Disclaimer: These are my personal notes. I have not quoted anyone directly, these are just my notes and interpretation of what I got from my time at Yahoo!.
Bill Demas from the Yahoo! Partner Solutions begins introducing today's agenda. Today we will talk mostly about the Yahoo! Publisher Network. The vision of YPN is to enable consumers and businesses of all sizes to realize the full value of publishing. Mission is to be the most trusted and valuable global distribution network for pubs, advertisers, developers and users. A Publishers need is to create content, engage the audience, monetize it and refine through analytics. He goes over the "SMART" framework... He describes that at Yahoo! they have a ton of assets that are not easy to find, so when they design the YPN portal they want to make the other "badges" for lets say finance and Flickr, travel, etc available to you right there. Currently you need to go to each site and get them. They have large publishers, and mid market publishers and also smaller influencer type publishers.
YPN Beta Update - Goal was to understand how we could create a best of market entry - They want to build it with Panama in sight, Panama compliant - YPN some time in 2007 - They want to ensure it is a quality publisher experience for the advertiser - The beta is out for a while, longer than they may like, but they want to do it right
Key Updates Since Launch - New messaging feature - YPN Blog Launch - Direct deposit - New publisher services tab - Improved ad format - Reporting enhancements (editing and deleting of categories and URLs)
Future - YPNO into Panama - Revenue generation via shopping, search - Content via del.ici.us, answers, etc. - Redesign of portal for more Web 2.0 - And a global launch in various markets
Tricia Hoff from Market Research was next up
The Process: - They first try to understand who is the target market - Then they develop concepts and products - They ask the publisher if those concepts or products are feasible - Then product spec research - Then they do UI testing - Then they repeat the cycle
Market Research: - Sat down with 17 publishers (remember it?) - What motivates them are includes their life style (freedom), interests include educate others, some like their hobby, and they just get satisfaction out of building out a successful site and content. - Challenges publishers face as new publishers versus mature ones. -- New have problems with set up, revenue and traffic -- Mature group want methods to optimize revenue sources - Why join YPN? -- Revenue opportunities -- Alternative to Google -- Peer recommendations (WOM) -- Diversification -- Credibility -- Access to network of advertisers -- Availability of customer support
Categorizing Long Tail of Publishers - Segmentation study was a 35 minute online survey of more than 48 questions, of 1049 publisher (remember when they sent it out?) - Segments include -- Established Site -- Long Term Visionary -- Emerging Entrepreneur -- Hopeful Hobbist -- Conventionalist -- Progmatist - Classifications of distinctions between the segments were five but I missed those...
Cody Simms, Product Manager is up now to give us a scoop on what is late and greatest with YPN
- Live Demo - Showed some basic stuff on ad setup - Showed ad targeting feature... - Ad blocking - Custom reporting categories and URLs - Shows more of the pages, all stuff I covered here in the past - PayPal support may come on with check and direct deposit
What's Next for YPN? - As Panama rolls out you will see much improvements on the content match side - Panama is the foundation for monetization engine - Last night 100% of the ads now are using the new ad format - Panama will allow advertisers to manage sponsored search separately from content match - More relevant ads, etc, with Panama - Geo targeting capabilities for YPN via Panama
Day One - Today posted at Yahoo! Announced Panama Launch : See My Notes About Panama Directly From Yahoo! Search Marketing's Headqaurters.
Disclaimer: These are my personal notes. I have not quoted anyone directly, these are just my notes and interpretation of what I got from my time at Yahoo!.
