I have been tracking a thread at WebmasterWorld named The YPN honeymoon is over. It discusses how most of the members in that thread are noticing a drop in earnings compared to when they first started. Back when YPN first launched, and even somewhat the case today, the contextual ads were not too contextually relevant and so the ads displayed were higher paying ads. But recently YPN started getting relevant to the page's content and the earnings per click (EPC) has started to drop. Hence, the YPN Honeymoon is Over. :)
Which brings me to a question I asked about a week ago, Should Contextual Ad Networks Use CPC In Ad Placement? I personally feel the answer is no. If I sign up for a contextual advertising program, I want the ads to contextually match my content. I can sign up with other ad programs that are totally off topic to the content, if I wanted to.
So where does that leave the YPN product? I asked the Yahoo! Search Marketing team for a response. Will Johnson, YP & GM of Yahoo! Publisher Network Online, offered this response:
YPN is in beta mode and we continue to make changes to the algorithms to improve relevancy as we strive to balance revenue opportunity. The balance between these two is very much the focus of our efforts. Our goal is to provide industry leading monetization for publishers in our network. As always, we appreciate the feedback from our publishers.
Forum discussion at WebmasterWorld.
