The Freelancer Marketing Guide to Quora

If you’ve been wondering how to use Quora effectively as a freelancer, then you’re in the right place. In this guide, we’re going to show you how to:

Build trust, authority, and credibility on Quora
Promote yourself on Quora without selling out
Grow your freelance business with Quora

By the end, you’ll have all the information you need to create a thriving freelance business using Quora as its backbone.

First though, let’s start with the basics.

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Part 1 – Quora: a Quick Introduction

What is Quora?

Most people know that Quora is a question-and-answer site. But do you know its history, and just how successful it is now? Quora was founded in 2010 by former Facebook CTO Adam D’Angelo as a community-based question-and-answer site. However, his goal was to provide a site where community members wanted to provide high-quality responses in order to build their own reputations as experts.

From the start, Quora was tremendously successful, attracting a user base that included people who were at the top of their fields. Early contributors to the site included Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and venture capitalist Mark Andreesen.

The site has remained popular. According to Quora founder & CEO Adam D’Angelo, as of June 2017 the English-language Quora boasted over 200 million unique monthly visitors. And SimilarWeb reports over 470 million visitors for the month of December 2017 with an average visit duration of about 2 and a half minutes.

This means that not only are people visiting the site for information, they’re sticking around to read it, and that’s one reason why it’s a great place to build your reputation as a Fiverr freelancer.

Why Quora Should Matter to Freelancers

Here’s why Quora is such a useful site for freelancers, and why it’s the ideal place to build your profile as a Fiverr freelancer.

First, answers to questions have become an important part of Google search results (SERPs), so it’s no surprise that Quora answers get plenty of Google love. The top-ranked search results get the lion’s share of clicks to any site. That means answering questions that relate to your freelance niche is a great way to drive targeted traffic to your Fiverr seller profile and your Gigs.

quora organic results

Second, because you can get a ton of referral traffic from Quora as a result. Ethically promoting your Gigs (we’ll show you how later) can bring targeted traffic straight to your seller profile.
Third, Quora is built around subject matter experts (SMEs): people with deep knowledge of their niches. As an expert, you’ll likely combine knowledge of a topic with experience in the topic, and be able to help others by sharing that knowledge so they can apply it. The more you communicate with people on Quora and share your knowledge, the more you will be perceived as an expert.

But there’s one important factor to note. Because Quora emphasizes the quality of both questions and answers, and because users and contributors upvote and downvote responses accordingly, it’s important to double-check any facts you cite in your responses. If you’re going to use Quora to build your business, you want to be seen as reliable, authoritative and trustworthy. We’ll look at that in more depth in Part 2.

DOs and DON’Ts on Quora

Quora’s got some clear rules about behavior on the site. Their overall acceptable use policy comes under the heading BNBR, or “Be nice, be respectful”. Other key tenets of the policy include:

As a Quora member you must use your own legal identity
Members must never violate others’ intellectual property (IP) rights. That means using your own thoughts and phrasing answers in your own words. If you mention other people’s work, you must give credit and attribution
All conversation must be constructive and respectful
No hostility, abuse, or hate speech
No harassment or bullying
No spam; no malicious or illegal activity

This last point is important. If you’re not sure about what constitutes spam on Quora, here’s the official word: spam is “one or more questions, answers, posts, comments, or messages whose purpose appears to be to direct traffic to external commercial sites while providing little to no value back to the Quora Community”.

Next, let’s look at what’s involved in becoming an authoritative, credible, and trusted Quora contributor.

Part 2 – How to Build Trust, Authority, and Credibility as a Quora Contributor.

There are five steps to building trust as a Quora contributor:

Create your profile

Track topics

Find questions to answer

Answer with authority

Format your answers correctly

We’ll look at each of these in turn.

How to Create the Optimal Quora Profile

Your Quora profile is the feature that lets people know you’re an expert in your field. The first step in making your Quora profile stand out is to write an eye-catching headline (called a “profile credential”) that’s relevant to the subject matter you’ll be writing about. This will show up wherever your profile is displayed on Quora.

If you’re an expert in multiple topics, try including the different keywords separated by the pipeline character, like this: “writer | civil rights advocate | marketing consultant”. The headline doesn’t contain clickable links, so don’t bother to include them here. As you’ll see, you will be able to include clickable links in the profile summary.

Your profile summary is what people will see when they click through to learn more about you. This is a great place to tell your story, so people know why they can trust you and what makes you an expert. Within the profile summary you can create lists and use formatting like bold and italics to make particular areas stand out.

