New Yahoo! Video launches

Take notice, aspiring multimedia ingénues—the latest version of Yahoo! Video is up, running and ready for your premiere. Publishers now have the ability to upload their video content directly to Yahoo!, manage, tag and share it with others—including the ability publish video to their own Web pages or blogs:

Yahoo! Video lets you: 

• Manage and share your original content with Yahoo! users and the world with MyStudio
• Easily browse for what’s new on the Web
• Choose video from an expanded index, including more user-submitted Media-RSS feeds, direct feeds from major video publishers, and video crawled from the Web
• Create channels: groups of videos created by a common source. In the search results, we match channels to your query and display them in the left column, and when relevant, next to the video results. Just by uploading a single video, publishers can begin creating their own individual channels.
• Manage videos and channels you’ve added while searching with MyFavorites. MyFavorites helps you keep up-to-date on channels you like, as well as bookmark your favorite videos. Favorites can also be exported as a Media RSS feed, for those who subscribe and follow online content using an RSS reader or to share with friends.
• Share your original content with friends and users, whether by email or by sending links through Yahoo! Instant Messenger
• Embed a video player window into a blog or Web page and play your video content by copying and pasting code that we provide.

This is a huge plus for the publishers in our network, as it provides a consistent experience for your end users, regardless of how you plan to distribute your video content.

Who knows? Maybe you’ll be the next Peter Jackson—or the next Ed Wood.

Try it out for yourself.

Congrats, Yahoo! Video team! 

– The Yahoo! Publisher Network Team

Using Reporting categories to test and target

Reporting Categories allow you to gauge the performance of ads in different areas of your site or sites as well as ads in different layouts. You can assign Reporting Categories to different pages corresponding to, for example, different lines of business. If the content on your site deals with consumer electronics and computer gaming software, you can assign each its own Reporting Category, measure the success of your campaign in each line of business and adjust your Ad Targeting and content strategies accordingly.

You can also use Reporting Categories assess how well one ad layout placement performs against another.

You can create a Reporting Category from the Reporting Categories page, under the Reporting Tab. All you need to do enter your Category name into the input field and hit Create. Then, hit the “Update Your Ad Code” link, which takes you back to the Ad Layout page.

You’ll need to choose your Ad Layout Options and color palette and, under “Step 2, Reporting Category” use the drop down to apply your category. Then you’ll need to cut and paste (or re-paste) the ad code into your site.

It’s important to use Reporting Categories to analyze your performance on a granular level. And you’ll want to analyze your Reporting Category data against your knowledge of your users. You might find that a careful study of your users’ desires and behavior combined with granular testing of Categories leads to some unexpected but profitable results.

– Michael Mattis, Blog Editor

Famed blogstress Jennifer Slegg unmasks the mysteries of color matching

Many publishers fail to realize the true importance of ad unit colors when generating their Yahoo! Publisher Network ad javascript. In fact, I have seen revenue quadruple when publishers make a simple change to their color schemes.

So how do you know if a color scheme is a good one or a bad one? By testing. For each color scheme you choose, you will want to create a new Reporting Category. But before you do that, you need to figure out what color schemes might work best for you.

There are four types of color schemes that I use for my Yahoo! Publisher Network ad units:

1. The blended technique

This technique sets the ad unit’s background and border color to the same color as the page background color. The title is then in either traditional hyperlink blue or in another color used for page links.

2. The matching technique

If your logo is green, you might try matching both the border and background of the ad unit to the same green, then use the page background color as the ad unit’s text color. You aren’t introducing new colors, but matching the on-page colors, and this makes the ad unit more noticeable than the blended technique.

3. The complimentary technique

This would use new colors not currently on the page, but colors chosen to complement the colors that are. There are many tools available online to help you figure out what colors complement the major color elements on your page. You can leave the border hidden and use the complementary colors for all the text, or use those complementary colors in the ad unit’s border and background, as well.

4. The contrasting technique

This isn’t used as often, but there are publishers who find contrasting ad units perform the best. For contrasting colors, think bold, bright and, most importantly, obnoxious.

What makes an ad unit “obnoxious”? It could be a red border with a yellow background. Or a lime green background with a hot pink border. These draw the eye because they are so garish. But while this technique works best on some types of sites, you should avoid this if your visitors return often or have a high number of page views per visit—you don’t want to alienate them!

Finally, a free script like PHPAdsNew will allow you to rotate your tested ad units evenly. As long as you have set up a new channel for each ad unit color scheme, after a few days you should easily be able to see which ad unit has the highest CTR and is performing the best for you.

Happy testing!

– Jen Slegg, Publisher, Jensense.com

Product Guidelines for Ads Explained

We all have standards. Like yours, Yahoo!’s standards are pretty high. We pride ourselves on them. We want everyone, from advertisers to publishers to users, to have the best experience that we can give them. So the following guidelines were developed to ensure a positive experience for everyone:

Yahoo! Publisher Network ad units:

• May not be obscured in any way
• Must be shown in the requested page, not as a pop-up or pop-under window or in an e-mail
• Must be clearly labeled as “Ads by Yahoo!”, and this label should not be confused with other advertising or links on the publisher’s page
• Must not be associated with images or media on the page

Also, users must be able to tell the difference between the Ad Unit and other content on the page.
 

Pages that contain Yahoo! Publisher Network ad units:

• Must be content-based, fully functional and not contain any broken links
• Must be in English or Spanish, and be consistent with the language of the listings
• Must respond adequately to user requests
• Must not actively encourage users to click on ads
• Must not disable the browser’s back button
• Must not spawn more than one partial pop-up/pop-under window, and this window must not interfere with user navigation
• Must not automatically replace the browser homepage

In addition, we have some guidelines for the type of content that we don’t want associated with our ads. Please check them out.

