Posted by Jim Gilbert
Is it possible for Panama to actually perform/convert worse than the old system? What could cause that, since it just displays the same ads as the old system?
From Webmasterworld
“I have switched one of my accounts to the new interface. The conversions and cost per conversion is very bad. Its almost 30% of what we were getting previously. We have seen 80% of the traffic from Bogus sites.”
Dear Yahoo: If we are wrong here, please feel free to correct us. Discussions with Yahoo reps have yielded no clarification on this, so we are left with nothing but deduction from analytical research to formulate these answers.
Let’s not waste any time here and get right to the answer. Yahoo has at least 3 distribution networks:
1. Yahoo search
2. Yahoo search partners
3. Content networks (YPN – Yahoo Publisher Network)
It’s #2 the Yahoo search partners distribution that is causing the problem. Entities that own a lot of Internet real estate (“domains”) get to partner with Yahoo for an XML feed of Yahoo’s sponsored search results — this is NOT part of the content network.
So, what is being called “bogus” sites are sites displaying sponsored Yahoo ads from XML search feeds NOT YPN — turning off content network will not help stop it!
An example will show you what is happening. Just follow the screen shots below.
Recently I did a “Google” search (did not even use Yahoo) for one of my favorite local Italian restaurants — Paesanos in Plano, TX — And got this result:
Following the link, we found this (if you know much about the “black hat” world you will immediately recognize this as a “parked domain” (Monitized Internet real estate):
Following the Italian link, we found a continuation of the same underlying theme — “Monetize the heck out of parked domains”.
So What? Pay attention to the final image below! It shows that the monitization of this domain (and millions of others) is being done using Yahoo Search Partner XML Feeds! Yahoo ads on “bogus” sites (as the webmasterworld poster called them). It’s NOT from the Content Network and advertisers can’t stop it!
