How I Generated 1 Million+ Views on Quora in 2020
And how you can do it too
Just like every other soul on this planet, I’d always wanted to be a millionaire as well. Little did I know that I’d earn my first millionaire status on an online writing platform. That too during one of the worst recorded years in the history of this century (for now at least).
A lot of people did a lot of things in 2020. A few friends of mine got axed. Many of them learned new skills. Some got married to start their “new lives”. And a few got into depression.
When the pandemic started, I knew little of how the rest of the year would turn out to be. I’d never imagined that i would eventually be able to use the year to my advantage and generate a million content views on an online community I’ve been writing on since 5 years now.
And what good is a millionaire if he cannot help others become millionaires too? So here’s a list of 7 Things I did, and you can too, in order to achievea “millionaire status” on Quora.
#1 → I chose 5 Categories I knew Enough About
In the past, I’d tried to write haphazardly about interesting topics like Sex, Science Fiction, Star Wars. And those turned out to be the worst written as well as performing answers. Why? Because I knew nothing about the,
The most important thing I learned from writing the last 5 years is that when it comes to non-fiction, you cannot write about what is not inside of you.
Even if you are researching about a brand new topic to write, you need to first properly imbibe it inside your system. You need to relate it to things you already know about. Append it with your own and personal thoughts and opinions. Give it a voice of its own.
Which is why, I chose 5 topics I knew best about, which were of great and deep interest to me, which I’d experienced 1st hand. All my answers were somewhere around these 5 topics, and trust you me, that really helped:
- Life Lessons
- Personal Finance
- Corporate Life
- Psychology of Everyday Life
- Friends (TV Series)
#2 → I tried to put Purple Cows in my Content
I was fortunate enough to read Seth Godin’s master piece in marketing — Purple Cow — this year. He describes a purple cow as something extremely unique; something you cannot get your eyes off of. You see white cows, and they are normal and boring. You see a purple cow, and you are fascinated !
I tried to use the same phenomenon in the content of my answers i wrote as well. Before answering any question, I tried to glance through almost all other answers written my different authors. I did that not with the intention of knowing what to write about; but rather; what not to write about.
Since it had already been written by someone else (a white cow). Embedding such purple cows in the form of catchy, unheard of and unique content pieces helped me establish myself as a unique writer.
#3 → I accepted Pareto’s 80/20 Rule
There are 2 things which a re permanent in this world : Death and Taxes. If there were a third, it has to be the Pareto’s Principle. It simply states that 80% of the output comes from 20% of the input.
Like 80% of the work(that matters) in an organization is done by 20% of the employees. 80% of all your problems are coming from 20% of all your dragons. 80% of crimes are committed by 20% of criminals.
Learning about this principle helped me understand and pre-accept that each answer I’d write cannot be a home-run. And that’s exactly how it turned out to be. Out of the 100 answers I wrote in the year, 20% of them went massively viral; fetching around 80% of the total traction for the year.
You might be wondering what was the point of even writing the rest of the 80% or 80 answers then. Well here’s the rub — if I’d written only 20, I could have never known back then that these 20 would be home runs.
Accepting Pareto’s law helped me remove the anxiety while writing and before publishing. I became more fluid with my answers when I got rid of the hesitation to hit home runs with every answer.
#4 → I Tried to Engineer Virality
Very few writers know that your content virality can actually be engineered. There are books written about the topic which are viral in themselves. One of these books which I read this year was Jonah Berger’s marvelous book: Contagious : Why Things Catch On.
Subtle tricks like like a catchy headline, very interesting first couple of sentences, unconventional content, click-bait images, and emotion provoking storytelling are some of the many tools writers use to engineer their answers in a way which can fetch virality. Only the right combination though can serve the purpose though.
Reading and understanding about these little tips and tricks , I tried to engineer it as much as possible in my answers. At times, they worked. At times, they didn’t. But I slowly tried to understand what works and what does not.
I can now, almost every time, understand the intention of the “why” behind a certain content piece being written in a certain way by a certain someone.
#5 → I tried to write Perennial Content
You know what’s common between the book Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck and How to Win Friends and Influence People? Both have 30k+ reviews on Amazon. You know what’s the difference? Only one of those books is evergreen (can and will be read again a generation later).
Here’s an interesting thing about online content — most of the impressions it gets in the form of views, likes, upvotes and shares die down after the 1st week. Something interesting pops up, gets read and people move in to read something else.
Which is becomes extremely important to write a few content pieces, which stand the test of time. These pieces are perennial and would keep fetching you traction over months and years after being published.
I tried to intentionally write a few pieces of perennial content, which do not just give me a grand opening, but also would be evergreen enough to be read again and again by even the same users. One of the best ways to do it is to write about topics which have massive fan following. Like the Tv Series — F.R.I.E.N.D.S.
#6 → I chose Quality over Quantity
Quora is massive. 300 Million Active users can ask 40 questions each every single day and answer 50. If even 10% of the active users ask and answer 1 question each day, that’s 30 Million Content Pieces added every single day.
Inside this Pacific Ocean of questions and answers, your drop of content can so easily and rapidly get lost. Statistically, each answer you write has 1/100000th probability of being a loser than a winner. Which is why it’s important to write good quality answers.
I chose the questions to answer very wisely in the first place. I also chose to answer them in very unique ways. The more interesting your answer is, the better are the chances of them getting more views. Rather than answering 1000 questions haphazardly, I chose only 100 and generated a million views from them.
#7 → I wrote for People; Not for Myself
The number 1 mistake I see writers on Quora doing every single day is thinking about themselves, rather than the audience, when answering a question. Such type of content is bound to get lost. Even collapsed as a matter of fact.
When you write on online platforms, it is important to have a picture of the audience you are speaking to. Ask yourself questions: What would this person want to read? Would they enjoy reading this? Would they even read this answer till the end? Are they gaining anything out of it?
Stepping out of yourself in order to write about yourself or anything worked like a charm for me.
Conclusion
And that’s how I did it. 2020 gave me the opportunity to earn a Million Content views on my Quora Answers.
I know it’s not “that big” of an achievement. Yet, it’s something I can boast about for at least for today.
Because when I think of a million, I think of 50 stadiums with over 20,000 people in each one.
Yes. That’s how many people viewed my answers at least once. And I don’t know about you. But knowing that, makes me happy.
