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How to make money using Yahoo Answers

How to make money using Yahoo Answers

Firstly I want to walk you through what yahoo answers is, as even though you may have used it before I want to fully explain it to you so that you fully understand everything all the way through first.


Yahoo answers do have different versions of it for different countries and of course languages so if you are trying to target a specific country/language too then this will work for that too.
Now then most importantly is the address for yahoo answers. http://answers.yahoo.com/ You will need to register a yahoo account to be able to ask and/or answer questions.
Once you have completed all details then click on 'create account' at the bottom and you’re done.
Now you will use this same account (unless doing some black hat marketing which we will talk about later) for the duration of being a yahoo answers pimp.
Make sure you fill out as much of the information on your account as you can, so that it is more personal, (the information doesn't have to be true). Most importantly make sure you have an avatar/pic for your profile as then you will be more memorable and trustworthy all because of the little graphic (trust me it works).
The reason that you want to keep using the same account all the time with yahoo answers is because it uses a point levelling system. So after you earn a certain amount of points then you get specific account bonuses and more importantly your answers will appear more trust worthy because of your status.
Below is the page and information all about the points and levelling system which encourages interaction. http://answers.yahoo.com/info/scoring_system
So as you can see from the 'points table' above they encourage you to use the system and earn points however answering a question costs you points but earning money as a yahoo pimp doesn't really matter if you’re doing it the white hat way as like that you will rarely need to ask questions anyhow, instead you will be answering all questions relating to your niche/s and earning lifetime income from them.

We can see that as you gain levels then you can in turn answer more questions, create more questions themselves, leave comments on answers, give more ratings which mean you can push bad answers and your answers higher and then you can finally vote for answers as the best for each questions meaning it appears just under the question and gets a lot more clicks (just like in Google).
Depending how many niche/s you are in and how often you are going to be using yahoo answers depends on what level you really will need.
Level 1 is really only to start with, as being able to answer only 20 questions a day is really slow where level 2 and level 3 is a decent level and means that if your anything like me, then just once or twice a week you can concentrate on yahoo answers alone and complete it in batches over having to do a few questions every day.

What exactly is Yahoo Answers?

Yahoo answers is a very popular website that is owned and run by yahoo and essentially is a place that anyone can ask a questions about anything and then you as a marketer can go ahead and find those related questions and answer them with a helpful response and then leave a link back to your website which will contain more information and of course a way for you to make money too.
Yahoo answers is that popular that it has more than 21 million unique users in the US alone and 90 million worldwide. Not only that but it is also the largest knowledge sharing community on the web.
Important Note: You now need to have a level 2 account (250+ points) to be able to post a link in the source box that is live! If you use up all of your 40 posting credits a day and get no best answers then this will only take 2 days to get... plus this means that you will put your account in good rep too!
You could easily outsource this for a few dollars because it doesn't matter what questions they answer and it will only take them an hour or 2 each day to use up all 40 question points.
But remember that I said a 'live link'... you can still post a link but it won't be active and people wont be able to click it but can still copy and paste or enter it in manually!
Also while we are on the subject of leaving a link... don't do it all the time! That just screams spam! Go and post some answers in other non-related questions where you wouldn't leave your link or indeed use the same account for multiple niches and then you have link variety too!


What are the Benefits of Yahoo Answers?

Yahoo answers is one of the largest and most visited sites on the web which literally means that you can reach thousands of people each time you post on the site. It is just below wikipedia which we all know how hard it is to get your links on their and to stick.
You can focus on specific problems and niche and find related questions easily either to write articles and help people and add it to your site but also actually find out what people want to find out and cant currently which will promote yourself as a guru in the selected area.
Most importantly, its 100% free to use and so you can actually earn money like a 'bum marketer' and still make a lot of it. The main reason I like it is because I hate writing articles but writing a paragraph or two is easy and you still make money. Plus having a more interactive site makes it more rewarding as you both help people and make money at the same time. Finally people are actively looking for solutions to their problems and you can be there right in front of them to help, as well as make some good money from them too. Keeping both of you happy couldn't have been made easier.

