If you spend any time at all on the internet, then you know that nearly every major website has some form of community features.  Whether it is posting a review, setting up a profile, or making friends, most websites have features that allow visitors to participate in some fashion.

While there are many fantastic communities to participate in, for this article we will focus on Yahoo! Answers.  The principles are adaptable to many other sites.  My suggestion is to start with Yahoo! Answers and then expand to other community sites based on your own niche.

What is Yahoo! Answers?

Yahoo has a service called "Yahoo! Answers".  Yahoo! Answers is a web-based service where visitors can ask questions and other visitors will answer them.  Someone might ask a question and get several responses from various visitors.   It is rewarding to answer questions for people, but done right, you can use this tool to drive more business to your website.

Visit http://answers.yahoo.com and look around.  Search for questions related to your own industry.  Even if the question already has answers, you can add your own answers as long as the question has not been marked "resolved".

Be a Good Citizen – Tips for Success

Answer questions in your niche. Stay focused on topics within your target audience for your products and services.  You are building relationships in the virtual community and your answers should help you create a reputation as a subject matter expert.

Participate Often. You will build relationships, earn a few points, and create more links to your website.  Try to answer several questions once a week.  Yahoo! Has a point system.

Always vote on other people’s answers. Vote thumbs up or thumbs down, just vote.

Contribute value and go easy on the links. People do not mind if your answer has a link to your website as long as the answer was a good contribute to the question.  Answers like, "find your answer on my website …" are not good enough.  Contribute real value and place your link in a subtle fashion at the bottom of your article or wherever it fits best.  NOTE:  To place a link, simply include the http:// along with your website address.  You will see it is clickable when you preview.  If it is not clickable, you probably forgot to put the whole thing like this:  http://www.AnythingInternet.com .

Do Not Post Commercials. This is not an advertising system.  It is a community support system.  Always do your best to provide good value and keep the marketing verbiage to a bare minimum.