Yahoo! Answers is an online community managed by Yahoo! where users can both answer and submit questions on unlimited range of topics. It is one of the most popular Internet reference site aside from Wikipedia.
It has a system of points and levels to encourage participation and reward great answers. The more points you accumulate, the higher your level will be. It is good to provide a very informative and useful answer as there’s a chance that it will be voted as the Best Answer which will give you an automatic 10 points and will be positioned directly below the question.
I have been a member since August 22, 2007 and had reached level 3 with 1,377 points as of October 6, 2009. 36% of my answers were voted as the Best Answer. Below is my profile.
How can I use Yahoo! Answers to get traffic to my website?
By providing answers to questions being asked that are related to your website’s content.
When you give an answer, you have an option to supply your source. Here’s your chance to link to your website.
However, and this is important, that link will not be clickable unless you reach Level 2. This is the service’s way of controlling spammers. That means you have to work your way to Level 2 first.
Here’s an example:
I have this post regarding AH1N1 symptoms. When a question was asked regarding it 2 months ago, I provided an answer and link to it. Because of the information I provided, it was chosen as the Best Answer. Afterwards, a steady trickle of visitors have been coming to this site from that link.
You see, questions from Yahoo! Answers are indexed by the search engines. And mind you, they are ranked high in the SERPs. So when somebody asks for an information through the search engines, usually, a similar question already asked at Yahoo! Answers will appear at or near the top of the SERPs. If visited, and it happened that you have the Best Answer, there’s always a big chance that they will click your link.
That link might be Do Follow but that’s still an instant referral!
In order for this to really work, you must always strive for your answer to be excellent so that it will be selected as the Best Answer. Especially if there are 20 other answers provided by other users, its a big boost as your answer will automatically be positioned directly below the question asked; above all the other 20 answers.
Usually when that happens, only your answer is recognized by the one looking for information and he just disregard the others.
I have started applying this approach since June and so far, it worked wonders for me. It was of big help in keeping my sinking ark afloat when it was penalized by Google.
Yahoo! Answers is now my top 3 referral. My Google Analytics account has been going crazy this past few weeks so I can’t provide an accurate data. But luckily, I was able to pull-out some data from MyBlogLog albeit in a shorter period.
Here’s my referral data for October 4 – 6:
Yes, in 3 days, 2,027 visitors came here via Yahoo! Answers for an average of 677 visitors per day.
If you are saying that’s a lot, why not try it out?
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October 8th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
sir, galing ng idea mo!!! try ko toh!!!
[Reply]
October 8th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
sir ask ko lang ilang points para maging level 2? ask ko din sir ano ung gamit mo site para makit mo ung stats ng visitors na pumapasok sa site mo? about sa post image mo. ty.
[Reply]
ark Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 12:12 am
You need 250 points to get to level 2.
I use Google Analytics for my stats pero nagloloko eh. MyBlogLog yang nasa screen shot ko.
[Reply]
October 8th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
of course you can ask the question yourself, then answer your own question and choose that answer as the best answer haha, see how gritty trend blogging has become?
[Reply]
ark Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 12:14 am
Hmm really? I have not tried it. I don’t even know that it is possible.
But what’s the point in giving a question then answering it yourself? If that’s to gain traffic, I think that’s cheap.
[Reply]
keybol Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 4:34 pm
para di mo na hanapin yung questions na related sa blog content mo, o baka wala kasing question related sa blog post mo. tapos gawa ka rin iba pang false answers na answer mo rin to build credibility to the best answer chosen (which is also yours) ang saya ng blogging di ba?
[Reply]
ark Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 5:09 pm
Well, if that’s your tactic, I’ll leave you at that. To each his own. But I still think that’s a cheap trick.
[Reply]
keybol Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 10:29 pm
im being sarcastic sir ^^
[Reply]
October 8th, 2009 at 6:29 pm
@weng cariaga, Statcounter po and gamit ko sa site ko and most websites and blogs today use statcounter as their primary counter.
[Reply]
ark Reply:
October 9th, 2009 at 12:15 am
I have not yet tried statcounter.
[Reply]
October 10th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
good suggestion ark. I used to answer some of the questions. but with my other yahoo account. i link it to my health blog. but my account was block due to some policies and rule. well it a lesson to be learned. especially when i made almost the same answer. i try to be more creative in my answers next time.
[Reply]
ark Reply:
October 11th, 2009 at 5:08 pm
We learn lessons from time to time don’t we?
[Reply]
October 11th, 2009 at 2:27 pm
“My Ark Full of Worry-Free Thoughts” has been included in this weeks A Sunday Drive. I hope this helps to attract even more new visitors here.
asthecrackerheadcrumbles.blogspot.com/2009/10/sunday-drive_11.html
[Reply]
ark Reply:
October 11th, 2009 at 6:03 pm
Why thank you. I appreciate it much.
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October 22nd, 2009 at 10:36 am
thank you. I read every word. I had been looking for a good lowdown on Yahoo Answers. I did not know the differentiators in the levels. While I won’t compete with you Mr. Top Contributor (congrats), I am inspired to answer more questions and make more appearance in areas of my interest where I can add value and opinion
! Thanks again!!!
[Reply]
ark Reply:
October 22nd, 2009 at 6:02 pm
You are welcome. Thanks for the visit.
[Reply]
October 27th, 2009 at 2:26 pm
bookmarked your site!!
u r good at writing.
God bless u
[Reply]
ark Reply:
October 29th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
Thank you very much.
[Reply]
October 31st, 2009 at 5:06 am
Please, can you PM me and tell me few more things about this, I am really fan of your blog! I just subscribed to your feed.
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February 1st, 2010 at 10:58 am
You would be crazy to not use more Twitter marketing
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March 16th, 2010 at 8:34 pm
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