Near the end of 2006 Yahoo officially unveiled the new back end for Yahoo Marketing Solutions, widely referred to as the ‘Panama’ Update. Since then they have been slowly allowing the upgrading of accounts from the old into the new system. While not everyone has had a chance to have their accounts switched over, it is expected that all will be upgraded by the end of this quarter.

After several months of waiting, this new backend is a welcomed change as Yahoo finally moves into the future but as with any new system, it is not without its pros and cons.

New System Pros
The new system is certainly a great improvement over the old. While adjusting to a new interface and ranking algorithm may take a little time for advertisers, the end result will present more relevant ads to the searchers, which will ultimately mean a higher quality of visitor and should provide a better bang for one’s buck.

• Previously you were stuck with only one live ad for any given phrase; now you can create multiple ads for a given ad group. With the ability to have multiple ads for each phrase opens the doors to easier testing of which ad copy is better suited for your ads and prospective clients.
• Ad approval is now instant for most ads and keywords. While there is still a “pending approval” process for some sets of phrases, in many cases your ad changes and keyword additions are now instant. No longer do advertisers have to wait a number of days for their ads to go live.
• With the old system, the level of geographic targeting was very limited. Under the new Yahoo Panama the options are much more sophisticated. For example, there is an option for blocking entire continents for your ad campaigns. Rather than selecting each continent/country you want to appear in, if you are only trying to avoid one specific region, you can easily block it from your campaign.
• The geo targeting options have also expanded to allow for more specific ad targeting. Advertisers now have the ability to target specific states and provinces – a feature previously unavailable. Canadian advertisers were forced to advertise to the US even though they wanted ads only to appear for the Canadian market. This update now provides the option to target Canada only – a big plus for any advertisers who are only able to sell in the Canadian marketplace.

New System Cons
There are a few negative aspects that have been widely noted in many forums and by Yahoo advertisers. As with any new design and back end, it is expected that there will be some wrinkles. Most of the problems are relatively minor, and for advertisers on top of their campaigns, these should not present any major issues.

• One of the downsides most discussed is the transfer of account stats from the old system to the new. Once your account has been transferred, the new system will not log any of the old system historical data. While this information is still accessible by logging into the old interface (which is made read only), it would certainly make more sense if stats were available under the new account login.
• Another issue is campaign tracking. After the switch has been made, as long as you do not change any tracking settings everything should continue to work as normal; once you adjust the analytics or tracking options, you will need to replace your tracking code with a new piece of code provided by Yahoo. There have been reports where after the account is upgraded, the conversion stats no longer appear and the code needs to be immediately replaced. While not everyone seems to be having this problem, it is certainly a bug worth noting. If you have not yet upgraded, or upgraded but not checked your tracking codes, it would be best to tackle this issue right away to ensure everything will work correctly.
• There have been some reports that after the account transition some ad titles, descriptions, and even keywords, have been disrupted. Upon upgrading your account be sure to check all your ad copy and phrases to ensure that they are still correct or you could end up spending money on incorrect phrases, or damaged ad copy.
   

The system is certainly not without its flaws, but generally the interface is much cleaner and certainly more functional. While the ability to edit many more aspects of one’s account are now in place, it can be a little daunting to find the right place to make the change. Some items such as campaign and ad group settings are more difficult to find than they need to be, and require more steps than is really necessary. As an example, below I compare the steps required for the simple task of renaming a campaign for Yahoo versus Google:

Yahoo:
1. Log into your account. You will be presented with your account dashboard.
2. Click on the name of the campaign you wish to change
3. Click on “Edit Campaign” in the top right.
4. Click “Edit” at the top right of the “Campaign General Information” box.
5. Change the account name.
6. Click “Save Changes”.
7. Then click “Dashboard” to return to where you were.

Google AdWords:
1. Log into your account. You will be presented with the “All campaigns” view.
2. Click the checkbox beside the campaign you wish to rename and click “Edit Campaign”.
3. Enter a new campaign name.
4. Click “Save Changes” (also brings you back to where you were).

