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  • SEO
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Hey guys -

I've seen Yahoo Answers mentioned various times as a means of helping get traffic; however, I don't see anything in Yahoo Answers that seems to allow for a link to one's website. If no profile or signature link is being offered, than how exactly is participation in Yahoo Answers helpful?

Thanks.

Mike
#answers #yahoo
  • Profile picture of the author Dr los3
    You can leave a links in your answer.
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    • Profile picture of the author lbeachmike
      Originally Posted by Dr los3 View Post

      You can leave a links in your answer.
      A signature type link, or a link that's in context?

      For example, if the question is regarding what type of gift to give somebody, and I run a gift website, I can suggest that they visit my website? Or, I'm just leaving my link at the end of my response as in a forum signature?
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      • Profile picture of the author Dr los3
        You link in inside of the content you are sharing with the user. The best way would to just google it.

        " how to kiss a girl yahoo answers" and im sure you'll find someone linking out to a website in the comments.
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  • Profile picture of the author lbeachmike
    I understand, but my point is that I simply have not seen any users doing this. I've looked through a ton of posts and the only thing I see is somebody leaving their email address for more info, or including a URL to cite a source or location for further info.
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  • Profile picture of the author rickmor
    Isnt yahoo answers no follow anyway?
    Signature

    no agenda

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  • Profile picture of the author lbeachmike
    A very quick google search seems to indicate that it either is or was such that you need a certain point total / level before your links are no longer nofollow links. I'm not sure if that is currently true or not.

    How do I scan a page to test if the links are nofollow?
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  • Profile picture of the author seobuzz
    If you find your website is in context with question, you can cite your website at the 'resource box'. That's the way how internet marketers using YA for getting traffic to their websites.
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  • Profile picture of the author craighakwins
    You can leave links in your answer but it will take some time to be able to do that without triggering spam or things like that. People on certain levels will be the ones to be able to do that consistently without having ban thrown on them.
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  • Profile picture of the author lbeachmike
    Thanks seobuzz - I appreciate the clarification. In this particular case, it's an online store, so that won't work at all - however, I'll keep in mind for my other sites.

    mrk
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    • Profile picture of the author seobuzz
      Originally Posted by lbeachmike View Post

      Thanks seobuzz - I appreciate the clarification. In this particular case, it's an online store, so that won't work at all - however, I'll keep in mind for my other sites.

      mrk
      Why don't you think online store will not work? I think you should know eCommerce and weight loss are two niches, which are very effective with yahoo answers.
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      • Profile picture of the author lbeachmike
        Originally Posted by seobuzz View Post

        Why don't you think online store will not work? I think you should know eCommerce and weight loss are two niches, which are very effective with yahoo answers.
        Well, it's my wife's online store for eco-friendly party favors. So, if we go onto YA to answer people's questions in an effort to get some exposure for the store, I don't see how we would legitimately cite the store as a resource link unless the question was specifically asking where to find certain types of gifts.

        Won't it be construed as spammy if it's just thrown in there with no legit context? I'd otherwise love to get it legitimately on YA.
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  • Profile picture of the author seobuzz
    By a simple search with "gifts" I found 1,265,795 relevant results on yahoo answers. And if you answer 1 or 2 of those questions on daily basis, I don't think it will be considered as spam.
    Now a days most people are preferring to buy gifts from online store. And you can cite your store URL if you think it is relevant.
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  • Profile picture of the author NRabosa
    Hey lbeachmike, just had some advice regarding this. Since you're promoting your eco-friendly party favors business might I suggest to do some write ups in Squidoo, Do some postings on Instagram and join Arts and Crafts forums. That way, much needed targeted traffic would go to your website.

    Yahoo Answers is surely a grassroots approach, but it can only do so much to rank on Yahoo/Bing. How about Google and the other Search Engines? do you have a plan for this?

    Originally Posted by lbeachmike View Post

    Won't it be construed as spammy if it's just thrown in there with no legit context? I'd otherwise love to get it legitimately on YA.
    I hope my suggestions could help you, this is the targeted traffic that your business really needs.
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  • Profile picture of the author lbeachmike
    Thanks seobuzz. I'll take a closer look at some of those gifts-related posts and try to find some where the poster included a store URL to emulate.

