Q&A website is a shift in blogging that is going to be mainstream very soon. This has become imperative because people tend to ask questions at every point in time. But with the Q&A website, you can ask questions in a well-known environment.
Everyone has questions they need to be answered. What better place than to ask them within a community that’s focused and geared towards the fundamentals of what you’re asking.
Why not ask a question (i.e.) on technology in a place where those who are most knowledgeable on the subject can have but a simple chance, to answer it? And it doesn’t stop there, why not engage in the exchange of questions and answers within a community that can lead to the growth of your reputation, allow you to become more knowledgeable, and one that allows you to network with a variation of talents such as yourself?
Q&A Website | How to Set Up Q&A Website in Minutes
This is what you and your customers are seeking. A way for you to create an influx of interaction while attending to your customer’s needs. This is exactly what a few several companies with an established online presence have aimed to answer: the need for a system that allows various levels of interaction which in return will give your customers that chance. Let us take a look at what these Q&A gurus truly have to offer.
1. Qhub
Qhub is an amazing web application that allows anyone without having any technical know-how to build and customize their Q&A community with simplicity and ease. Qhub lets you target the community of your choice, and managing your Q&A website takes a very little amount of time and effort. Qhub enables your users to start their groups, connect, and receive a quick notification by email when someone they know has asked a question.
Once logged in, users can specify if which tags they’d like to watch and when someone asks a question tagged with the keyword you’re watching you will also receive an instant notification.
Qhub aims to empower you with the creation of an active community that supports itself from the ability to connect with multiple users to automatic member notifications.
Qhub Features
- It provides the option to connect with your Facebook account.
- Twitter integration
- Spell checking
- Mailshots to all members
- The advanced settings when you ask a question among others are what makes Qhub a valuable choice for creating your very own Q&A website. Your community will be at ease because of Qhub’s ability to implement the systemic moderation feature that allows administrators to actively monitor questions and answers throughout the entire system which triggers “fail-safes” such as misspellings, the use of abusive language, and more.
- The sign-up process only takes a few moments and once you’re logged in, you’ll have full control over the customization and management of your website. You will have the ability to edit your background, add your header, change the color of your texts and links, or use one of the quality pre-installed themes provided by Qhub.
- The control panel lets you moderate answers for abusive language, mis-spellings, and the power to instantly approve/disapprove questions or answers. You’ll also have the option to add custom analytics code, domain forwarding, API access, integrate a questions widget on any webpage, custom ads, and a domain of your choice. Simply said, if sign-up for Qhub, you’ll reap the benefits of an overflow of options, for a simple yet powerful Q&A solution.
2. StackExchange
Stack Exchange has developed a way for users to create an easy-to-use, active, customizable Q&A community. They strive to live behind their knowledge exchange platform that enables you to run the same software seen on Stack Overflow with the option of code-based customizations for your Q&A website aesthetics.
It seems to be aimed more towards the individual who has learned the basics of CSS and HTML properties. However, this is not to say that it is a difficult application to work with, on another note, it’s pretty easy to manipulate.
Start by going through the quick sign-up process on the Stack Exchange website, choosing your SE domain, and creating an admin account after your confirmation email has been sent. The only complaint I would have on this process is that users should be able to create the admin account simultaneously with the registration. It shouldn’t be separated from the registration process.
Stack Overflow is a bit pricey at $129-$1299/month when compared to Qhub which is free. Also, depending on the monthly plan you choose, your account is limited to several aspects such as the allowed page views, whether or not users will have public or private access, the type of server, and the level of tech support.
How to Set Up StackExchange
- As soon as you log in to your admin account you’re prompted with a bootstrap guide that will allow you to choose the name of your site.
- Customize the appearance of your site, upload a custom logo, choose a primary custom domain, and customize the content on your site.
- You’re able to invite people, create various tags, ask questions, and export your entire database in XML format. You can view your accounts page views and visits through a pre-installed system. However, you’re also allowed to install Google Analytics for a more in-depth look at your site’s statistics. From a user’s perspective asking a question isn’t as quick as you’d like it to be. Mostly because you’re required to enter details in 3 text areas or your question will not be posted.
