What Not To Do
Tips from YahooSarah
Accepting an invitation to be part of the Yahoo! Publisher Network beta is a little like starting to date someone. We try to stay positive, encouraging our publishers to grow with the program and create better experiences for their users while helping them make more money for themselves. We don’t want to act the nag…
But a few very fresh publishers seem to want to take advantage just as we’re getting to know one another. Frankly, it leaves us feeling a little taken for granted. Yahoo! Publisher Network is very much a rules maven—we must abide by certain rules in order to keep up the quality of our Network. Naturally, we understand that Terms & Conditions, can seem lengthy and dull. But it’s vital that every publisher to make the commitment to read and understand them.
To help you out, here’s a little cheat sheet of what NOT to do:
- Don’t sell beta keys in an online auction, message board or anywhere else (the opposite applies as well: don’t buy beta keys, they won’t work). We gave you that key and for you to go re-gifting it. No re-gifting!
- Don’t put our ad code on sexually explicit sites. It’s very naughty.
- Don’t duplicate (*cough* STEAL *cough*) content from other sites. We want to be with someone original.
- Don’t place images next to ads. It’s dishonest and we want to be in a long term relationship with publishers everyone can trust. People will think those images have to do with the ads, and when they find that the site they’ve been directed to has nothing to do with them, they’ll be pretty miffed.
- Don’t block the crawler. It keeps us from getting to know one another and is bad for both of us. Honestly, your blocking is not helping.
- Don’t go nuts with the ads and place them all over every page like they’re your content or something. It looks like you are trying too hard.
- Don’t manipulate our ad code. We’re flexible and already offer plenty of choices.
- Don’t send us traffic from Zimbabwe or Ireland. Not that there’s anything wrong with Zimbawe or Ireland, but right now we’re just not ready to make that big, international commitment. We’re working on it, though, so be patient, and good things will come.
- Don’t use inappropriate ad targeting. If your site is about flowers, it’s not cool to be targeting finance.
It’s OK to get a little frisky once we’ve gotten to know one another, but playing fast and loose with the rules is just not copasetic. So before you make any bold moves that could backfire, take a few minutes to think about it and settle down with a good book, like our Guidelines.
For more info see Product Guidelines for Ads Explained.
I’m glad we had this talk.
—YahooSarah
| Post Comment | categories:: How (not) to's
July 19th, 2006 at 12:39 pm
YahooSarah! I know that it’s very tough to get into the program right now, but I have a gerat website and my hits are increasing tremendously. I currently have been up for only 3 weeks and am receiving 5,000 unique hits per day with about 80,000 to 120,000 pageviews per day. I should be able to increase that by 2,500 to 4,000 per week and wish to desperately get into the YPN network. I got an email that was very vague and somewhat of a “turn-down”. haha, but would do anything to try and get in. Please let me know?
email: uptownmike1@yahoo.com
http://www.modernmyspace.com
Thank you
Mike Whitaker
July 19th, 2006 at 12:46 pm
Mike, please stick to the topic of the blog post in your comments as required by the blog rules, shown at right. We appreciate your interest, but this is not the appropriate forum for your request. Please go through the proper channels. Also, looking at your web site, it appears that you broke YahooSarah’s What Not to Do’s numbers 4, 6, 9 and possibly 8. So you may want to read an article a bit more carefully before you post a comment about it.—The Management
July 19th, 2006 at 1:51 pm
I would very much like to join Yahoo Publisher but cannot access the sign-up page.
I click on the link, on the page with the chap on the long sofa and am then taken to another page, with a small rotating (loading?) ikon. Then, nothing happens! The ikon disappears and I’m left with a blank page.
July 19th, 2006 at 3:04 pm
Greycap: Works fine for me. Sounds like you need to update your browser.
Also, this comment is completely off topic to the article. See the rules at right. In your comments, please stick to the subject of the post. Otherwise, your comments will be deleted. If you want to lodge a complaint you may do so using the feedback and suggestions form link, also at right.—The Management
July 19th, 2006 at 3:29 pm
I am very glad that you guys have released this kind of blog post, there has been so many debates on several forums, with this whole pictures next to the ad thing, I enjoy using your services , and also hope to grow with you guys in the future.
