Archive for August, 2011

In the eyes of the Search Engines

Wednesday, August 31st, 2011

Creating an appealing website and coming up with an innovative product or service it’s just part of the job. A tiny part, actually. After your URL is up and running, full of those juicy Call to Action buttons, you need to make it visible to the world. Make the world know you are there. Make the world know that it cannot live without your product. And for that, you’ve come to the right place. The trick to marketing your website is to discover creative ways of boosting your brand awareness – Yahoo Answers is one of the most creative and successful ways to market your services. Below, we’ll talk about tips for using an efficient Yahoo Answers Marketing Plan.

The formula is quite simple: a reader who searched for any given subject on Google, for instance,will see a question and an answer and, if interested, will follow the link to your website (left in your answer). There, they will have the opportunity to purchase your products or services; things they’ve already been searching for online. They see that this question has been answered and that the answer has helped the asker, who was looking for the same thing they are looking for. So, they will go to your website already prepped to check out your products and services and most likely buy them.

Ideally, you should be able to answer questions from several different accounts and leave links to your website – however, this is typically not feasible for one person to do. That’s why there are services that handle your Yahoo Answers marketing for you, so that you don’t have to worry about it.

Yahoo Answers for Dummies

Monday, August 29th, 2011

First things first: create Yahoo accounts and log in to Yahoo Answers. You start with 100 points and need to reach 250 points with each account. That’s the objective: raise level 2 accounts.
How to do it? Answer random questions. You do not need to do any research, just try to give valid answers to things you know (about music, movies, TV, your home town, whatever…). Want to speed up the process? Use some accounts to ask questions, respond to them and then choose your own answers (given by you, but with a different account) and elect them “Best Answer”. It seems like cheating, it’s true, but you can be helpful to the community just as well with this technique.

Bear in mind that Yahoo Answers is the largest knowledge-sharing community on the web, and that’s why it’s vital to prepare a Yahoo Answers marketing plan. You’ll find a variety of categories and a built-in search engine that will make it extremely simple to browse through the site and find the questions/answers you’ll need.

Each question has a 4-day open period. A question is closed to additional answers when a “best answer” is selected or when it’s put to a community vote. Once a Best Answer is determined, an open question changes status and becomes a resolved question – no more answers allowed after that. The asker can pick the best answer for his question one hour after the posting. If the asker takes no action to resolve the question, the answers are automatically put to a vote by the community – and yes, you can vote in your own answer, so check your posts regularly and make good use of your voting power. Being picked as best answer it’s extremely important in order to accumulate extra points for your account.

Once that level 2 is reached, then the Yahoo Answers marketing can truly begin… but that’s another story.

Tips and Tricks: Going too fast gets slow results

Friday, August 26th, 2011

When scheduling a working day, it’s normal to do the math between the tasks that need to be completed and the hours left until the sun goes down. If you do decide to take your Yahoo Marketing strategy into your own hands, it’s just normal to squeeze it in an hour or two of your schedule. That will be the time to stroll around the Yahoo Answers posts and leaving your hyperlink in the most possible questions related to the product/service you wish to promote. Unfortunately, that’s not the right way to spread the word around Yahoo Answers community.

High activity peaks followed by no activity at all are one of the biggest red flag raisers among the Yahoo staff. And if that activity focuses on spreading a single website URL on every related post, then deletion and ban are almost certain consequences. The way to avoid attentions is as obvious as it is time-demanding – spreading the answers thorough the day, not during a single 60 minutes break, and answering not only to questions related to your niche market, but to everything that needs closure. Yes, it’s time demanding, all right. That’s just why it’s better to deliver your Yahoo Answers marketing strategy to professional help, people that can harness that immense power on a professional and efficient way.

Less is More

Wednesday, August 24th, 2011

When working with words, amateurs tend to hyper valuate quantity over quality. A big wall of text it’s sometimes a proof of a job well done. A proof that the people who wrote it made a genuine effort, a proof that they cared. Not really. In truth, the length of an answer as little to do with its proficiency. Actually, in most cases, in a universe called internet – where time is money – a big wall of text can be a synonym of time wasting – not the best way to present your company to the world. Particularly if your targeted audience lies within lower – and more restless – ages. Any answer with more than five sentences will scare them away, destroying the effectiveness of your Yahoo Answer Marketing plan.

