Volunteer and get free promotion on Yahoo! Finance

 

You may remember hearing about the Yahoo! Finance Badge on the YPN Blog, or, maybe, you have already added the badge to your site. The Yahoo! Finance Badge enables websites of all sizes to publish stock charts, quotes and news headlines from Yahoo! Finance.

 

Yahoo! Finance is interested in exploring different advertising options for the badge, and we’re looking for publisher and bloggers to help us with this task. I’m organizing an ad test and am actively looking for participants. As a thank you, all participants selected by Yahoo! will receive free promotion space on Yahoo! Finance for 24 hours at a day, time and location designated by Yahoo!. Additionally, this is an opportunity for you to provide feedback to Yahoo! on what elements create the best ad experience for your site.

 

I’m looking for five blogs, each with a minimum of 200,000 monthly page views. You’ll need to display our badge on your site for two months in your most trafficked areas. If you are interested in participating, please contact me at katieh(at)yahoo-inc(dot)com.

 

—Katie Hartnack Beltramini, Yahoo! Finance Product Manager
 

 

Workshop itinerary posted

 

It’s time to get your groove on and prepare for Yahoo’s first ever public Hack Day, a 24-hour extravaganza of mash-up madness. If you were considering going but weren’t really sure what was in it for you, Friday’s workshop schedule has been posted over at the Yahoo! Interface blog. There will be lots of stuff for both budding and accomplished publishers. Oh, and it’s free!

 

The workshops are open to you whether you want to participate in the full 24-hour hacking cycle or not. If want to just come and learn, just go to Upcoming.org and make your desires known.

 

Still not convinced? In addition to the workshops, the all-night hacking sessions and the fabulous networking opportunities, there will be prize give-aways and cutting edge musical guests, including two old friends, the mash-up DJ duo of Bootie fame, Adrian & the Mysterious D. 

 

If you’re planning to create and show a project hack, visit the Hack Day web site to request an invite.

 

And for the latest, look to the Hack Day blog.

 

—Michael Mattis, Blog Editor

 

 

Check’s in the… Well, you get the idea…  

 

 

 

August balances will be calculated and both check and direct deposit payments will be issued Sept. 26, 2006 to qualified publishers. Please note: In order to receive a payment, you must accrue $100 in your available balance.

 

 

—The Bank Manager

 

Publisher Account Interface to experience scheduled maintenance Friday, Sept. 22, from 8:00 p.m. to approximately 1:00 a.m., Pacific Time 

 

On Friday night, from 8 p.m until about 1:00 a.m., Pacific Time, we’ll be doing a little scheduled maintenance on the secure account interface.  For the duration of this maintenance your account will be unavailable.

 

This minor bit of monkey business will not impact your account earnings nor the serving of ads to your site.

 

We apologize for any inconvenience. 

 

—The Team

Some publishers to see changes in their ads

 

We’ve been doing some tinkering under the bonnet recently, so some of you may notice a few changes in your ads. The changes you’re likely to see include the removal of ellipses (…) and truncated words, the inclusion of 40-character titles on certain ad units, and a change in the number of ads displayed on certain ad layouts.

 

These enhancements have to do with our efforts to upgrade our contextual advertising product, and in the coming weeks will take effect across the entire network. They come in response to your feedback and should, in the long run, help enhance your account performance. We’ll share more details with you as they become available.
 

—Tom Furukawa, Director, Product Management

 

 

Now anyone can provide feedback on our network

 

Like a cross librarian “shushing” noisy students in the book stacks, YahooSarah last week showed how good publishers have gone bad by folding, spindling and even ignoring our Terms and Conditions and our Guidelines, as well as our ad code. But as some of you have pointed out, a few, very “naughty little publishers” continue to ignore the rules and go right on abusing their privileges. Until now, many of you conscientious teacher’s pets who might have wanted to report abuse, have not been able to for lack of an appropriate channel. 