    @NRabosa - I appreciate the input and I had found Squidoo listed on this page -

    List Of Top 50 Article Directories By Traffic, PageRank

    So I was planning to do a post there and previously on something like ezinearticles .. but further reading seemed to suggest that there was some controversy as to the benefit of doing so (and possible present or future detriment) ... so I was sticking with Plan A, which is indeed posting on relevant forums and commenting on relevant blogs. As of now, the highest ranking of those that I've found is a PR4, so I expect it will take some time to get any traction, but if this is effective, I'm okay with being patient and persistent.

    My wife is already doing postings on Instagram and other social media.

    When we initially purchased this site a year ago, the original owner apparently changed her forum signatures so the several thousand backlinks suddenly vaporized and the site's traffic took a major hit. This was followed by our redesign of the site from an ASP/Windows site to php/Unix, so all of the URLs also changed, thus creating a double-hit.

    As such, we're now essentially starting from scratch with regard to building traffic to the site.

    Thanks for your help - it's much appreciated.
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  • Profile picture of the author pryidevsblog
    Just check it again because Yahoo question and answer is very effective for ranking and reason behind is it allows a signature where you can drop your link and get a better traffic. Yeah some people still think that Yahoo question and answer is full of spam but as every people have their own point of view.
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  • Profile picture of the author lbeachmike
    I will give it a try. Are sites like ezinearticles, articles base and goarticles effective for ranking or is there more risk of a Google penalty?
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    • Profile picture of the author yukon
      Banned
      Originally Posted by lbeachmike View Post

      I will give it a try. Are sites like ezinearticles, articles base and goarticles effective for ranking or is there more risk of a Google penalty?
      Why are you so focused on getting links from sites/pages that don't rank pages?

      Your asking about links that are all nofollow (Yahoo Answers, EZA, etc..). Even If those links were followed (they're not) they would still be weak for SEO since they don't have any decent followed links pointing directly at the backlink page/s.
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      • Profile picture of the author lbeachmike
        Originally Posted by yukon View Post

        Why are you so focused on getting links from sites/pages that don't rank pages?

        Your asking about links that are all nofollow (Yahoo Answers, EZA, etc..). Even If those links were followed (they're not) they would still be weak for SEO since they don't have any decent followed links pointing directly at the backlink page/s.
        I am not. I am asking questions that I do not know the answers to because I have no experience with this. If I knew the answers, I wouldn't be posting these questions seeking guidance. Your help and insight is most appreciated.
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        • Profile picture of the author yukon
          Banned
          Originally Posted by lbeachmike View Post

          I am not. I am asking questions that I do not know the answers to because I have no experience with this. If I knew the answers, I wouldn't be posting these questions seeking guidance. Your help and insight is most appreciated.
          You can save a lot of typing by learning the difference between a followed link & nofollow link. Once you learn the different link types then all you have to do is look at the live webpage HTML to see what type of link is on the backlink page.

          If you have SEO questions that's great but asking how to determine a decent link would be a more productive question than asking which individual sites are good for links.
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          • Profile picture of the author lbeachmike
            Originally Posted by yukon View Post

            You can save a lot of typing by learning the difference between a followed link & nofollow link. Once you learn the different link types then all you have to do is look at the live webpage HTML to see what type of link is on the backlink page.

            If you have SEO questions that's great but asking how to determine a decent link would be a more productive question than asking which individual sites are good for links.
            I understand the different between follow and nofollow links and was going by suggestions by people on another thread of this forum. I also utilized this link, posted earlier in this post -

            List Of Top 50 Article Directories By Traffic, PageRank

            That list breaks down which sites have NF links.

            The thread I took recommendations from is here -

            http://www.warriorforum.com/search-e...y-traffic.html

            And F/NF with regard to YA was already discussed in this thread. From what I've read, it appears that once you've got enough points and reach a certain level, your links on YA are follow links.