So, it’s important to understand that size is not a factor “per se”. If a great, thoughtful and helpful answer could be delivered in a single word, that would be exactly the way to deliver it. If, on the contrary, the answer needs longs statements, then provide all the lengthy sentences the asker will need to feel satisfied. Obviously, in most cases, a single word won’t be enough, but fulfilling the asker needs as rapidly and simply as possible it’s the most intelligent way to achieve “Best Answer” status and truly harness Yahoo Answers Marketing power.

The goal of an honest, efficient and well-intentioned Yahoo Answers provider – just like Questions-Answers.net – is to guarantee a service that glues to its clients an image of strong market presence and raise awareness to the services being promoted (boosting traffic in the process, through the posting of an hyperlink). Presenting long answers, just for the sake of it, will, in most cases, be ignored by ever member of a community looking for a fast response (or else they would search for it themselves, right?).

Best Answer

Thursday, August 18th, 2011

There is no magic formula to achieve a “Best Answer” status for any given answer and, as frustrating as can be, even the most thoughtful and helpful answers can be “defeated” by an orchestrated voting force – because, when the asker forgets to elect the answer that helped him the most, it’s up to the community to vote for the ones they like best. However, it’s safe to say that in 80% of the cases “the best man wins”.

Straight answer, good grammar, organic speech and really helpful content are the most powerful weapons of an answer running to become the best of the sort. But how is that important? More than just for bragging rights… For the best, and for the worse.

An elevated ratio of Best Answers tends to raise the awareness of the Yahoo Answers Staff, so, it’s better to keep a low profile. Answer “normal” questions completely unrelated to the category in which you’re executing your Yahoo Answers Marketing plan – don’t excel in those ones, leave the brilliant posts to your “professional” answers. Mixing it up is the best way to escape the red flag glued to your account.

However, on those answers that really matter in your Yahoo Answer Marketing strategy, achieving a Best Answer status can be a nice big bonus boost to your website traffic. The answer stays immediately connected to the question, right there in the eye line of the people that visit that post – no need to strafe or look for other answers, yours, the best one, is right there to see. And your hyperlink as well. It’s a proof of your usefulness and integrity, so easy for everyone to see. And to click.

Bad Yahoo Answers Marketing

Tuesday, August 16th, 2011

They say time is money, so, when faced with the decision to manage your own business or run a decent Yahoo Marketing campaign, the natural response is neglecting Yahoo Answers. To make it easy and quick, people tend to produce the two biggest mistakes: only post an URL, with no other word attached; or, spam their answers.
In the first case, that’s just not efficient. NOBODY will press that isolated link – people are looking for helpful information, not advertisement, so a hyperlink must only be posted as a source of a good thoughtful answer. That’s the only way to gain the respect of the community and get those clicks.

The spammy answers are also a poor Yahoo Answers Marketing. Not only will they raise the red flags upon your account, but they will also be easily spotted by the users and rapidly unvalued by all the community. Just like you rapidly can distinguish spam from real mails received on your email account, the askers in Yahoo Answers will also be able to understand the difference between an organic and directed answer from a robotic and repeated post.

The solution is simple, then – provide thoughtful and well directed answers, with your URL posted as source. So, for best results, this time consuming task should be managed by a professional team.

The Power of Questions

Friday, August 5th, 2011

When thinking about Yahoo Answers Marketing, it’s common to focus the conversation on the answers, the hyperlinks posted on the answers, the rules that should be followed by the answers… Answers, answers, answers. No doubts about it, the answers are truly the best vehicle for an efficient Yahoo Answers Marketing, always bearing in mind the respect for a community that searches information and not advertisement. But what about the other half of the game, the questions? Are they a useless content for a marketer trying to legitimately promote his service or product? Well, not really, if used properly.

One of the great advantages – but not the only one – of Yahoo answers Marketing is the possibility to spread an hyperlink that can drive consumers directly to any website. If posted on the right categories, it can mean a huge amount of targeted traffic boost straight to your call to action buttons. And, yes, it’s possible to post URL in questions as well. Again, the harness of the marketing of answers is immensely superior, but using the right questions can really help to build awareness regarding your product or services.

