Yahoo! Answers Tips

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Yahoo! Answers is a way to find and share information. You can ask questions on any topic, get answers from real people, and share your insights and experience. You can browse through the questions that were already answered and archived. Those answers can help you learn more about the topic of your choice.

To make Yahoo! Answers work for you, there are some things that you should do to set up your account, link to your site when answering questions and get known as someone to follow. People will do this by either becoming a fan of yours, or request addition to your contacts list. Fans just follow your questions and answers, while contacts will have their questions and starred questions shown on your Yahoo! Answers home page. That way you can follow what they are doing too and allow a quick way to contact you through your profile.

Yahoo! Answers Tip
Read the guidelines before answering questions to avoid having your account suspended for inappropriate activity.

The first step is to register. Even though you may have a Yahoo! account, you must register for Yahoo! Answers. After registering, you can log in and edit your profile. The profile is where you have room to list more about yourself and add links to your websites. I recommend you do that before starting to answer questions so that other Yahoo! Answers users can click your name or avatar and get more information about you

Yahoo! Answers Tip
If you prefer to use a different alias on Yahoo! Answers than your primary Yahoo! account, you should create it first. Keep it consitent with the other sites you participate in so that people will recognize you no matter where you go.

Having links in your Yahoo! Answers profile is an important step for several reasons. The first reason is because you will not link to your sites when answering every question. You will only link to your site when the question is related to the topic of your site. Another reason for having links in your profile is because as you become more active in answering questions, Google and Yahoo! will index your profile and follow the links to your websites.

This Yahoo! Answers wallpaper is made available in your profile once you start moving up in levels.

Yahoo! Answers is a system based on points. You get 2 points for answering questions and 10 points for having your answer picked as the best of all answers for that question. This is important because there are currently 7 levels. Each level allows you to do more each day, such as answer questions, ask questions and vote on other answers. When you first start, you are on Level 1 and limited to the number of activities you can perform. As you move up in levels, you can not only do more, but you will also get noticed more by the other Yahoo! Answers users.

One way you will get noticed more is by other users hovering their mouse over your name or avatar when reading your answers. The pop-up box will show some limited stats about your activity. It will show when you joined Yahoo! Answers, how many points you have, what level you are on, a link to add you to their contacts and a link to your profile.

If you are real active, provide good answers and have a good percentage of them chosen as the best answers, you could be profiled at the top of the category you frequent most. The category does not have to relate to the topic of your website, although that can be a benefit by letting others know that you are knowledgeable about the topic your website offers. Once you get profiled at the page top, the number of visitors to your profile and website can increase dramatically because you will be seen as an authority on that topic.

To get started, visit Yahoo! Answers, create an account and start exploring. Read through the other answers to see how the system operates before starting to answer questions.

Yahoo! Answers Tip
Most people on Yahoo! Answers do not sign their answers with their name. That is optional, but can make your name better known if you want your real name associated with your username.