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[sydneymelon]

Hi All,

Over the past few weeks I have noticed a huge drop in traffic on all of my clients Overture accounts, from the really competitive folks down to the little guys. Are people using Overture fed search engines and clicking on the sponsored links less? Why? Or are there other possible reasons?

Also, one client who sells wine gift baskets, is now having to pay $50/month to use Overture with this new "Square Trade" labeling:

"Dear Overture Advertiser,
>
> As you may recall, you were notified on September 30th regarding the
launch of a pilot program that requires all Overture advertisers who sell wine on their sites (as well as advertisers who link to such sites) to be members of a third party managed verification program: the SquareTrade Licensed Alcohol Business Program. To comply with this new requirement, you must submit your membership application to SquareTrade by October 31st. If you do not apply by October 31st, your site will no longer be displayed on Overture's network."

is this a hoax?

And many times lately Overture has had notices up about delays in reporting and some of the functionality of their management tool is flaky -- oftentimes the "other bids" tool doesn't work. Anyone have thoughts on these matters with Overture?

Between my clients being unhappy with Overture policies and Overture traffic dropping, I will not be surprised to see folks moving more energy toward Google AdWords. Which is unfortunate because Overture placement of ads has always been more precise than Google and more far-reaching.

I'll look forward to hearing anyone's thoughts...

-Sydney