Start by making your summary as interesting as possible, and include social proof in the form of awards, publications, and other honors that show you are trustworthy. Don’t be afraid to sprinkle in a little humor to reflect your personality in the profile.

You can also add other profile credentials for education, employment, location, topics and languages. These appear in the Credentials and Highlights area on your Quora profile page. This is a good place to claim the topics you want to answer questions about. For each, you can also add a line describing your experience of the topic. This serves as a custom bio highlighting your expertise for that topic, and will appear when you answer questions on that topic.

As we said, you can include links to your blog or your Fiverr seller profile in the profile summary, as long as those links aren’t spammy. We’ve seen Quora profiles with multiple links, so don’t be afraid to include more than one. To make those links more appealing, use long-tail keywords related to your niche. That will encourage anyone who reads your profile to follow the links back to your Fiverr profile.

Finally, add a high-quality photo of yourself (perhaps the one you use on your other social media profiles) and link your social media accounts. Being present in multiple locations online reinforces the trust factor.

Search and Track Topics with Notifications

As mentioned earlier, Quora is divided into communities built around different topics. That makes it easy to find a ready-made community, and potential market, no matter what your niche is.

There are dozens of topics, and you can see a full list on the site’s sitemap. A good shortcut to building your Quora expert status quickly is to contribute to the most popular topics, provided, of course, that they match up with your expertise.

Some popular topics which would be a good fit for Fiverr freelancers include:

Technology, the most popular topic with 40.5 million followers

Business (#9), with 24.8 million followers

Marketing (#23), with 10.9 million followers

See more popular topics in this Quora list from Martin Silvertant.

You can also find topics by using the Quora onsite search box. Start typing a topic name, and Quora will autosuggest topic names preceded with “TOPIC”. Once you find a topic that suits your needs, click on it, then click the “Follow” button on the center of the page just below the header.

You’ll want to be alerted when there are new questions to answer. To do this, click on your profile picture, then select “Settings” from the dropdown menu. Click “Email and notifications”, then choose the notifications you get.

Find the Best Questions to Answer for Maximum Visibility

It pays to be selective about which questions you answer because if you answer questions nobody cares about, you won’t get visitors, or the results you need. The first step is to figure out how many people are following each question.

To get this information, click on the question that interests you. Then, look in the right sidebar of the page. Just after the “related questions” section, there’s a section called “question stats”, where you can see the number of followers. Ahfaz Ahmed suggests you look for recent questions which are already being followed by at least 500 people.

As well as the number of followers, the number of answers is another important factor in choosing the right questions to answer. Neil Patel suggests that you bypass questions that already have more than 10 answers – yours is unlikely to stand out. But Imran Esmail says “Big Game” questions, which are followed by tens of thousands of people, are a goldmine, because those followers will get a notification when you post your answer – and some of those people may choose to follow you or connect with you in some way.

Tip: Don’t answer every question. As we said, it’s best to find questions that have few answers and a lot of followers, as this will ensure that more people see your answer. And only answer questions where you really have the knowledge and expertise to create an in-depth response. Only the best answers get up-voted, so if your answer isn’t valuable, you’re wasting your time.

Answer Questions with Authority

When you answer questions on Quora, remember that you’re considered an expert, so it’s fine – and even expected – that you’ll have a point of view on the question you’re answering.

However, make sure you back up any statements with data. Answers that are blatantly self-promotional will hurt your credibility. You can also increase the value of your answers with images and links, as Derek Wasiuk points out.

Keep answers relevant and valuable so you’ll get more upvotes. Answers are arranged by the number of upvotes, so the more upvotes, the more visibility, and the more potential benefit for your Fiverr freelance profile.

Use Eye-Catching Formatting for Your Answers

Finally, there’s formatting. As with all online reading, you want to avoid the “wall of text” syndrome. To make your answers more readable:

Keep paragraphs short

Vary sentence length

Use rich text formatting (like bold and italics) to highlight key ideas and concepts

Use blockquotes for quoted text

You can also tag other users with the @ character. We’ll talk more about why this is useful later.

Learn more about formatting answers from Quora’s official guidelines.

Part 3. Selling Yourself on Quora Without Selling Out

Once you’ve set up your Quora account, established your expertise, and started to answer questions, it’s time to take your promotion to the next level. In line with Quora’s guidelines, you have to be able to promote your freelance business without crossing the line into spammy marketing. Here are 7 steps to doing just that.

