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How to Use Quora to Increase Book Sales
One thing many authors with a website struggle with is getting traffic or fans to go to it.
They write excellent content…
They post it on social media …
And nothing…
The same could be said about authors without platforms. If you aren't proactively trying to drive traffic to your book sales page, then you need to get going. Today's Amazon platform is very crowded, and no longer can you just depend on Amazon to send all of the traffic to your book. There are just too many mouths to feed. But where do you begin?
Well in this article, I am going to introduce to you a platform that has generated over 1,000+ visits to my website, and gotten over 76.7K views of my material in as little as three months. I'll also show you how it directly increased a fiction author's book sales as well.
It’s super easy to use, and the best part is that it’s totally free.
It’s called Quora .
In this article, I will show you:
- What is Quora
- How Can Authors Use Quora: Both Fiction and Non-fiction
- How to setup a Quora account the right way
- Setup, Search Tactics, Up-votes…Oh my
- How to Perform Quora Searches for your Market
- How to write Quora Responses that Convert
- What I don't like about Quora…5 months later
Table of contents
- Quora for Non-Fiction
- Quora for Fiction Writers
- For Your Website
- Create a Quora Account
- Find Threads and Topics – Where Your Fans Go
- Writing Your Response
- Getting Your Answer To The Top: Get Upvotes!
- The Good About Using Quora
- The Not So Good About Quora
- Lessons Learned and How to Succeed
Back in the day, there were websites like Ask.com, or Yahoo Answers, where people could post questions, and other users could answer them. Using a voting system, the best answers would rise to the top and stay there for others to read who have the same question.
However, over time, many of these sites closed down, stopped accepting new questions, or got punished by Google. With Google punishments, these other sites no longer show up on Google searches, or if they do, it’s rare.
However, one question/answer website that has remained and is currently thriving in Google’s world is Quora.
Now, I know what you might be thinking: “Oh yay, another social networking site to spend more of my time on.”
But unlike social media where your posts quickly disappear in less than 24 hours only requiring you to re-post something else over and over and over again, Quora answers are public for a significant period of time.
When you post an answer to someone’s question, your answer stays on that page indefinitely. Furthermore, Quora is indexed in Google. So, people typing in that question into Google search have a good chance of stumbling on that question and your answer.
How Can Authors Use Quora
Whether or not you are in fiction or non-fiction, your fans and readers are asking questions. You, as the author, need to be able to recognize what kind of questions your fans might ask…or better yet, what kind of questions lead to more sales.
This should probably be a little easier than fiction because most non-fiction is about a question.
How do I lose weight? How do I stop smoking? What happened in 1824? How do I learn…?
I think you get my drift.
Find questions that pertain to your market , and give the best answer. You’ll not only help out your target market, but you'll also be seen as an authority. Furthermore, you can drop a link to your book, or website and increase your engagements and ultimately your conversions.
For Fiction, it is a little trickier, but still well worth your time.
In most cases, people don’t just jump on and search for random book titles . Instead, they will talk about famous books. The strategy with Quora for fiction is that you find popular books that are in your genre and look for those questions.
Toby Downtown of Solarversia.com did an excellent job of recognizing that those who loved the book “ Ready Player One ” would love his book “ Solarversia .” If you don’t know, “Ready Player One” is one of my favorites as well as Pat Flynn’s and will become a movie soon at the helm of Steven Spielberg. So, you might not have heard of it yet, but soon, it will be a big deal…and early adopters like Toby will reap the benefits.
Quickly going to Quora and typing in the search phrase “Ready Player One” there are hundreds of questions dealing with this one book. Here are some JUICY questions for Toby to answer so as to get his book, name, and authority in front of his target market:
- http://www.quora.com/I-loved-the-book-Ready-Player-One-by-Ernest-Cline-Can-anyone-suggest-a-book-that-is-similar-in-nature
- http://www.quora.com/Are-there-any-great-books-involving-video-games-besides-Ready-Player-One
- http://www.quora.com/Which-actors-should-play-the-characters-in-Ready-Player-One-the-film-adaptation-of-the-book-by-Ernest-Cline
With each of them averaging around 200-400 views over the past couple of months, you can quickly see that answering these questions is probably worth the 10 minutes it would take to write a well thought out answer.
