How to Promote Articles Using Yahoo! Answers

A successful freelance writer must develop an effective marketing campaign for their published content. The marketing campaign should utilize all free online resources, and new technology that produces higher page views. An effective way to market article libraries online is through social networks, one of the largest being Yahoo! Answers. This ever growing online community is at your campaign fingertips, costs nothing, and produces clicks that turn into paying page views.

What is Yahoo! Answers and where do I find it?
Yahoo! Answers is an online Questions and Answers community, provided by one of the largest online companies; Yahoo.com. The online portal allows registered members to post questions, and receive fast answers from other members. Registered participants can include links as helpful resources that relate to topic. Spamming is not allowed, but self-promotion is acceptable as long as it is not abusive and follows Yahoo! Answers usage guidelines. Yahoo! Answers is available at http://answers.yahoo.com

How can I promote articles on Yahoo! Answers?
The way to promote articles on Yahoo! Answers is to include links in the resources box, or in the text box where the answer is being provided. One link per answer is sufficient, and it should be a link to your article that is relevant to the question being asked, or explains the answer in further detail. Any published article library of yours can be used in Yahoo! Answers, including; Associated Content links, Bukisa, Examiner, etc.

Getting started with Yahoo! Answers
To get started, you will need to register for a free account. Already registered members of Yahoo or those with Yahoo e-mail accounts can sign-in using their Yahoo ID.

Before starting to self-promote by inserting article links, it would be wise to become an established member of the Yahoo! Answers community. This helps other users recognize that you are not there to spam, or abuse the online portal in any way. On the Yahoo! Answers front page there will be featured questions displayed that you can answer, or you can utilize the search form to find topics you are familiar with.

Provide helpful and honest answers, and always treat the members with respect. Yahoo! Answers is not meant to be a chat tool, or way to discuss a topic. Do not treat it as an online forum or message board, as that would cause other members to flag your answers.

Yahoo! Answers rewards its members by giving out points for asking questions, posting answers and if your answer is picked to be the best one for that question additional points are rewarded. By becoming active in the online community you will reach higher levels which allow you to submit more answers or ask more than five questions a day.

Answering Yahoo! Answers with your Article Links
This is the most important part of promoting with Yahoo! Answers. The correct way to answer a question would be in this format:

By using Your Answer: box
" My answer is this. I believe you would also find this helpful: Insert your article link here."

To include the article link, copy and paste it from your browser.

By using What's your source? box
Copy and paste the relevant article link in this box. You can paste the link in the Answers box, as well as the Source box. Always include an actual answer, and not just a hotlink to the article being promoted.

Using Search Form to find relevant Yahoo! Answers questions
Once you have written a great article that needs to be promoted for higher page views you will need to look for relevant questions in the related categories. The questions should always be Opened, which means that answers are still being accepted and the question has not be resolved.

Click on the Advanced link next to the Search box and select "all of these words". Type in keywords that relate to the article, for example I would use "article promotion".

You can either choose a Category or leave it as All for maximum potential.

Under "Question Status" choose Open Questions. This step is very important, as you should only look for questions that still need resolution.

Date submitted option should be 7-30 days, especially if an article is about a hot new topic, entertainment, celebrity gossip or anything that can be considered a newsworthy story.

Click on search, and look for the results that will display questions that you can reply to. Follow the previous steps of providing a helpful answer, and post a link to your article.

Getting more out of Yahoo! Answers
Entertainment topics, such as celebrity gossip and news, do very well on Yahoo! Answers. These categories receive a lot of traffic, in different age groups, and community members will come to check out articles for any interesting information.

Yahoo! Answers also gets scanned for web content frequently, which helps with Google placement and indexing of article links. By posting your links on Yahoo! Answers, you will also receive backlinks as well as boost your article on Google search engine results faster.

Never Spam Yahoo! Answers
Being a successful freelance writer also means being an honest individual. Honesty should always come first, as well as being fair to other community members. Never overdo with self-promotion by spamming Yahoo! Answers as it will only result in a ban and prevention from posting answers.

Does Yahoo! Answers article promotion method really work?
Yes, this method certainly works and it is an honest way to promote articles that are interesting to others, as well as helpful to the members of this social networking community.