I am an advertiser with Yahoo, I used to be a YPN publisher until I got booted. I think this is funnny. "Well we evaluated this click and we think it is from a bot so we are only going to charge you 50%...... Quality-Based Pricing Launches Key Features: • We'll evaluate the quality of traffic from our distribution partners' sites. • Your click charges can be discounted based on the value of that traffic. • Discounts will automatically be applied to your account. In an ongoing effort to raise the value of our Sponsored Search and Content Match products, we're pleased to announce the phased rollout of a new feature that we believe will help increase the value of Yahoo! Search Marketing traffic to our advertisers. This feature, called quality-based pricing, is designed to measure the value of the traffic coming from our distribution partners' websites and price clicks accordingly for our advertisers. What is Changing? Previously all traffic was treated the same—you were charged the same for traffic from all web sites within our network. With quality-based pricing, you may be charged less for certain clicks than you normally would pay, depending on the overall quality of the websites that are providing this traffic to you. As a result, your click charges can decrease. How will Click Charges be Discounted? "Quality" is calculated based on conversion rates and other measurements of the ability to deliver more interested and valuable customers to you from particular distribution partner sites. Discounts will be automatically applied to your account. When will this Start? This feature will roll out beginning today, and we plan to continue to expand it over time. This is just one of the things we're doing, along with future projects like domain-level blocking, to help increase the quality and value of traffic that we deliver to you. What Do I Need to Do? There's nothing you need to do to receive a discount—your click charges may be discounted based on the quality of traffic you receive. Keep in mind that the amount of the discounts may vary between advertisers: Some may experience a noticeable decrease in overall cost-per-click, while others may experience only a small decrease in spend. Do I Need to Change how I Bid? Quality-based pricing does not change how you bid on particular keywords. As we announced in February, both bid amount and ad quality now determine an ad's rank in search results. As always, you never pay more than your max bid.
i am a publisher and got this: In an ongoing effort to strengthen our Sponsored Search and Content Match marketplaces, Yahoo! will be introducing a new traffic quality feature called "quality-based pricing". This feature is rolling out beginning today and we plan to continue to expand it over time. Quality-based pricing will give us the ability to price traffic commensurate with the value that advertisers receive from each traffic source. We recognize that this approach may have an impact on how you operate your business, and as a valued Yahoo! publisher we wanted to let you know about this new feature, as you may notice fluctuations in your Yahoo! Publisher Network earnings. Quality-based pricing reinforces our overall commitment to deliver long-term success for our distribution partners, a high-quality experience for users and high-value traffic to our advertisers. We are excited about this initiative, and plan to work closely with you as we roll out these features across our network. Sincerely, The Yahoo! Publisher Network Team
i just got the same one Greenflag got.. Looks like "SmartPricing" .. although that sucks, it's better to be 'smartpriced' than being banned for 'low conversions' .. i guess..
Yeah, I just got it as well except it's slightly different. Dear #####, In an ongoing effort to strengthen our Sponsored Search and Content Match marketplaces, Yahoo! will be introducing a new traffic quality feature called "quality-based pricing". This feature is rolling out beginning today and we plan to continue to expand it over time. Quality-based pricing will give us the ability to price traffic commensurate with the value that advertisers receive from each traffic source. We recognize that this approach may have an impact on how you operate your business, and as a valued Yahoo! publisher we wanted to let you know about this new feature, as you may notice fluctuations in your Yahoo! Publisher Network earnings. Quality-based pricing reinforces our overall commitment to deliver long-term success for our distribution partners, a high-quality experience for users and high-value traffic to our advertisers. We are excited about this initiative, and plan to work closely with you as we roll out these features across our network. Sincerely, The Yahoo! Publisher Network Team
Well it might be a good thing. For example, we all know not all traffic is created equal so perhaps we'll be rewarded if our sites deliver better traffic? But then again how can they judge our traffic if they don't deliver targeted ads?
"Those publishers who fled Google AdSense for the Yahoo Publisher Network because of revenues being affected by the impact of smart pricing on EPC will now have to content with YPN's own version of smart pricing, called Quality-Based Pricing." source: YPN control panel and jensense blog
Here is link to email excerpt: http://digg.com/tech_news/YPN_Introduces_Smart_Pricing_Quality_Based_Pricing
Extremely bad move. It will be seen as a slap in the face to publishers who already know Yahoo! can't spell relevancy. They're also doing it just before Ask.com launches its promising looking contextual network that, if it delivers on all it promises, could blow Yahoo! and even Google out of the water.... At least until they can regroup and copy all of the innovations that is.
On the other hand, I am actually having an ok (still not what it used to be) day...at this rate, I may make back some of what I have been losing, but who knows with Yahoo.
the ask.com contextual ads could be much bigger news than this yahoo thing, but will they have enough advertisers: "* It gives publishers more control over yield and relevancy * It gives publishers more creative ad unit opportunities * It allows both advertisers and publishers more control over where and what ads are displayed We'll be working with publishers to customize their implementations with some of the following options: * New customized relevancy thresholds for publishers * Innovative yield management thresholds that allow publishers to optimize their monetization efforts You won't find the standard white background with text ads. Our hybrid text + graphical contextual units will offer a fresh new look to performance based contextual advertising." http://blog.ask.com/2007/04/introducing_asl.html
Ask.com To Launch Contextual Advertising Product Ask.com is launching a new sponsored listings contextual product and will go live the week of May 21st. The Ask contextual product will initially launch within IAC's own network of sites including Match.com, Ticketmaster, Evite and Citysearch and will then expand to trusted third party publishers. Individual publishers will most likely have to wait until next quarter to gain access to this contextual product. Current Ask Sponsored Listings advertisers will be automatically opted into the contextual network, but will have the option of opting out before the product launches. In addition, advertisers will be able to preview the features and controls they have, prior to the launch date. The advertiser controls will be separated; there will be unique bid prices for contextual ads as well as unique, separate reporting tools, and referrer blocking. The publishers will have two unique features that are not currently available in the Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher Network. Publishers will be able to set "page yield thresholds" and set "relevancy thresholds." There will be levers to allow publisher to determine if they want higher paying ads or if they want more relevant ads with these levers. In addition, the ads will be unique from that of Google and Yahoo ads. Ask told me that they will allow "very customized" interfaces for the contextual ads; such as customized backgrounds and graphics. Let me just clarify one more time that they will first launch with IAC's own network and trusted publishers, then possibly, in the next quarter, allow other third party publishers sign up to the contextual program. http://searchengineland.com/070425-000100.php
Does this mean that they are closer to coming out of BETA? What the publishers that were banned, will they be allowed back?
YPN's official Smart-pricing announcement. This explains the craptastic earnings, at least I'm not banned.