A few weeks ago I was accepted as a publisher into Yahoo’s new advertising network. The Yahoo Publisher Network as it is called is pretty much the Yahoo version of Google Adsense. If you are not familiar with either program, a publisher can place a snippet of code on his or her website and display advertisements served from Google or Yahoo. If a website visitor clicks onto these ads the publisher website earns some money from this click. Up until recently Google was market leader (and still is as Yahoo’s program is still considered beta) for these kind of ads. With Yahoo entering this lucrative market webmasters will have a choice who to choose as their advertising network to earn money from clicks (Pay per Click). As mentioned by me – I have been accepted as a publisher into Yahoo’s program while it is still in beta. Now that I have used it for a while I’d like to provide a quick review and a comparison between Yahoo and Google.

For now I still think that Google’s Adsense website is a little easier to navigate, but this might also be related to the fact that I am used to it for years already. A little annoying for me is the logon process to the Yahoo website as it does not allow to store the user name in a cookie and you have to re-type the name and the password every time. I know that this a security feature to protect me, but on the other side I am the only person having access to my machine. Having at least the option to store the login name for the site in a cookie would be nice. Google allows storing the user name and the password and the login process is a little more convenient.

Updates of earnings. Google is almost providing real-time data while Yahoo often needs many hours to update the earnings reports. Google also allows easier reports on earnings from the different sites while Yahoo does not do this yet. I have seen up to 12 hours delay on Yahoo for the earning reports. It’s not a major problem, but it is convenient to know where your earnings are for the day.

Ad content: Google Adsense is a little better in providing content matching ads until now. Yahoo’s engine needs to seem needing more time before it can serve targeted ads. However – Yahoo has an option in their control panel to set ad categories per page which helps tremendously get targeted ads onto a website. This is a great feature and allows the webmaster some control of what is being displayed on his website. I would not mind seeing something like this on Google’s website, too.

Ease of use: Both networks allow for an easy way to generate ad code that can be placed on my websites. Google for now has a little more variety in ad formats to offer, but I am sure that Yahoo is catching up soon. For my websites I never had any problems finding the right ad format with either network. Your mileage might vary. The overall navigation within the control panel website is a little straighter forward on Google’s website. But Yahoo is right behind Google and again – this might also be just my personal impression as I am more familiar with Google Adsense for now.

Income: I am not going to reveal how much I am making from each network here. But I can say that Yahoo’s Publisher Networks rocks. Google better reviews how much they are paying out to publishers or they will lose market share big time. I am not expecting Yahoo to keep the current pay out level once the program comes out of beta, but it is still not hard to beat Google Adsense’s pay outs. For now I am extremely pleased by Yahoo’s performance and am switching more and more sites over to their network.

Conclusion: Yahoo Publisher Network is still in beta and not open for everyone. The program is not perfect yet, but the guys at Yahoo are doing a great job and they are learning fast. Watch out, Google. Here is some competition that will not easily be beat. Webmasters finally have a good choice and competition is good as it drives innovation and forces each network to offer competitive pay outs or to lose customers.

This is just a high level review. I will try to give a little more detailed review on certain features or functionality in a few days.

I’d like to take the opportunity and wish all readers of this blog a merry Christmas and happy holidays.