Yahoo Answers & Yahoo Publisher Network To Pay Users?
Let’s see, the future of Yahoo is Social Media. Social Media is interactive user generated content such as tagging, blogs, MyWeb, user reviews, photo sharing, ratings, and perhaps even user generated mashups (I’m thinking that Ning is an obvious acquisition target) and, oh yes, Yahoo Answers.
With plans to differentiate not only their search engine from the algorithmic Google, but also their travel, autos, and almost every other Yahoo channel – one question comes to mind; “How to mobilize 200 million active registered users?”
Sure a good percentage of those users are going to get big thrills out of seeing their photo or avatar next to a local business review (or in some cases ALL of the business reviews) or when answering a distressed Yahoo user’s questions. As the novelty of having your name up in pixels wears off however, Yahoo’s going to have to find another bone to throw. And it looks like they are planning just that and a lot more.
Using the same mentality as my Grandfather (“Hey, go wash my boat and I’ll give you $5.” Or “Here’s $5 kid, now scram.”), Yahoo will be offering their registered members the ability to join the Yahoo Publisher Network and perhaps earn revenue towards the contextually targeted Yahoo Search Marketing ads which are shown on the Answers that those members contribute.
Jen Slegg scooped the story today on her JenSense Blog (Best Contextual Advertising & Search Marketing Blog of 2005):
There is also the sign up link from the profile page, but it goes to the regular Publisher Network landing page. It does not seem to have any referral on it, so it would appear that those signing up through the Answers link are not given any sort of preferential treatment for getting into the YPN Beta program, at least not at this time.
There is no word yet on how exactly this will work, other than it is tied to those who answer questions. And there are currently no ads running on Yahoo! Answers, so it is unclear if ads will be added, and clicks on ads would be shared with answer contributors. Yahoo! Answers also works on a point system, so earnings could potentially be earned in accordance to the number of points earned in the system.
I’m also thinking that Yahoo will offer its registered users to option of transferring earnings into a Yahoo account (think Paypal for Yahoo) which can be used for services like Yahoo Shopping or buying long distance time on Yahoo Messenger’s VOIP.
For more information on Yahoo Answers and Yahoo Social Media:
