Yahoo Answers - Waste of Time?

16 replies
  • SEO
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Hey Everyone,

I wanted to share my experiences with marketing on Yahoo Answers. I generally avoid doing article marketing or stuff like this but I've seen a lot of buzz around Yahoo Answers marketing so I went ahead and tested it out.

I actually have to say that Yahoo Answers is a hilarious place to hang out. The people there just have the weirdest/funniest questions.

In order to post links you have to get your Answers accounts upgraded to Level 2. This is pretty easy to do since you're largely competing with a bunch of posting bots that spam links to **** Berry products & Colon Cleanses etc.

It's not hard to stand out.

Once I was at Level 2 I went ahead and SEO'd my questions to see if they would rank well within the Big G. I picked a ClickBank eBook I know generally converts for me at every 60-70 hops and a CPA offer.

I did manage the 1st page of Google for my keyword and after some bookmarking/link building got my answers posts up higher in the SERP (no idea if that helped or not - it might have just risen on it's own).

My results after the last 2 months:

- generated several hundred hoplinks and no conversions to the eBook

- CPA offers were slightly better and easier to convert but generally speaking anything that doesn't require a credit card number does OK.

Aside from ranking well I didn't get much for the time spent (answering questions, getting my self upgraded to Level 2 etc.).

I get the feeling people on Yahoo Answers are in the same state of mind as a lot of Facebook users - much more social and looking to interact and not really focused on buying something.

I've had better luck converting with article promotion and the best conversion (obviously) with ppc. I'm pretty confident that the ranking Yahoo Answers gave me could have easily been achieved with EZA or other sites.

In summary - it's a nice way to link back to your site (but it's no-follow) and get some visitors there and reasonably OK with CPA type offers.


-Vikram
#answers #time #waste #yahoo
  • Profile picture of the author trytolearnmore
    I don't know... i made 17$ only working 1 hour. You just need a blog with useful content (even borrowed)
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  • Profile picture of the author chandan_dutta
    Thank you for sharing your experience. I did not try Yahoo Answer too much..but it is right, we can expect a lot of traffic from yahoo answer.
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  • Profile picture of the author Nisip
    Banned
    in Yahoo Answers there are many people who answer mostly by making fun... sometimes I wonder if they even expect a serious answer at all...
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  • Profile picture of the author Rikki_Fawkes
    I guess I never thought of Yahoo Answers as a viable portal for affiliate programs. I've seen some links to affiliate products, naturally, but never have I seen them rated as "best answer" or anything like that. And frankly, I figured Yahoo would remove any they found.

    Anymore, unless the question is related to something highly technical or of a medical nature, I see few serious questions or answers. And some people obviously post questions/answers just to waste time.
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  • Profile picture of the author Vikram73
    I didn't think it could be very profitable either but I still wanted to test. At the very least I have some more links back to my sites and while they are no-follow they do make my link building look more natural to the search engines - so I got that going for me!
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    • Profile picture of the author Rikki_Fawkes
      Originally Posted by vikramd View Post

      I didn't think it could be very profitable either but I still wanted to test. At the very least I have some more links back to my sites and while they are no-follow they do make my link building look more natural to the search engines - so I got that going for me!
      Sure - guess that works, especially if it's a highly searched question. I do get a little disappointed, though, when I type technical questions in Google and get a Yahoo Answer as the top result. But I'll keep that in mind for natural-looking links. Maybe I can post my YouTube how-to videos for iTunes in some of those questions
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      • Profile picture of the author software248
        I use yahoo answers all the time for my movie site.
        It seems many people want to know what movies are out and where you cna watch them at.
        SO i get loads of traffic from there.

        Thanks
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        • Profile picture of the author WareTime
          Yahoo should rename Yahoo Answers to Yahoo Internet Marketer Answers. That's what it has become.

          I think I'll go post the question on Yahoo answers of "how to make money online by using Yahoo answers?" Then as an added hilarity, I'll ask the general populace to hold off answering and to please allow an internet marketer to answer. I know... Kind of like asking water to run downhill.
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  • Profile picture of the author shane90
    Banned
    [DELETED]
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    • Profile picture of the author websitemrktg
      I may take another look at yahoo answers but there seems to be people who will vote you down or mark you as spam just for fun and actually read that that happens a lot there. Many marketers seem to swear by it but I am going to bet that whatever they are promoting is highly geared towards a younger crowd and so works well with the general younger population that seems to be active there based on the questions and answers I've seen.

      I have had my "best answers" turned in as spam even though they were subjects that have nothing to do with what I am doing and promoting and had no links within to anything of my own. Since the process of deletion is automatic it just did not seem to be worth my time but for some it may be worth it.
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      • Profile picture of the author molsted
        I've seen some great results both in traffic and sales from YA. BUT it probably does depend on the market and you need to post replies that does not seem like selling or promoting.

        Also, in is not something that is worth doing your self if you are in a lot of niches. Sure, If I were going to promote one site only and had the time to do it I'd set aside 15 minutes a day to do 10 answers or so.

        Except for that, outsourcing it to some really low price dudes is the way to go. Think $2 an hour and have them do 10 answers an hour!

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  • Profile picture of the author trytolearnmore
    I will just repeat a formula that worked for me:

    1)Create a blog with super content
    2)Put a banner that people will notic
    3) Go to Yahoo, answer questions with your content. Post links to them.
    4)People will follow your links and see the banner

    That's it
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  • Profile picture of the author yade
    Yahoo answer is monitor the link if your link is not spam, it will ban your account. That hilarious if you just want to get short term traffic. Yahoo answer can only be standing for one day, after that no more.
    For me, the good way to get unique visitor that will increase your sale or dollers is to optimize your site both on page and off page optimization.
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  • Profile picture of the author mithil
    Yahoo Answer is no-follow so there is no use for link building purpose over here.
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  • Profile picture of the author Lbwalton
    My experience with yahoo answers has been similar to yours. People seem to be on there just to be social and talk mess. No one on there is really looking to buy anything or even really answer questions most of the time. Yahoo answers seems like a great idea for marketing but it isn't. Haven't tried much for SEO but you and others say it seems to work well so i guess it's good for something. hahaha

    Although article marketing take a little time, it gives some great traffic and leads for free. It is slower but it is long lasting and worth it usually if you have some great content.
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  • Profile picture of the author Terry Markle
    I invested 14 bucks in a WSO that included how to profit with Yahoo Answers. I messed around with it for awhile but found that the questions and answers tended to all over the board. You have to be extremely careful not to get into a niche that is primarily dominated by teenagers. You want to pursue niches that have adults (and credit cards). Trying to monetize your answers is also tricky or you can get banned quickly. You need to keep your money links down to a respectable 25% of your total answers or you can be weeded out as a spammer (no matter how good your intentions).
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