 

Report abuses

Today, we’re pleased to announce that the blog will now feature a permanent link to our feedback email box that anyone can use, located under “Network Feedback” in the right-hand column. If you, our network’s volunteer hall monitors, catch someone placing images next to ads, splattering ads willy-nilly all over their pages, nicking other sites’ content, or running with scissors, let us know and they’ll be sent to the Virtual Principal’s Office.

 

We won’t be able to respond to all feedback that we receive but, rest assured, we will be monitoring all submissions and, perhaps, doing show and tell later on.

 

Email feedback to ypn-feedback(at)cc.yahoo-inc.com or click on the mailto link at right, under “Network Feedback.” Remember, if you’re already in our beta program, you can continue to submit feedback directly.

 

—Michael Mattis, Blog Vice Principal
 

 

So, where’s the money?
 

June balances will be calculated and both check and direct deposit payments will be issued July 25, 2006 to qualified publishers. Please note: In order to receive a payment, you must accrue $100 in your available balance.

 

 

—The Management

 

 

Getting to Know You

 

As part of our continuing efforts to identify and respond to your needs, we’re looking for a few good publishers to take part in a pair of research studies. You don’t necessarily have to be in the beta program to qualify for either study, and both studies offer a financial honorarium.

 

The first study is for non-Yahoo! Publisher Network beta publishers only, and involves focus group interviews in Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose (during the SES 2006 conference) or New York City. If you are not part of the Yahoo! Publisher Network and are interested in participating, send us an email with the following information and our folks will get back to you with the details:

• Full name
• Company name
• Primary site URL
• City
• Telephone number
• Email address
• Type of publisher (domain portfolio owner, blog, social network, Directory, e-commerce)
• Primary site page views per month
• List that you are interested in focus groups in the subject line 

 

(Please note that we will contact you only if participants are needed in your city.)

 

The second study is an online survey for both Yahoo! Publisher Network beta and non-beta publishers. To participate, simply click here. You’ll be asked a set of questions up-front to see if you qualify.

 

What’s in it for you, besides a better network to work with? One: It won’t hurt—we’re researching your publishing needs, not pain management therapies. It might even be a little bit fun to learn about the direction of the Yahoo! Publisher Network. Two: Cold, hard cash. Both studies offer a cash honorarium if you qualify.

 

Your information will be used only for research purposes under Yahoo! Search Marketing’s Privacy Policy.

 

Thanks for your help.

 

—Patrick Gunn & the Yahoo! Publisher Network Insights Team

 

What’s all the hubbub? Nothing, really, bub.

 

There’s been a little hubbub out there in the hubbubosphere stemming from confusion over Yahoo! Publisher Network’s pay out dates. Just to clarify, here’s how the payment cycle works:

 

Your revenue accrues over the course of each calendar month. On the 24th of the following month, your revenue will be transferred to your available balance. Your payment will be issued within three business days following this transfer if your available balance is at least $100.

 

Here’s the estimated payment schedule for the rest of the year:

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Q2
July	07/25/06
August	08/25/06
September	09/26/06

Q3
October	10/25/06
November	11/28/06
December	12/27/06

 

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If you have opted to receive payment by check—instead of direct deposit—it may take up to ten business days for mail delivery. If you have selected balance transfer as your payment method, your revenue will be made available for you to transfer funds to your Yahoo! Search Marketing advertising account.    

 

To change your payment method from check to direct deposit, go to Payment Options under the Account Information tab.

—The Team

 

 

Terra Cognita: Yahoo! Local and Maps Blog launches

 

Not to be left in dust the by the Yahoo! Publisher Network blog, the Yahoo! Local team has launched a blog especially for Local and Maps. Says Local and Maps General Manager, Paul Levine:

 

Whether you’re a user, merchant, publisher or developer, if you’re interested in Local or Maps, this is the place for you. Big things are happening with Yahoo! Local and Maps, and we’re continually adding items that don’t always get a big announcement. Here, we’ll point out both big and small new features in our product and APIs. We’d also love to make this a place to spotlight you—highlighting activities and gathering input from some of our favorite contributors, merchants and developers.

 

If you think maps are cool—and we certainly do—be sure to subscribe via RSS or Add to My Yahoo! Congrats to the Maps and Local team!

 

—The Team