            Further, my follow-up question was seeking to understand whether or not posting on the TYPES of sites I mentioned can have a negative result due to google possibly penalizing for known sites that are accepting garbage posts primarily for SEO purposes.
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            • Profile picture of the author yukon
              Banned
              Originally Posted by lbeachmike View Post

              From what I've read, it appears that once you've got enough points and reach a certain level, your links on YA are follow links.
              If that's true it's a bad idea to base your link profile on a point system that you have no control over, even then they're still weak links since no authority pages are linking directly to the backlink page/s. The Yahoo page will rank before your self hosted page ranks since all your going after is weak links, same goes for any similar site (ex: EZA).
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              • Profile picture of the author lbeachmike
                Originally Posted by yukon View Post

                If that's true it's a bad idea to base your link profile on a point system that you have no control over.
                This is an excellent point. But further confusing to me are all of the recommendations I've seen here (same thread as previous as well as this thread) to go after forum posts and blog comments, because it's my understanding that those are largely set as NF links - and again, to your point, I have no control over what a webmaster does there as well. A forum or blog could have follow links today and easily change them to NF tomorrow.

                So what approach are you actually suggesting? It seems that this entire topic is up for much debate throughout the SEO community since I continue to read conflicting guidance and google does make changes to their algorithms.

                Thanks.
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                • Profile picture of the author yukon
                  Banned
                  Originally Posted by lbeachmike View Post

                  This is an excellent point. But further confusing to me are all of the recommendations I've seen here (same thread as previous as well as this thread) to go after forum posts and blog comments, because it's my understanding that those are largely set as NF links - and again, to your point, I have no control over what a webmaster does there as well. A forum or blog could have follow links today and easily change them to NF tomorrow.

                  So what approach are you actually suggesting? It seems that this entire topic is up for much debate throughout the SEO community since I continue to read conflicting guidance and google does make changes to their algorithms.

                  Thanks.
                  You need to understand this is an IM forum & a lot of times people post nonsense just to drop a sig. link. Also, sometimes people think things are helping them rank pages when they aren't, YA & EZA are both examples of nofollow links not ranking pages.

                  That other WF thread is loaded with off the wall comments. That thread subject was quality traffic while most of those comments are BSing & selling sig. junk (link blast, fiverr, etc...).
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  • Profile picture of the author martinluther
    Yahoo answers allow links in the source, but you must have second level and your link should be relevant to the question that has been asked.
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    • Profile picture of the author dhjtruh
      Originally Posted by martinluther View Post

      Yahoo answers allow links in the source, but you must have second level and your link should be relevant to the question that has been asked.
      Ya, agree with that. In order to have clickable link you need to have level two account. You can either create an account and continue to post until it is upgraded to level two account or you can go to website like fiverr.com to ask people to post on their level two account with your link in it, or if you are lucky, you can buy level two account there....
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      • Profile picture of the author yukon
        Banned
        Originally Posted by dhjtruh View Post

        Ya, agree with that. In order to have clickable link you need to have level two account. You can either create an account and continue to post until it is upgraded to level two account or you can go to website like fiverr.com to ask people to post on their level two account with your link in it, or if you are lucky, you can buy level two account there....
        That's a horrible way to build links, still based on a point system only now your basing the links on a 3rd party (fiverr gig, ugh...) which makes a weak link even worse.

        Forget those junk links, build a few long term quality links & be done with it.
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        • Profile picture of the author lbeachmike
          Originally Posted by yukon View Post

          That's a horrible way to build links, still based on a point system only now your basing the links on a 3rd party (fiverr gig, ugh...) which makes a weak link even worse.

          Forget those hundreds of junk links, build a few quality links & be done with it.
          Again, I'm not clear on where is recommended to build a few quality links. Can you make specific recommendations or lead me in the right direction?
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          • Profile picture of the author yukon
            Banned
            Originally Posted by lbeachmike View Post

            Again, I'm not clear on where is recommended to build a few quality links. Can you make specific recommendations or lead me in the right direction?
            Lets take your forum sig link niche as an example (Cpanel).
            • Where do webmasters hang out?

            Now drill down deeper...
            • Which sites consistently mention Cpanel (root keyword) on multiple internal pages?
            • Will the site/s that mention Cpanel give/sell you a followed link?
            • Is the same/similar niche backlink site/page well established?
            • Does the backlink page title mention Cpanel (keyword)?
            • Does the backlink page have followed HTML links pointing at the backlink page from other pages that mention Cpanel (keyword) with the keyword in those 2nd tier page titles?