Why is it that Yahoo takes 7 steps to do something that Google can do in only 4? Not to mention multiple campaigns edits. If for some reason you wanted to rename all your Google campaigns at once, it would still take only 3 main steps plus 1 step for each campaign name changed. For Yahoo you would need to repeat all 7 steps for each campaign. These same basic steps are also required for other edits such as campaign budgets, start and end dates, and to turn a campaign on or off.

This example is not really a big deal in the large scheme of things, but is simply an indication that while Panama is a large improvement, there is still much room for refinement. As Yahoo moves forward into 2007 I am sure we will see more advancements and changes to the main navigation.

Click Through Rate Increased by New Ranking Algorithm
Along with an entirely new backend system loaded with new features, Yahoo has also adjusted the way in which they rank ads. The new ranking algorithm is very reminiscent of Google AdWords, and miles away from the old bid-for-position model previously used. Under the old algorithm an advertiser could dominate the top ranking simply by having deeper pockets. Now under the new Panama algorithm to guarantee top spot for a competitive phrase, not only may you still need deep pockets, but you also need the right phrases, relevant ad text, and a quality website – giving an opportunity for top rankings to those with smaller budgets.

According to comScore there has been a significant increase in the overall click through rate of Yahoo paid ads since the introduction of the new ranking algorithm. Compared to the week ending February 4, the last day of the old system, the week ending February 11 saw a 5% increase in clicks. By February 18th the total increase in clicks was reportedly at the 9% mark; a sign that the new system is of significant value to advertisers, and of course Yahoo. Now these figures may have been skewed slightly with both Valentines Day and Presidents Day falling into that range, however, “Bank of America analyst Brian Pitz said in a research note that he expects click through rates to grow about 15 percent to 25 percent starting in the second half of the year.”

What has been specifically responsibly for the increase in traffic? While it may be too early to know for sure, the most likely reasoning is ad quality. Under the old ranking schematic it didn’t matter what your ad looked like or where you directed traffic, if you had the dollars, you had the rank. Now that there are other factors at work, the most relevant, high quality ads, take the rank, and searchers are obviously noticing the increased relevance and clicking through.

Scott’s Personal Take on the New System
Generally I have to say I like the new system. It makes account management easier than using the archaic system we had all grown used to. The new system is much more streamlined and clean cut compared to the old. That said, when compared to Google AdWords, it still falls short. It’s a great first try, and within the next year or so I expect to see some more adjustments to make navigation and functionality improved. For a system with so much hype and such a long time coming, it seems less desirable than expected. Editing ad copy and URL’s is still much more cumbersome than its competitor Google, requiring more steps. The account transition could have been made smoother and items such as historic stats should have been made more easily accessible and transferred over to the new account.

Since its early days the Google AdWords system has evolved a great deal, and the same can be expected from Yahoo. Now that they have implemented a more scalable and comprehensive system, it will certainly improve as advertiser feedback is received. One irrelevant feature, if you can call it that, is that I am very grateful for the removal of the “security code” requirement when signing into the account. While I can appreciate the reasons for having it there in the first place, these security codes that were popping up everywhere really did drive me crazy, and it is nice to see this condition being removed. What does it mean to an advertisers account? Well, really nothing, but it does put a small smile on my face.

While it is not without its shortcomings, this new system is a large improvement and I for one welcome it with open arms.

By Scott Van Achte

While RSS end-user adoption has been relatively slow, marketers have jumped at the chance to use this new internet channel increase their online sales.

If you’re new to the world of RSS — RSS is a simple technology that allows you to deliver your online content directly to your subscribers, other websites and the search engines. It helps you improve your content delivery, as well as increase your online traffic and reach, and even conduct business intelligence more easily.

RSS content is delivered through so-called RSS feeds, which are just simple files that carry your online content. Each of these simple files containts multiple “stories” that you may want to deliver to your audiences, called “content items”. A content item can be anything … an article, a blog post, a whole newsletter issue, a sales letter and so on.

But there is more to RSS than simply getting your content out.

One of the fields of RSS marketing is also NewsMastering, which allows you to:

[a] take multiple third-party RSS feeds,

[b] mix them together,

[c] filter your new mix using various keywords that you’re interested in,

[d] use the mix and your filters to create a new stream of content, pulling together all the content items from dozens or hundreds of other RSS feeds … but only the content items that match your filters.

You can now take this stream of content and either subscribe to it yourself, if for example you want to find out immediately what the market is saying about you, what it’s saying about your competitors, and what your competitors are doing themselves.

Or you can take this stream of content and display it on your website to:

[a] enrich the visitor experience, by giving them access to the latest and most relevant list of content from your field, such as the latest news in the field you are covering … and do so automatically;

[b] by doing so also making your website more search engine friendly, thus increasing your rankings.

But up until now doing all of this was quite complicated and really wasn’t accessible to most internet marketers.

But no longer so …

Yahoo! Pipes Changes The Landscape
Yahoo! Pipes is the latest offering from Yahoo!, finally bringing the premise of NewsMastering to the mass market, and actually putting it on steroids.

The general idea behind Yahoo! Pipes is to allow its users to “easily” connect various internet data sources, mix them together in various ways, add additional functionality to them and create a new single output, pertaining directly to your settings.

While this may sound alot like the standard RSS aggregation and filtering we mentioned above, it actually goes much further than anything on the market in enabling you to manipulate outside sources and come up with a new content output, all of this in a visual programming environment.

The “old services” simply allowed you to combine various RSS feeds, set some basic rules on how you want to get content from them, such as limiting the output to only the content items that match your keywords and removing duplicates, and get a new single RSS feed from them. You could then subscribe to this RSS feed in your RSS Reader (for business intelligence purposes) or use it to display its contents on your website.

But Yahoo! Pipes goes much further.
[BTW - in the Yahoo! Pipes glossary, a pipe is an output you create from mixing and manipulating various content sources]

[a] Aggregate and Filter any XML Feed
Aggregate any kind of XML feed, not just RSS, which means that if your application provides an XML data output, you can now aggregate that data feed with other different feeds you might be interested in, and create a single RSS feed that you can subscribe to in your RSS Reader. Just as an example, imagine having an RSS feed that brings you various data from your organization in a single output, such as the latest sales data from your webstore, latest account of company expenses, notifications of new employees, important team communications, your website visitor counts and so on. It even lets you combine other pipes into a new single pipe.

[b] Content Manipulation
Apply various filters, such as a keyword content filter to give you only the content you’re interested in, sort, count, truncate, join or even create your own filters. It even lets you add your own input fields. For example, you could create a pipe that aggregates all the RSS feeds from top online retailers, and include an input field that allows you to enter the name of the product you want the latest deals on, and then creates an on-the-fly output with the latest deals for this product. Essentially, it allows you to add simple or advanced search functionalities to filter out only the content you’re really interested in … from hundreds or even thousands of content sources.

[c] Social Applications
Browse through pipes created by other users to either use them as an end-user, or use their pipes to create your own new pipes. It of course also allows you to make your own pipes public and even provide them as a service to end-users.

There are really almost countless opportunities of what you can do with Yahoo! Pipes, and various new applications will surface when the service gets some milage.

The best part is, you can either create your own application that you use when the need arises from the Web, or an RSS feed that you subscribe to in your RSS Reader, to constantly deliver to you the content that you want. Or you can use the RSS feed to display that content on your website.

All of this is done through a visual interface, which might be daunting for the average user, but shouldn’t present a problem to marketers that either have the time to learn the ropes or pay a little something to a person that already has.

How Marketers Will Profit
If you’re thinking of how you can profit from Yahoo! Pipes as a marketer, there really are countless opportunities.

[a] Provide highly relevant streams of content on your website to enrich the visitor experience.

[b] Become a preferred access point to relevant and latest content in your industry.

[c] Build applications that allow your visitors to easily access the content they’re interested in.

[d] Take your business intelligence activities to the next level. And much much more …

With all the capabilities available through Yahoo! Pipes, countless new opportunities will certainly arise quickly.

The best part is, you can now more easily take advantage of them.

By Rok Hrastnik 

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 50 million Americans get news online on any given day. In comparison, only 27 million Americans watch network TV news on a typical evening. The Internet is quickly becoming the preferred news source over television, magazines, and trade publications.

News web sites like Yahoo News, Google News and MSNBC Searchbot receive millions of visitors every day. If fact, Yahoo News ranks ahead of MSNBC.com and even CNN.com, while Google News ranks ahead of USAToday.com and the NYTimes.com.