Build a Quora Blog In Line with Your Gig Topic

You already know that blogging is an excellent way to build authority and get your business known, but did you know you can actually get those same benefits by blogging on Quora?

For best results, build a blog that matches the topic you’re an expert in, which will also match the types of Gigs you’ve created on Fiverr. So, if you’re offering web design services on Fiverr, and are answering questions about web design on Quora, then your Quora blog will likely be about web design.

To start a blog, click on your profile name, then click on the Blogs link. Next, click Create a Blog. You’ll see a box where you can give your blog a title, choose a URL, and write a short description. All blogs have the quora.com suffix, but you can choose the main keyword if it hasn’t already been used. Pick something relevant to your topic if you can. This will make it easy for people to find your blog.

After that, you just blog as normal, giving your posts catchy titles and creating valuable content. And, of course, you can promote your Quora blog via all the usual channels, such as social media. Some blogs are followed by thousands of people, so don’t neglect this chance to promote your business.

Structure Your Answers to Attract Traffic And Upvotes

To use Quora effectively to promote yourself as a freelancer, it’s essential to write your answers the right way. There are several ways to do this.

If you have a blog, one of the best ways is to write a brief Quora answer and link to a post at the end. This works well if you have existing content that expands on the answer you give on Quora. All you have to do is find those questions on Quora then share your answers, and link back to the old post.

Tip: Don’t copy the post into a new article on Quora. You don’t want to be penalized for duplicate content. And be sure to disclose your authorship when you link to the post.

Don’t worry; even if you don’t have a blog, you can still get the same benefits by writing an expanded answer on the Quora site. You may be able to refer to your Gig, but make sure any links you include are truly relevant, otherwise you will contravene the site’s ethical guidelines.

quora legit internal link

Create a Topic Page Related to Your Gig or Niche

If you’re smart, you can create a topic around your area of expertise. All you have to do is:

Check that nobody’s already created the topic you want by searching Quora
Follow the link to create a new topic which comes up if you don’t find what you’re looking for
Create a topic and add a description and more details
See this Quora answer from Lorenzo Peroni for a detailed walkthrough

Leverage Your Power to Ask

It’s important to remember that on Quora, questions are just as important as answers. In fact, some people think questions are MORE important.

Asking questions can help you research your market, as Greenroad founder Hod Fleishman points out: “For a business or a business leader, having the knowledge of which are the key questions driving his/her business provides a great advantage.”

What kind of questions should you ask? According to Animaker, the best questions aren’t leading questions; instead, they are questions that ask why, and invite a deeper dialogue. Here are some tips to help you get more from asking questions on Quora.

First, post questions that relate to your Gig topic. Make sure they’re interesting so people feel compelled to answer. We’ll look at how to do that in more detail in Part 4.

Make sure your questions are:
- Complete questions (and just ONE question)
- Open-ended, for example, starting with “why”, “how” or “what”
- Grammatically correct
- Simple and easy to understand
The answers to well-designed questions can help you learn more about your customers’ problems so you can solve those problems with your freelance Gig. In fact, one good way to come up with questions is to put yourself in your customers’ shoes and think about what they might ask. Even better, you can then answer the question yourself – that’s totally allowed!

Asking questions also helps you crowdsource blog content. For example, you can create an article from the answers to your question, then return to Quora to share a summary and thank all the participants. This is an excellent way to grow your network. Similarly, you can use Quora questions for content ideas, then come back and share the final product.

Quora Link-Building Best Practices

For best results when linking out on Quora, link only once per answer, only when necessary and only when it’s natural within the context of your answer. When choosing links, it’s fine to link to authority sites that will add value to your answers, but keep your own links to a minimum, especially links referring to your Gig or seller profile. Remember Quora’s BNBR policy: if they think you are spamming, you might get banned.

With the right linking strategy you should end up getting referral traffic to your Fiverr profile or website. Since people are on Quora because they are interested in information, they’ll be inclined to follow relevant links.

When you highlight text in Quora, you have two options for what to do next. You can either create a footnote, which appears at the bottom of your answer in small print, or you can create an actual link. This is a better option, as it’s much more visible.

Provide Customer Support; Help People Solve Their Problems

Just as you solve people’s problems on your Fiverr profile, you can do the same on Quora. People with questions have problems, and you can help and engage them with your answers. Respond to commenters and make it clear that you can help so you can open a dialogue. If they’re interested – and only if – you can share a link to your seller’s page.

Answer questions about your brand if you have one, and let people know you’re a bona fide representative so people associate you with the brand and trust you.