Don’t forget that one of the golden rules of marketing is the ability to create a previously inexistent problem for which you already have a solution…

Good vs. Bad Yahoo Answers Posting Services

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

Yahoo Answers Posting Services can become your next best friend or your worst nightmare, depending on the one you choose. You see, there are many similar services popping up all over the internet but not all of them offer quality answers or affordable prices. In addition, some of them use spun and plagiarized comments that are likely to get deleted in less then 2 seconds. On the other hand, a select few offer experienced marketing writers that take the time to learn about your niche, use high quality content and make you and your business look good with every question answered.

One of the good ones are Questions-Answers posters. Not only do they meet all the above criterion but they are excited about working with you and guarantee their results. That is, if any of their questions are removed within 30 days, they re-list them for free. With this guarantee, you’ll definitely see a steady increase in your traffic in no time at all.

Sound interested? To get started, simply buy one of the Yahoo Answers Posting Services packages, select the desired category and let the fun begin. You won’t have to move an inch to post quality answers. Everything will be done on your behalf, and, most importantly, it will be done by real humans, and not some robots. In other words, all your niche targeted answers will be written by professional posters, in well-written English with great grammar. All the answers will be extremely relevant and will not be considered spam.

In comparison, consider some of the other companies. Many of them post dozens of links in their answers and they copy and paste those answers from question to question. In most instances, they will likely have their accounts banned and will be a total waste of your time. In comparison, a quality service like Questions-Answers will provide readers with helpful and relevant answers that are not repetitive or spammy and they always use different accounts so it is more natural. With Questions-Answers, you will be able to build your reputation and traffic easily and effectively.

In conclusion, make the right choice – choose a Yahoo Answers Posting service with experienced writers and a proven reputation in the field. Just like you wouldn’t trust anyone to run your business, don’t choose anyone to handle your Yahoo Answers marketing campaign.

Report Abuse

Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011

If you consider yourself a regular user of Yahoo Answers, you surely must have noticed by now that small icon on the bottom right of every post (question or answer) – “Report Abuse”, it reads .That’s a very common tool used in most of the social websites and online communities. The goal is obvious – empower every participant with the possibility to report any post that may be considered offensive to the portal guidelines. And advertisement IS one of those behaviors considered as prohibited, which means that Yahoo Answers Marketing is a smooth operation that needs to, first of all, respect the community of people seeking for information and knowledge.

Obviously, that single icon it’s far from being the only regulation tool of Yahoo Answers, but its importance rises from the fact that it can be triggered by every registered user. That means, other marketers. Rival ones. However, using the Report button isn’t free of charge – the people pressing it will also be checked upon by Yahoo Answers staff, so both of the accounts can end up being suspended (the “poster” and the “reporter”). So it’s wise to refrain from pressing that icon as weapon to diminish your opposition leverage in the battle of Yahoo Answers Marketing – there are also ethic issues involved, of course. Respect and good faith are, in the long run, the best ways to establish your products/services within the community mindset, raising a positive brand awareness and keeping those clicks nice and steady, with no harm done.

Decoding a Good Answer

Monday, August 1st, 2011

Everybody knows – or thinks that knows – what a good answer is. When talking about Yahoo Answers Marketing purposes, is common to see expressions like “helpful” or “thoughtful” to typify the post you should leave in order to promote your service/product. But what does those expressions really mean? How do you really build a “good answer”? There are some factors to have in mind:

1 – To give a good answer you’ll need a good question. When promoting your own website, the natural urge is to leave that hyperlink laying around everywhere. That’s a mistake. That behavior will gain you a red flag (and then a suspension or ban) and just won’t work. Find your niche, identify the real demands of your audience and address only to them.

2 – Yes, you do need to be helpful. That means your answer should be enough to satisfy the asker curiosity/need. Don’t just leave a hyperlink and expect people to press on it and do all the work. Respond directly and leave your URL as source, that way raising brand awareness and building a positive feeling around your services.

3 – Yes, you also do need to be thoughtful. That means you should do your homework. Don’t just answer from the top of your head – take your time to really look upon the asker issues and deliver the maximum amount of information possible. A bad answer (incomplete or incorrect) can damage the confidence in your services.

4 – Don’t spam or copy/paste previous answers. Yahoo Answers is a community of people, not robots.

5 – Pay attention to grammar. Again, an answer full of orthographic errors it’s just going to diminish the confidence built around your services. Take your time to double check your answer.

6 – Size doesn’t matter. A single line answer CAN be enough. Provide the information the asker is seeking, nothing else. People are looking for straight answers, not for advertisement.