You can tap into these massive traffic sources through the use of press releases. Additional benefits of distributing your press release include possible media exposure, pickup of your release in online publications, increased link popularity to your web site, additional search engine rankings on your target keywords, and increased traffic to your web site.

However, there’s much more to press release marketing than simply whipping up an article and sending it out to the world. You must take time to optimize your press release properly.

Press releases should be optimized in much the same way that search engine optimization specialists optimize ordinary web pages to achieve higher rankings. In doing so, you will receive much higher visibility.

For example, one press release from MarketingExperiments.com resulted in 2,200 visitors and 5 interview requests by journalists. This is the power of a highly optimized press release.

Listed below is an outline of how to create an optimized press release for your own website and how to distribute it for maximum exposure.

The first and most important element is to search for keywords and phrases that are likely to deliver qualified leads to your website. A good press release combines targeted keywords with creative writing that makes for a compelling read.

To find these lucrative keyword phrases, begin brainstorming what people would search for when looking for your products. If your products or services are targeted to a particular geographic area, you might want to include these locations in your keyword phrases as well. It is best to target up to 3 keyword phrases.

Once you have done this, you can head on over to DigitalPoint.com to do some additional keyword research. Simply type in your list of potential keyword phrases and this tool will give you a list of related keywords and how many times they are searched for per day. This information can aid you in choosing which keyword phrases will bring your press release the highest amount of exposure.

Now that you have chosen the best possible keywords, it’s time to integrate these targeted keyword phrases into your press release. You should include your keywords in the headline, the title, sub-headings and the first two paragraphs. Search engines place much of their emphasis on the title and the beginning paragraphs.

Your title should reflect your strongest keywords, not the name of the company. Include local modifiers if possible. Although it’s often nice to see your company’s name in print, it’s unlikely to bring you the exposure you deserve. Instead, use targeted search phrases that are likely to be used by your potential customers.

You should also optimize your press release by integrating targeted links within the content. Many press release distribution services and news wires now offer the option of purchasing a hyperlink. You simply convert a keyword phrase within the release into an active hyperlink. This will increase search engine visibility for that keyword phrase and also drive additional traffic back to your website.

Where to Send Your Press Release
There are a wide variety of places that will allow you to syndicate your press release. However, there are only a select few that you really need to focus on. Here are some distributors that will help you get the exposure you deserve.

• PRWeb.com
• Internet.com
• BusinessWire.com
• PRNewsWire.com

In addition to press releases, you can also get your content into Google and Yahoo news directly. If you publish frequent news and articles, your site may very well qualify as a news source.

You can submit your site for inclusion to Google News. However, keep in mind that Google is looking for sites with an editorial review process and multiple contributors. If you are accepted, Google Newsbot will hit your site very frequently and you will receive an extra stream of quality traffic to your web site.

You can also suggest your news site be added to the Yahoo News index. Simply go to Yahoo! News and fill out the form.

Besides syndicating your press releases online, you should also seek exposure offline. You do this by building a media list of local newspapers, trade journals, magazines, web sites, radio and television shows.

If you want media coverage, you must identify target publications and their editorial calendars. Send journalists and editors personal emails with pitches on your story.

You can begin building your own media list at MediaPost.com, AFR.com, and ABYZNewslinks.com.

I have one last tip on getting into Google News. To quickly get your articles into the Google News search engine simply perform a search on Google News for relevant keywords, take note of the sites that are getting picked up and find out if any of them allow you to submit articles or press releases. If so, you have found a direct pathway to getting your content into Google News.

One of these places can be found at AmericanChronicle.com. Simply visit the site and scroll down to the very bottom of the page and click on the link that says “submit work”. From there you can sign up to be a contributor.

If accepted as a contributor, you will then be able to submit articles along with your picture. Many of their articles are syndicated on Google News and are available to the millions of searchers who go to Google News each and every day.

Now that you know how to optimize your press releases and articles for maximum exposure, I urge you to begin an aggressive press campaign to increase exposure to your brand, gain quality inbound links, and increase your website traffic.

By Kim Roach