Comments on: Interview with YPN Manager

By: Bazar

Bazar — Wed, 29 Mar 2006 04:24:42 +0000

i really hope YPN could go international soon, this is my only hope with Yahoo! now…

By: Why Yahoo Publisher Network Is Playing Catchup to Adsense at Secret Weapon Labs

Why Yahoo Publisher Network Is Playing Catchup to Adsense at Secret Weapon Labs — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 16:31:51 +0000

[...] Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.net has some interesting posts on the Yahoo Publisher Network but as it stands, it seems as though we’re one of the few who don’t have glowing praise for YPN. Anyone else have experiences worth noting with YPN? [...]

By: Loren

Loren — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 02:38:20 +0000

CORRECTION:

Right now, for SOME bloggers with the majority of readers living in the US, YPN is much more blog friendly than its competition.

By: Loren

Loren — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 02:26:35 +0000

Right now, for bloggers with the majority of readers living in the US, YPN is much more blog friendly than its competition.

I say this because:

* the eCPM is comparable or better than BIG competition
* relevancy is ok, not as good as BIG competition, but ok
* much lower CTR%

How does this better my pro blog?

* low CTR% = more blog action : more people are taking different actions on my blog instead of clicking away from it to the sites of advertisers

* more readers are bookmarking & leaving comments

* since less readers are clicking on the YPN ads (when compared to BIG competition), they are following links and privately sold ads, making those ads more powerful

* more readers are following organic links to sites and other blogs which I cover in my posts, hence further empowering my blog as a referring authority

* ads are easy on the eyes, no long promotional links like YPN’s BIG competition

* YPN advertisers, backend and usability is only going to get better, especially once a dash of social media is added to the mix

By: Stuart

Stuart — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 07:01:42 +0000

A ‘cyber riot’ – the mind boggles :)

By: truongn2

truongn2 — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 05:44:10 +0000

I like Yahoo, they are a good competitor to google adsense

By: marcel

marcel — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 03:41:19 +0000

I’ve also heard a number of people say YPN outperforms Adsense on certain topics.

So they do have a few things going well. Now YPN, please don’t rest on your laurels.

By: Dave Starr

Dave Starr — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 03:11:01 +0000

Darren, I’ve heard of pblishers getting dropped for having too many clicks on YPN ads from non-US IP’s This, plus Yahoo’s rude and abysmal customer service has prevented me from even giving it a try, although I was approved initially for the beta.

The idea that a publisher is responsible to control who clicks on ads on his/her site is insane. Even on a tiny techical subject US based blog at least half my readers come from outside the US. I have been mystified by this refusal of Yahoo to deal with the fact that the Internet is international.

To restrict publishers to the US for some period until they have payment systems in place, etc., ok, makes sense. To penalize publishers for where the clicks come from? Nonsensical.

By: Darren Rowse

Darren Rowse — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 02:51:07 +0000

I should clarify – I’ve experienced YPN on a number of blogs and in my experience it does pay more per click but it’s CTR is significantly lower (even with exactly the same design and position ads as where I previously had AdSense).

So on some topics where they seem to have plenty of inventory of ads (and the CTR is a little higher) this means YPN out performs AdSense and on others the total earned with AdSense out performs YPN.

I have not written off YPN – in fact we run it on some of our b5 blogs where it does better – but on most of the blogs I’m involved with to this point AdSense seems to be doing better.

I’m hopeful (and pretty sure) that this will change as they continue to increase their inventory – but I’d always advise that if you’re lucky enough to be in the beta test that you should test both options as different blogs will always be better suited for different ad networks.

Also note (I always get asked this) that I’ve been able to test it, even though I’m an Aussie) because I am part of a network that is registered in the US.

By: marcel

marcel — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 23:50:14 +0000

YPN is probably profitable, once it remains that way , I guess YPN might get lazy and take forever to go truely international – like PayPal
BTW, an International distaste already exists for PayPal for this same reason.

By: private road construction

private road construction — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 23:26:41 +0000

YPN is fine but Google AdSense rules.

By: Shaun Carter

Shaun Carter — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 23:01:31 +0000

Interesting post Darren. I agree though that YPN’s targetting is very lacking in comparison to Google’s, but I don’t think Yahoo is about to admit that their competitor is better than them.

By: John Hood

John Hood — Sat, 25 Mar 2006 22:57:42 +0000

Darren,

I wholeheartedly agree with your sentiments regarding the international issue! It could create ill will in the short to mid term, and Google has an opportunity to further cement existing partnerships.

John