One of the easiest ways to generate traffic to your website is often one of the most overlooked methods as well, Yahoo Answers. Not only is it a simplified method of driving targeted traffic to your site, it is also absolutely free to use.
This strategy will be broken down for you in a step-by-step format, making it easy for you to incorporate this technique into your own marketing efforts. You’ll quickly discover just how incredibly powerful this tactic is when you begin to analyze your traffic and see just how much Yahoo Answers is directing your way.
And for those who might be wondering whether Yahoo Answers has a large enough user base to yield a worthwhile response, here is what Yahoo Answers has to say:
With more than 21 million unique users in the U.S. and 90 million worldwide, Yahoo! Answers is the largest knowledge-sharing community on the Web.
Is that big enough for you? If so, let’s get started!
Step One: Open a Yahoo Answers Account
You will need a Yahoo Answers account to be able to answer open questions. To create your account visit: http://answers.yahoo.com
You will be able to create your account using your current Yahoo messenger account if you already have an ID:
Step Two: Complete Your Profile
Once you have created a Yahoo Answers account and are logged in, you will be able to create or edit your profile. You should take a few minutes to fill out as much as information as you would like to share and then save your information.
You can choose to allow Yahoo Answer members to contact you via messenger, or keep this information private. You can also enable “email contact” if you would like to receive comments via email, or you can choose to disable all contact other than through the questions that you answer.
When you edit your profile it is recommended that you add a photo or customize an avatar. It’s important to brand yourself and this is an easy way to make your profile more memorable as your photo will appear within your answers.
Step Three: Familiarize Yourself With Yahoo Answers
From the main Yahoo Answers page you will see categories listed on the left hand side. This is where questions are posted and grouped according to their subject matter. This is also where you will go when choosing the different types of questions that you would like to answer, and depending on the niche markets that you are involved in, you might find yourself answering a variety of questions from different categories and groups.
Before you start answering questions you should have an idea of what you plan to promote. That way you can find questions that are relevant to the website that you wish to advertise via the Yahoo Answers website. Each time you answer a question, you can include a “SOURCE” in a secondary box that accompanies your response. This is an easy way to promote your websites and direct people to find out more information about the topic of their question.
You should also browse previously answered questions so that you can get a feel for the way other people have answered and addressed different questions, paying attention to those answers that were selected as being the “TOP” response.
As you begin answering questions, you may run into a series of questions that are no longer open. Here is a breakdown of the life cycle of a question from the time it is first posted:
Questions that are “Resolved” are typically closed from receiving future follow ups while questions that are marked “Undecided” have not yet received a “TOP” vote.
Questions are open for only four days but the original poster can extend the period for a few extra days or if a question has been resolved, they can close it before that time period has ended.
It’s important to answer questions as thoroughly as you can and avoid spamming your websites within your answers. In fact, there are few times where including your website URL within the answer is acceptable at all. If those viewing your response feel that it is spam you will not receive votes and your answer may be removed entirely. Therefore, you should try to keep your websites within the “Source” box only. Those who liked your answer are likely to follow your link to find out more especially if you are careful to answer questions that pertain to your niche market.
Start Promoting!
Due to the large number of people answering questions every minute of the day, it is important that you are quick when responding to open questions. As mentioned above, you must also do your best to answer the question as thoroughly as possible and be sure to address the person who posted the question by name (whenever possible). This has been known to increase your chances of being voted as “best answer” since the original poster feels that you are taking your time to address them personally.
Remember that the ultimate goal is to be selected as the best answer (Top Answer) because the more often you are selected the more exposure your answer, profile and website will receive.
The Points System
As a member of Yahoo Answers you will earn points for each question that you answer. You will also discover that there are limits on the number of questions that you can answer each day until you build up your levels.
Here is a breakdown of the different levels that you can reach depending on the amount of points you receive every day. (For the first week you will be focusing on building up your levels so that you can answer more questions by increasing your daily limit. Those who reach Level 4 can answer an unlimited number of questions every day.
When you start out you begin at Level 1. You are able to answer 20 questions every day at this level. In the first day it is possible for you to earn 140+ points by answering 20 questions and you will earn more for every answer that is selected as the ‘top choice’.
You will be able to view your Points and Level on the main page of Yahoo Answers (on the right hand side) under your name:
Here is an overview of how the points are accumulated.
When you begin answering questions you should focus on targeting your main niche until your levels increase and you are able to answer as many questions as you like. That way, you can start driving traffic to your site right away, despite being limited to only 20 questions a day.
Locating Specific Niche Related Questions
To find niche-specific questions that are still open for answering, click on the “Advanced Search” link to get started. You will find this at the top of the Yahoo Answers website once you are logged in.
Once you have loaded up the Advanced Search page you will be able to enter in keywords that are relevant to your niche market. You can also minimize any time wasted by being certain to only search for questions that are still open for answering.
Enter in you’re a specific keyword that best describes your niche and set the “Keyword Match” to “Questions” as you are searching for questions to answer right away.
Next, choose “ALL” when selecting your categories as sometimes questions may appear throughout different groups.
Be sure to filter out the questions so that you are searching only for questions in your primary language unless you are able to understand and respond in alternative languages.
And finally be sure to set the status of your search so that it generates a list of “Open Questions” only. There is no sense in searching for questions that have been resolved (or are closed) from receiving additional responses.
Once you have completed this step you will generate a search results page that includes multiple un-answered questions found using your keyword(s).
In my example search, I requested the search engine to find open questions relating to “Wordpress”.
Here is what was found:
By targeting the keyword “Wordpress”, 52 un-answered questions are available to me.
To begin answering questions, simply click on the links to load up the “Question and Answer” page.
By answering questions that target my niche market and including a website that provides additional information about the question that I am answering I can easily generate traffic to my site in a few minutes, the time it takes for me to successfully answer the question. Even if my answer does not end up being chosen as the “top” answer, I can still generate traffic just by using the “Source” box.
Remember as well that Yahoo is the most popular search engine, outranking even Google.(this is questionable as at today)
By answering recent questions rather than digging through older ones you are ensuring that your website receives traffic not only from the Yahoo Answer center (and those who view your answer from within that section) but also from the Yahoo search engine as well!
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