How to generate traffic from Yahoo Answers
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Yahoo Answers is an interesting place to get quality traffic from. Have you been using the service yet?
Well, it’s a nice service they’re running out there and is the only service (apart from flickr) that I regularly use from Yahoo.
On Yahoo Answers, people ask all sorts of crazy questions. Yep, really crazy ones. I’ve seen some one ask – “Where are my car keys?” But that’s an interesting observation. It could be a meaning less one now, but 10 years from now, similar questions would make more sense.
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Now, how is Yahoo Answers a good tool for generating traffic?
The modus operandi is like this.
- You enroll as a member at Yahoo Answers. This means that you can ask and answer questions. There are no criterions that screens if you are a qualified authority or not (which is both good and bad.).
- There are different categories in which people ask many questions. You select the one/ones that you are more interested in, and think you can answer.
- Go through the questions asked there and answer them.
You earn points for each question answered. And if the person who asked the question like your question, he may select your answer as the best one and you could win extra points for it. And you have a ranking system based on the total points you earned, where you get to jump levels as you score more.
Now, why Yahoo! Answers?
- There are lot of novices over there, who are genuinely looking for quality information.
- Yahoo has an option to provide a link (nofollowed) to your site while answering a question that serves as a reference to the answer.
- Lot of people are asking questions – while only some of them are answered completely.
I think this is a place where lot of potential subscribers come. A novice or a person who is genuinely interested in solving a problem is more likely to subscribe to your feed than a learned guy (who you found on another blog.)
So, if your site has good and informative content, it’s a great model that works.
Find your target audience —> Answer their queries —> Invite them to the source of information —-> Get them subscribed.
Aren’t you misusing the service Mani?
Not really. Well, the idea of Yahoo Answers is a meeting place for knowledge seekers and knowledge providers. If you do it the right way, obeying the staff guidelines, it is a great place to gain knowledge.
Here are some suggestions that will help you earn a good reputation.
- Answer only relevant questions, that you think is within your knowledge level.
- Be specific to the question and give in all the details and sources that is relevant to the question.(Not everything that you know)
- Never give your site link if it doesn’t have any information about the question asked.
- If some one has already answered before you, don’t repeat the answer. Probably give the guy a thumbs up.
- Appreciate efforts from others, never get into arguments.
- Feel free to give the link from another site that you think has the information the questioner is asking for.
- Obey the staff guidelines.
Essentially, Yahoo Answers is a good tool to generate some quality traffic, if you spent the right time on it, answering some quality questions. Don’t expect a huge traffic but it will trickle down slowly as you build your reputation. And, whatever comes in would be quality traffic and the conversion ration will be excellent. Try it out setting a goal on Google Analytics.
Great post again Mani.
I am already a user of Yahoo Answers.
Hi Mani, I’m your regular blog reader. I have also started my own blog. Please visit and let me know your suggestions.
JudeFestus’s last blog post..Search Engine Optimization (SEO) – An Overview
It is a good thought but is a little desperate?
I would rather be found on Google or a.n.other search engine because my content had a certain value.
Philip Voice’s last blog post..The Government aids St Anns Allotment restoration Project
btw Mani
Whenever I post a comment I get an error page. I refresh the browser and I get a WordPress message saying that it detected a duplicate comment.
This has happened for the last 4 comments I have left on your site.
Is it a problem your end or mine? I don’t experience it with any other site.
Philip Voice’s last blog post..The Government aids St Anns Allotment restoration Project
Agh! (and I am not meaning to spam your site
the last message went through error free so perhaps it is just the first message every time.
I hope things are working fine now Philip if not, please let me know.
Yahoo Answers is a great idea, especially for asking questions such what is your favorite movie and why, HOWEVER in my nearly 30 years of professionally designing aquarium systems, maintenance, and research, Yahoo answers gets worse by the month.
Unfortunately the Trolls (which include many so-called Top Contributors) have taken over and YA seems disinterested in fixing this.
I only go there (I have a VERY busy work schedule) to dispel the constant barrage of misinformation that passes for answers.
You unfortunately have no credibility unless you have a Top Contributor badge, so I try and make time to come here at least a few times a day, however the trolls here constantly try and file behind the scenes complaints against anyone that does not post the usual anecdotal stuff that passes for answers there. Today I lost my TC badge because of this and not a single person at Yahoo answers will respond.
http://aquarium-answers.blogspot.com/
Carl Strohmeyer’s last blog post..Betta Habitat
I am a member of yahoo answers too, I think it matters if we have more friends in there?
what are the pros and cons using Yahoo answers as ways to generate traffic? and i heard somewhere this can be considered as black hat seo technique.is is true?
It is crazy but Yahoo Answers is a great SEO tool.
http://themegamovieblog.com
good tips,thanks for sharing
I can’t get my links to go live with Yahoo Answers. What am I doing wrong?
You need to be LVL 2. This is to prevent spamming.
I am disappointed! I thought these links are dofollow!
But i will not stop contributing on yahoo answers.
Yahoo answer is a great way to build backlink. you can even put a link in the comment box of yahoo and of course the topic must be relevant to the blog content and title.
I have started today on yahoo answers. I though it would be good for seo, but found it more interesting than posting comments. Its interesting to read questions and decide whether we can answer them.
Let me see will it help me get some traffic on my site.
Good article Mani and a very good point! Yahoo Answers is used by a lot of people everyday. I’m at level two and have had many of my answers chosen as the best answer, you are providing a solution if you are qualified in your niche. I would recommend it for sure!
Its fun as well, you know you get ppl askig the silliest to the most unanswerable ones. I however try and stick to areas where I’m comfortable, like SEo and Webmaster info.
Nice article. Just signed up for Yahoo Answers and thinks if’s fairly interesting. Granted, there are some bizarre questions posted from time to time but it’s cool to find interesting questions from people who want to know information of which I have some knowledge and experience.