I Been Out A Bit

I had some pretty mean surgery last Monday Morning that was just supposed to keep me our for a couple days. Well that turned into 4 days in the hospital and then bed rest at home doped up a pretty high dose of percocet. I would like to keep it private what exactly my surgery was for. Lets just say from now on I will be writing under the name... Vicky. Just joking! Its still going to be slow for me to get back in action but I am getting there. I forgot how painful abdominal surgery is. Thanks for everyones well wishes. You guys rock! Anyway, there was a bunch of stuff going on while I was out... Yahoo dumped its Yahoo Publisher Network - Tells users to use Chitika. Here is the email I got:

Dear Publisher, Yahoo! continuously evaluates and prioritizes our products and services, in alignment with business goals and our continued commitment to deliver the best consumer and advertiser experiences. After conducting an extensive review of the Yahoo! Publisher Network beta program, we have decided to close the program effective April 30, 2010. We expect to deliver final publisher payments for the month ending April 30, 2010 to publishers no later than May 31, 2010. All publishers eligible for 1099s for the 2010 tax year will have those mailed by January 31, 2011. Because our content will no longer be delivered to your ad unit spaces after April 30, 2010, we recommend removing all YPN ad code from your pages by that date. For the opportunity to continue earning revenue, we suggest using Chitika, a leading advertising network that syndicates Yahoo! Content Match and Sponsored Search ads. Chitika has set up a special process for YPNO beta publishers to participate in its platform. Click here for more information. We thank you for your participation in the Yahoo! Publisher Network beta. If you have any questions regarding this announcement, please contact our Support Team at (866) 785-2636, Monday through Friday from 7:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. PDT. Sincerely, Your Partners at Yahoo!

I wasn't so surprised that Yahoo! Publisher Network was being shut down... that thing has been a total train wreck since it started. I was really surprised to read that they were recommending publishers use Chitika. What a score for Chitika ;). Twitter laid out its plan to make money Twitter announced its going to start doing "promotional tweets" where people can purchase tweets to be the first couple listings on twitter search pages. This is interesting because while there is not near the volume on searches as there is in users streams they also are not going to have to pay a publisher.... so twitter keeps 100% of the money... unless I am missing something. Frankly I don't think Twitter has a clue how to run a advertising network and much like with Facebook its going to be many years before they understand the landscape. In the meantime sponsored tweets and ad.ly will make far more money off of twitter then twitter will. Just like all the social ad networks that existed before Facebook started getting it right. iPhone OS 4.0 Apple announced the new iPhone OS 4 would be out this summer with all kinds of slick bells and whistles. One new feature for application developers is to opt into new advertising network called iAds:

iAd is a breakthrough mobile advertising platform from Apple. With it, apps can feature rich media ads that combine the emotion of TV with the interactivity of the web. For developers, it means a new, easy-to-implement source of revenue. For advertisers, it creates a new media outlet that offers consumers highly targeted information.

Apple also said they will give a 60/40 split with 60% going to the publisher/developer. Interesting move apple.... very interesting indeed. All these new ways to advertise are going to mean big opportunity for both advertisers and publishers. Remember Google Adwords 2002? Yahoo 2004? MSN 2006? Facebook 2008? Sponsored Tweets 2009? I love it when new platforms come out ;) Anyway..... whats new with you?