How to Generate Traffic Using Yahoo! Answers

What is Yahoo! Answers? Supposedly the World’s biggest think tank, Yahoo! Answers is an question-and-answer (Q&A) site created by Yahoo! in 2005. The site has more than two million regular visitors. Now you can see the potential of this web property in driving targeted traffic to your blog or website for free. Since its inception, it has become very popular tool among internet marketers for driving traffic to their websites. Other entrepreneurial online marketers have cashed in on the popularity of the site by publishing e-books that show you how to use the service to generate website traffic.

You do not need to buy any e-books to use Yahoo! Answers and leverage it for your website traffic and link building. It is free and quite simple to use. And as with any other traffic techniques, you should not focus all your efforts on this one site alone. You can also use the site for getting answers to any questions you may have in more than 20 Yahoo! Answers categories. By sharing your answers to other poeoples´ questions regularly, you can also establish yourself as an expert and build your brand.

If you already have a Yahoo! account, you can sign in to Yahoo! Answers using your Yahoo! user name and password. I do not know too many people who do not have a Yahoo! account. If you are among th few people who have ignored all of the services offered byYahoo! and therefore have never created a Yahoo! account, sign up now.

1. Start with a top level Yahoo! Answer category that you are passionate about and interested in. If you are interested in gardening and have a gardening blog, you should obviously start with the category „Home & Garden”. Do not limit yourself to the top category alone, select all the subcategories as well.

2. You do not have to be an expert. If you are interested in a topic, you can do a Google search and find the the right answers to almost all the questions posted in Yahoo! Answers. Try to be the first person to answer a question - and answer it correctly.

3. Do not post vague and false answers. It is always better to verify your answers before posting them. Check for spelling and grammatical errors as well before posting your answers, otherwise people will doubt your answer even if it is correct.

4. If you have verified your answers using some authoritative sites like Wikipedia, CNN, MSNBC, Yahoo!, university websites, respected journals, etc., post the link to the source of your answer.

5. The beuty of the Yahoo! Answers service lies in the fact that you can post links in your answers. But do not post links to your websites every time. Link to your content posted on other sites, for instance your articles published in article directories, your Squidoo lenses, hubs on HubPages, blogs, digg, stumbleupon, YouTube videos, etc and direct the user to your content for more information.

6. Try to avoid opinionated political questions, but if you happen to have facts from an authoritative source, post the link without posting your own opinion.

7. Yahoo! Answers is also a virtual gold mine for keyword and market research on any topic. By scanning the questions in a specific category, you will be able to know what information people are looking for. You can make a blog post detailing your research on that question and then link to it in your answer.

8. Keep your answers succint and to the point. Don not simply provide a link to the answer. Provide as much information as possible to resolve the question and include links for more information and validation only.

9. Even if the answer is simple, do not call the asker names or mention how stupid the question is or how obvious the answer is.

10. Yahoo! Answers is a community sharing site. Participate regularly by answering and voting on others answers.

11. Use keywords in your answers.

12. Avoid answering lots of questions in one day. Answer no more than five questions a day and do it for no more than three times a week.

13. Never, ever try to sell anything in your answer.

If you know any more techniques, please leave a comment.

Good luck!