Besides, those are some excellent questions for an author to answer…and drop a link to their own book as well.
So, giving Toby an advanced copy of this article, and giving him a nudge, he created this reply and got some excellent results from just a couple of minutes of answering that one question.
Furthermore, he got the following tweet from someone he never knew.I've got a Starbucks coffee card that says that if someone would take the time to tweet their appreciation, they are also the kind that would drop a great review.
And THAT is a double score and is, therefore, my kind of marketing effort.
Was it successful? You bet.
While linking back to your book in Quora can be a direct way to make sales, sometimes the best strategy is the long one. In this case you can link back to your website, and hopefully through your excellent content, you keep them there and get them on your email list.
That's what Scott did over at Best Survival at https://bestsurvival.org/ . Answering questions, it becomes very easy to see why he's an authority in outdoors survival tactics, and equipment.
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First, you’ll need to create your account . You can use your Facebook, Google+ or email to do it.
However, once you have signed up, you need to take your time and put together a great profile that will convert. The information you place on this profile should be geared towards the type of questions you intend to answer.
If I want to drive the right kind of traffic to my website on Science Fiction, then I need to have a profile that reflects this.
For example, let’s say there is a Quora question about Science Fiction Military books and I respond with an epic answer.
If my profile says “Dave Chesson – Hair Dresser” it won’t hold as much weight as in “Dave Chesson – bestselling author in the Science Fiction genre and master of the universe” – these are both made up…in case you were wondering, only He-Man and Chuck Norris are the masters.
Your profile has to reflect the type of questions you intend to answer. This includes:
- Profile picture
- Description
- About You Section
- Knows About Section
So take the time and think about what your target market would like to see if they checked your profile out.
While in your dashboard, if you navigate to the top left, you'll see a search box. Here you can type in your genre, questions or particular keywords. Once you hit enter, Quora will find a slew of questions that meet your requirement.
Once you have answered a couple of questions in a particular category, you will start to notice that Quora users will request for you to answer their questions as well…which is nice. This is a good sign that you are being seen as an authority on the subject.
You won’t believe how many questions exist in your particular genre and how easy it is to answer them.
This is where most people on Quora make the biggest mistake.
Usually people who respond, just type something in really quick and move on.
But, to get people to take your answer seriously, and click on your links, you need to write out a well thought out response that provide real value.
So, take your time and think out your response.
Another thing is to treat it like a blog post.
Many people who stumble on Quora searching for an answer will quickly scroll through the answer options and choose one or maybe two to read.
It is for this reason that you need to structure your response so that it is appealing to their eyes. Thus, you need to make your response stick out.
You can do this by performing the following:
- Use the Header Tags : Just like a blog post, I use a header tag for my sections of the post. Do the same for your answer on Quora.
- Use Bold and Italics : Help to make certain parts stick out. Make these words things that would catch someone’s eyes like “free” or “the best”.
- Use Bullet Points and Numbered Lists : Also known as unordered lists and ordered lists. These stick out when people scroll and help to organize information quickly. Very structured, very clean.
- Upload a Picture : Pictures are the best way to makes your answer stick out as compared to the other ones. But be careful! Quora doesn't allow memes or any picture that doesn't offer obvious assistance to the question . Make sure to check out my lessons learned below on how this can hurt you if you aren't careful.
Here is are a couple of examples of my Quora responses, employing exactly these things:
What do you think? Did I nail it? If so, then an upvote is always appreciated 😉
So make sure you spend some time on your answer. It will be a big part of whether or not you will succeed with this tactic.
So what’s the point of writing a Quora answer if it sits at the bottom and no one reads it?
Well, it turns out that there are a couple of ways to get your Quora to the top, and the best way is through upvotes.
The Upvote buttons are the little boxes at the bottom of answers.
When people like your answer, they will click this box, and you will receive a +1 – sort of like Reddit. The Answer with the most upvotes will usually rise to the top.
To get more upvotes, make sure you provide an excellent response. Follow what we discussed above and ensure your response is ordered and structured for those that skim. Also, be sure to select a proper picture so as to catch their eyes and make your answer stand out.
Another way to get more upvotes is to share it with your friends and family or post it on your social media. Doing this, you can easily get 5-10 upvotes, which in most cases will get you the #1 ranking.
Like I said above, Quora has been a GREAT boost of traffic for me. Just check out those numbers.
