Today I want to show you how I became an influencer in digital publishing on quora in less than 24 hours. so before anything else here’s proof that it’s possible in a short amount of time to become an influencer on any subject.
The secret to becoming an influencer on quora has less to do with actually have an influence or a lot of knowledge around a certain subject matter and more to do with strategically answering questions on very specific topics.
The nice thing about this strategy is anybody can do it on almost any subject in the world and really quickly become influential and start using that influence for build your personal brand or your business.
I’ll teach you exactly how to answer questions, how to choose the right questions to answer, and how to choose the right topics to become an influencer in less than 24 hours.
How to choose the right topic
For my example, I chose digital publishing because I had a client that was looking to influence self-published authors and those writers interested in digital publishing. I also chose digital publishing because it had a very high follower count as well as a very low view count for the top 10 most viewed writers.
It’s important to find topics with lots of followers so you can quickly get the views necessary to rank in the top 10 most viewed writers, however, we’re also looking for topics where the 8-10 most viewed writers have less than 2,000 views
Let’s go into Quora and start searching for topics. Quora has thousands of topics so if your particular subject matter expertise is very competitive, it’s fairly easy to find less competitive related topics.
With our strategy the goal is to rank number one for a few very popular questions. so for example, I started with the topic Writer & Authors, but found that Digital Publishing was much less competitive. When I searched the 10 most viewed writers in digital publishing I found these examples of writers who had ranked for very few questions yet we’re still in the top 10.
This tells me I can answer a few most-viewed questions and quickly rank in the top 10 without having a lot of experience in this particular topic. Next up, I’ll show you how to choose the right questions to quickly rank ahead of the competition and become an influential writer on any given subject.
How to choose which questions to answer
When you are looking for good questions to answer within your given topic it’s important that the questions, just like your topic, have a high view count as well as fewer responders. for example, I look for questions that have between 5 and 10,000 views, were asked in the last month to 3 months, and have top-ranking answers with a low upvote count (<20) or poor formatting. (Ideally both!)
By looking for questions like these I was able to quickly find some that were very popular but not very competitive. another thing to watch out for is questions that have a top answer from a very influential writer. Make note of the top writers in the most-viewed writer section of Quora because it’s likely you will not outrank this writer for the top answer to any question.
Now that we found a few easy to answer questions it’s time to format our answers and do a little research in order to create a top-ranking answer that will last for a long time.
How to get upvotes on Quora
On Quora, it’s important to format questions so they receive upvotes. In my experience as a direct mail copywriter, here are a few tips that will grab a reader’s attention:
- Make it skimmable – easy to digest responses are usually better ranking.
- Make it bold – bold one or two sentences to draw attention to the good stuff
- Make it brief – keep paragraphs short 1-3 sentences
- Make it pretty – use proper spacing between paragraphs
- Make it useful – avoid long ugly links, try linking a brand name instead
- Make it personal – speak like you’re talking to a friend, use first person voice
- Make it stand out – Don’t be afraid of using photos or charts to make it stand out.
In addition to these suggestions I have a few tried-and-true methods that will help you quickly rank at the top of your target questions. The first method is called the summary method.
The Summary Method
The summary method involves reading all of the answers on the thread and creating a short summary of everyone’s answer on that thread. Typically, when I’m using this approach it’s because several of the responders have used almost the exact same response or I’m seeing similar ideas expressed in different ways by various writers. Usually this method also involves mentioning some of the other writers in hopes that they’ll upvote my response because it summarizes very quickly all of the ideas mentioned within the thread. the summary response look something like this:
The Update Method
The update method is used for questions where the top response is extremely outdated. all used this approach if I noticed the information has changed since the top response was given and all typically start off this response by highlighting the fact that a lot has changed since the original answer was given on quora many years, months, or weeks ago. The summary approach has been very effective for me in the past and led to my top ranking response on quora.
Finally, the last approach I’ve used with great success is called the Link Bomb Method.
The Link Bomb Method
Similar to dropping a like bomb on Facebook, the Link Bomb method involves overwhelming your thread with relevant links. I use this method when questions are searching for a very specific answer typically a link. By overwhelming the thread with relevant links it shows not only that you’ve done your research, but also helps your answer standout because of sheer length.
In the past, I’ve found that my list of relevant links is useful for more than one question. So I’ll change the introductory paragraph to address the specific question and reuse a long list of relevant links. This is useful for answering more than one question very quickly. Here’s an example of the link bomb method in action:
Bonus Quora Strategies
Finally, I wanted to leave you with some strategies that can help you rank for topics without answering a single new question on Quora. Yes, it’s true you, don’t even have to write new responses to become influential in certain categories. However, you do have to have some experience on Quora for this method to work.
A quick way to get upvotes on your already existing answers is to follow writers within the same category that have low influence. Oftentimes these writers are more likely to follow you back and also upvote your latest responses. typically I will look for writers that ranked below me in a new category after I’ve submitted a response or two. By following all of those writers not only are you able to get new followers, but you can also receive upvotes on your latest responses.
The second method is closely related to the first, and it’s very simple. All you have to do is invite those writers who’ve followed you back to vote for their favorite response to a question on quora you’ve answered. It’s against the rules of Quora to ask anyone to upvote your answer, so we’re specifically asking them to look at a question that we’ve answered and vote for the best answer.
I found even with complete strangers when they look at a question that you’ve answered and you’ve left a well-formatted answer, it’s likely to receive an upvote.
My favorite strategy is also the laziest strategy. All you have to do is go into Quora, find questions you’ve already answered and are ranking #1 for and that are somewhat related to a topic you would like to be influential in, and add your target topic to the list of topics for that question.
This way you don’t have to create any new content, but you can still become influential in any topic in a very short amount of time. What do you think?
I’d love to hear how you are using quora to drive traffic to your website and to gain influence. If you have any additional Quora strategies or you tried any of my strategies please let me know in the comments.