Most Quora advice is about how to write a good answer. The harder part is finding the questions worth answering, because most new questions are not from buyers and only a few belong to someone who is about to spend money on what you sell. If you answer the wrong ones, you write well for nobody. This guide is about finding the right few.

If you want the answer-writing side, we covered it in how to get clients on Quora from your answers. This one stops where that one starts: with a blank search box and no idea which question to open.

What a buyer's question looks like on Quora

Quora askers fall into three groups, and only one is worth your time.

  • Curious. "How does a mortgage broker get paid?" Nobody is hiring anybody. Skip.
  • Researching. "How do I choose a payroll provider for a 12-person company?" This person will buy within weeks, and they want criteria. This is your best target.
  • Ready. "Can anyone recommend a good immigration lawyer for an H-1B transfer?" Rare, and the most direct. It is a request for names.

The research questions are far more common than the ready ones, and they are where answers earn their keep, because the answer you write shapes what the person looks for.

Five searches that surface them

Search Quora for the way a buyer would phrase the decision, not the way you would name your service.

  1. "How do I choose a" plus your category. "How do I choose a web developer for a small ecommerce store."
  2. "What is a fair price for." Price questions come right before a purchase.
  3. "Should I hire" or "is it worth hiring." Someone weighing whether to buy at all. Your answer can settle it.
  4. "Best [category] for [specific situation]." The more specific the situation, the closer to a decision.
  5. "[Competitor or tool] alternative." A person who already uses something and is looking to switch. Answer neutrally and on the merits.

You can also search Google for the same phrases with site:quora.com in front. That shows you which questions rank, and a question that ranks keeps getting read for months. A question ranking on page one for a phrase your buyers use is worth more than one that does not.

Check the date before you write anything

Old questions often still show an answer box, so a question from 2021 may still take your answer, but check. That does not mean you should. Before you start, look at three things.

  • When it was asked. A question from last month is still live. One from three years ago has a settled answer ranking above it, and the original asker is long gone. The exception is a question that ranks well in search. There, you are writing for readers who arrive from Google, not for the asker.
  • How many answers it has. Under ten with no clear winner is an opening. Over fifty and you need an angle nobody has used.
  • Whether the top answer is any good. If it is a thin paragraph with 20 upvotes, a solid answer can overtake it. If it is thorough, move on.

A buyer or a student: three quick tells

Students ask homework questions in buyer clothing. Check the wording for the following before you spend 30 minutes.

  1. Is there a real situation in it? A company size, a budget, a city, a deadline. Students rarely invent one.
  2. Is it about doing or understanding? "How does an escrow work" is understanding. "Is it normal for escrow to take 45 days on a commercial deal" comes from someone in one.
  3. Does the asker have a profile that fits? A job title that matches the buyer, or a background that makes the question sensible. Not required, but it helps.

Keep a short list, not a feed

The mistake is treating Quora as a feed to keep up with. Instead, keep a list of five to eight search phrases and check them twice a week. Open every result that shows a date in the last 30 days or ranks on Google, apply the date and student checks, and pick the best one or two.

Write down each question you answer, with the date and a one-line note on what happened. After two months you will see which phrases produced questions worth answering and which produced noise, and you can drop the noise.

Say who you are, and keep links relevant

Quora's help pages cover disclosing a business connection and when a link counts as spam, and they change, so read the current versions before you answer. A plain sentence works: "I run a payroll service, so I have seen this from both sides." Then give the criteria, with numbers where you can.

Where Rocketship helps and where it does not

Conversations searches Quora for questions that match your business and your buyer, scores how well each one fits, and drafts an answer for you to change. It looks every day, so you are not rerunning searches. It drafts the answer, and you post it yourself from your own Quora account. Quora is the one place where the sending is always yours: Rocketship does not post there, and the optional posting setting covers Reddit and LinkedIn only.

The scoring only sorts the list, so your judgment still decides. Read the question yourself, because you know things about the asker's situation that a score cannot, and add the detail only someone who does your job would know.

What to expect

Quora is slow. If your jobs are worth a few hundred dollars, the time may not pay back. If one client is worth several thousand, one or two a quarter can justify an hour or two a week. Give it eight weeks, count the conversations it started, and decide. For channels that move faster, see how to find people asking for recommendations online.

To see which questions Conversations would surface for your business, read how it works.