Using Yahoo Answers to make money + using multiple ID's is NOT Allowed

[Didier Faucher]

Reason for this thread:

A growing number of people are selling products that teach how to make
money using Yahoo Answers, and they want make you believe that it is
"not incorrect" to:

- use multiple accounts,

- use this service to make money directly (directing YA users to commercial
offers, CPA offers, etc.).


If you use it in this way, then remember the following, taken from Yahoo
Answers Guidelines:

Your use of Yahoo! Answers is subject to the Yahoo! Answers Community
Guidelines, Yahoo! Community Guidelines, and also the Yahoo! Terms of
Service.

Members who have violated the Community Guidelines are at risk for
review and possible termination of their Answers accounts. In extreme
cases, members risk losing their Yahoo! ID, and consequently, access to all
other Yahoo! services.

Source:
Community Guidelines - Yahoo! Answers

What is considered solicitation?

(...) Commercial solicitations are usually considered spam, so please refer
to the “Can I post my website, email, or personal information in my answers?”

Source:
What is considered solicitation?

Can I post my website, email, or personal information in my answers?

In certain circumstances you can. Common sense goes a long way here, but
basically, you cannot spam, advertise, or solicit on Answers.

(...)

Business websites or email
(...) please do not link to purchase pages in your answers, include your
website and contact info in all answers, give low-quality answers coupled
with links to your site, or solicit for clients.

Source:
Can I post my website, email, or personal information in my answers?

I have multiple Yahoo! accounts. Can I use these accounts to participate as
different people?

No, you cannot. Using multiple accounts to participate at Yahoo! Answers is
a violation of Community Guidelines and may result in the suspension of your
accounts. Please refer to our Community Guidelines for guidance on acceptable
behavior.

Source:
I have multiple Yahoo! accounts. Can I use these accounts to participate as different people?

Exploiting the community

Yahoo! Answers is a place to gain knowledge, not customers, page views, or
dates. If you have years of experience in something, have a special hobby,
own your own business, or if you are a knowledge partner, it's OK to accompany
a good, on-topic answer with a link to your website, blog, or email to offer
more information. However, it is not OK to post links that are unrelated to the
topic or are clearly meant only to solicit others for personal and financial gain. (...)

Source:
Community Guidelines - Yahoo! Answers


I don't want to position myself as a "do this, don't do that" guy, but be aware
of Yahoo Answers Guidelines when using this service, or you may lose your
account - for a valid reason.


Hope that helps.


Didier

[Michael Franklin]

Unfortunately, the spamming on Yahoo Answers! will always be present basically because it is very easy for spammers to get a new Yahoo account after their old ones are terminated....Sad but true!

[Charles Washington]

I have been doing pretty good with Answers for a couple of years. However, I do not spam them. I only offer responses that I believe are valuable enough to be voted as best answers. If my response isnt of high standard, I stop writing and leave.

Doing this, I add valuable information to the people asking the questions, and I put a link to my site in the resource site.

30% of my answers are "best answer"

[Treece]

I think this is an interested change from the Yahoo Answers blog:

The Yahoo! Answers team is excited to announce a small but significant change to the site. As of today, any URLs posted by Level 1 Answers members will not be linked.

It may seem like a trivial change, but it is an important step to limit spam on Answers. The site has used a points and levels system since its inception, which aims to promote activity and trust. By linking URLs only from community members who are Level 2 and above, we reward and protect our core contributors.

The removal of linking applies to any URL that begins with http:// (URLs that begin with www have never been linked, regardless of a user’s level). We understand that removing linking from Level 1 members’ URLs is not a complete or perfect solution, and we also realize that long URLs are being truncated, but we are working on further updates to improve this.

We’ve taken this action in response to clear feedback from the Answers community. Rest assured that this is just one of a number of initiatives we are implementing to limit spam on Answers. We hope it’s a small step toward making Answers a better place. We welcome your feedback on this change.

Yahoo! Answers Blog Archive Yahoo! Answers Update: Level 1 URLs