Money Money Money

Now there is a specific way to make more money from yahoo answers than everyone else and also make yourself not sound like a marketer. However getting your account banned isn't normally possible if you just follow a few simple steps (whitehat). It's all just about giving value and with yahoo answers generally when people are looking for a answer to their questions they only look at one question so having an answer for all related questions in your niche isn't a problem and of course the more questions you answer the more you will make.
When you answer a question you are literally going to be slyly pre-selling to them and sending them straight to your landing page where you will then be making the all important money.

What to promote and what sells?

This is really the golden question as if you answer 100's of questions in a niche that will not sell on yahoo answers then you will have wasted all that time and not be making any money from it.
You have to understand what sort of people are asking the questions and figure out if the target demographic will buy anything, as to be honest there is a lot of free information all over the internet and there are a large number of people on yahoo answers that ask questions looking for free
stuff.

However that doesn't mean that if there is a question asking for something for free that you can’t make money. Especially when there isn't a free option for what they are looking for so instead you can promote a cheap or almost free option and even if the initial question asker doesn't take a look at it you will still be able to get views and clicks to your site or redirect
URL from the other people who land on the questions.(Remember the statistics I showed you at the start... they have money too)

So just expanding on that point, once you have answered a question there will still be hundreds of other people that view it over the coming days, months, years etc as the question will always stay there unless manually deleted. Plus on top of that you can have questions ranking high on Google for good key phrases and get loads more people seeing your link and making you money, but we will talk more about this later on in the black hat section at the end.
Plus with the more recent development of add-ons/plug-ins for formats such as Wordpress whereby they actually do what’s called 'scrape' yahoo answers for relating content in their niche your answers/questions will be appearing all over the web meaning that your short message along with your link will then actually be appearing in front of a lot more people than before, meaning yet again you will be earning even more cash.

Tip #1: With your source url and section posting just a url get's a lot less clicks than posting a few words or a sentence to describe where the link goes is a lot better.
Tip #2: Also including an arrow makes your source stand out a lot more from an answer and makes people pay more attention. Otherwise it just looks like normal text and is skim read!

Free vs. Paid

This is a common problem you will face when answering questions. That is knowing which one the person is looking for. The most obvious way is to see if they use words like 'buy' or 'purchase' or 'what is the best' etc then they want to buy something and give you money. However a lot of the time people are looking for cheaper alternatives as well as just 100% free.

CPA CLICKBANK AMAZON EBAY

These are just 4 of the main things you can promote on yahoo answers however CPA and CLICKBANK work the best because then you are not needing to cloak affiliate links to eBay and/or Amazon which can look suspicious and plus the payout is normally a lot higher too.

CPA You can use any of the below networks and any others you know and you simply signup and get going.

CLICKBANK

Clickbank is one of the leading sites for both affiliates and vendors and you will need to click on learn more in the affiliate section to be able to start promoting products.
They are all digital products and are generally all eBooks on a whole variety of subjects but then also there are services too, these services include reverse phone lookup and criminal checks etc.
Be warned however that if you are going to promote some of the products here then you need to understand the Clickbank ranking system and also be able to define a good sales page from a bad one as you will be faced 90% of the time with more than 1 product in each niche that you could promote, so choosing the best one is highly important. This is instant acceptance and you can start earning straight away. They pay by cheque and eventually bank transfer only.

CommissionJunction

This is very similar to CPA as it revolves around mostly physical goods however also there are things like generating leads for hosting company's and eBay etc.
They are the leader in physical goods and have the largest partnerships with other companies who are looking for people like you to get them a sale for which in turn they will be more than happy to pay you either a fixed price or a %.
To sign up as an affiliate you will need to click on 'Join our unparalleled network of publishers'. In the publisher section located about 1/3 down the page. This is instant acceptance however you do have to submit a tax form so that they can pay you so being over 18 is a must.

