Yahoo! Answers Explains it All

One service that doesn't seem to get much mention in all of our industry musings on social networking and Web 2.0 is Yahoo! Answers. I think that's a real shame too, as this gem of a program does so many things right, and so many other things no one thought to do right. Most importantly, it offers a LOT of traffic that you could personally turn into customers right now.

If you haven't heard of this site yet, the concept is simple: Yahoo! Answers invites everyone (with a Yahoo! log in, anyway) to come to their site and ask specific questions to the user community. Then each member of the community can answer the question individually. The asker winds up with a number of answers to chose from, and picks what they feel best answered the question. There is a points scale, so that logging in gets you a point each day you do it, (to keep you coming back,) answering a question gets you two more points, (to keep you active,) a right answer gets you 10 points, (so you try hard to actually give a good answer,) and asking a question costs 5 points. (So you don't just take from the well without giving back.) Of the various incarnations of "social media," this is one of the few that has a structured way for members to interact. Unlike networking or bookmarking where you are on your own to figure out how best to use the sites, this one gives you a framework and a goal. And a points system of rewards costs Yahoo! nothing, though they aren't meaningless. The result of getting enough points moves you up in user level, affording you perks and bragging rights. For the entrepreneur, this means a lot of very specific, focused traffic. Each person is asking a different question, each asker has their own specific problem. What if what they need is what you're selling? Then you can help someone out, which is what they wanted in the first place, and convert a customer immediately. I've been doing this for a few months now for several clients, and it is very satisfying to help someone in need AND turn them on to a client. All you have to do is run a search for questions people are asking that are, "open." These are the ones that have not been answered yet. Find the person asking specifically about what you sell or the problem you solve. Then you simply give your answer. Below the answer field there is also a text box in which you can leave your website URL. Now, don't be tempted to leave all sorts of URLs to your site in hopes of increasing the link love to your site. Yahoo! puts that dreaded "nofollow" tag on any link put onto the page. Still, in a search on the Yahoo! search engine, they will also occasionally give one of these Answers pages as a return if they feel it is more relevant. As a result, when someone comes to it long after the question has closed, your pitch and link can still be working for you. Like most social media, though, abuse has its own penalties. If someone were to just randomly answer questions with, "Lose weight now! Ask me how!" and links to a site without even attempting to answer the question, that person would be banned almost immediately. Also, if an answer only tangentially had to do with the question, and was still just a spammy pitch for goods and services, it would just look tacky. It is far more effective - as well as far less embarrassing - to simply use the site in the spirit in which it is intended: Helping people out. (And if you can interest one or two people in your housing development or relocation service, so much the better!)

About the Author: Eric Reid

I am the Social Media Services Manager for Off Madison Ave. I've been with the company since 2006, when I was hired to do SEO, and link building in particular. When social networking sites started cropping up, at first I started using them to create backlinks - but they weren't the best for that, given all of the "nofollow" attributes. However, I did see the potential for all of the direct referral traffic they represent. Since then I've been actively pursuing both tactics for clients: Links that can help them for search, and social postings that get them involved in the conversation. It's about the coolest job you could ever get. ;)