2 Dofollow Clones of Yahoo Answers!

So what if Yahoo Answers™ is nofollow? I have found two websites which are "DOFOLLOW" clones of Yahoo answers. :D

This article should be read only by those who have a basic knowledge of "dofollow" and "nofollow" linking. If these terms sound foreign to you, you may want to read this free report on backlink building before proceeding further!

As we all know, Yahoo! Answers is nofollow! If you setup a profile at Yahoo answers and put your website links there, you would find that they are all "nofollowed" (if you don’t already use this nofollow plugin for Firefox, you are in dead waters: http://www.quirk.biz/searchstatus).

In case you want to test the nofollow tag, just setup an account with Yahoo Answers (skip this if you already have a Yahoo account): http://answers.yahoo.com/

Once done, click on the "My Profile=>Edit My Info" link at the top-right corner. In the "About Me" box, put a link in this format: http://website.com, (I haven’t used the site for a long time so I don’t remember if they allow HTML tags or not), and click the "Preview" button.

If you are using the Search status plugin I recommended above, and have turned on the "highlight nofollow links" option in it, you would notice that your links are highlighted in red, meaning that they are nofollow (i.e., NOT followed by search engines).

Of course, if you wish, you can still leave your link there. In an earlier article I wrote about why you should building a couple of "nofollow" links for your website along with "dofollow" links, so as to give an impression of "natural link building" to Google. Besides, if your answers are good enough, people would click to view your profile anyway, and hopefully would click-through to your website! :D

Okay, let’s now talk about the Yahoo answers dofollow clones!

Here are the two clones:

a) Answerbag.com: UPDATE: One of my blog readers, Professor, says that Answerbag no longer offers SEO-friendly backlinks as it used to. Here is what he has to say:

 "At the time this post was written, answerbag.com allowed DO-FOLLOW links in their About Me section of one’s User Profile. This is no longer the case. You can put your link(s) into your profile using HTML, like:

<a href="http://www.yourwebsite.com/">[your keyword phrase]</a>

Your anchor text shows up properly, and is clickable, on the profile page, BUT when you look at the source code, the text appears ONLY in the Description META tag. I have never seen anything like this before. They must be using a script to do it.

In any case, since the link doesn’t appear in the HTML coding, it can’t be seen as a link by search engines, so it is essentially NO-FOLLOW."

I am keeping the rest of the article intact for reference purposes! :)

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First, you will want to join the website. Keep in mind that you MUST confirm your email address or you won’t be allowed to post answers (at least, that was how it was setup when I joined it). The site, as it seems to me, has a buggy system; even after confirming my email address thrice, it still kept telling me that my account was "unconfirmed. It took me 3 more retries to get it right. I hope you have better luck.

Once you have confirmed your email, you can login to your account. From the top right corner, click "view my profile and activity".

On the next page, click the "My Settings" tab.

There are two places you can leave your links at: the "My Website" box (only hard links, such as http://website.com, are allowed here) and the "About Me" box a little lower down (HTML is allowed here, so you can have your links formatted as " <a href="http://website.com">your keyword here</a> ". As shown in the screenshot below, the link you put in the first box is nofollow, while the second one (i.e., the "About Me" box) is dofollow:

While there is no such hard and fast rule, I know for a fact that usually, message boards and forums hate advertising and marketing of any kind (I just had my profile signature deleted at a niche forum because someone over there reported it as "profile spam", even though I linked to the "About" page of my website that had ZERO advertising; so you can well imagine how strict these forums and message boards are). So I put my domain in the "My Website" box and a link to my "About" page in the "About Me" box!

Once done, click the "Submit" button. You would be able to view your public profile by clicking on the "See My Public Profile" link at the top.

To increase your profile’s visibility in search engines, you would want to either ask or answer at least one question on the site.

b) Help.com: Yet another dofollow clone of Yahoo Answers, this one is much better than answerbag.com as far as navigation and layout is concerned. I just wish I had a website like that. Hope you kwow of a good script to run such sites ;)

Anyways, first off, you would want to signup by going to: http://help.com/login

FYI, that is also your login page! ;)

Once done, log in, and click on "Settings" tab. Before doing anything else, set your password here. This would not only prove convenient for you when you login next time, but also keep your account safe from hackers. Check the screenshot below:

Once done, click on the "Profile" tab as shown in the screenshot below:

On the next page, in the "Edit Profile Blurb" box, you would want to enter your website links. HTML tags are allowed. Once done, you can view your public profile (this is what others, including search engines, will see) by clicking on the "Public Profile" link at the top. Check the screenshot below:

Once you are happy with your profile, click the "Help.com" logo at the top left corner to return to the website’s homepage. To increase your profile’s visibility in search engines, you would want to either ask or answer at least one question on the site.
 
In my next issue I would offer you a few tips on how to write good answers. But here is one short little tip. If you are answering a question pertaining to a topic you have little knowledge about, pick up a question which has already received a few answers/comments. This way, you can get a fair idea of how to answer the question. Being a copycat is bad enough, but being a fool, esp. when you are struggling to become an expert in your niche, is even worse!

Lastly, I would like to give credit where credit is due. I wouldn’t have known of those two Yahoo Answers clones if not for Angela’s backlinks packets. If you don’t know about her or her backlinks packets, take a look at her WSO (you would get a free packet of backlinks when you subscribe):

All said and done, I am now yawning, so going to sleep. You know how tiring it can be to write such long, boring articles. But I would feel rejuvenated if you be so kind as to post your comment below! ;)