The above picture is of my Quora Analytics showing how many people have seen my Quora answers in as little as three months. Not bad right.
But does that translate into visitors of your site or book sales page? You bet! Check out the picture below of my Analytics account for Kindlepreneur.com.
That's the number of people who read my Quora answer and then clicked on a link that sent them to my site – which I strategically place in my responses. Looking at the Bounce Rate and the Average Time on Site, I would say this is a good kind of traffic.
Plus, I'm not the only one to see that. Nick Loper, the master behind Side Hustle Nation podcast and a good friend of mine saw similar results as well as improved engagement from that form of traffic.
Now, I will admit, to build that amount of traffic I spent a lot of time on Quora. To reach that level, I had reserved a couple of hours a week so as to be able to answer questions and keep a constant presence. But, looking at the results above, I'm pretty sure it was a wise investment of my time.
I wrote the above information five months ago. I never like to just “jump into anything” and then immediately post initial success because, in marketing and self publishing books , we all take our lumps and learn from mistakes. Sometimes our initial efforts seem too good to be true…and they end up not being that great.
So, let me take a moment and tarnish Quora for a little.
It is true that the information above is correct, but here is the long term look at what that effort did for me, my sites, and my books.
I learned that Quora gives new questions a lot of love, but will quickly let your answer sink to the bottom over time. This is good and bad.
The good news is that it allows new and fresh answers to see some popularity – so don't get distraught if someone has already answered the question. The bad news is that it will cause your work not to have as much of an ROI over time 🙁
After two months of working on Quora, I stopped. When I stopped, I saw the number plummet. So, it isn't truly a passive source or asset – although still more passive than social media. At least my Quora posts provided traffic for months while my post on Facebook lasts for 24 hours.
Also, I had many of my posts removed by Quora – OUCH! Quora is very sensitive about the pictures you post and while the pictures I posted were well within their compliance requirements, someone had reported them and the appeals process takes almost a year (competitor? probably).
For example, below is a screen capture of them telling me that they removed my answer because I need to “disclose my affiliation” to Kindlepreneur.com.
Ummm…..okay?
So, much of my hard work has just ‘disappeared.'
This doesn't mean I don't love Quora as a strategy. It's perfect for those without a platform looking to build authority and gain new traffic. It's also a good source for those who do have a platform and want to find a quick and easy way to start developing sustainable traffic.
But here are the things you should keep in mind as you put forth effort:
- Keep with it and keep answering.
- Ensure you use your time wisely and answer questions that you actually know how to answer.
- You'll find better conversions when you answer questions that are asked by your TRUE target market.
- Be careful with pictures. They are super helpful but as of right now, Quora is a little illogical.
- Placing pertinent links in the answer to your website or book are vital for this strategy to actually provide you with success.
Like with any type of marketing strategy, all platforms and strategies have their pro's and con's. But the thing that separates the successful from those who fail is that success comes to those that keep trying until it works.
If you decide you want to work on Quora, then put forth a full effort. Don't just answer a question and then complain it didn't work. Don't just answer a couple of questions in one day and stop. Set aside some time, work with it, experiment and find out what works.
As you can see, Quora can be a powerful way to get a source of passive traffic to your website or book's sales page.
Just sit down for a couple of hours, set up a targeted profile, and answer some questions.
Just start writing.
It’s that simple.
And while you’re at it, check out my profile and follow me so as to see exactly how I got those high click rates and learn by example as I go through navigating Quora and its many opportunities.
Also, if you post a Quora answer, let me know in the comments! I'll make sure to hop on over, check it out, and drop you an upvote. Again, a little extra something for you crazy peeps who read all the way through to the bottom of this ginormously long, Moby Dick sized post.
Dave Chesson
When I’m not sipping tea with princesses or lightsaber dueling with little Jedi, I’m a book marketing nut. Having consulted multiple publishing companies and NYT best-selling authors, I created Kindlepreneur to help authors sell more books. I’ve even been called “The Kindlepreneur” by Amazon publicly, and I’m here to help you with your author journey.
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36 thoughts on “ How to Use Quora to Increase Book Sales ”
I’ve been answering questions people ask me on Quora for some time now and did not know you could include a link. I’ll be giving that a try. Thanks again for yet another informative post, Dave! Keep up the good work!
