Just got this in an email...........

Internet marketing tool news: Yahoo rolling out changes to pay-per-click service

Just a quick heads-up about the new changes happening at Yahoo Search Marketing -- If you use pay-per-clicks as an Internet marketing tool, you need to know that starting this month, the PPC formerly known as Overture is changing the way you research and bid on keywords.

The "Manage Bids" page is being changed and some of our favorite features are headed for the scrap heap -- the "Top 5 Max Bids," "Position," and "Your Cost" columns will be removed, and the "View Bids" tool will disappear as well.

The new interface gives you the price range for the keyword as a guide for getting the top positions, but you won't be able to see exactly what your competition is paying anymore -- only a rough estimate of what you have to bid to be there.

It looks like these changes are part of Yahoo's switch to a system that takes click-through rates into consideration, which will make the service more like Google's AdWords and MSN AdCenter.

The new system is good for Yahoo because people with higher click-through rates can move up higher and receive more clicks -- and earn Yahoo more money. Plus, ads with higher click-through rates will rank higher, which is better for users because the ads will be more relevant to what users are searching for.

Check out the news straight from the Yahoo Search Marketing blog, along with screen shots and a more detailed explanation at -- New Bidding Information Coming

And don't wait until after Christmas to review your Yahoo pay-per-click campaign! Taking too long a holiday from monitoring this essential Internet marketing tool could leave you a nasty post-holiday hangover!