When it comes to digital marketing the rule book is always changing. Sometimes the best way to stay in front is simply to try new things. That’s the reason I gave Quora a go.
Before trying Quora I knew about it, but I’d never really used it. So why did I decide to give it a try?
My blog was up and running and that was great. I had also tried Linked In’s publishing feature, but I found after an initial burst of readership, the things I published on Linked In didn’t get continual traffic.
Here are some of the qualities of Quora that put in on my A-List for bloggers:
#1. It Feels Good To Engage With the Quora Community
Quora is built around a community. It’s a community that likes to ask questions, as well as a community that likes to write. The platform, its incentives and its feedback mechanisms are based on rewarding people (not in a financial way, but in an intrinsic way) for their ability to create responses to questions that are important to others. Because Quora is a content platform built on a community it feels meaningful. This is a subtle but important difference for authors. Authors on Quora aren’t posting purely to get likes and shares. They’re posting to get these things, plus direct feedback from their audience which is delivered through upvotes and comments. The content that is most useful to others gets rewarded by a quick rise to the top.
#2. A Great Way to Figure Out What Content Works
Writing is often a trial and error experience. When we publish posts on a blog we can receive feedback through readers’ comments. If you have a tremendously popular blog (like Michael Hyatt’s for example), you may receive comments thick and fast. But this doesn’t always occur. That’s where Quora comes in. As a platform it’s a great way for writers to test content ideas and get continuous feedback on them, because the audience for the platform is continually reading and exploring. Using this feedback writers can then evaluate which of their posts resonates most with audiences.
#3. Start Writing By A Question That Inspires You
Thousands of questions are asked on Quora every day. Writers can respond with a short paragraph or a long-form article. Unlike blogging, where it’s often encouraged to write a minimum of 300 words, this limitation doesn’t exist on Quora. Whether writers have five minutes or fifty, there’s always time to create a response. This gives writers more freedom to write responses to whatever question inspires them. Some of the articles on this blog started as Quora responses, such as 5 Ways to Learn and Remember Anything.
#4. Responses Are Continually Read
I’ve published on other platforms before, and have found that once an entry is published, it has an initial burst of traffic, then the traffic quickly trails away. My experience with Quora is very different. If you respond to a topic that is has many followers, your writing will continue to receive readers over long periods of time. You may get a big spike at the start, you may not, but you will have an ongoing readership if it’s quality content. This simply isn’t true of all platforms.
#5. You Can Republish Content
As a Quora writer, your content is your own. You can even select if the content you publish on Quora can be republished or not on other sites. Whatever you chose, if you publish something on Quora and then in six months wish to publish it on your blog, you are free to do so.
#6. Some Responses May Be Republished on Major Platforms
Quora has a content publishing team. This team is responsible for seeking out good content that is published on the platform, and considering this for editorial on some of Quora’s partner sites, which include Inc.com and Huffington Post. If the publishing team like specific content, they may contact the author to seek their permission for republishing. Whether the author chooses to republish or not, it is always nice feedback to receive.
I hope you found this post useful in thinking about whether you might give Quora a try.
