Yes, yahoo audits within 24 hours- but it is usually close to immediate. I don't think they give a dollar credit for International clicks to begin with - or they are deducted so fast that you will never notice it. There was a confirmed rep from YPN who posted such on this board - although I can't remember her name. Yahoo reserves the right to audit before they send your check, but I think the only time that might happen is if they found some click fraud, not International traffic. Adsense has pretty much the same policy when it comes to reserving the right to make adjustments, but it is only done in extreme cases when enforcing their TOS. I have never seen an adjustment done between 12am and 3am PST (when the details from the day before are being calculated).
Representative on the phone just told me that it is *my* responsibility to filter non US traffic. He's checking to see if I can be reinstated in the program if I agree to do that. So my understanding is that if you're not filtering non US traffic right now, you better start. Otherwise YPN will probably terminate your account.
I just called and spoke with my YPN rep. I am no where near the largest YPN publisher, but have been told I am certainly in the top 10% and he said I don't need to do anything to filter out non-us traffic. While they do not pay on International clicks, they said sites with a large percentage of International traffic skews their results and that is why they don't want those sites. He wouldn't put a number on what percentage of International traffic is considered "large" but I did ask if 5% would be considered "large" and he said "certainly not, you have nothing to worry about" (and my International traffic isn't close to 5%) He confirmed again that most adjustments are made same day, but that they reserve the right to make end of month adjustments. He said sites with a large amount of International traffic should not be participating in the beta program as they risk not being dropped from the program and not being paid. He said they plan on opening up the International program sometime next year - and that the PPC would be different. If anyone is in doubt, I would suggest checking their logs and finding out the percentage of International traffic and then contacting YPN and ask them if that will be a problem.
The rep that I talked to told me that they don't begin the filter process till the end of the month. Maybe that's the company line in order to allow for end of the month adjustments. I hope so, but there's no telling really. It looks like we're getting different stories from different reps (which isn't unusual, of course, even in an established program/company). ... It does all seem a little "dangerous" however if people are already getting kicked out because of it. Especially in beta, they should be making the rules clear and letting webmasters know what might be a problem - it's not a good thing to just go suspending accounts.
Sounds like quite a gamble. My rep told me that I was responsible for filtering out international traffic. If the line between having to filter and not is some undisclosed percentage of international traffic, I would think everyone should be very nervous. What if your site suddenly becomes popular in Asia? And in the space of three days you cross that line. Are you comfortable with your YPN account being dropped suddenly?
Well, it sounds like you have a very large percentage of International traffic or you are excluding something from the reason you were dropped. In over 8 years, over 40 sites, never had one that even approached anything significant in International traffic. No, I am not worried at all and am not going to do anything to filter out the small amount of traffic I recieve. YPN isn't going to drop good performing US targeted sites just because it got a few days of International traffic. Each person needs to make their own decison.
But if no one is getting paid for international traffic, why does it matter if you have a very large percentage of international traffic? Several sections within the Terms and Conditions state that they will not pay for international traffic. If 1% of one site's traffic is international, and 80% of another's is, I don't see what the second site is doing wrong. Both are generating "invalid" clicks that Yahoo is filtering anyway, the second site is just doing more of them (and therefore earning less money).
If you're getting 80% international traffic, you shouldn't want to be in YPN unless you were banned from adsense. It's Yahoo's program, they can set any rules they want. No one is forced to participate. Don't put an 80% site in YPN to begin with and you won't have any problems. Only someone who didn't read the TOS would put YPN on a site with a majority of Interational traffic to begin with. All my sites are geared towards the US, and I can't image any reason they would become popular outside the US to begin with. If I did have such a site, I would run adsense. Is your site hosted in the US - which will automatically serve more US traffic from search results? Yahoo says International traffic skews their stats, but I suspect they don't want to lose advertisters because they are paying for US traffic and then see a bunch of non-us clicks going through - even if yahoo says, "don't worry, we aren't charging you, or you'll get credited at the end of the month." My yahoo rep laughed when I asked about 5% International traffic, so I think your site must have a LARGE percentage of International traffic - like over 25%. Check your logs, you'll know what sites are going to work and which ones won't. You could always hire a programmer to write a script that detects IP addresses and serves up adsense to International visitors.
Thanks. As I noted earlier in the thread, I've written this script myself and will deploy it if YPN will let me back in. My point still stands however. If I've done the analysis, and I make more money from YPN (without international traffic) than with Adsense (with international traffic), then I will stay with YPN. And if I do, I shouldn't have to do any filtering that you or anyone else doesn't have to do -- regardless of my percentage of international traffic. And yes, my site is hosted in the US. It was made in the US. I live in the US. It is targetted towards users of US-based products and services. Short of putting up a big "international users not welcome here" sign, I'm not sure what else I can do (and if I have to do that, so should everyone else).
Ok, but I'm guessing that the International traffic didn't jump to a huge percentage after you signed up, so your problem could have been avoided by not running YPN on a site the TOS specifically said wasn't to be included in the current program. Now that you know, hopefully they will let you have a second chance. There are also International users who use US proxies to get past censorship, so that might also be a reason they don't want sites with a large percentage of International traffic because an advertiser would be paying for a foreign generated click because of the proxy. There are several things I don't like about YPN, specifically their poor ad targeting and use of stop words that isn't nearly as good with google, and I have submitted suggestions for change, but I have to make a decision to run YPN or not based on the current program limitations. I have about 25% of my sites where YPN doesn't work as well as adsense.
Given the current Terms and Conditions, no site is to be included in the current program if it does not use geographic filtering (including yours). Section 11.l states: "You agree not to display all or part of the Ad Unit to any user located outside the US". There's no qualification that it only applies to sites with "significant" international traffic." I agree, hopefully they let me have a second chance. And I will comply with that TaC by not showing ads to international users to the best of my ability.
I posted about that section's legal disclaimer over a month ago. I've spoken with yahoo a couple of times and also have it in writing that my sites are within compliance - even though they ALL get some International traffic. I'll also bet 99% of YPN publishers do not use any geo filter and the problem you had is an isolated case due to a very high percentage of International traffic.
Can someone please give me a script or point me in the right direction to serve ads only to US visitors? I've been making quite a bit of money and do not want to be terminated just because I couldn't get my hands on a script. Thanks
Before you do that, call YPN and ask them if you have to. If they tell you No, get the rep's name and write down the date, time, and rep name. That way, they can't terminate you (according to everyone else in this thread).
I have already called and although they couldn't recommend a script, they did recommend that I get a script. Any tips??
grantmd - Can you give us an idea of the % of international traffic you had? Was a lot of it from India and/or China?
Let's just say most of my traffic comes from overseas, unfortunately. Overseas meaning Singapore, Phillippines, Malaysia.... mostly young kids from those countries.
For the record, Unless yahoo can filter real time for international, the audits come @ the end of the month.