Perhaps the perfection of Yahoo’s vertical strategy is its new blog-inspired site Shine. It’s a broad mix of content from publisher partners such as Hearst Communications, Rodale, and Condé Nast. It also aggregates and links to third party content and is encouraging users to blog on the site. Unlike Yahoo content-specific sites like Food, Shine is a kind of meta-vertical and focuses on a key Internet audience: women aged 25 to 54.

Yahoo is also cross-promoting other Yahoo verticals (Food, Green, Health, Tech) on the site. If it succeeds, Shine will be a dream come true for brand marketers. Users who are signed in to Yahoo will be shown behaviorally targeted ads as well.

Of course, a secondary benefit for Yahoo may be user exposure to Yahoo search and higher CTRs on sponsored search ads that appear on Shine site search results.

It’s also interesting to note how Yahoo is promoting the Shine brand above its own brand:

This is similar to Yahoo’s OMG celebrity gossip site. Here’s more from the Yodel Anecdotal blog. The post is written by Shine EIC Brandon Holley, who is a former Jane magazine editor — and not a man, btw.

Related Topics: Yahoo: Display Ads | Yahoo: Other

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling