Yahoo! called ME!!
I can’t believe it. I just can’t believe it.
I have been trying to contact Yahoo/Overture for the better part of the last decade. Either to get my sites listed or to get into the Overture partners program. Emails, phone calls (left messages — they never answered), trying to get a friend to get me in, etc.
My experience was that trying to contact Yahoo was a little like praying — you might see the results but you are not very likely to hear the response. I think at Yahoo and Overture they would like that analogy, as they gave the impression that they felt they were higher beings than us mere webmasters. Maybe it was unintentional.
But then again, prayers were much more likely to get results than my emails and phone messages.
Which brings us to the phone call.
Earlier I mentioned that I tried to get accepted to the Yahoo! Publisher Network (YPN). I later wrote (after not getting a response again to my queries) at length about the need for Yahoo! to improve its support in order to be able to compete with Google AdSense. I said that support would be the big challenge to Yahoo! because it would require a change in corporate culture for them to start actually responding to webmasters.
Almost 2 months passed. I had given up on getting into Yahoo! for now because my company is not US-based and Yahoo! says that they are only working with US-based companies during the YPN Beta.
Then, right as I was starting to dream about getting my US-based clients in the door I received a voice-mail message (left at my voice-mail-to-email # in the US) from Yahoo! They wanted to know why I hadn’t completed the signup process. They left a phone number to call them at.
I couldn’t believe it. As I said above, I still can’t.
It was over the weekend when I got the voice mail so I eagerly anticipated calling them on Monday. I called, got right through, waited on hold for a neglible amount of time, and then a real human being picked up. I told him my problem and he said if I have a US tax ID for my company that would be fine. I do, so I went back to finish the signup process.
A problem — they only allow for US addresses in the signup form. What to do? Called them again. Got right through to a human, explained the problem. He asked me if I have a US address for checks to be sent to, which is all the actually care about because they are not yet set up for foreign addresses. I do, so I put it into the form, got in to my account, and started putting ads on one of my sites!
I will give you an Adsense-vs.-YPN update soon. The main thing for now is that Yahoo! really does seem to have overcome their big hurdle and they are now accessible. The next thing you know, they might actually be accountable. This is great news for Webmasters everywhere, or it will be if it continues after the Beta. Watch out Google, it is going to be a bipolar world!
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