As expected by its model, Yahoo Buzz sends plenty of traffic to the news publishers who have agreements in place with Yahoo to be part of their new social media site.
Not many publishers have made it into Yahoo Buzz yet, but for those who have, the system works well. Promoted stories make it to Yahoo’s home page, one of the most heavily trafficked sites on the planet.
The resulting placement brings a flood of traffic to the destination, and if that fortunate recipient employs a cost per impressions ad model, that influx of visitors represents a serious bump in advertising revenue.
Yahoo Buzz’s traffic delivery made an impression on measurement firm Hitwise. Heather Hopkins noted how social media biggie Digg sends only 10 percent more traffic to the News & Media sites Hitwise tracks:
To put this in context, last week, Digg.com received a 75% larger share of US Internet visits. Despite being a much larger site, Digg sends only slightly more traffic to News and Media websites.
Yahoo Buzz differs from Digg in one major way. Buzz only accepts stories from a small group of publishers at the moment, with plans to expand that group in the future. On Digg, anyone can submit an article from any website or blog.
This makes Buzz really great for the handful of publishers who have made it into the program. The traffic boost Buzz provides will make it a coveted destination for news site publishers that want more traffic for their ad views. Click-throughs make a pretty ka-ching sound for their ad revenue.
