I Made My First $15 on Quora. What Now?

Shortly after migrating to America, I started a Quora account. Throughout 2015, I spent a lot of time on the website answering questions. After this, I rarely even checked Quora, but my account consistently brought in about 20,000 views per month. That's more than my website does.

Shortly after joining Medium, someone shared several alternatives to monetizing content online. I was surprised to see Quora on the list and hopped over to the site to see what the fuss was about. After a day of deliberation, I decided to paywall my answers.

How Do You Monetize Your Posts on Quora?

Quora provides several options for you to monetize your posts. These are the three I decided to use and how that's working out. So, how much money can I make on Quora? If you've been wondering, here's my answer so far!

Quora Space

I have a monetized Quora space where I share travel tips that are also behind paywalls on Substack and Patreon. Consequently, running the Space doesn't cost me a dime. I'm just reusing the content I have elsewhere. My Quora Space has made me a whopping $0.03.

Quora Partner Questions

Years ago, I took Quora up on its offer to become a Partner who asked questions. I have no idea how Quora decides what to pay for these because some of my most popular questions did not pay me a dime. I asked my first Partner question in 2019 and have made a whopping $2.69 since then.

Quora Answers

You now also lock some or all of your answers behind paywalls. I thought doing this would reduce my views, but it held steady since I started doing it about four months ago. I aim to answer at least one question per week since January 2022 and have made $16.13 by the time of writing this. If you are more active on Quora, I'm sure you can make even more!

How Often Do I Post on Quora?

I shared earlier that I try to answer at least one question per week, but this doesn't quite sum up my work on the website:

• I now aim to answer 3 questions weekly.
• I post one question per week, mostly because I'm working on a project and have a lot of questions I need answered by anyone who can point me in the right direction.
• I try to respond to as many of the answers I receive as possible and mark all useless/troll answers as unhelpful via the Quora prompt that comes up.
• I share at least one full-length article each week inside my Quora Space and keep them behind paywalls. As I said before, these are re-posts from other platforms where I monetize that content.

What Is My Plan for Quora?

I've deliberated on whether I should just delete the Space because it currently has no paid subscribers. In the meantime, resharing paid content doesn't cost me anything but a few seconds of my time each week. Answering questions is also fun, whether it pays me or not.

I will say that the $15 payout that came today is not a lot of money, but it is more than I have made on Medium for that same period. It is, however, less than I made on Vocal and less than I made on my personal website.

At the end of the day, money talks and will decide how I invest my time online. I will always create content, and syndicating is easy enough. However, where I spend the time growing an audience will depend on the community and monetary payoff.

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