Every day, someone’s going to have a question about a specific problem and would like a good answer to it. And when it comes to using the Internet, they turn to question-and-answer sites, hoping someone there will provide them with their answer. Now instead of just providing a statement for your answer, what if you could answer someone’s question by offering a product they could buy?
That’s what I’ll show you in this article. You’re about to find out just how you can answer someone’s question and turn that into an opportunity to make money helping them out. For this article, I will recommend the site Quora (pronounced core-uh) because it seems to be the best and most active question-and-answer site out there, but you can use sites like Yahoo Answers and Answers.com instead.
So, with that being said, let’s see how you can turn your answers into earnings!
Find a niche and product within that niche.
In case you don’t know, a niche is a specific category like health and fitness, technology, or personal development. Find a niche that interests you, because you will be answering people’s questions within that specific niche.
Once you do that, you will need to find products within your niche. If you’re into health and fitness, find weight loss programs. Or, if you’re into technology, do some computer software. Otherwise, if it’s personal development, search for self-help books. These products can be found on any website, whether it is Amazon or on their own product site.
Now the next step is to become an affiliate for these products. Scroll to the bottom of the site where you found the product. There should be some link for Affiliates, Publishers, Associates, or something similar. Just click on it and sign up to become an affiliate. When you do this, you’re going to receive a special link that has specific code attributed to you. That way, when someone purchases the product you are promoting through your link, the seller will see this and pay you a fraction of the product cost as a reward. Be sure to save your affiliate link into a text file so you can use it later!
What I just showed you is a concept called affiliate marketing. I have a whole article about this topic for beginners if you’d like to check that out.
Search for questions people are asking in your niche.
At this point, as I mentioned earlier, I’ll be mentioning the site Quora, but if you’d rather use other sites like Yahoo Answers or Answers.com, that’s fine too.
Now in order to answer other people’s questions on Quora, you need to sign up for it. And don’t worry: the sign-up process is free and simple to do. Quora allows you to sign up with your Google account, Facebook account, or email address. As soon as you’re signed up, now you can start searching for questions.
Use Quora’s search bar and type in your niche or any category related to your niche. Quora makes it easy because it allows you to search different topics of questions. Based on the product you’re promoting, I would suggest finding the topics that pertain to your product so that way you can use the product to solve someone’s problem.
For example, if I were to promote Nutrisystem, a weight loss program, then I’d search up the topic “weight loss” or anything similar. Take a look at the interesting topic suggestions Quora gives based on weight loss.
All you need to do is select the topic that best suits you and the product you’re promoting. Afterwards, Quora will show you all the questions people are asking within that very topic. Carefully browse for these questions and choose to answer only the ones that directly pertain to your product.
You don’t want to answer questions that are within your niche but that do not correspond to your product. Going back to the weight loss example, for instance, I wouldn’t use Nutrisystem to answer the question: Why am I gaining weight? Because this question doesn’t necessarily mean they want to lose weight. They just want to know the cause behind their weight gain. I also would not answer the question How much exercise should I do to lose weight? using my product because they specifically want to exercise to lose weight. Whereas, Nutrisystem is a diet plan, not some workout program. So be careful with the questions you choose!
Here are a few example questions I would answer using Nutrisystem:
- Are there any easy ways to lose weight?
- What’s the best diet plan to lose weight?
- How can I lose weight without exercising too much?
Now, if you cannot seem to find a good question that pertains to the product you have, you can be the one to ask the question! Simply go within the topic that relates to your question and ask within that topic.
Once you find a question or post your own question, now it’s time to answer it!
Answer questions using your product.
When answering any question you find, make sure your answer responds well to the question, is detailed, and offers a friendly invitation.
To respond well to a question, make sure your answer corresponds with the question you’re responding to. For instance, if someone asks for the best diet plan to lose weight, don’t answer by telling them to exercise instead, because they are asking only about diet plans and not about any other way to lose weight. Also, consider making your response straightforward and easy to understand.
Your answer should also be detailed. Don’t respond with just a simple sentence or two. Provide a lot of value to your answer and give as much information related to their question as possible. Consider including answers to similar questions into your response. Suppose someone asks the question What is the best way to make money online? Instead of just one sentence like “Affiliate marketing is the best,” I would respond to this question like this:
To be honest, there are many good ways to make money online, from work-from-home jobs to online surveys. But there is one particular way that I would recommend, and that is affiliate marketing. All you are doing is solving people’s problems by offering them products from other people and each time you do, you can earn good money. And in case you’re wondering, it’s easy to get started. Just become an affiliate for a product, get your link, and share it across the Internet, and that’s all it takes! I hope this helps.
Now is the time to include your product now that you have given your answer some value. But make sure you don’t just paste a raw link into your answer. Give a good call-to-action that encourages your readers to follow the link.
Also, be friendly to those reading your question. Don’t act like a businessman and tell them to “do this and do that.” Place yourself in their shoes and explain to them how the product you are recommending can solve their problem. A good way to end the question with promoting a product would be something like this:
If you’d like to learn everything there is to know about affiliate marketing, I highly recommend Program X. Not only will you learn how you can make money as an affiliate, but you will also be given several tips to keep you going on the right track. And the best part is: they have friendly coaches inside the program that will encourage you on the path to success as an affiliate. You can find more information about Program X here. (affiliate link in boldface)
Now paste your affiliate link into your answer. If possible, I would rather insert your affiliate link into your call-to-action text rather than display it right in your answer. Try to make your answer look as clean as possible.
Conclusion
And that’s all it really takes to answer questions using a product you promote. Basically, whenever someone sees an answer you wrote and buys that product through the affiliate link in your answer, you can earn some extra money.
Of course, this is only a side hustle because not a lot of people are going to see your answers to some of your questions. That’s why, if you’d like to take affiliate marketing to a higher level and would like a real source of passive income, then I highly recommend checking out my free guide on affiliate marketing. You may also want to check out my free guide on starting a blog, which is how you can attract more readers. If you combine your blog with affiliate marketing, I believe you can create passive income that will last you for years to come!
But if simply answering questions is a good enough way for you to make some extra money, go for it! Be the solution to someone’s problem and get paid for it!