I just received an e-mail from Yahoo! Search Marketing (Yahoo! Search Marketing is what runs the ads on Yahoo! Publisher Network) and it looks like they will be implementing smart pricing on their publishers.Smart pricing is done to try to decrease the amount of clicks from sites that do not convert well. The CPC or amount paid out to the publisher being smart clicked will go down. It is likely that anyone putting YPN on sites with little or no content will be smart priced. But no promises. 
The e-mail reads (Note: this was sent to advertisers, not publishers displaying ads):
- We’ll evaluate the quality of traffic from our distribution partners’ sites.
- Your click charges can be discounted based on the value of that traffic.
- Discounts will automatically be applied to your account.
What is Changing?
Previously all traffic was treated the same—you were charged the same for traffic from all web sites within our network. With quality-based pricing, you may be charged less for certain clicks than you normally would pay, depending on the overall quality of the websites that are providing this traffic to you. As a result, your click charges can decrease.
How will Click Charges be Discounted?
“Quality” is calculated based on conversion rates and other measurements of the ability to deliver more interested and valuable customers to you from particular distribution partner sites. Discounts will be automatically applied to your account.
When will this Start?
This feature will roll out beginning today, and we plan to continue to expand it over time. This is just one of the things we’re doing, along with future projects like domain-level blocking, to help increase the quality and value of traffic that we deliver to you.
What Do I Need to Do?
There’s nothing you need to do to receive a discount—your click charges may be discounted based on the quality of traffic you receive. Keep in mind that the amount of the discounts may vary between advertisers: Some may experience a noticeable decrease in overall cost-per-click, while others may experience only a small decrease in spend.
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I will have to keep an eye on my earnings as I use YPN on most of my sites. The good news is that if you are running a CPC campaign with Yahoo! Search Marketing, your spending may go down.
UPDATE: I received an e-mail from YPN as well. This definitely sounds like Smart Pricing.
“In an ongoing effort to strengthen our Sponsored Search and Content Match marketplaces, Yahoo! will be introducing a new traffic quality feature called “quality-based pricing”. This feature is rolling out beginning today and we plan to continue to expand it over time.
Quality-based pricing will give us the ability to price traffic commensurate with the value that advertisers receive from each traffic source. We recognize that this approach may have an impact on how you operate your business, and as a valued Yahoo! publisher we wanted to let you know about this new feature, as you may notice fluctuations in your Yahoo! Publisher Network earnings.
Quality-based pricing reinforces our overall commitment to deliver long-term success for our distribution partners, a high-quality experience for users and high-value traffic to our advertisers. We are excited about this initiative, and plan to work closely with you as we roll out these features across our network.”
