Yahoo Publisher Network FAQ

Who pays more, Yahoo or Google?
Yahoo pays WAY more per click, but the CTR is in the dumps. Over all many people make more from Yahoo.
From mjewel...
Here's my experience with YPN vs. Adsense. I have tested it on 40+ sites across a pretty wide range of sectors.
Adsense is far more advanced in detecting what your page is about. The ads, in general are more relevant and you'll likely have a higher CTR than Yahoo.
While you can run more than one ad set per page with yahoo, the ads repeat, which also contributes to the lower CTR.
Yahoo has a much smaller advertising base than Google. In many categories, they simply don't have relevant ads and if so, your CTR can be almost nothing.
Yahoo pays more per click than google generally- sometimes a LOT more. You also have to remember you clicks are likely going to be less, so you have to factor that in.
Yahoo also uses "stop" words, or is so bad at detecting what your site is about that it simply won't display relevant ads on certain pages even when an entire site is about a single theme. I think YPN relies a lot on the page title to determine what your site is about, and they can be easily fooled if a word has a dual meaning- and thus display ads that have nothing to do with your theme. Yahoo has "ad targeting" where you can suggest what ads you want, but it is only a suggestion and doesn't mean yahoo will serve ads about the category you tell it to. As most of my sites are hard coded html, I can run adsense on the pages that yahoo doesn't server relevant ads on. It would be very hard to do that with dynamic pages unless someone was able to write a program that could tell it what pages were to display adsense and which received YPN.
The bottom line: It works fantastic on some pages, horrible on others. I would not convert 100% of my sites to YPN unless they improve ad relevance.
The pay per click can greatly exceed adsense if you happen to be lucky to have sites where they have good ad coverage. One site of mine pays well over $10 per click and adsense never came close to that.
How can Yahoo pay as much as 30 times what adsense does in some cases? (it certainly doesn't average that).
#1 Adsense has smart pricing and serves regional ads (which can pay a lot if your visitor happens to have the right IP). As far as I know, Yahoo isn't that advanced and will display the high paying regional ads to all visitors.... i.e. someone from California is going to be served an ad that targets someone in New York. While a person from out-of-the-area is less likely to click the high paying ad, some do.
#2 I think yahoo is paying almost 100% of the ad revenue out while it is in beta. If they were paying the same as adsense, why would anyone switch? YPN would get applications from everyone who was kicked out of adsense - so right now I think it is a loss leader to get people to convert. Yahoo also seems to be in an aggressive mode to get advertisers as I have been contacted a few times with offers of free advertiser dollars to try their program. Yahoo payouts are likely to decrease once they feel they have enough people converted. I think the payouts will be much closer to what adsense is paying. The increased competition is likely to benefit website publishers as google will probably be forced to share a higher percentage of the ad revenue. When MSN gets rolling with their program, it can only help.
I know several people who have gone back to 100% adsense because YPN just didn't work for them. I will stick with a combination of both for now because it has increased my overall earnings.
My other complaint about YPN is that their reporting is a day delayed. You get an estimated total of what all your sites have made, but individual channel or domain results are not available until the next day. They also update their estimated earnings a lot less frequently during the day vs. adsense.
The first thing YPN needs to address is serving different ads when you run more than one set of ads on a page, and of course they need to have a lot relevant ads to serve, and improve what detection on what your page is about.
I think YPN has done a pretty good job for a beta program, and they respond very quickly to any suggestion you have about improving their program. While they are quick to respond, I have yet to see them make any significant changes. Other than the payouts, they still have a ways to go before their algorithm matches adsense. Even if someone doesn't decide to go with YPN, I think the extra competition is going to mean better payouts across the board.
Can I place the ads on as many domains as I want to?
Yes, If all the sites obey the rules. Sell body parts or bodily fluids? Don't even think about it!!! Cover politics, or religion?? Oh no, not allowed!!!!
How many Ad Units can I have per page?
From E-Mail support: Feel free to run as many as 4 ad units on the same page. However, because each ad unit takes its content from the page, please note that you may sometimes see duplicate ads.
How do I get an invite?
Sign up here.....and then prey!!
How long does it take to get an invite?
Weeks, if you're lucky. Some people had to wait months! Don't plan on getting one with in one or two business days!
Can I sign-up if I live out of the United States?
Right now, it's much harder to get in the BETA if you're out of the USA. You need a tax ID to get in, unless Yahoo makes an exception, though that's rare.
When will non-USA webmasters be allowed in?
From Yahoo: We hope to do this in 2006.
Why do I have to provide a taxpayer ID?
It's required by law.
Why do I get ads that aren't related to my site?
From a support E-Mail... Please keep in mind that as we are in the Beta program we are still working on improving results. You will find that as you continue in the Beta program the ads will improve in quality.
Is it OK to rotate Yahoo and AdSense ads?
Yes. They just can't show up at the same time. It used to be a bad idea to do this. Lisa from support found that on one site, the Yahoo bot that crawls pages to determine the content was getting confused because the page content was constantly changing and the Yahoo ads were there one second and gone the next. So each time a Yahoo ad was displayed it triggered a new "content review" and PSAs would be displayed. Now it's been fixed.
How long does it take to get ads to show up after placing the ads on the site?
A few hours. They need to crawl the site.
What is Ad Targeting?
It lets you see stats for each site one by one.
Once I choose an ad category, how long will it be before my selections takes effect?
Within 4-6 hours.
What happens if I delete an ad category?
The ad category will no longer be used as a suggestion for ads on that URL.
Do I have to reinsert my code if I change a category?
Nope. You don't have to do anything.
How does ad blocking work?
It lets you to specify domains whose ads you want to keep from showing up on the site. You may have up to 200 domains blocked.
How soon will ad blocking take effect?
One to two business days.
Why are my monthly earnings different from the amount shown in my daily reports?
Revenue totals in daily reports are only estimates of your earnings. At the end of the month, your earnings for that month will be adjusted and your actual earnings will be shown in your available balance thirty days after the end of the month.
When are reports updated?
At about 2:00 AM the next day, Pacific Standard Time. (9:00 AM over in Greenwich.)
When do I get paid?
45 days after the end of a month that you earn over $100.00.
Why doesn't my available balance match the earnings totals in my daily reports?
There only estimates of your actual earnings. Earnings for the month will be adjusted and your actual earnings will be shown in your available balance 45 days after the end of the month.
Do I have to pay taxes on the earnings made from my Yahoo! Publisher Network account?
Is it money??!! Duh!!!!!! Still not sure, talk to a CPA before you get busted!
Can I place Chitika ads on the same page?
Yes, in non-contextual mode.