q and a sites Archives - TheWayoftheWeb

The value of question and answer sites has long been shared by SEO specialists in terms of linkbuilding, and to some extent in social media for relevant traffic. But Quora may have just gone a step further in terms of allowing marketing material to be provided in answers.

The site is now embedding Youtube videos in answers, and converting any previous links to Youtube videos into the embedded version.

In some ways that’s a good thing, considering the value of relevant videos in answering the right questions. For instance, when the question relates to music, or sport. And being able to share a Youtube video explaining a technical point could be rather useful.

But at the same time, it also means an additional amount of content for Quora moderators to try and look after to keep the quality of their site up, and an additional way for anyone wanting to quickly push out a load of irrelevant spam videos to get some extra views. After all, the big reason why Google claims Youtube needs to post-moderate videos is that noone could ever manage to watch the huge amount of content being uploaded, and then decide what can and can’t be posted.

Now if enough spammers start flooding Quora with irrelevant videos, the much smaller start-up will have a similar problem.

It also means that you might struggle to load a page with 60+ embedded videos in it if you’re on a slow connection, but that’s probably something we’re just going to have to come to terms with as every site rushes to include video due to the huge rise in both video viewing and growth in video advertising…

I found out about Sprouter via a slightly tenuous route, as it’s a Q and A type site for entrepreneurs and business-owners which I actually found out about reading a blog post by Tara Hunt about women in startups and technology. I’ve been a big fan of Tara’s blog for what seems like ages now, and she’s one of the people I enjoy reading even when the subject isn’t necessarily core to what I’m doing. Plus I’m also really into her startup, Buyosphere, and the way they’re thinking about personal data for shopping and commerce.

Having signed up, I got the traditional welcome email back, with one really nice and simple touch

Click to make it bigger, but the key lines are:

Thanks for taking an interest in Sprouter

We’d like to return the favour and do something for you

Can we sign up to try your app? Can we help connect you with a potential partner or investor?

Now, I haven’t got back to them and tested whether they’ll become readers of OnlineRaceDriver.com on a regular basis, but considering the people they want to be joining the site, all of whom are developing ideas and businesses, it’s just a fantastic simple and effective way to make someone feel welcome and that there’s interest in them and their ideas, with a relatively light touch.

I’ve been using Quora a bit, but it occasionally manages to annoy me in the way it informs me some questions aren’t phrased correctly – while I sympathise with the difficulty in trying to obtain high quality questions, I can feel patronised and slightly stupid without needing to visit a website. And I wasn’t sure I was going to be all that active in a site for entrepreneurs etc, but after that welcome email, I’m a lot more likely to give it a go, and to put the effort in to provide a decent question quality.