Yahoo Answers ... and other Q&A sites

Nat

Nat

Joined
Nov 18, 2014
Messages
555
Likes
345
Degree
2
I remember about 5 or 6 years ago Yahoo answers was actually a really solid way to get some traffic. Until a few weeks ago, all of my internet marketing experience had come from my free time when I was in highschool. This was before I had ever heard of traffic leaking, but I had noticed that you could link to sites though YahooAnswers and get some nice traffic for "free ____" and "___ hacks" etc lol. Not super proud of content locking, but that was in the past. Staying away from that shit now.
Anyways, I set up a yahoo answers alert each time something is posted in a niche. I think I screwed my alert up because not everything I'm getting is related to my niche, but HOLY SHIT are there so many spam posts and trolls. Like, I think I've answered 1 single question from a real person. I'm also convinced that Trump hired a yahoo answers spammer.
Anyways, about to delete that alert and only check back once in a while. Has Yahoo Answers gone completely down hill in the last years? I'm on Quora, but its got very few questions in my niche. Anyone having good experiences on these sites?
 
Traffic leaking is going to have two benefits to you: the traffic & the link. If the traffic is shit - you may still want to consider using the platform for the link benefit.

Your niche is going to affect where you do your traffic leaks for sure. In my experience, you'll either have success on niche forums or you'll have success on Q&A sites. Evergreen topics like money, health, pets, etc will be much easier to have success on both.

I haven't messed around with Yahoo Answers in years. Takes a lot of work to build an account that is respected, and very little to get banned. Plus, I find that the traffic there converts for shit. But, don't take my word for it...test it for yourself.

Quora is the better option these days - but still depends on your niche. One niche might be able to survive on quora traffic alone, and other niches won't get any traction at all.

Neil has written about this a little bit, but you'll probably need to research several different strategies and mix & match what works for you.

https://www.quicksprout.com/2016/03/16/how-to-leverage-qa-sites-to-generate-traffic/

Personally, when it comes to traffic leaking, I'm a much bigger fan of niche forums, niche social media groups, and any site that has sub-sections dedicated to a specific niche - such as reddit.
 
The thing is Quora is completely different than what Yahoo Answers stood for. On Quora the strategy is to essentially write long posts with pictures answering very specific questions in a niche in order to entice people to click your profile where you list your skills,websites, and stuff that you do.

The goal is to essentially get the FIRST quality answer that will be seen by people that search very specific questions. Take a look at this example: https://www.quora.com/Which-is-the-...e-for-developing-a-most-efficient-web-crawler

The first 3 questions were written years ago,so because they came in first they were listed right above the other good enough answers. It sucks but Quora actually has a biast on the answers it shows by showing those with higher points above the fold. In other words, with Quora it really does matter how popular is your profile on that SPECIFIC TOPIC!

Avoid trying to drop links to products you own or companies you work for at the beginning, is not like Yahoo Answers where you can drop your links after level 2. On top of that, you won't be able to post on Quora as a company or username that is not your first name and last name.
 
ScrapingLab said:
The thing is Quora is completely different than what Yahoo Answers stood for. On Quora the strategy is to essentially write long posts with pictures answering very specific questions in a niche in order to entice people to click your profile where you list your skills,websites, and stuff that you do.

The goal is to essentially get the FIRST quality answer that will be seen by people that search very specific questions. Take a look at this example: https://www.quora.com/Which-is-the-...e-for-developing-a-most-efficient-web-crawler

The first 3 questions were written years ago,so because they came in first they were listed right above the other good enough answers. It sucks but Quora actually has a biast on the answers it shows by showing those with higher points above the fold. In other words, with Quora it really does matter how popular is your profile on that SPECIFIC TOPIC!

Avoid trying to drop links to products you own or companies you work for at the beginning, is not like Yahoo Answers where you can drop your links after level 2. On top of that, you won't be able to post on Quora as a company or username that is not your first name and last name.
Click to expand...

Yes, the type of visitor is different between the two sites. Like any other marketing campaign - you have to understand the demographic and sculpt your message for them.

All you need to do when searching for questions to answer is filter it by age. New threads / questions are less likely to have good answers (or any answer at all)...which is how you avoid running into questions that have been answered perfectly 3 years ago.

Quora is not biased. It is showing visitors what they want to see by using social proof.

You can drop links right in your answer for sure. It's the only way I do it. If the link you put in the answer leads to something valuable to the visitor - you're all good. If you're dropping spammy affiliate links - you're not going to do well.
 
Nat said:
Has Yahoo Answers gone completely down hill in the last years? I'm on Quora, but its got very few questions in my niche. Anyone having good experiences on these sites?
Click to expand...

I wouldn't bother with Yahoo answers, but Quora can be an excellent source of traffic. If there are not that many questions in your niche simply create them. Check the 5 dollar type gig sites for people who have established accounts. Have them post questions and then you answer them. Be sure to use images and also link to other sites not always directly to yours.

Alternatively you could take some time and create the questions yourself. I have done this in the past with VAs (having them login create profiles spend some time answering other questions) and it was worth the investment.

Another technique that works well is looking for highly trafficked questions, smash a few of the top answers together throw in a couple of images or video and you will almost always naturally rank higher in a few days/weeks whatever (depending on how busy the thread is)

And always use a pretty girls profile.

I suspect AskJelly will be the next Quora, still waiting to see if it pans out. Just a hunch based on who the founders are.
https://askjelly.com/press/
 
There are a few other QA sites like blurtit.com, wisdio.com and fixya.com that we regularly use for traffic and links. Creating both the question and answer yourself is definitely the easiest way to do it. Make sure to use aged accounts when doing this.
 
I don't mean to derail this thread, but how the hell do you find new questions on Quora? I haven't found any options to filter the feed. Therefore I see mostly old questions, they are still active, but with +100 answers, is there any point trying to traffic leak that thing?
 
TacoCat said:
I don't mean to derail this thread, but how the hell do you find new questions on Quora? I haven't found any options to filter the feed. Therefore I see mostly old questions, they are still active, but with +100 answers, is there any point trying to traffic leak that thing?
Click to expand...

Google "site:quora.com + your niche". Then click "Tools" just below the search box and select a custom date range: http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-SL3qSqL-k...g0/4N68tXYVD-8/s640/google-custom-range-1.png
 
I have been using for Quora for about 3 days and just from that at least 1% of my traffic is now coming for Quora! I'm definitely gunna keep it going for at least a few months of question posting and see what it really can do to my traffic...
 
James664 said:
I have been using for Quora for about 3 days and just from that at least 1% of my traffic is now coming for Quora! I'm definitely gunna keep it going for at least a few months of question posting and see what it really can do to my traffic...
Click to expand...

Quora and the likes can definitely be a great source of traffic. You can either use a VA (if his english is good enough and knows how to write quality answers) to comment on questions and drop a link back to your site.

When I was just starting out and had a super small budget for links, I would setup Google alerts and be like a hawk on Quora and answer questions related to my niche as fast as possible, so I'd be the first or second answer. It's definitely time consuming, but it's free and you'd be surprised how much traffic you can actually get from just a few well-placed links on popular Quora questions.
 
Some good tips on using q&a sites (askjelly.com, blurtit.com, wisdio.com and fixya.com), subreddits and niche forums + Google alerts on Quora for traffic. And here's an SEO tip for Quora: your links will be nofollowed if they think you're doing SEO, and will be dofollowed if they think you're not. This is done behind the scenes using an adaptive filter, so careful with your anchors.
 
Most of what people have said sounds good.
Have a look at this pdf at webhostinggeeks, it explains their perceived best way of placing your answer at the top and using yahoo answers for SEO.

A few years ago (maybe 2012) I used yahoo answers for a boost for my website on computer related help, and when I had the top answer for a fairly basic question (which itself was the top question for that topic, think "my laptop won't turn on"), that increased traffic by a few thousand clicks a day for a while.

Good luck!
 
Q&A Sites will bring us a good portion of traffic when you have the good answered that related to your current niche and smartly concern about your brand/product. It's really good source of traffic and I'm practicing my traffic leaks skill with these platform, don't care about the links because all we do is giving the value/advice/solutions for our customers.
 
I keep Quora open within my browser at all times. When I have extra time, I'll go in and answer a question or two. Every now and then I'll score a lead and a client out of it.
 
Yeah yahoo answers were one of the best places to get targeted traffic few yrs ago. Ive tried quora too , it's like the 'new' yahoo answers of today but it doesnt really convert as well for my niche (seo and marketing). Maybe i did something wrong or my answer was just not the best. However i do look up quora for answers to stuff like coding, how to's which i find helpful
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back