no.stupid.answers

Gil Reich, VP of Product Management at Answers.com and blogger of Managing Greatness, has written an excellent post on SEOmoz/YOUmoz titled: Q&A About Using Q&A Sites to Build Your Business & Reputation.

The post goes into depth about – you guessed it – using Q&A sites (like Answers.com of course) to build online reputation and thus help build your freelance or small business. The number of companies using social media and Q&A sites is rising.

Gil argues the following three points are what makes it worthwhile:

Direct your customers (and potential customers) to accurate information about your product.

Connect with people in your market, build your reputation, and generate leads.

Provide links back to your site. Some of these links are Follow links, and thus also provide SEO value.

Asking questions to your audience and, more importantly, answering their questions, is not a complicated process and doesn’t require any more training than you already have. All you need is your expertise in your field and to become familiar with – and really believe in – Q&A community culture.

Read the full post to get a sense of what the role of Q&A sites is for professionals looking to expand their reputations online.

For more on the topic, see a similar post on BabeofBusiness, a blog by Crystal Williams, who is one of the Community Coordinators on Answers.com.

Related posts:

1. Gil Reich manages links, greatness, and even jokes.
2. Build your online reputation with Q&A.
3. WikiAnswers U.S. visits are up 125%.