Yahoo Affiliate Program Removing Performance Incentives

The big headline in the latest Yahoo Affiliate program was "Yahoo! Search Marketing affiliate program into the unified Yahoo! Affiliate Program " Read a little futher down and you will see:

In the past, we offered performance incentives that were calculated 45 days after the month ends based on your volume. Effective immediately, we are removing these performance incentives and all publishers will be paid an up front commission rate based on the volume you currently drive for Yahoo! Small Business. We hope that this change will allow you to calculate your monthly commission payments more effectively. There is opportunity to increase your commission rate, so please feel to contact us if you believe you have potential to drive additional volume.

So what does this mean? Well good news if you are me... I think... but bad news if you are just trying to get started.