I do have a few questions, if you could answer them.
1) Will you have some sort of email or reporting system to report websites that break the rules over and over , i.e. placing images next to ads now that the official ” do not do this ” post has been made.
2) What will be the Consequence for these publishers, Becuase I have statred to think about using yahoo to place ads , but my concern is what you metioned above false clicks etc.
Thank you for posting the more clear rules, I will try to spread them around as much as I can, in the forums I participate in.
I looking forward to the furture with yahoo.
P.s. your customer service is so much better than G
Joe Tamargo
July 19th, 2006 at 3:38 pm
Oh also , forgot -
How can we as publishers help report these people selling invites
July 19th, 2006 at 3:51 pm
Thanks, Joe. We should have an abuse reporting mechanism ready soon. I can’t tell you about “consequences” for recalcitrant publishers as that sort of process is proprietary. Sorry about that. Keep in touch! —Michael Mattis, Blog Editor
July 19th, 2006 at 3:53 pm
I can understand that, no need for sorry. If you guys can when that report system is ready, please let us know through the control panel if possible, those cool little messages that you guys leave now and again.
July 19th, 2006 at 5:50 pm
Another question , this guy is saying that “Pictures of banks ” is ok next to his ads
Are any images allowed next to ads?
Here is the post
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showpost.php?p=1138553&postcount=11
July 19th, 2006 at 6:41 pm
Administrator, As I have Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3 installed, I don’t think it could be updated fom that. Perhaps I should go back to I.E 6.
Second. I’m most awfully sorry I transgressed your rules by posting off subject. It will not happen again, I assure you.
I’m brand new here and saw this blog post, so I jumped straight in, as it is almost impossible to find a ‘Contact Me’ link to ask any questions of a human.
I did notice the feedback and suggestions box at the right, but thought they might be a read only system, of feedback and suggestions.
Sorry about that.
Cheers,
Ray Cunningham.
July 19th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
Amazing Post, YahooSarah!
Such posts are really helpful to people like me who are getting ready for the YPN. I have read the policies but still have a question regarding point #4 in the post.
-I understand that images cannot be placed next to Y! ads. But how about images that are not the links? For example, I have a glowing ‘admin’ image on the website. Itis not a link. Would it break any TOS if in future, I place the Yahoo Ad on the right column?
As I requested earlier, it would be really great if you open a discussion forum for the Y! publishers (and of course would-be-publishers).
One more suggestion, how about a $10 incentive to anyone who reports a website which is breaking the TOS?
Overall, great job everyone! Looking forward to more such posts!
-Kaustubh-
July 19th, 2006 at 11:23 pm
YahooSarah, (Sarah = Supreme Administrator Releasing Amazing Help?
) Interesting topics!
Below, some small considerations from my point of view.
#5 Do not block the crawler. I do not, but sometimes they get trapped by my security routine while they try to follow me in my admin area. A while ago I asked for the ip ranges of the bots to protect them from being banned: someone replied to me that you do not disclose that kind of information.
IMHO, spiders should obey robots.txt
#6 Ads on page: 3 words, 10kb hidden text for keywords, up to five ads zones: Those sites should be banned. (well they should be banned from the whole internet, not only from YPN!)
Allow only two ads blocks on every page: more than enough.
#7 Ad code: It’s so hard to have [code]script language=”JavaScript” type=”text/javascript” [/code] on both the scripts in the ad code?
As it is now it doesn’t validate html 4.01 transitional.
I have different themes users can choose; Is it against TOS changing the code in order to get for example the background color from a variable? Nothing change in the page rendering anyway.
#8 International traffic. We need to know if we still need to implement our own geo targeting or Ypn do it for us. On some SEO forums, someone says international clicks are not counted anymore.
If we need to supply our own geotarget, Ypn should point publishers to geotarget scripts or provide some.
#9 Inappropriate targeting. I have a site about cooking recipes (yep another one!) and i choosed mass merchant–>food and small appliances as targeting categories: why I see “buy GE stocks” in my ads?
I think both publisher and YPN Guys have a lot to do about it
Have a great day!
Guido
July 20th, 2006 at 12:52 am
[…] Visit the Yahoo Publisher Blog for the cheat sheet […]
July 20th, 2006 at 6:34 am
A great and much needed recap of the rules Sarah. I especially like #4, #6 and #9 (images, number of ads and ‘on topic’ ads).
I can’t wait for this reporting mechanism you guys are hinting about.
PS. How about fixing the paragraph styling on the blog so new paragraphs are spaced out? Add this to your css:
.commentlist p { margin-bottom: 12px; }
July 20th, 2006 at 9:04 am
Ben: Thanks.
That worked like a charm.
Cheers!
Mattis, The Blog Guy, who be feeling dumb!
July 21st, 2006 at 12:17 am
[…] You can read the rest of them over at the YPN Blog. […]
July 21st, 2006 at 6:06 pm
Well, most publishers are concerning about the internal clicks and many of them have to pay for a geotargeting script.
Still waiting for an answer #8 from Admin that guido has pointed out
July 22nd, 2006 at 6:00 pm
Here’s a bunch of sites that aren’t inline with the t&c.
July 23rd, 2006 at 2:51 am
Ben thats a big list
Also can i have seen that many publishers claim that YPN staff replies diferantly to all their clients.
Is that true?
July 23rd, 2006 at 12:13 pm
I can believe that people get different responses simply because Yahoo! is a big company and the publishers I harass have focused on what were taking advantage of ‘murky’ areas.
The T&C have been clarified *heavily* in the last month or so which I think makes it pretty obvious what is and isn’t acceptable.
July 23rd, 2006 at 4:12 pm
[…] That being said, Yahoo has some serious issues they need to work out before YPN comes out of beta. A recent post on the official Yahoo Publisher Network really made me realise how sloppy some of the things they have been doing are. […]
July 23rd, 2006 at 8:42 pm
This post was simply enjoyable to read =)
Thanks for that!
July 24th, 2006 at 4:03 pm
thanks for the ‘enjoyable and humurous’ explanation!
item #4 (images next to ads) is something google adsense has OK’ed but i agree with your observation and explanation
July 24th, 2006 at 4:07 pm
can’t spell
‘humorous’…
July 24th, 2006 at 4:10 pm
Where and when did Google OK putting images next to ads? If you meant the images that *Google* put next to some ads, that’s very different from what publishers do.
Plenty of people (not enough yet) have been banned from AdSense for doing it themselves because they choose misleading or inappropriate images and do it for exactly the reason Sarah said.
July 24th, 2006 at 4:47 pm
see JenSense blog entry on this:
http://www.jensense.com/archives/2005/08/images_above_ad.html
July 25th, 2006 at 6:37 am
Ah yes, I remember reading that. Most publishers doing this that I’ve seen place images next to ads with the sole intent of visually integrating them with the ads, which is contrary to “The only exception is if it’s in such a way that it looks like the images are part of the ads.”.
July 25th, 2006 at 6:56 am
“It’s OK to get a little frisky once we’ve gotten to know one another”
So does that mean Big Publishers have more leeway?
July 26th, 2006 at 2:06 pm
And how do we keep our non-USA visitors from clicking?? None of us got 100% American visitors. You banning webmasters for that is really crappy. Gee, maybe you should just not pay publishers for clicks generated from visitors out of the USA.
That’s one thing that makes YPN stink compared to AdSense. You guys call the program BETA, so obviously the program isn’t perfect on your end, yet you expect us to be perfect when it comes to which visitors click the ads.
July 26th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
Nintendo - you can identify visitors geographically with a more than reasonable degree of accuracy.
If you’re using php/mysql you can use something like GeoIP PHP API, if you’re using asp/asp.net/cf/java you can port the database from that (there’s a CSV somewhere with ip/country codes) and write the appropriate scripting.
July 27th, 2006 at 4:46 pm
[…] Hello Yahoo! Posted in Code, Yahoo, YPN by Elliott Back on July 27th, 2006. [Del.icio.us] You don’t let me leave a comment without registering, so I’m not going to. Trackbacks are so much prettier, no? […]
July 27th, 2006 at 6:18 pm
[…] Anyway, for those who are participant, Yahoo have published a reminder of the guidelines. Curious that Google allows pictures next to Adsense, while Yahoo: “Don’t place images next to ads. It’s dishonest and we want to be in a long term relationship with publishers everyone can trust. People will think those images have to do with the ads, and when they find that the site they’ve been directed to has nothing to do with them, they’ll be pretty miffed.” […]
July 28th, 2006 at 10:30 am
ben_ Yeah it sounds pretty easy to geo targeting but I don’t think it’s easy for those bloggers. Yet, it’s not hard for Y! programmers to write a short script which able to geo targeting their ads don’t they?
