This week’s presentation, given by content creator Sean Kernan, might have been my favorite so far. With us, he explored the topic of Quora, an American question-and-answer forum website founded in June of 2009. Quora is a website I’ve never actively sought out before, but rather a website I’ve stumbled across whilst looking for answers on Google. Upon visiting their website, you are prompted to make an account, which then allows you to follow different topics to personalize your feed. After learning a bit more about it, I’d definitely like to take the site into consideration more often and look at more of what it has to offer. 

Sean currently works as a full-time content creator for Quora, and has created a great amount of articles and other useful content over his years. He finds that it is a great way to make money on his own terms and he is currently generating around 6,000 views a day, whereas when he first started, he found readers to be uninterested with his writing. Something that stood out to me that Sean shared were his 2 aspects of content creating. The first aspect is crucial and the most important: what are you writing? Deciding the idea, topic, or subject of your writing is the main focus. Sean gave us the ‘fat race horse’ example; a fat, lethargic race horse won’t be very good competition in a horse race, just as a bad story won’t be good competition either. Having said so, it’s important to make sure your content on Quota isn’t just fluff and is actually an intriguing story, which is easier to find than you may think. Sean noted that he is always on the lookout for stories, and finds them everywhere. The second aspect of content creating is deciding if you will be niche or not. This is important for creating your brand – do you always want to write about a specific thing, or will you cover a broad range of topics? Sean stayed broad for his first year writing for Quora, but now does research and fact-based content.

Apart from the basics, we were able to learn a few tips and tricks to create strong writing for Quora and give the people what they want. One tip that I think is really important and I can personally relate to is ‘writing in small spaces’. The main goal of this tactic is to keep your readers’ attention span – this can be achieved by breaking up sentences, avoiding large and excessive words, and steering clear of fluff. Additionally, it’s essential to remember that your first sentence is always your most important! Seeing as it’s the first thing your readers will take in, it’s in charge of hooking them and sets them up for the rest of the content. Having said this, don’t forget to end with a powerful sentence; a strong start needs a strong finish! After posting, Sean mentions sticking to the golden metric – if he can’t convert 1 up-vote for every 40 views, he deletes the post. He’s followed this metric for almost a year, and it’s been a game changer.

Finally, Sean left us with a few pointers on what to avoid, and what to embrace. Staying drama free is key – sometimes drama can be enticing, but we’ll save that for the tabloids. When writing for Quora, avoiding politics, clickbait, and overwritten platform culture is the best route to take. As far as what works, he actually recommended embracing the cringe of the past, which I’ve never thought of before. Your old content, though it may make you wince, shows you how far you’ve come, and can even give you pointers on how to grow stronger.

Overall, Quora steadily on the rise, and I do hope more people come to find what it actually has to offer. The most important question remains: what does this mean for advertisers? Needless to say, content creators would be able to tie back any advertising to their posts, so I’m sure influencer marketing comes into play. Additionally, Quora has their own specific way to advertise. It comes in handy as people turn to Quora for reliable information, so advertising through Quora is a great way to be exposed in a legitimate light. This article gives powerful insight on how advertisers can use Quora to the best of their ability, and why digital advertisers need to get on the Quora train. I’m looking forward to further exploring the site and seeing what else it has in store.