If you haven’t already read it, be sure to take a peek at our post on “Maintaining a Quality Network.”

– The Team

Direct Deposit is now the fastest payment option for publishers

After listening to our publishers, we are very excited to announce that we have added Direct Deposit as a new method to receive your Yahoo! Publisher Network earnings. With this fast and easy payment option, you can avoid the hassle of depositing paper checks at your bank.

With the introduction of direct deposit, you now have three payment options for receiving available balances of $100 or more:

• Direct Deposit
• Check
• Balance transfer (only available to publishers who are also Yahoo! Search Marketing advertisers)

This enhancement offers several benefits to publishers, including:

• No more paper checks to schlep to the bank
• A shorter payment processing cycle: 10 days
• The option to have tax withholdings automatically deducted from earnings
• Automated communications in the event that payment issues arise

Please note that all April earnings will be issued by check. Thereafter, payment can be issued via direct deposit to those who opt in.

To opt in to direct deposit, simply go to the Payment Options page under the Account Information tab, and use the pull-down menu to select your payment option.

Of course, you can continue to receive checks if you prefer. As in the past, you must accrue at least $100 to receive a payment.

– Carolina Toro, Product Manager

Alpha… Beta… Gamma…

No, it’s not a fraternity party or a sorority tea, it’s Flickr’s quiet announcement yesterday that the online photo-oriented social media service has come out of Beta and into Gamma, making significant enhancements along the way.  If you liked Flickr before—and we at Yahoo! Publisher Network certainly did—you’ll love it now.

Be sure to check out the Flickr Blog to get the skinny on all the changes.

Congrats to the whole Flickr team from all of us down here in Burbank!

– The Team

David Beach
Publisher

ItsBeach.com
DieOld.org
SwedeLife.com

In his own time, David Beach uses the Web to share his enthusiasms–for new technology, music, and recently, his desire to help himself and others live better and die older.

That’s right, die older. Since February, David, one of the heavy hitters at Yahoo! Shopping in Sunnyvale, California, has blogged at DieOld.org about the daily adventure of getting into shape. His goal: to lose more than 100 pounds–and help others do the same. Since starting his program of dieting, exercise and blogging, David has shed more than 20 pounds, according to the “Die Old Tracker” featured on his site. In the process, he has also inspired countless others to take up healthier lifestyles.

“Using the medium to express myself publicly has kept me accountable to what I’m trying to do,” the Santa Cruz-based, 37-year-old father of two told me. “At the same time, it’s definitely touched a nerve with others in similar circumstances. I get lots of comments and email from supporters.”

DieOld.org is just the most recent of David’s enthusiasms. He first started blogging in 2000, although his new media blog, ItsBeach.com is only about a year old. There, David blogs about technology, the high-tech biz, and his job at Yahoo!, and keeps a daily link blog.

But music is perhaps David first and foremost enthusiasm. In a former life, David worked with Quagmire Records, a San Francisco-based label for indie and alternative music that was active in the 1990s. When the label went under, David and his musician cohorts were left with some 100 rock albums (about 1,200 songs) for which they had no way to distribute. On Swedelife.com, David offers a new mp3 song every day, for free.

The Yahoo! Publisher Network ads that appear on his sites allow David to keep publishing at minimal cost, recouping a little of the cash – and time – he spends keeping his blogs up to date. In other words, Yahoo! Publisher Network helps David promote his enthusiasms while helping “Pay the Bills.”

– Michael Mattis, Blog Editor

The world’s home page is now yours

If you’re a regular reader of the blog, you know that we at Yahoo! Publisher Network are committed to social media and user-generated content. We like to use the services we promote. So we were pretty jazzed when we were shown the new Yahoo! home page Beta.

The new home page offers more personalization, search, community as well as more focus on user content and editorial. In addition, users will get quick at-a-glance view of everything that’s going on in the world, including both essential and entertaining news. We think it will be useful and fun for both publishers and consumers alike.

Preview the new home page.

And see what top blogger, Richard MacManus says about it. 

– Michael Mattis, Blog Editor

The whys and wherefores of “quality”

The response to our post about maintaining a quality network has been overwhelmingly positive. The idea of keeping the quality network high is one that appeals to both advertisers and publishers. It’s agreed: we all win when the quality of our traffic is high. But questions have arisen here, on the boards, and elsewhere:

• What constitutes “quality?”
• Why aren’t publishers given a warning about what they are doing wrong prior to suspension?

For the answer to the first question, we had some good information in the original post:

… One of the main concerns for our 100,000-plus advertisers who participate is the quality of traffic they receive. For advertisers, we need to consider the source of traffic, the site content, click activity, and the overall quality of leads generated for our advertisers.

That’s basically it. There’s no secret, no magic formula, for maintaining a trusted relationship with our Network.

In general, we try to lead in communication with you. As an example, you may have received a welcome call when you first joined the Beta and attentive customer care if you had any questions. We have devoted a lot of time and resources to give you a level of service that we hope is industry leading.

Unfortunately, we cannot warn every publisher about all specific quality issues because certain issues are sensitive and proprietary.  When we can, we definitely do. In the meantime, it is important to review the Terms and Conditions.

We are in Beta and working through many processes. You can expect changes in a lot of areas as we learn and grow this Network together.

Again, thank you for the continued support and I look forward to hearing more about your questions.

– Willan Johnson, Vice President and General Manager

– Josh Siegel, Sr. Manager, Business Operations

Account interface to be offline 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time tonight, Friday, May 12

Our techies are going to be monkeying around under the Yahoo! Publisher Network hood tonight, so the secure account interface is going to be offline for a few hours for scheduled maintenance, between 7:00 p.m. and 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time. This update will not impact your account earnings nor the serving of ads to your site.

We apologize for any inconvenience.

- The Management