One of the only issues I’ve experienced with Yahoo! Search Marketing is the fact that they’re not as transparent with your traffic data as Google. It always annoyed me to see referred traffic in my analytics & logs coming from really strange, sometimes spammy websites, when there was no way to control it. Thankfully, all that has changed…

Now, with Network Distribution, you can choose where your ads are displayed on the Yahoo! platform.

In the past, the only option was “Entire Network”:

Now, it’s possible to choose where your ads are displayed:

• Entire Network
• Yahoo! Search results pages only
• Yahoo! Search Partners only

This flexibility adds a great deal to the YSM platform, in my opinion, making it easier to control the quality of your clicks, thus improving Ad Quality and, hopefully, profits.

Not only that, but Yahoo! supplies you with data (based on the prior 30 days of your campaign) to help you determine which of the three options is right for you:

Overall, I believe this change will greatly improve results achieved through Yahoo! Search Marketing.

What do you think? Have you also been bothered by low-quality referring URLs in your analytics, as a result of Yahoo!’s Partners?

“Advertising is the tax you pay for being unremarkable.” -Robert Stephens

While push marketing is necessary for getting your business in front of potential customers, it’s actually much cheaper (and easier, many times) to create a fantastic product, service, freebie, etc. that applies to your business.

Creating something worth spending some time using (or using regularly), or even sending to a friend, is actually much easier to do than business owners realize. You know your business better than anyone, so I’d be willing to bet that you know your market well enough to create something that they’ll be happy to spread for you.

Looking for ideas to get the brainstorming session moving?

• Create a simple, free tool your potential customers will be interested in (map, calculator, etc.)
• Make a “viral” video that pertains to your market (funny, shocking, etc.)
• Pay extra for amazing website design (if your market is interested in this)
• Hold a contest with a reasonable prize to have your customers participate in promotion
• Create a Top 100 list that people can vote on within your niche
• Hire a programmer to make a free web-based tool that saves time for your customers

The key is to save time & money getting the word out about your business by creating something worth talking about.