Quora keeps deleting my answers. I will answer a question about Twitter marketing (because I wrote this book: https://amzn.to/30z98ih ) and if I include a link, It is gone.I guess I could get organic views if someone is intrigued enough to google the book I mention in my credentials.I usually enjoy your advice, and am currently using your AMS advertising course (just waiting for Amazon to save those 998 keywords!), but this is one blog post I disagree with. I have Quora in my “Time Suck” bookmark folder.Maybe you were there for the golden days of Quora when they made it easier on promoters.Thanks,Melanie
What a great idea to enhance photography with Fashion of Photography. Love it most . Keep it up. Thanks
This is in truth enormous promotion technique. Thanks for sharing nice through
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Hobby , Lifestyle , Reading
“if you could only read one book in your entire life, what would it be”, the quora experts gave us a list of best books..
“If you could only read one book in your entire life, what would it be?” Someone proposed this question on Quora recently.
To answer this question, contributors from all across the world responded in details with the book they think is the best. They are content writers, published writers, bloggers, CEOs, students, and avid readers. They recommended a variety of books, from topics on self-motivation to interpersonal relationships, from classical to modern popular hits, from life stories to life philosophies.
Who should use the list?
It doesn’t matter if you are a bookworm, or just a casual reader, I am 95% sure you have experienced the frustration of not finding a suitable book to read.
The most convenient path is to go with the majority. There must be a reason behind the popularity of a certain literature or publication, because it is a well-known classic, it must be good.
But does the bestselling book or the most famous classical literature is the best for you? Ratings and sales should not be the only parameters you consider, reviews from others are equally helpful.
We’ve hand-picked the BEST 20 from the list:
- Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid – Douglas Hofstadter
- Psycho-Cybernetics – Maxwell Maltz
- The Tirukkural – Thiruvalluvar
- The Prophet – Maxwell Maltz
- Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
- Book Thief – Markus Zusak
- The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint Exupery
- Mahabharata – Vyasa
- The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho
- The Prophet – Kahlil Gibran
- Sherlock Holmes: The Complete Collection – Arthur Conan Doyle
- 7 habits of Highly Effective people – Steven Covey
- How to Win Friends and Influence People – Dale Carnegie
- Meditation – Marcus Aurelius
- The Murder of Roger Ackroyd – Agatha Christie
- Best of Quora (2010–2012)
- Man’s search for meaning – Dr Viktor Frankl
- A Short History Of Nearly Everything – Bill Bryson
- 1984 – George Orwell
- Believe in Yourself, Dr. Murphy
Find your perfect book here.
After all, this list is subjective, so don’t feel scammed if you couldn’t find a book that suits you in this list. Trust me, you have a decent amount of publications to skim through in this list on Quora. Choose the genre that you like or you want to read, then follow that direction and I’m sure you will find the one book you can’t live without. Click here to read the full list and start your book discovery journey!
Featured photo credit: Andrew Branch via unsplash.com
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Bookshelf Beats
Dec 19, 2015
How Many Books Should One Read in a Year?
A Quora user recently asked, “How many books should one read in a year?” Here is my answer .
I understand the concern from other Quora users that setting a challenging, unrealistic reading goal can discourage people and makes them quit early on. However, you will never know if you can read one book per week unless you try, so why not give it a whirl? The worst that happens is you don't meet your goal. That could still be a positive. Let's say you try to read a book each week and end up reading one every two weeks. That's still 26 books in one year, more than you probably realized you could complete. Even if you read 20 books in one year, you are still reading much more than the average person.
Speaking from personal experience, setting the goal of reading 52 books in 52 weeks in November of 2013 was a life-changing experience. When I decided to try, I was almost positive I would fail. I am not a fast reader. I am not as well read as many other people. But I read a very inspiring article by Breather CEO Julien Smith and decided to try what seemed like an impossible task at the time.
Sometimes it is good to push ourselves towards an impossible goal.
I knew if I wanted to have a snowball's chance in hell of reading at such a rapid clip, I needed to put some systems in place.
- I signed up for an Audible account. This was a very important part of reaching my goal. I spend at least 1 hour of every weekday driving, often more if I have to run an errand on my way home from work. Five hours per week of reading adds up quick. It was essential to helping me stay on track. Doing this also helped me develop an appreciation for audiobooks, which are amazing. A good audiobook can add an extra layer of depth to an already great book.
