to have YPN on a site, just not on the same page as Adsense.

Wow, that's huge news.
Actually, if you have a server side driven site, would be possible to even switch the ads block on a random basis, or better a 50/50, so they would never be in the same page at the same time... just wondering.

[Jenstar]

I think the change you are thinking of was in regards to multiple publisher IDs on the same site.

Yes, you can run them both on the same site, so long as they don't appear on the same page during the same page view. I plan to put an ad rotation script on my blog and do a 50/50 rotation between AdSense & YPN to get some good comparison data.

[layover]

The issue of competing ads is only in regards to a specific page.

G's TOS: [google.com...]
Competitive Ads and Services

We do not permit Google ads or search boxes accessing Google search services to be published on web pages that also contain what could be considered competing ads or services. If you have elected to receive contextually-targeted Google ads, this would include all other contextually-targeted ads or links on the same page as Google ads. This would also include ads throughout the site that mimic Google ads or otherwise appear to be associated with Google on your site. Although you may sell ads directly on your site, it is your responsibility to ensure these ads do not mimic Google ads. If you have elected to receive Google search services, this would include other search services on the same site and non-Google query-targeted ads. We do allow affiliate or limited-text links.

Yahoo!'s TOS: [publisher.yahoo.com...]

I don't see anywhere that Yahoo! says competing ads can't be displayed on the same page. Am I missing it?

I have been accepted and will begin testing next week. I will probably rotate between both and see how it goes.

As far as payout.....I am guessing it will be comparable to G's...but probably won't exceed theirs....

Interested in numbers that anyone may have though.

[alika]

One thing I like with YPN is they give you the phone number of their technical support. That in itself -- the knowledge that you can easily reach someone rather than get a canned response -- is a huge thing.

[incrediBILL]

One thing I like with YPN is they give you the phone number of their technical support

That phone # may vaporize after beta.

Have a phone # available to deal with a small number of publishers in real time to help get the product out the door makes a lot of sense.

Dealing with all the whining we see daily in the AdSense forum about every little hiccup in eCPM and CTR would drive so many Y! tech support specialists to suicide that Sunnyvale would be swarming in bio-hazmat teams as the city turned into a river of red.

On the upside the shortages in organ donors would be eliminated in a week.

[Jesse_Smith]

I just got an email back from G support saying it is ok to have YPN on a site, just not on the same page as Adsense.

I'll bet AdSense Support cringed at answering your question!

Give us some results once you got something!!!! Even if it's just a day of stats!!!!

[alika]

LOL incredibill. Except that YPN's phone support is just like receiving a canned response from Adsense - the person who answered the phone did not have answers to my questions and will instead refer my queries to other folks in the building. Basically I have to wait till next week for someone to email me the responses I need. And as he proceeded to give me my support ticket number, he found that their ticketing system is not working! Talk about beta.

[bnhall]

So far about 24 hours after installing YPN on a smallish site, I am still getting either whitespace or non-targetted ads. I sent an email to their Support team yesterday and received a canned response immediately, but still nothing is working.

[Visi]

< This would also include ads throughout the site that mimic Google ads or otherwise appear to be associated with Google on your site.>

Okay I'm confused..(not really anything new in that)The TOS snippet above clearly states YPN ads would NOT be allowed on the same SITE. Now Google is saying it is okay as long as per the original TOS that was per page? Jen have you discussed this directly with the adsense group as to that interpetation?

[Jenstar]

>> about 24 hours

I believe that is about the time it takes, although some of my pages were much faster. I notice the YPN bot showing up about a second after a page request in my logs.

>>clarification

I am 99.9999% sure that YPN & AdSense are permitted on the same site as long as they aren't appearing together on the same page view. But I am officially double checking for the 100% assurance ;)

[Jenstar]

I got the clarification, it is 100% within the AdSense terms to run both AdSense and YPN on the same site, as long as they aren't appearing together on the same page during the same page view.

[Visi]

Thanks Jen

[ronin]

I got the clarification, it is 100% within the AdSense terms to run both AdSense and YPN on the same site, as long as they aren't appearing together on the same page during the same page view.

Google said the same thing about Adsonar a very long time ago. There is no change in policy here.

[Jenstar]

The changed the wording on that section of the policies recently, and it made it quite open to interpretation when they did it.

[bnhall]

Ok, after running YPN all day yesterday on a few sites I'm quite pleased and finding YPN actually better than Adsense. I'm switching over some more sites and will keep watching.

[bnhall]

And this text from their FAQ is interesting:

"Revenue totals in daily reports are provided as estimates of your actual earnings. After the close of the calendar month, your revenues for that month will be adjusted and your actual earnings will be reflected in your available balance forty-five days after the close of the calendar month."

What does this mean exactly - my earnings may be "adjusted"?

[fischermx]

Let's hope they are "low" estimations ...

[sezampicika]

My vision of YPN until now is great. Everything seems to be fine, and most important thing (the CPC) is better then AdSense's, at least in my Ads Category (Wireless Technology).

Shame is that I am not from US so I will not keep using my Yahoo account. I will put AdSense ads back until Yahoo! is officialy out of beta and open internationaly!

Regards!

[sezampicika]

After one more day within YPN I cannot wait opening for international publishers.

CPC is incredible! Great!

Thanks Yahoo!

[fischermx]

So, you got an invitation by error or what?

[sezampicika]

I applied long time ago... When there was nothing about "only US" publishers...

And they Invited me one week ago... I applied. And thats all.

[layover]

So far about 24 hours after installing YPN on a smallish site, I am still getting either whitespace or non-targetted ads.

I am seeing the same thing...but the non-targeted ads appear to be PSA's? They are all ads for ".org" sites.

Anyone else experiencing this?

[alika]

I get targeted ads very quickly. Upon loading, I just hit refresh and the targeted ads show. EPC seems good, too. But well, G started out with very high EPC for us too when it first went out the door and steadily dropped. So not holding my breath too much on this.

One thing I like, their customer rep called me up yesterday to work on the problem I raised with them last Friday. It always feels good to know that there is someone who can help you in the company you are doing business with :o)

[layover]

Am getting mostly blank ads at this point. Have a call in to support...will see when they call back and what they say.

[dvd1000]

So, how much more percentage-wise have this YPN been?

[hunegnaw]

We just set up YPN on the home page of our site this morning and noticed that for the first two hours we just had a "white space". We called YPN and as we were on the phone with them, the ads all of a sudden began appearing.

So far so good. We like the interface (very similar to AdSense), we also like the ability to transfer earnings from YPN to Overture (Y! Search Marketing).

[edited by: jatar_k at 5:09 pm (utc) on Aug. 11, 2005]
[edit reason] no personal urls thanks [/edit]