            If you want to broaden your quality link prospects, start researching LSI keywords.

            What's Googles definition of Cpanel (keyword)?

            cPanel is a Linux based web hosting control panel that provides a graphical interface and automation tools designed to simplify the process of hosting a web site.
            • Linux
            • web hosting control panel
            • graphical interface
            • automation tools
            • hosting
            • web site

            Now research those LSI keywords for potential backlinks the same way as the root keyword (Cpanel).

            Dig deeper If needed...

            What's the LSI keywords for your 1st list of LSI keywords?

            an open-source operating system modelled on UNIX.
            • open-source
            • operating system
            • UNIX

            Repeat as needed...

            The goal here is long term followed backlinks from highly relevant domains that consistently mention the same keywords you have on your own domain pages. Google is very good at connecting the dots (relevancy (ex: related:cpanel.net)).

            Anyone can build a link but can you make that link stick for a few years? If the answer is No, your just spinning your wheels doing the same work over & over... Personally I don't like doing work more than once.
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            • Profile picture of the author emeka08
              Originally Posted by yukon View Post

              Lets take your forum sig link niche as an example (Cpanel).
              • Where do webmasters hang out?

              Now drill down deeper...
              • Which sites consistently mention Cpanel (root keyword) on multiple internal pages?
              • Will the site/s that mention Cpanel give/sell you a followed link?
              • Is the same/similar niche backlink site/page well established?
              • Does the backlink page title mention Cpanel (keyword)?
              • Does the backlink page have followed HTML links pointing at the backlink page from other pages that mention Cpanel (keyword) with the keyword in those 2nd tier page titles?

              If you want to broaden your quality link prospects, start researching LSI keywords.

              What's Googles definition of Cpanel (keyword)?


              • Linux
              • web hosting control panel
              • graphical interface
              • automation tools
              • hosting
              • web site

              Now research those LSI keywords for potential backlinks the same way as the root keyword (Cpanel).

              Dig deeper If needed...

              What's the LSI keywords for your 1st list of LSI keywords?


              • open-source
              • operating system
              • UNIX

              Repeat as needed...

              The goal here is long term followed backlinks from highly relevant domains that consistently mention the same keywords you have on your own domain pages. Google is very good at connecting the dots (relevancy (ex: related:cpanel.net)).

              Anyone can build a link but can you make that link stick for a few years? If the answer is No, your just spinning your wheels doing the same work over & over... Personally I don't like doing work more than once.
              following. nice info
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  • Profile picture of the author lbeachmike
    @Yukon - Well, trying to learn all of this as a crash course has been pretty overwhelming due to "learning" something one day and then learning the next day that it is either not true, possibly not true, probably not true or no longer true

    Can you recommend any good resource for current productive guidance on this topic that is not trying to sell me an ebook? How did you learn about SEO?
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  • Profile picture of the author lbeachmike
    @Yucon - Thanks very much for this. This is probably the most useful help anybody has provided thus far. I'll need to further pursue what you've discussed and may ultimately have some follow-up questions but your explanation is nicely laid out and extremely clear.

    Thanks again for your help.
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    • Profile picture of the author lbeachmike
      @Yukon - I do have one follow-up question ... If I have multiple sites of my own, is there a penalty for adding a link from one loosely relevant site to another? We were thinking of doing this in one of the advertising slots for one of my other sites; however, I'm guessing that if Google sees the sites being on the same server, it's probably not happy about that?
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      • Profile picture of the author yukon
        Banned
        Originally Posted by lbeachmike View Post

        @Yukon - I do have one follow-up question ... If I have multiple sites of my own, is there a penalty for adding a link from one loosely relevant site to another? We were thinking of doing this in one of the advertising slots for one of my other sites; however, I'm guessing that if Google sees the sites being on the same server, it's probably not happy about that?
        There's no penalty but you still need to be careful & don't make the links spammy.

        I have one site that has sitewide links (600+ pages/links) pointing at another same niche domain. Both sites are on different host but really that happened because the 1st site was an old site & I wanted to try another host with the 2nd site. Anyways it's a followed site-wide one-way link pointing at the home page of the 2nd site. That same 1st site has another sitewide link (two sets of sitewide links, lol) but it's a javascript link for a banner image advertising a single product (sales page on 2nd site).