2) I beefed up my Kindle collection. Sorry book purists, I love physical books as well, but having a large collection of books on my phone makes it so that I can read anywhere at any time as long as I have my phone with me. This means grocery lines, the RMV, and waiting rooms are now prime locations for reading. I realize I could always carry around a paperback, but having books on my phone is an extra layer of book security.
3) I went on countless library book binges. Countless. Sometimes I would come home with 12 new books, knowing there was no way I could possibly read all of them. But it made it so that I always had a book on hand that I couldn't wait to read.
4) I woke up earlier on weekends. Sure, use your weekends to socialize, relax, and rest, but try to wake up a bit earlier. Even 45 minutes will make a difference if you use the time for reading.
5) I cut back on TV and movies. This is a hard one for me because I am a Celtics basketball and film junkie. I also love binge watching a great show as much as the next person. But I forced myself to prioritize and cut back. I refuse to channel surf anymore. If I'm sitting in front of my TV now, it's because I really want to watch something.
These are just suggestions, everyone's system will likely be different. I think the most important thing is to make it so that books are always available and frequent reading becomes a way of life . After using the systems mentioned above, I read 53 books in 52 weeks. I am so grateful for the experience and am pushing myself to beat 53 books this year.
Some people mentioned in their answers that reading a large number of books in a year could just be a reason for someone to brag. This is true — you have to make sure you are reading to appreciate the experience of reading the books first and foremost. Bragging about how many books you read is like being someone who name drops where they went to college all the time. You don't want to be that person.
When I first set out on my goal, beyond my wife and a few close friends, I didn't tell anyone. I didn't update those who knew about my goal on my progress unless they asked. I try to be casual and laid back when talking about books with other people. I don't force recommendations down their throats. Outside of my writing, I avoid making suggestions unless someone asks. I want to read as often as possible to learn as much as possible. I am not looking for bragging rights or validation.
If you are looking for some more valuable insights on how to read more, you should check out Claire Diaz-Ortiz . She has several great articles on the process of reading. I'd recommend starting here -> How I Read 200 Books a Year .
I'd like to conclude with my favorite quote from the Julien Smith article, which inspired me to get started.
"All the world’s wisdom is contained in books – most of it is not on the internet or known by people in your social group, so this can really help you expand, if you let it. So start today.” - Julien Smith
“My life sucks. What is the one book I should read to change it?”
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If you enjoyed this piece, please consider following my Bookshelf Beats and Micro-Chop publications. You can also read my work at Cuepoint and HipHopDX .
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Gino Sorcinelli
Freelance journalist @Ableton, @HipHopDX, @okayplayer, @Passionweiss, @RBMA, @ughhdotcom + @wearestillcrew. Creator of www.Micro-Chop.com and @bookshelfbeats.
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What's the deal with this Quora website?
Whenever I google...ANYTHING basically, this site called "Quora" is one of the first links, always. By now I've learned not to ever go there because I NEVER EVER get an actual fucking answer. What I DO get is EVERY.SINGLE.REPLY...being a fucking weird, nonsensical WALL of text.
And like, if that wall answered the fucking question I'd be okay with it but nah, the answer may be related for the first 2 or three sentences and then they always go off on seemingly unrelated tirades. It's like watching someone having a stroke.
I just started adding "reddit" at the end when I want an answer cause here people actually answer in a clear and concise manner.
What is that website about?
Example: Got a message Instagram deleted something of mine. I google how can I see what it was that was deleted. Here you go: https://www.quora.com/Instagram-deleted-my-post-How-do-I-find-out-what-they-removed-and-why
SHOCKINGLY, a few of the posts are actually on topic, but just reply with "it's impossible".
A fair amount just straight up seem to ignore the question like Sachin Yadav, and instead of replying the actual question just go "Read the terms of service". Like no shit Sachin, it obviously broke their terms of service, but I wanna know WHAT did.
And JUST LOOK at Tracy Scott's answer. I didn't try that tool cause I am suspicious but...just read the entire thing...it goes off rails completely. That's how the posts usually go when I visit Quora (not AS long though).
