From CJ: YSM Becomes More Publisher Friendly

Hey Everyone:
In case you didn't hear, I got this from CJ:
Yahoo! Search Marketing Becomes More Publisher Friendly
After more than six months in the making and much customer feedback and testing, we are pleased to announce that Yahoo! Search Marketing (YSM) has recently updated its editorial policies and will now allow U.S. publishers to direct link to their advertisers. In the past, YSM's editorial policy prevented publishers from linking directly to their advertiser partners and required that traffic be sent first to the publisher's Web site. The new policy eliminates this restriction and opens a much broader search marketing opportunity for publishers.
This YSM policy change is the result of a strong relationship between Commission Junction and YSM. We have spent more than six months working with YSM to enact the new editorial policy and are very pleased that this effort has resulted in changes that are sure to create opportunities for our publishers and advertisers.
We find this policy change exciting on several levels. First, this is a significant shift for YSM and could be a great opportunity for your search marketing campaigns. Second, you heard it here first – YSM has asked us to communicate this change to the affiliate community. Third, the work we've done with YSM on this policy change is just another example of our commitment to listening to and speaking up for our publishers.
So, if you're running search marketing campaigns but have left YSM out of your marketing mix, now is a great time to expand your efforts.
Derrick.

From CJ: YSM Becomes More Publisher Friendly
Awesome. This is just in time to test a new campaign I've got set up. Thanks for posting this.
Mike
From CJ: YSM Becomes More Publisher Friendly
This is great news. I haven't used direct linking in the past, but since I use Yahoo 99% of the time, it's good to know I have this option.
It's also good to know Yahoo listens to the affiliate community.
James
From CJ: YSM Becomes More Publisher Friendly
Yahoo posted an update about this change yesterday on their blog:
http://www.ysmblog.com/blog/2008/03/10/crunch-time/
One thing that really stood out:
While I think this change will be mostly good, it does have the potential to drive up your minimum bids higher than the old 0.10 minimum. Check out the post above for tips on keeping bids low.
Google AdWords users you have nothing to worry about. Do what you've been doing on Google and I think you'll steer clear of bid increases.
Best,
Jeremy