Building Website Traffic with Yahoo! Answers

One of the things I have been doing lately is using Yahoo! Answers as a way to build traffic to my many websites.

To use Yahoo! Answers you first have to sign up for a free account with them. You can set up your profile and include a

The biggest thing I have found in using Yahoo! Answers is that it can really help in creating content for you website as you can just watch what people are asking about in your topic area. I have sometimes even built a whole new page just to answer a question.

They do allow you to place your link in the resources box at the end if it is related to the question as outlined in the Yahoo! Answers help section.

The best way to answer questions is to really take your time and provide the best answer and get a reputation and following. People can add you to their contact list and fan list. Here are some other pointers:

*Don't always put a link to your site.
*Put links to other sites and resources.
*Use the posters name in the answer and add your username or real name if you so choose.
*Be the first one to answer the question by signing up for the rss feed in your section. That way you can really keep on top of the questions coming in.
* Put a badge on your website. You can set it up so that you can track your questions or questions that you are interested in that your readers may also be interested.

You can vote on your own answer to make it a 'best answer' but I think the best thing to do is only vote for your own answer if you do really have the best answer. Don't do it just to get points.

Share your ideas or suggestions for using Yahoo! Answers to build traffic for your website by filling out the following form that will add a new page on this site.

Update on Yahoo! Answers 4/2009 - After over 6000 points on giving the right answer I was all of a sudden banned from Yahoo! Answers. They don't tell you why or anything. They just delete your account and as far as I can tell, I can't create another one although they said I could. Here is their email:

First the suspension:

Hello Jono(j_onofrio)

You have posted content to Yahoo! Answers in violation of our Community Guidelines or Terms of Service. As a result, your account has been suspended.

If you feel you were not in violation, please contact our Customer Care and tell us why.

Regards,Yahoo! Customer Care

Then I sent an appeal but I didn't know why my account was suspended really and they don't tell you what you did to violate their lengthy terms of service.

"Hello Julie,

Thank you for writing to Yahoo! Answers.

We appreciate your inquiry about your suspension from Yahoo! Answers and/or the deactivation of your Yahoo! ID. We reviewed your case, and decided that your account is not eligible for reinstatement.

Once an account is disabled for a violation of the Terms of Service, thesubscriber to the account will lose the ability to log in and access theaccount and its contents (including email and content stored with any other Yahoo! service). The account also will not be reactivated.

Should you choose to create a new Yahoo! account, we invite you to read the Yahoo! Terms of Service and Yahoo! Community Guidelines to help ensure your new account is not deactivated.

Yahoo! Terms of Service:

http://info.yahoo.com/legal/us/yahoo/utos/utos-173.html

Yahoo! Community Guidelines:

http://answers.yahoo.com/info/community_guidelines.php

Thank you again for contacting Yahoo! Answers.

Regards,"

I actually am still getting notices that my answers were chosen best answer. I have moved on to other ways of building traffic and have found linkedin.com answers to be a much better source because they are more professional people there.

Yahoo! Answers can help you to write content for your site if you look for what people are asking for. It is also a sad state of affairs there as their are many teens there pouring their hearts out about drugs, relationships and things that they should really be asking their parents. Some one could really write a book on the state of our country according to Yahoo! Answers.

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