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Answer: Quora is like Yahoo Answers but it tried to be more serious and helpful. For a while, it succeeded with heavy moderation and lack of anonymity. Then it got too big and moderation was no longer cost-effective and it found itself being just like Yahoo Answers, hot garbage.
There are still sections of it that are valuable and have real experts but a lot of the real experts left when it declined and there’s too much garbage to wade through now.
Being from the UK, I subscribed to a UK topic on quora and now all the threads it recommends me are different flavours of 'Why is everyone so jealous of UK?', answer: 'because we're the most superior country on the planet'
Question: "Help me with my math homework, what's 2 + 2?"
Joe Schmoe: "Let me just go on this vaguely related psuedo-intellectual tangent about what my math teacher said when I was 10 without actually answering the question..."
Quora has fallen to the StackOverflow paradox. Every website that ranks its users in the forum for everyone to see will eventually be destroyed by a group of snobby, entitled, and toxic 'superusers.'
If you spend enough time on Quora you'll realize that it's like 20 people answering all the questions. It's got that weird Linkedin vibe.
Quora and Pinterest need to die. They both ass fuck search results.
And the garbage is written so condescendingly. People who start answers with 2 lines of "HAHAHAHA NO." It's also rife with begging questions, and not the colloquial "this begs the question" as in "this leads to another question", but actual "beg the question". Whenever I make the mistake of going to Quora, I see shit like "why don't atheists believe in god when they have proof of God's miracle?" or "why don't [insert nationality] move to the US, since it's the best country in the world?".
There's also a lot of juvenile nationalist and militarist nonsense about countries invading each other or discussing what country's soldiers are better, with answers that read like they were written by a 15 year old boy who's played too many Paradox games.
It's less that there's garbage responses nowadays than a lack of legitimate replies beyond what's been voted to the top. A lot of just discussions instead of replies, leaving you with 1 or 2 unsatisfactory answers. Yahoo definitely was better 🤣
It‘s a shame, I used to love Quora.
It seems like a really good idea, with so much knowedege and people out there, what better use of the internet but a way to connect people and that knowledge, something like Quora seems perfect for this, but sadly everyone becomes an ‘expert‘ everyone wants to answer and we get hot garbage, this is why we can‘t have nice things, people of the internet
I still remember the old times (2010?) when it really was amazing. Sigh.
And the mechanics and features started turning huge portions of it into generic social media with an academic larp feel to it.
Yep, I used to get valuable scientific information for troubleshooting assays off it. I was barely able to make an account as an undergraduate (it wanted my degree/a phd). Once yahoo answers closed it became yahoo answers
Just to clarify, most Y!A was garbage. Not every category. All the educational ones were serious and helpful. The Health section and all the subcategories were fucking stupid as shit though. Only the more serious ones were helpful (the ones concerning epidemiology, for inatance). The mental health section was full of assholes who told those seeking help to kill themselves actually. There was one guy somehow known throughout the site who went by LAN was notorious for it. He was a hateful fuck who'd talk shit about people there. The diet and fitness one were filled wirh those trying to help, but weren't too educated in either of them. And the politics subsection of the Politics and Governmet category was just Democrats and Republicans at war. Kind of entertaining to watch without posting tho. And Religion and Spirituity was mostly atheists and Christians who were insulting each other. The Jews and Muslims barely got real answers, so they barely showed up. The atheists about 12 years ago would actually help (they knew some stuff) if someone asked a real question. However, it was a shit show of ad hominems. The ones of last two years of the site were either extremely angry or immature tho. That section went downhill. And that's saying a lot...
So basically, it was mostly bullshit. But the mathematics section, the physics section, certain medical sections, etc were serious.
The huge benefit of Quora is that it gives fodder for MBMBAM now that yahoo answers is defunct.
And then you have the questions that are all similar and posted by the same user, like r/AskReddit NSFW threads but more specific.
Modern AskJeeves.
Why don't they just do like stack overflow? I think stack overflow tends to give useful answers and is generally pretty good (minus the toxicity)
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What is Quora; How Can Authors Use Quora: Both Fiction and Non-fiction ... The good news is that it allows new and fresh answers to see some
The Moviegoer--it is like a good Catcher in the Rye but for adults. Just a perfect book. An equal cautionary tale: The Sorrows of Young Werther
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ANYTHING basically, this site called "Quora" is one of the first links, ... I write about books, especially science fiction and fantasy