Yahoo Answers

1. 83

   Whitney05posted 16 years ago

   Ok, so I haven't gotten that aweful 999 error in MONTHS! and now, it seems there are so many perfect questions to post my links too, and I'm getting the 999 error!
   
   Anyone else having this problem?
   
   I was getting ok traffic from them, enough for my to be frustrated by this. Plus, like I said, today alone there are tons of questions that I can post my links too, and I can't. I cleared the cookies on my computer, that didn't help. And, currently, I'm using a different computer, still didn't help.
   
   I tried referral links first, as always, and they got the error, so I tried the regular link, which als got the error.
   
   Any suggestions?

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2. 85

   Marisa Wrightposted 16 years ago

   After reading this post I thought, oh goodie, I know how to use Yahoo Answers!  I hadn't thought of it as a forum to promote my Hubs.
   
   However, I'm getting the same result as you, Whitney.  I answered a question about belly dancing and tried to post a link to my Hub, which is completely relevant.  I got a '999'.  Tried posting it without the referral link - still '999'  I even tried mentioning it in text with no link, i.e.  "I have an article on hubpages.com, just enter "Belly Dancing" in the search box and you'll find it".    Still got 999. 
   
   After trying several permutations, I posted an answer with no mention of HubPages, and it went through without a hitch. 
   
   I'm thinking one way around it might be to post the information on Yahoo 360 (which you can choose to show on Answers) and refer people to that.  However I'm at work right now and can't check out Yahoo 360 to see what potential there is to do so.

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3. 62

   Mishaposted 16 years ago

   The only explanation I can come up with is that fellow hubbers spammed Yahoo Answers up to the throat, and Yahoo does not want any hubpages mentioning anymore...

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4. 83

   Whitney05posted 16 years ago

   Marissa - I have a Yahoo 360, but I've found it very time consuming to enter in all my hubs into 360 pages. I try to group my hubs into one page (rat treats, illnesses, toys, all in the same 360 page). Any suggestions as to making 360 pages to promot hubgs?
   
   Misha- I hadn't thought about that.. Why is it that it initially let me post links, started giving me an error, the error didn't appear for a month, then began again yesterday?

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   1. 85

      Marisa Wrightposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      It's so long since I looked at Yahoo 360, I can't remember how it works.  Maybe if you just entered Hubs relevant to the answers you post?   I'll have to have a look tonight when I get home.

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5. 62

   Mishaposted 16 years ago

   Whitney,
   
   I'm not Yahoo, and I'm not affiliated with them in any sense, so my guess is as good as yours
   
   But when two people report they can't mention hubpages anymore in any way, and the rest of the posts go just fine - this makes me thinking yahoo don't like hubpages at the moment. For what and for how long - only yahoo can tell...
   
   Did you try to post any link different from hubpages? This can help to clarify the picture...

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6. 76

   Lissieposted 16 years ago

   OK I think I have a work around - register a domain and then do a redirect. Unfortunately this only works per a hub - so you kinda have to promote a hub at a time.  Godaddy.com has a sale on where you can buy a .info domain for $3.19 / yr.  You then redirect to your hubpage affiliate link and voila - I've tested it - its working fine on Answers.  You also get the benefit of being able to use a more user friendly link on yahoo. BTW for that price you actually get a simple website so you could create a page and put a bunch of links if you wanted.

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7. 85

   Marisa Wrightposted 16 years ago

   Lissie
   
   That's kind of how I was thinking of using Yahoo 360.  I had computer trouble last night so wasn't able to check it out. 
   
   I'm aware of GoDaddy.  If I do set up a website, that's where I'd go.  Do you have a website yet?  From all the research I've been doing, it seems that a website on the right topic has more potential to make money than any of the other things we've tried.  Sounds old hat, I know, when blogs are all the rage, but I think it's true.  The only reason I haven't done it is lack of a good topic.