Maxbounty

Big advantage with this network is they pay via paypal and on a net 15 basis, this means that if you reach the payment threshold for that 15 day period (minimum of $50) then you will be paid directly into your paypal. Also they have a lot of freebie offers which are great for yahoo answers.

Copeac

Again this is another cpa network but they only pay via cheque, this can be annoying compared to maxbounty who does pay via paypal but there are a lot more copeac only offers available in here and so for yahoo answers it means there will be less competition.

Other options...

Or else you could go a little deeper and get an even better conversion rate and send them to a squeeze page to get a free ebook or report on your niche and get them subscribed to your email list where you can later sell them on something else.
Especially if someone is just looking for free information or are not initially interested in buying anything at that particular time, building a list with a freebie giveaway and then having a well planned out email broadcast series which both gives out more free information and also promotes products will have meant you have built up trust and make them feel as if they owe you and so your conversion rates increase.
Plus you then have collected a niche specific email list and can promote to them any time you like to make some quick cash... this is by far the best approach but I know not all of us have this setup already.

Digging Deeper Into Yahoo

Yahoo answers is really easy to get use to and understand. In a nutshell there are categories and in each category are questions which are either available to answer or have already been resolved... However the most important part of yahoo answers is the advanced search function which will mean you spend literally only 1 minute before you have 100's or even 1000's of questions ready to answer.
Above is the list of all the category's that are available on yahoo answers and so think of those as main niches and inside each category is sub-niches....
The advanced search function shown below is the most efficient way of finding questions for you to answer...

Simply click on the word 'advanced' next to the search box as above. Then you will have clicked through to the next page which looks as below. As you can see there are a lot of options to choose from and you can over complicate it more than it needs to be.
You only need to change 2 or 3 values and then hit search and repeat for the next niche or next combination of answers. Sometimes your searching will result in 1000's of questions and other times only a few, so repeat it as many times as you like.
The keywords box only enter in 1 or 2 key phrases and 3 maximum and leave all the other options for keywords as they are (unless you get very bad results that are totally un-related then tweak with the 'none of these words' box too).
Category Just like me and you sometimes other people make mistakes in what category they choose so I always leave it as 'All'. Then you do really get all related questions.
Filter Of course unless you are looking for questions in a different language then leave this as it is.
Questions Status This option is very important and generally I never touch the questions that are 'Resolved' as then I cannot possibly achieve best answer status. However the other two options are good to choose from, but open questions is still the best option as then you are most likely to get best answers and therefore more exposure.

Date Submitted > This can be important but all the same even the older questions can still be un-resolved and you can get voted as the best answer so generally I leave this as the default setting.
Now that you have completed the search you will need to answer the questions... this is really simple to do and honestly doesn't need much explaining as the layout and setup of the site is really user friendly.
Below is a screenshot of an example search I did for 'dog training' on all open questions.
I have annotated the image to highlight the key and important information that you should be noticing when you carry out a search.
Firstly from top to bottom you have the number of results this will show you how many related questions there are and also give you a time scale for completion if you answer all questions. As you can see having to answer 215 questions will take a while but this can be outsourced if you don't have time as well as not all questions will be 100% related with such a broad
search term.

However you answer just half of them (about 100) and then just sit back and relax if you get a 10% conversion rate from them and so 10 people buy the $30 product then for your time you have an instant $300 in your pocket. Not only that but your answer will be there forever and so will make more and more money for you every day.
Next is the time and this just basically shows you how long ago the questions were asked, it doesn't have a big effect generally but is still important.
Number of answers is really annoying when it has a high number because you are less likely to be chosen as a best answer and plus it might look like your just copying the others too.

Status of question is important if you don't select any specific option in the advanced search, but if not then you don't need to worry about this but just something to show you as it’s still important to note.
Now the only thing left to do is literally just go through those questions and answer them...
BUT no one wants’ to go through every single questions writing loads and loads we are going to 'speed answer' them all.