- You can choose with the click of a button to be notified by email of your choice for new answers to your questions, and the area where you enter the details of your question is equipped with advanced settings. Although StackExchange is a powerful solution for creating a Q&A website, users of the application seem to only begin to benefit if they have a large community with a viral user-base. Truthfully speaking, if you’re just looking to create a simple Q&A website that’s either free or doesn’t require much of a budget, then the Stack Exchange platform isn’t for you.
3. OSQA
OSQA is an Open Source Question & Answer System that lets you create an interactive community for free. Once you create your Question & Answer site, your users will be able to ask, answer, comment, and vote for questions with simplicity through the use of an elegantly designed system.
Questions can be tagged by users with keywords that contain relevancy for a more organized structure of finding questions and answers. Registered users can log in to their accounts and receive a quick overview of how many questions/answers they have, their amount of votes, badges, and the number of tags used. They will be able to quickly view responses to their questions, edit email subscriptions, and see an outline of their favorite answers. Asking questions is easy.
Through the advanced settings, users can edit the text, add images, code, and links for a more descriptive question. This increases the chances of finding a user who will provide an accurate answer. Once users send off an answer, they are always able to come back and edit the content, change their notification status, and add/remove previous votes.
The best answer will be chosen and displayed by the person who originally asked the question. OSQA is a simple and organized platform that allows anyone with the required programming skills to set up their site for free.
4. Get Satisfaction
- Get Satisfaction is a third-party customer service application that allows you to create your very own community whose aim is to “get satisfaction” out of you, your website, application, or services offered.
- Being an intuitive service that offers free to pay-per-month plans to its users, Get Satisfaction provides one of the most clear-cut solutions for asking/answering questions, solving customer-based problems, and attenuating concerns.
- Building your customer service community through GS is easy, quick, and a straightforward process. If you have a web-based application or service being offered you can add a nifty auto-fixed tab to your webpages using JavaScript. When users have a question or concern they need answered they can simply click on the tab, the background quickly becomes transparently dark, and they’re able to instantly ask what they need you to answer within the form. If they are looking for a more detailed support structure they can visit your Get Satisfaction hosted page and receive a wealth of information by easily searching other questions or connecting with other users as well. You can also fully embed Get Satisfaction within any page on your website for a much quicker and custom approach.
- The limits and various functions of your Get Satisfaction account, of course, depend entirely on the plan you choose at sign-up. The free to simpler plans don’t offer many options for customizations.
- The registration process is generally exhausting as you have to enter a plethora of details and choose from several options. With your account, you can add employees that will ultimately represent your company and be the “ambassadors” for answering questions, dealing with customers, concerns, and anything else that you specify for them to take part in. Since Get Satisfaction is first and foremost a customer service application for businesses, websites, and online applications, you will be prompted to add products and categorize them, add feedback widgets, and start topics for users to search for.
- From the eyes of a user, the interface is aesthetically inclined, offers a quick solutions to having their concerns voiced, and gives the option of interacting with others that have similar interests. This is what a great online community is made up of, the ability to allow users to have their needs voiced and the various levels of interaction between users and the individuals who oversee these communities.
5. User Voice
UserVoice is very much like GetSatisfaction with some similar aspects and several differences. UV allows your users to ask questions, suggest, vote, and comment all for feedback from you. The user experience is simplistic in its way, offers quick accessibility, and delivers results. UserVoice aims to solve the problem of disconnection and miscommunication between you and your users, and with success, I might add.
You’re able to place a “feedback” tab on the left or right side of your web pages and much like GetSatisfaction, when users click on the tab the background fades to a darker shade, and all the focus and attention is placed on the user-oriented box that pops-up. If the user wants to ask a question, they are immediately directed to a UserVoice hosted forum specified for your company or website.
This is where UserVoice and GetSatisfaction differ. The GetSatisfaction feedback tab allows users to ask questions through the box that pops up, while UserVoice directs your customers to a forum. Once they’ve reached the forum, users are then able to enter details of their concerns with simplicity and ease.
They can also vote on suggestions, subscribe to its feed, edit their profiles, and have a general overview of the recent activity on their account. The admin panel is extremely easy to use and features amazing usability. You’re able to edit forum options, get widgets, add/delete admin accounts, view suggestions, play with UV’s API, and report bugs.
Also, we’ve received word of the new admin’s interface that UserVoice plans on implementing with analytics and more if you sign-up now you’re able to go for a test drive. UserVoice is free to sign-up and use, however, if you want to have access to more features, and unlimited options, then plans start at $19/month.
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