July 28th, 2006 at 11:38 am
“Don’t duplicate content from other sites.”
Does this include all the sites that repackage Wikipedia?
August 3rd, 2006 at 9:19 am
[…] Two weeks ago, we discussed how to stay compliant with the Yahoo! Publisher Network rules and regulations (What Not to Do: Tips from YahooSarah, July 19). Apparently that post was a big hit, drawing 30 comments. A number of you included questions among your comments, so we felt that we should further clarify a few things. […]
August 9th, 2006 at 10:31 pm
[…] Two weeks ago, we discussed how to stay compliant with the Yahoo! Publisher Network rules and regulations (What Not to Do: Tips from YahooSarah, July 19). Apparently that post was a big hit, drawing 30 comments. A number of you included questions among your comments, so we felt that we should further clarify a few things. […]
August 19th, 2006 at 7:11 pm
Regarding rule #8
Don’t send us traffic from Zimbabwe or Ireland. Not that there’s anything wrong with Zimbawe or Ireland, but right now we’re just not ready to make that big, international commitment. We’re working on it, though, so be patient, and good things will come.
Some of us would like to know Yahoo’s official standpoint on why Ireland is being pointed out here in this rule. You state you’re not ready for international commitment but yet you see fit to take on overture advertisers in Ireland?
October 31st, 2006 at 9:33 pm
Hopefully this post is still being monitored..
About #5, blocking the crawler… the YSMcm bot *devoured* nearly 38 Gigabytes of data for my site for the month of October.
Am I simply stuck with this with no chance of relief?
I mean… in contrast, search engine crawlers from Google and Yahoo’s own Slurp only used about 2GB each for the month.
Not only that, but the resources it spent on generating a page for the crawler could have been utilized making someone else’s experience much better (knocking a millisecond or ten off of someone’s load times), ensuring they continue to visit the site and…. make Yahoo more money by seeing and being interested in ads.
Will this be addressed in some future update, or is there something I can do to help feed it properly so it doesn’t come back so often?
December 5th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
What is going on at YPN?? One of my friends was terminmated from YPN for some infraction of the policy page,,,but lo and behold, he has Yahoo Auto’s is advertising on his site, via Google Ads!!!! Yahoo paying Google to advertise on a page/account that they “terminated”-absolutely unreal.
January 7th, 2007 at 11:48 pm
[…] Anyway, for those who are participant, Yahoo have published a reminder of the guidelines. Curious that Google allows pictures next to Adsense, while Yahoo: “Don’t place images next to ads. It’s dishonest and we want to be in a long term relationship with publishers everyone can trust. People will think those images have to do with the ads, and when they find that the site they’ve been directed to has nothing to do with them, they’ll be pretty miffed.” […]
March 22nd, 2007 at 10:22 am
[…] Learn more about our efforts to build a quality network and how you, the publisher, fit in: Quality Standards Getting Better All the Time Tips from YahooSarah And Another Thing Maintaining a Quality Network […]
March 26th, 2007 at 11:48 pm
Our site features a user-friendly Forex Blog, a breaking Forex news from top sources, http://forexclub.blogsome.com
May 11th, 2007 at 3:15 pm
To continue the dating anology - YPN is like someone who says that to get a date, all you have to do is ask, but when you do ask doesn’t reply to you.
July 20th, 2007 at 2:16 pm
[…] Yahoo! Publisher Network » Blog Archive » What Not To Do To help you out, here’s a little cheat sheet of what NOT to do: Don’t sell beta keys in an … item #4 (images next to ads) is something google adsense has OK’ed but i agree with your observation … http://ypnblog.com/blog/2006/07/19/what-not-to-do […]
September 9th, 2007 at 9:35 am
[…] acknowledge this bizarre story at http://ypnblog.com/blog/2006/07/19/what-not-to-do about […]