When it comes to selling a new product or branding oneself or company online, what’s typically the main goal? To get people to click on your link and buy buy buy, right? Yes- Click here! Go to my beautiful site!

But is this what people do? No way! In fact, if you’re too eager to plaster your link all over the place, you are likely to be deemed a spammer, annoying, and a nuisance. Yuck- who wants that?

Instead of focusing on spreading your link everywhere, why not save it and all the valuable information that sits behind it for people who readily want and ask to see it?

How can you do this? You need to build a positive, trusting relationship with others. Let them know you– who you are and what you’re all about. Put yourself out there. Help people. Provide value. And give it away for free. My friend Joe Schroeder always says, “What you give away, you always get to keep.” Ain’t that the truth?

So to start, why not concern yourself more with helping others do what they need to do or obtain what they are looking for? It’s easy-peasy.

Here’s one way you can start from scratch and for free. Leverage an existing community to carve out a voice or brand for yourself or your company. Ever heard of Yahoo! Answers? Of course, you have. I’m sure many of you have even benefited from it. It’s a community-driven website provided by Yahoo! which allows members to engage in a site-wide discussion forum. The service is quite simple. Users ask and answer questions about virtually any topic.

Hello! If you are an expert in a particular industry, or have information that could help others, or if you’re just passionate about a specific topic, Yahoo! Answers offers a great opportunity for you to lend your expertise, knowledge, and resourcefulness to a community where everyone is literally asking for assistance.

The service is free to all and is accessible to anyone in the world. The information posted on the forum is non-exclusive and royalty-free. As a result of each posting being automatically indexed to a category, it will show up high on search engine results.

So where is the power behind this?

Well, if you are able to help others by providing useful answers to people’s questions, you will not only be offering quality information to others, but you will also, over time, build your credibility as a resource. Once you establish credibility, it will be natural for readers to want more from you and to want to become your subscriber.

Here’s the KEY and I will state the obvious: You must provide helpful, useful, quality information.

There are many categories and you will want to focus on positioning yourself as an authority in a particular niche. Eventually, when people see your posts, they will automatically read and LISTEN to what you have to say.

You will start to earn respect from other community members, which will give you more freedom to answer questions on an ongoing basis and turn this into an additional income stream for you.

Remember: When posting answers do NOT ruin your reputation by putting links for people to go and buy something on all your posts!

Instead, focus on posting helpful answers throughout the day and on just 1 out of, say, 10 posts, include a post that includes all of your information, including a link. If your answers are indeed helpful, your readers will WANT this information. The other posts will simply be direct answers providing very helpful information, and will NOT include a link to anything.

A few technicals… Yahoo! Answers operates on a point system. Each new user starts with 100 points upon opening an account and additional points are obtained by answering questions, receiving votes on answers, and having answers chosen as “best answer”.

As you continue to consistently add quality content to questions asked, you will be laying the groundwork for becoming a “Top Contributor”. Top Contributor status gains you a bright badge under your name and image. It represents the highest position you can achieve on Yahoo! Answers.

Once you reach this level, you will be seen by others as an authority and an expert. Everyone will see your answers and people will readily LISTEN to what you have to say. This becomes very powerful when you post your occasional 1 in 10 posts with a link to your site. People will be much more inclined to follow that link and more importantly, YOU!

A similar community-driven answers site has just been launched at Mahalo.com. Now you can double your presence!