Part 4. How to Use Quora to Grow Your Business

Now that you know how to promote your services via Quora, here’s how you take it to the next level and grow your business.

Use Quora to Get New Gig Ideas

The best way to get people interested in your Gigs is to ensure that they provide what buyers want. Quora provides a golden opportunity to do this. As we’ve mentioned, it’s an excellent way to get new ideas for services – and Gig extras – from potential customers by using their questions as a starting point.

For example, you can follow topics related to your service or niche, and pay particular attention to questions that start with “how do I” or “how can I”. These clearly identify services people need – and if they’re in your niche, you can offer them.

You can even create related content for your blog or Quora blog, to go into more detail about what this service entails. Of course, you’ll need to keep enough information in reserve to make customers want to connect with you.

Don’t Self-Promote

It’s worth repeating that outright self-promotion will hurt your freelance business, but if you provide valuable answers to the Quora community, you’ll build trust, and people will see you as an authority and will naturally want to use your services. Here’s the important thing: there are no shortcuts. You have to provide well-researched, truly useful answers to benefit the community, so you can reap the rewards in terms of more Gigs. The most in-depth answers elicit the most trust, so don’t skimp on the research. Add stats and data to back up your claims.

Use Google Alerts

Want a free way to stay up to date on your competition? Set up a Google Alert with the query “Quora Fiverr”, and you’ll get email updates whenever Fiverr’s mentioned on Quora. This search will tell you who else is posting, so you’ll see who your competitors are.

You can also use this information to start topics for your areas of expertise, as described earlier, and build your online reputation with your answers.

Another way to get this information is to use IFTTT to keep track of industry news. See this guide from HubSpot for some IFTTT hacks you can use.

Build Real Relationships

Here are some more ideas for working with influencers to build your business. As well as citing influencers in your content – who doesn’t love a good mention? – take the time to follow them. Thank them if they upvote your answers, and reach out via private message to explore cross-promotion opportunities. If the influencers are struggling with issues – you’ll know by following their questions – create content on Quora that helps them. Over time you may be able to get some free publicity, via mentions, interviews or guest posts.

You can also find out who’s writing on your topics and see if they have a blog or Quora blog. Share and curate their content with a link back. When they know, they may return the favor.

Spend Time on Quora

It may be obvious, but executing this strategy means spending time on Quora – you won’t build credibility in a day. It takes time to create meaningful interactions with other Quora users, and those are the ones that will give you the most benefit in the long term. Spend just as much time creating content for Quora. As SEMRush points out, Quora’s currency is quality, well-written responses. Take time to do this well.

Track Your Results and Modify When Necessary

If you have a blog or website, it’s a good idea to keep track of your results to ensure that Quora really is working for you. One way to do this is via Google Analytics, which you should already be using to track visitor numbers on your website.

You can see if Quora is sending traffic to your blog by going to Acquisition – All Traffic – Referrals. Quora should appear on the list, and you can click on the name to get more detail on which pages it’s sending traffic to. That’s a great way to gauge which answers are working best for you, so you can replicate their success.

Quora referral traffic

If you don’t have a blog, Quora also provides its own stats. To find these, go to your profile image and click the stats link. You’ll be able to see recent and all-time stats for your Quora profile. To the left, there’s a list of your answers, ranked from the most viewed downwards.

Promote Your Topic Via Email and Social

As a Fiverr freelancer, it’s important to keep promoting your topic, because promoting your topic will help you get visibility for your Gigs. One excellent way to do that is with email marketing, which is both affordable and effective. More than 90% of people use email, so it’s a great way to get your message out. And it’s easy to get started.

You can set up your email list with MailChimp, which is free for up to 2000 subscribers, and use its wizards and templates to create a newsletter. Then you can email your new subscribers, and share information relevant to your topic and your Gigs, including new questions you have answered on Quora and relevant resources.

You can also promote your topic and new answers via social media. Make sure you add your social accounts to your Quora profile. To do that, click on your profile image and go to settings. Scroll down and you’ll be able to add Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to Quora. Then you can click the links to follow your connections on Quora to build your network even more.

Add Quora to your about and contact pages on your website, and mention it wherever you have a profile online. This will make it easy for people to find and share the information you provide.

Conclusion

That’s it! Now you know exactly how to use Quora to build your Fiverr freelance business by becoming an authoritative and trustworthy source. Over time, Quora can funnel interested clients who already know the value you bring, and are eager to use your services to meet their own business needs. To put this advice into practice, make sure you have already created gigs on Fiverr, and improved your Fiverr profile. Good luck!