MUMBAI: Internet portal Yahoo! has announced that it is extending the Yahoo! Publisher Network in the US to small and medium-sized web sites. This will allow the broader section of the American publishing community to take advantage of Yahoo!’s relevant advertising products as well as quality content through an easy-to-use self-serve platform.
Initially available in the US through an invitation-only beta, the Yahoo! Publisher Network self-serve platform will allow webmasters to sign up online for Yahoo! advertising products and receive fast, easy access to other syndicated Yahoo! content and products. Through the new platform, small- and medium-sized publishers will now have access to the same large advertising network, content and applications capabilities that Yahoo! uses while working with the world’s biggest, brand-name publishers.
Yahoo! Partner Solutions group senior VP Bill Demas says, “Yahoo! has developed many highly successful relationships with web publishers around the world, and is building on those experiences to bring new revenue sources and compelling content to even more high quality sites. By helping the broader publishing community maximise the value of their sites, we aim to create an even more rewarding Internet experience for publishers, advertisers and users.”
The first advertising product Yahoo! will be offering through the beta is its Content Match contextual listings. Content Match enables publishers to place Yahoo!’s contextually-relevant listings on their sites and receive a share of the revenue generated by them. Already proven on Yahoo!’s large distribution sites, Content Match can help small- and medium-sized publishers monetise site inventory and provide additional qualified leads to Yahoo! advertisers.
The Yahoo! Publisher Network self-serve beta will also provide access to other Yahoo! products that can enhance their visitor experience, such as Add to My Yahoo! and Y!Q Beta. The Add to My Yahoo! feature provides publishers of all sizes – from professional webmasters to independent bloggers – the opportunity to promote and distribute their content on Yahoo! via RSS, drive traffic back to their sites, and develop repeat daily relationships with their readers. The Y!Q Beta is a f contextual search product that can help webmasters increase the stickiness of their sites by providing visitors with convenient, related search results overlaid directly on their website.
Yahoo plans to offer additional features in the near future to enable publishers to enhance their visitor experience including Save to My Web and Web search. The Save to My Web feature enables readers to easily save and share pages from a publisher’s site to My Web – Yahoo!’s personal search engine service – increasing return visits and improving loyalty. In addition, Yahoo is conducting tests to evaluate the advertising capabilities of Y!Q and RSS feeds.
To create an ongoing dialogue with its small- and medium-sized publishers, Yahoo has also built feedback channels and opinion surveys into its online Publisher Center that will provide members the opportunity to raise their questions, voice their ideas and express to Yahoo! the types of products and services that would be most helpful to them in the future.