Speed Answering

In a nutshell you are going to quote information from both your sites/s and also from other sources in the internet. I'm guessing that seeing as it’s a niche that you’re already promoting, that you will have substantial knowledge of the it. (you don't need to know everything). If not then you will need to brush up on your niche and go read Wikipedia and other articles on the subject from ezinearticles. Now to speed answer questions there are 3 approaches I take and each approach depends on your own knowledge, the question and what content you already have on your site or have written in articles already. (Remember we don't want to plagiarise [copy] other peoples work). These approaches are only if you want to add to your 'natural' answer written completely from your head.

1st approach This is the simplest approach and will get you good solid answers in minutes. Simply enter the question into Google and skim read the results and then either copy and paste or summarize the answer in your own words and link to your site.
2nd approach copy and paste sections from your articles/sites and enterthem into the answers.
3rd approach search yahoo answers and/or Wikipedia for similarquestions that have answers and then just simply put all those answers into one and you have a perfect answer in minutes. Remember however you do need to link your site in the source section and/or in the actual answer.

How to get the best answer every time...

This can be tricky but the idea is that you have to give the best and most likely the longest fullest answer too. If everyone else has just written a 1 to 3 line answer then makes yours 4 to 5 lines or longer... it will not only stand out more and cause more people to read yours first because it looks like it’s got more info in it anyhow but also hopefully will include the most useful information for not only the questions answer but other people who stumble upon the question too.
The advantage of getting voted and/or chosen as the best answer is not only that you receive more points and so can answer more questions everyday among other things (refer to the table at the beginning), but also that your response/answer will be featured just under the question and so all the other 100's or 1000's of people who read that question will see you site and answer first and as the best meaning increased traffic and the all important money.

Slightly Black hat Yahoo answers....

You may have noticed that sometimes when you search for things in Google that sometimes the top results or at least in the top 5 is actually a question in yahoo answers itself.
This is 90% of the time not actually a fluke but another marketer utilising yahoo answers status and power within Google to manipulate the results for their profit.
As you can see in the image below when I do a search for 'when does the apprentice 2009 start', the 3rd result out of 11,500,000 is a question on yahoo answers.
The only problem with getting yahoo answer questions ranking high is it only works with long tail key phrases (with 3 or more words) that have medium to light competition for the top spot.
However saying that it is possible to get top spot for a few hours for more competitive phrases and so it can still be worth it (remember it’s not only Google search traffic that you will be getting anyhow it’s just a bonus).
The advantage of getting your own questions on yahoo answers ranking top in Google is that simply it’s a lot quicker than writing an article... even if you write an article for the key phrase later yahoo answers can be used to test the waters if you like and so mean you waste less time. Plus yahoo answers gives people an impression of being un-biased straight away and so when it comes to the next part after you have asked a question then you will come up tops: D
It is really simple to do and only takes a few more minutes than answering a question but can also mean that you get a load of search engine traffic too as an added bonus.
So the idea is simply that you ask questions and stuff the key phrase in the title and also in the question itself if possible although just in the title is good enough.
If you do not add the key phrase in the question's title then it will not appear on Google for that phrase... which really makes sense but still I just thought I would make sure that was clear.

So if your key phrase was 'buy black and white dotted shorts online' your question would be something like 'where can I buy black and white dotted shorts online for cheap' (the addition of for cheap will also make people think that the answers will be the cheapest place even if it isn't). Then in the next box for more details on the question you just expand on the question point and it can be as long or as short as you like but a few lines minimum is recommended.
Now we need to look at answering your own questions without getting caught.
For this there are two possible strategies and it really depends on who you know to what strategy you choose. But with both you still have to be careful.

The two strategies’ are....