        I've never had any problems ranking pages with that setup (both domains rank pages fine) & it's been like that for at least a couple of years.
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  • Profile picture of the author mkgg
    Just spam away really. As long as you provide an answer thats helpful, you can put your link in the source section. But i have used it as a traffic source with just blatant spamming using hundreds of fake accounts,

    If you are just spamming though thats when the community flag your answers and gets you in trouble. Even then, Yahoo has been very lenient with accounts lately and just delete the answers without banning the accounts.

    Like yukon said though, YA can't be used as a backlink and wherever you heard about links being followed after you reach a certain level is a lie (i am level 2). The only difference is after you reach level 2+ your links will become ahrefed, before that they are just references (no ahref code).

    YA is great for traffic though but if your relying on it as your sole source of traffic your seo strategy needs serious help.
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  • Profile picture of the author chandanthaver
    Originally Posted by lbeachmike View Post

    Hey guys -

    I've seen Yahoo Answers mentioned various times as a means of helping get traffic; however, I don't see anything in Yahoo Answers that seems to allow for a link to one's website. If no profile or signature link is being offered, than how exactly is participation in Yahoo Answers helpful?

    Thanks.

    Mike

    Nice question but it is true you can simply post link in answer box with your content.
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  • Profile picture of the author dgui123451
    You can place your website in your profile for a backlink and you can also answer questions in your niche and place your website as the reference or example.
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    • Profile picture of the author LethaHyde
      Either you can create a question in a related category and leave your link in that or else you can go for answering section
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  • Profile picture of the author drinstech
    When you enter in the Level B you can insert your blog link in Source field. You must answer those question which related to your blog/site niche to get traffic. And the source link also works as backlink. It will helps your blog/site to get a GOOD position in search engine results page.
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  • Profile picture of the author lynnsonya
    In yahoo answers, you can see loads of communication through the question and answers. In teh yahoo answers, we can see more conversations, most bloggers take a look at the sites. It is popular and has great reputation. Also we can see repeated visitors in the site. You can give link to your website in the "source field" which appears beneath the answering column. Once you are a Level 2 user, you can post links to your website.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sandrafrank
    Yahoo answers allow linking in the answer and for linking we have two option one is direct linking and another is of from Source.
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  • Profile picture of the author npoint
    You can get pretty good traffic from YA, but doing it yourself is a waste of your time, hire someone on fiverr for that, you will get very cheap lead generation system.
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  • Profile picture of the author LuckyIMer
    Yahoo answers are useful, can bring traffic and should be included in marketing camping.
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  • Profile picture of the author jameslopez
    yahooanswers is a best Q&A site and the main benefit is, We can share our site link on the answers.
    Signature
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  • Profile picture of the author jony1
    After which level we can share link of website in answer.........Hi guys PLZ answer me
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    • Profile picture of the author veddy
      Start answering and find out. Being helpful doesn't take too long and then you can insert your links.
      Signature

      "As long as you are going to be thinking anyway, think big."

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  • Profile picture of the author lovboa
    Banned
    Once a question gets resolved, you can't post on it. These are also the questions that you see indexed in Google for some of the high competition keywords. Unless you're able to get your answer (with a link) on a page like that, don't expect much long term traffic.

    From my experience, you can go on an answering spree for an hour, and end up with 30-50 visitors a day for about a week. After that, it dries up unless one of those pages gets ranked for something.
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  • Profile picture of the author sejonny
    simply after adding your reply , put your links in the resource box and it's done.
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    • Profile picture of the author Amybugbee
      Yahoo answers are very much helpful. They allows link to ones site too.
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  • Profile picture of the author Royalking
    Originally Posted by lbeachmike View Post

    Hey guys -

    I've seen Yahoo Answers mentioned various times as a means of helping get traffic; however, I don't see anything in Yahoo Answers that seems to allow for a link to one's website. If no profile or signature link is being offered, than how exactly is participation in Yahoo Answers helpful?

    Thanks.

    Mike
    There are different levels in Yahoo Answers. Once your reach level 2, your account is eligible for live links.
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