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   1. 76

      Lissieposted 16 years agoin reply to this

      I have got a website which I put up in Jan www.midlifetravel.com I added a blog recently just to give me an easy way to add content and also use the cool blog promotion tools like mybloglog etc.
      2 key things with websites a) you need to register the domain name e.g. www.HowToTravelTips.info GoDaddy is known as the cheapest for this - though I dont know if they do .au domains (they dont do nz domains!)
      and often then b) you will need some sort of hosting package  I use Dreamhost They are commonly known as the best hosting site (I think godaddy is probably the same price but is commonly know as rubbist for actual hosting- I havent checked myself) - I have certainly been very impressed with their price and features (heaps better than the nz company I started with) - 1 click installs for things like wordpress and gallery (fo
      r photos )  - and it actually works!
      Ive been told to keep my domains with one provider and the hosting with a separate one -  I cant remember why
      Certainly if you want to use the approach above with yahoo answers you don't need the hosting - its called a "redirect" and very easy to do  If you are interested in hosting leave me a message thru the comments on midilfe's blog and I can give you a link which will save you $30!
      The main thing with websites is that you dont have to update them all the time - they are more passive income than blogs .  Midlife is my top earner - which means its in double digits :-) but its more focused on what people might want to actually find info on and then buy a related product, my personal blog is just a ramble, and my other focussed blog is too new to count as  yet!

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8. 70

   Stacie Naczelnikposted 16 years ago

   Hey everyone.  So, this was happening a while ago to a lot of us trying to put hub links in.  But, it stopped.  It's happening again?  I really don't want to believe any hubbers are spamming, but it could be happening.  I find that sometimes it will work if you just keep pushing the back button and editing one or two small things, and try to publish until it goes through.  It's kind of weird how it happens sometimes, but not always.

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9. 85

   Marisa Wrightposted 16 years ago

   Thanks for the tips, Lissie!   Clever title. Baby boomers have to be a good target, given the number of us and the fact that we're more computer literate than most people give us credit for!  And none of us (in spite of being past 50) want to admit to being "old" - midlife sounds just about right!!!
   
   Stacie, I suppose it depends on your definition of spamming.  Individually, people may not be going overboard, but it could be a cumulative effect.

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10. 76

    Lissieposted 16 years ago

    Thanks for the comment Marisa -  I'm 45 and I struggle to know what to call myself - but middle aged certainly aint it - I dont own any cardys! However  Iread you can be 30 and have a "midlife crises" so  I thought midilfe travel might do it!

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11. 85

    Marisa Wrightposted 16 years ago

    Thirty with a mid-life crisis?  Sheesh!  You're right though, it is one of those words that a wide range of age groups will see as applying to them, which is why it's smart.

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12. 83

    Whitney05posted 16 years ago

    Lissie- I have a Godaddy website, but it's geared to reptiles and such. Most of my reptile hubs are posted on the website. I haven't heard anything about hosting the website on a different server other than with them, but my site isn't hosted with them. I don't really control much of it besides designing and whatnot (my father creates websites and hosts them; he used to have a business but it became too much for 1 person to do with over 100 clients- Ranger Joes and Troy University being two of them). He has created a nifty database that I use to upload info, links, pictures, and such. Everything is created I just add info; it's pretty cool; kinda like hubpage capsules. I haven't had too much traffic to hubs via my site, though.
    
    I may try Answers again tonight. We'll see...
    
    I need new ways of sharing my hubs. :-/
    
    Edit: Still doesn't work. :-(

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13. 76

    Lissieposted 16 years ago

    Yes Hub Pages are still being blocked - my redirect seems to be working OK.  So yes just buy a new domain from them  - havent checked if they are still doing .info for $3 - but that is CHEAP and then do the redirect at GoDaddy to whichever hub page you want to promote.  Only disadvantage is that you can only redirect to 1 hub at a time per a domain - I might sign up some more domain names!

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    1. 59

       casparposted 16 years agoin reply to this

       I don't know how to do this, as I've never tried redirects, but couldn't you have different pages on your site, each with a redirect to a different hub?  E.g. have a page at [www.mysite.com/hub1.html] which redirects to one of your hubs, then [www.mysite.com/hub2.html] which redirects to another of your hubs.  Then when you want to direct visitors from say Yahoo Answers to a particular hub, you just link them to the appropriate page which will redirect them to the desired hub.
       
       Just a thought...how do you do redirects anyway?  Can you redirect an individual page rather than at domain level?

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14. STAFF

    pauldeedsposted 16 years ago

    There are lots of ways to do redirects, and you can definitely do more than 1 redirect per domain.  tinyurl.com and its ilk are just large scale redirect services.  If you're domain host gives you the ability to run any kind of scripts (perl, php, etc.), it would be very easy to set up a general purpose redirector.  If you can't run scripts, you can do an HTML meta redirect with a page like this:
    
    
    
    That said, we don't really like it when people hide link destinations behind redirects here at HubPages and I'm guessing yahoo will catch on to that side step eventually as well.  It is too bad that they seem to have punished Hubpages links, but I'm afraid as HubPages grows more popular we will suffer increasingly from the tragedy of the commons.

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