What is Quora?

Founded in 2009, Quora is a social network based around knowledge.

Users of the site may post questions, which anyone may then answer. Users also have the option to request answers from specific users if they like, and Quora will also prompt users who have previously answered questions on the same subject to attempt to answer. These questions and answers make up the social networks feed for individual users.

A Quora Feed

Answers to questions can then be upvoted or downvoted by any logged-in user. This is so that the top answers will be shown more often to other users reading that question. The idea behind this is to promote the best answer to any question.

There is also a commenting section beneath answers (which can be switched off), in which debates over answers often occur. Comments can also be upvoted and downvoted. Popular answers are also promoted by Quora in “personalised digests” for each user, which uses categories users have previously expressed interest in to gather together answers they may want to read.

Like Yahoo! Answers before it, Quora depends on having a steady base of informed users to answer questions on a huge variety of topics. To do this, it lets users add credentials to their profile, which are shown with their answers. This encourages more professionals to answer questions they are experts in. Professional are also encouraged to answer questions as people allowed to provide links to their own companies within questions, but it is seen on Quora as a positive (as long as those links are actually helpful and relevant to the question).

Although often overlooked as a social network, Quora had over 300 monthly million active users in 2019, and is easily one of the top ten social networks.

Making money on Quora

As well as self-promotion being commonplace within Quora answers, Quora has an advertising platform. Through it you can pay to promote answers (similar to promoted tweets), or simply run text ads:

They also have a scheme called “Knowledge Prizes” where companies can offer money for the best answers to questions, with the winner of the prize being allowed to keep the money or donate it directly to charity.

On top of this, Quora operate a “Partner Program” where people are paid to ask questions – with more being paid for better questions. This scheme is only via invitation, however.

The best way to utilise Quora is simply to build your authority as an expert on there. Questions on Quora often are picked up in Google search, so by using your own content to be helpful on the platform, you can improve your search traffic as well as your social traffic.

7 Things To Know About Quora

1. It’s quite a lot like Yahoo! Answers, but as not dumb.
2. Unlike most other social networks, Quora is a good place to promote your business/website/services. As long as links within answers are useful and relevant to the question, it is fine to add them.
3. Over half of Quora users report a household income of over $100k, and 65% have a degree.
4. Quora answers often turn up in Google search results, meaning it is a great SEO tool (you can also research what articles to write by seeing what questions have been asked on there).
5. According to Alexa, Quora users skew young – almost half are 18-24, and only 4% are over 34.
6. Like Wikipedia, Quora is only as reliable as the people adding information. Always check the credentials of any writers whose answers you are relying on.
7. On average questions get 5 answers, and answers take on average 410 views before they get an upvote.

Summary

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