Overture Became Yahoo! Search Marketing
Note: As of 2013, we found the advice on this page was outdated. You'll find that Overture no longer exists, Yahoo search results are being provided by Bing now, and there's some debate as to whether Yahoo's paid search results will be continuing.
Overture was bought by Yahoo! many years ago now, and was rebranded into Yahoo! Search Marketing. If you specifically want to advertise on Yahoo! for some reason, try this page: Yahoo! Advertising.
There are many websites that make money only because of their listings at Overture. A few years ago it was the only place online where one could BUY top billing on a search engine, although now one can do this in many other pay-per-click search engines such as MIVA and Google AdWords.
A word of advice here--if the top bid for your keyword is fairly expensive (more than, say, $1.00 per clickthrough), then don't go for the top bid position--just bid enough to stay on the first page of results for that keyword. Unless, that is, you can afford to pay top dollar for every clickthrough to your site. If you are selling a high-ticket item with a lot of profit--then bid yourself to the top of the heap. We manage the Google AdWords accounts for several clients, and some of the keywords go for as much as $20.00 per clickthrough for top placement.
Note: The top three paid listings at Overture.com are called "premium listings" and will show up at many other search engines (such as AltaVista, AOL Search, Direct Hit, HotBot, Lycos, NBCi, iWon, Canada.com, Netscape Search, Search.com and other metacrawlers such as DogPile and Mamma.com) through partnering arrangements Overture.com has made. When someone sees your listing at one of those other search engines and clicks on the link -- you get charged by Overture. They split the fee they charge you (your bid on the keyword). So it can be very worthwhile to bid enough to stay in those top three spots on Overture because you get 'way more exposure that way.
The minimum bid at Yahoo! Search Marketing is $.10 (ten cents) per clickthrough on any key word. If you already have an account and have bid less than $.10 per clickthrough they will honor current bid amounts of less than $.10 for all listings that were in place before February, 2003. Don't CHANGE any of your current listings if you want them to stay at less than $.10 per clickthrough, because any change will require a bid of $.10 or more.
They no longer require a minimum spend of $20.00 per month, so have become more affordable for the smaller advertisers out there.
There used to be a great tool at Overture useful for figuring out what your keywords should be: the Search Suggestion Tool. It's not been working for some time. You could fill in what you think might be the right keyword search phrase for your site, click "submit" and you'll see which related search terms were the most popular ones actually searched for at Overture.com during the last month. This is helpful in generating more traffic from Overture. As Mark Twain once said, "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and the lightning bug." The same applies to key words and search phrases on search engines.
Yahoo! Local Sponsored Search
This is a pay-per-click service that has been running via Overture, and is basically a scaled down version of the regular PPC campaign. It is now available here: http://searchmarketing.yahoo.com/local/index.php
This is useful only to sites that are marketing themselves to their local market. If you want to reach only your neighbours, use local search. If you want to reach a national or global audience, don't use local search.
Yahoo! Product Submit
Yahoo Product Submit no longer exists. You have to go through their normal Yahoo! Advertising to advertise on Yahoo!: http://advertising.yahoo.com/
Overture's old features and services - Which are available?
History of Yahoo! Search Marketing: A few years ago, Yahoo! Search Marketing Solutions was called Overture. It was not owned by Yahoo! and it was the largest pay-per-click provider. Overture provided Yahoo! (along with AltaVista, HotBot, and lots of others) with sponsored listings. They also provided paid placement in AltaVista. In March 2004, Overture added inclusion into Yahoo Search Results to its paid services. Then Yahoo! bought them and Overture became a sub-company of Yahoo!. In March 2005, they officially rebranded.
first became 
then became 
There has been little change to their suite of services, their structure, or their effectiveness as a marketing tool since rebranding. Just a whole lot of name changes:
- Overture Precision Match ™ turned into Yahoo! Search Marketing - Sponsored Search
- Overture Local Match ™ turned into Yahoo! Search Marketing - Local Sponsored Search
- Overture Site Match ™ turned into Yahoo! Search Marketing - Search Submit Pro
Services no longer offered include the AltaVista Express Inclusion subscriptions. These all expired by September of 2004, and were not renewable. All Altavista Express Inclusion members were redirected to sign up for Overture Site Match after March of 2004. If you wanted to be listed in Altavista, you need to get yourself into the Yahoo Search listings. As of 2013, Overture is just a fond memory of those who mainly pay for Google AdWords now.
Additionally, Infospider used to have their own service for inclusion, that now was long ago replaced by Yahoo! Advertising. See: http://advertising.yahoo.com/
-->Last updated 2013-05-22.
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