Joining with a friend and answering and asking questions for the other one so that you don't need to use proxy's etc. Using proxy's and different accounts yourself and clearing cookies etc. Just before I move on and talk about these two strategy's I need to talk a little more about getting chosen as the best answer or getting voted as the best answer. As if you don't understand this part then 'cheating' the system for your advantage just wont work if someone else's answer gets more exposure than yours.
Now each does have its advantages and disadvantages and generally being voted best by other users gives your answer more credibility and plus you are then less likely to be caught out by yahoo for cheating the system for own personal gain. However both will work fine and get you the exposure you need and want, just remember to mix them up a little bit and you will be okay.
Now by far if you can get a friend to help you out and you do the same for them in return the time taken to complete all of this will be a lot quicker but often that is not feasible.
However if you do take this approach then simply you and your friend talk to each other and organize who is going to ask the question and what answer to give, then they just do it. There is no need for proxy's or any changing of your internet connection etc etc however if they are always voting your answer as the best then yahoo will catch on and both of you do need to be active elsewhere and sometimes let other users vote your answers as the best rather than the question asker choosing.
Using proxy's and clearing your cookies is very easy but a bit more time consuming.... the problem is some proxy's are already blacklisted by yahoo as being shared proxy's but they can have legitimate uses too and are used normally too (not just for black hat marketing).
Now there are both tools and sites that you can use and I will explain a few of them for you now. You can also go down the route of buying proxy's but honestly you won’t need to... but if you have a neighbours wireless internet you can connect to then use that, or just head down to McDonald’s or Starbucks and use theirs and do it all in bulk.

Anyway proxy's....

They basically hide where you are connecting from and instead of the site seeing your normal connection serial (ip) they will see the one of the proxy. So it's like you are connecting to another computer which is then in turn connecting to the site.

The best tool in my opinion and the opinion of many others is called TOR.

It's 100% free to use and is just a little application that will sit in the bottom bar of your computer and you can click it to change proxy's that you use and it will automatically use them. However you have to be using Internet Explorer last time I checked because otherwise it won’t work... however this might have changed.
Just click download and install and then it’s simple from there on and they have help and readme files so you can’t go wrong.
Alternatively you can do it manually from your browser if you prefer. The follow text is by Lorissa, from dcsproxy.com and apekillape from blackhatworld.com
---------------------------------------------------------------
WINDOWS:

This guide shows you how set up your browser to work with an
(anonymous) HTTP proxy server.

The proxy address along with the port number should look like this:

124.37.94.216:1789

The address is “124.37.94.216?. The port is the part behind the colon,
“1789?.

Caution: Please do not attempt to use the above example as it is only numbers pulled from the air and not intended to be used).

Please note: Sooner or later your proxy will stop working or it may not work from the start ... even if you properly tested it first. Regardless, when it doesn't work, simply repeat the process with another proxy.

Firefox 2.x and 3.x

Setting up Mozilla Firefox to use a proxy is a simple and straight forward task. It only differs a bit on each operating system.

Run Firefox.
Click Tools from the menu bar.
Click the Options menu item.
Now click the Advanced icon at the right side.

Click the Network tab.
In the Connection field, click Settings
Click Manual proxy configuration:
Enter your selected proxy it in the correct field. The first field is the
address, the second field is the port. If you are using a HTTP proxy then
click the box for, "Use this proxy server for all protocols".
Click OK.
Click Close.
It should not be necessary to restart Firefox.

* * * * * * * * * *
Internet Explorer 5.x, 6.x, 7.x with a LAN, DSL or Cable connection:

This method will only work when you are not connected over a dial-up modem. If you are using a dial-up modem, look at the instructions below.

Open Internet Explorer.
Click the Tools item in the menu bar, in Internet Explorer 7 it is a button at the right side.
Now click the Internet Options menu item.
Click the Connections tab.
In the “LAN-Settings” field, click Settings
In the Proxy server field, make sure the Use a proxy server for your LAN box is checked.
Enter the the proxy’s IP in the Address box, and the Port in the Port
Click OK.
Click OK again.

It should not be necessary to restart Internet Explorer.

