How to make an effective Quora profile?
2018 — I started writing on Quora to drive traffic to my website, and hope that some of these visitors turn up as customers.
It was a long shot, but somewhere I had a feeling that it’ll work just fine, and with that, I started writing. I didn’t want fame or followers, all I wanted was the attention that’ll convert into transactions.
250 answers later, I reached 7.5 Million views on my Quora profile, and in the past 3 years, Quora has been very generous in sending High-Quality traffic to Stoned Santa, which has resulted in lakhs of revenue, and 1000s of customers.
In this blog, I attempt to share my learnings as a writer, and a reader using some examples of Quorans who can be called “Legends”, and it’ll still be an understatement.
Let’s start with an example of an ideal Quora profile that is loved by almost every active member on Quora — Sir Balaji Viswanathan. He has been Quora Top Writer for 6 consecutive years — 2013–’18.
Balaji is one of the oldest writers(in experience, not age) on the platform, and he majorly writes about India, Indian Politics, and related topics, and his answers gather millions of views.
If Balaji writes an answer to a question, people stop and pay close attention, that is his aura, but what makes his profile stand out, and what makes him so much respected?
- His knowledge backed by his years of experience — Highlighted in the Credentials section
- Clearly marked Bio, along with description — He is the CEO of Invento Robotics, is an active writer, and has authored a book — “From Tryst to Tendulkar”
- 5400 answers, 388.1 M content views, and ~594,000 followers
Looking at Balaji’s profile, we can notice that his work and his answers have been the reason he’s received so much applause and love from readers like us.
Imagine writing 5400 answers, and I can tell you this from experience — None of his answers are shallow, or written in a hurry. This kind of consistency and quality will be rewarded by any platform, not just Quora!
Now we come back to the question — What makes a good Quora profile stand out?
A good Quora profile is valued mainly based on the Quality of their content and their consistency levels. But there are always exceptions when a certain viral answer has changed the course of direction for some Quora profiles.
In the following image, you can see the main points that affect the visibility of a profile on Quora —
Next, we have — Sean Kernan, who is lovingly called — “Son of Quora”, but is killing it here on Medium as well.
His profile is short, crisp, and one of the most diverse and lateral profiles I have come across. He writes about almost anything and still manages to hold his readers' attention and turn them into fans.
Sean Kernan’s Quora fans followed him to Medium seeding his initial growth, and today he’s progressed to be one of the top writers here as well.
Outlier Quora Profiles —
Now after all the advice I’ve given out, please remember that — “Every advice is Incomplete advice”, and the only thing that truly stands out and is of utmost importance is — “Your Content”.
Quora legends such as Anubhav Jain, or sir Gopalkrishna Vishwanath are outliers who are known for their thoughts, and writing. These legends have minimal profiles, and all their focus is on writing, and not overloading their profile visitors with information.
If you’re here on Quora to share your knowledge, and interact with other smart people on the platform, and do not want to spend time adding a lot of details to make your profile look aesthetically pleasing — It’s okay.
Many individuals are just super good at what they write, and that is all it takes for readers to follow them.
Let’s take an example of another Quora profile that I absolutely love — Sunny Dhondkar. He is one of the finest examples of “Quality over Quantity”.
When I discovered his answer, I was blown away by the simplicity in his explanation and the beauty in his thought process.
Sunny sometimes takes weeks or even months to write one answer and looking at his profile — The reader will get a gist of Sunny’s life without a single scroll, infact the information out here will get the reader to dive deep, and read most of what he’s written.
Quora is a platform with millions of active users, and if you aspire to write, take the leap of faith and get started.
Finally, if you’ve enjoyed the blog so far and wish to know more about “How to create and optimize your Quora Profile”, here’s a video that talks about these things in much more detail.
If you decide to watch it, do drop in a review. It’d mean the world to me.
Until then, I hope you have fun building your profile.
