Why Does Yahoo! See Ad Growth Slowing?

I reported two nights ago at the SEW blog that Yahoo CEO Says Ad Growth Slowing Down, and then Danny did a follow up restating the Need For Search Ad Revenue To Stand Alone. So we technically do not know if they are search ads, contextual ads, banner ads, email ads... you get my point. But if they were search and contextual ads, why would Yahoo! say they are seeing the ad growth curve begin to flatten out in certain industries?

Let's have a look at what the forums have to say about this. These are Webmasters, advertisers, publishers and SEOs:

The web is changing, and Yahoo! tends to be right there in the mix... consistently. Slowing ad sales is probably more a result of the poor traffic (social traffic and people who frequent sticky and / or fun sites tend to convert poorly).

But will this strategy pay off? They are investing a ton of money in it.

Its their own fault. I'm in austalia, got sites that combined get 4 million page views from the US alone per month, yes I don;t qualify for a YPN account.

Is volume the problem?

I don't have any sympathy for Yahoo! 1. Their DTC has been more or less the same since launch, when it was GoTo!

2. There are a large number of dubious search partners that don't get kicked off the program.

3. YPN is US only, they are so far behind AdSense.

I could go on and on...

Some very valid points.

they must make the sign up process easier. i have tried 3 times so far and i never completed it due to number of questions arising. i guess i am simply too dumb. thus, they should make their system more usable for idiots like me.

Hmmmm....

Forum discussion at DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld & also an other thread at WebmasterWorld.