Internet Explorer 5.x, 6.x, 7.x with a Dial-up modem:
Open Internet Explorer.
Click the Tools item in the menu bar, in Internet Explorer 7 it is a button at the right side.
Now click the Internet Options menu item.
Click the Connections tab.
In the “Dial-up and Virtual Private Network settings” field select the connection which you are using by clicking at it.
Now click Settings in the “Dial-up and Virtual Private Network settings” field.
In the Proxy server field, make sure the Use a proxy server for this connection box is checked.
Enter the the proxy’s IP in the Address box and the Port in the Port
Click OK.
Click OK again.
It should not be necessary to restart Internet Explorer.

Click Firefox in the menu bar.
Click the Preferences menu item.
Now click the Advanced icon at the right side.
Click the Network tab.
In the Connection field click Settings
Click at Manual proxy configuration.
Now, according to the proxy type you use, enter it in the correct field. The first field is the address, the second field is the port.
8. Click OK.
9. Click Close.
10. It should not be necessary to restart Firefox.

* * * * * * *

ADDITIONAL NOTES: If you have cookies left in your browser, sites may identify you by using them. Therefore, if your goal is to be anonymous, then delete all cookies before using an anonymous proxy. You can also be identified as a specific user if you login to your existing accounts with your proxy connection, if you have previously logged in with your (real) IP. As a result, you always sign up for new separate account that you use only with your proxy or proxies.

ALERT: If anonymity is your goal, never use a proxy without first testing it. Proxies die quickly and/or their status can change momentarily from anonymous one minute to transparent the next.

Now the important thing is finding these proxy's to use and enter the details into your browser.

I recommend using the following site for this and this should provide you with plenty enough.

http://www.proxy4free.com/page1.html

http://www.proxy4free.com/page2.html

http://www.proxy4free.com/page3.html

http://www.proxy4free.com/page4.html

http://www.proxy4free.com/page5.html


IMPORTANT: Don't forget to change the proxy's when you switch account's or just remove the proxy all together because otherwise your account will get banned and deleted.
Clearing your cookies is simple just follow the steps below depending on your browser.
You should be clearing your cookies every time you logout of a yahoo answers account and just before you sign in to another account.


Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE)

1. Open IE and click on the "Tools" menu.
2. Select "Internet Options."
3. Click on the "General" tab if it isn't selected already.
4. Under the heading "Temporary Internet files," click on "Delete Cookies..."
5. Click "OK" for the "Delete all cookies in the Temporary Internet Files
folder?" prompt.
6. Click "OK" to exit.


Mozilla Firefox

1. Open Firefox and click on the "Tools" menu.
2. Select "Options."
3. Click on the "Privacy" icon on the left.
4. Select "Cookies" and click on "View Cookies"
5. Select google.com from the list and press "remove cookie."
6. Click "OK" to exit.

So now you have literally all the information you are ever going to need to become a yahoo answers cash culprit. Fantastic!

But I have got a little extra bonus for all of you automation loving people....

Automated Bonus

You still needed to understand the principles of yahoo answers and how to use it manually but you can now apply the thing's you have just learnt and use them too but also automate the whole process for every single niche you are in.
This software is a setup and leave operation, it will automatically go and post answers that you pre-set for the questions as soon as you have set it up (very quick).

You can also use it manually and quickly scan and answer questions on your own which just speeds up the whole process and allows you to choose from which account you want to post from without all the fuss of cookies and proxies and changing those settings because it's all built into the software.You can pick up the free version of the software from here which has limited capability's.
Or
You can go straight ahead and pick up the paid version of the software and have it automatically do all of your yahoo answers marketing for you, meaning you can cash in on this and yet spend your time on other things.
Quick Automated Tip: If you set it up so that it runs both for related questions and to leave your link and also non-related questions where it will not then you have less chance of it getting banned!

So that about sums up everything now!


AUTHOR: http://golearnweb.com/web-designer-pro-tutorials/how-to-make-money-using-yahoo-answers.html