3 Mistakes Newbie Bloggers Make When Asking Questions

(Updated 9–27–2022)

After receiving — and reading — many blogger questions during my nearly 15 years online I spotted 3 pressing mistakes that newbie bloggers make when asking questions.

Struggling bloggers tend to ask the same questions.

Hey; I asked these questions too, during much leaner days.

But I eventually learned to follow Tony Robbin’s advice.

I asked quality questions. I got quality advice. I followed that advice. I lived my dreams.

Pinpoint whether or not you are making these 3 mistakes when asking blogging questions so you can ask quality questions and get better answers.

1: Asking the Wrong Questions

Asking the wrong questions is the quickest way to perpetuate your failure.

New bloggers tend to ask:

“How do you make $10,000 in 6 months?”

or similar money-driven questions, setting a finite time frame within which to make it.

This is the wrong question in almost all cases because it shows the blogger is blogging mainly to get, versus blogging mainly to have fun, to give, to serve and to develop a skill that empowers readers to live their dreams and to solve their problems.

I can almost feel the desperation behind the question, which usually goes like:

“I have no money! I need to make $10,000 in 6 months to pay my mortgage, to take care of my family and to live a decent life!”

Or I see most of these folks living in fantasyland, believing that blogging money can flow to them quickly without these bloggers developing a skill (through years of persistent practice) that solves a problem.

There are other questions that I see on Quora and receive from fellow bloggers that, again, focus on the wrong thing; bloggers want to know how many page views they need to earn X amount of dollars.

Pageviews cannot spend money because pageviews are inanimate concepts.

People buy your product or service, said people being folks you have helped, through your blog.

Focus less on specific dollar amounts or time frames. This is not a job. This is a blog. A business.

It’s OK to ask the generic question:

“How can I make money blogging?”

but understand that 95% of your time and energy or more will be spent on giving, not getting, in order for you to build a thriving business.

Ask how you can serve people. Ask how you can help people. Ask how you can build a sustainable blogging business by being of service, and you will pinpoint exactly what you need to do, to help folks and to live the life of your dreams.

Think about why you blog. Tie the reason mainly to having fun, being free and helping people. Purify your intent to ask the right questions. Ask the right questions to get on blogging track towards a successful online career.

2: Asking off Topic Questions

During many of my live videos — and sometimes in response to my posts or guest posts — new bloggers sometimes ask questions completely unrelated to the topic of the video or the video.

Although I do appreciate answering all questions related to blogging this is the quickest way to lose out on engagement with an established, pro, an experienced blogger, and it is also an unfortunate way to be labeled as a spammer, even if you are not intentionally trying to spam.

Stay on topic.

Ask questions related to the blog post or the video.

If another question comes to mind, feel free to ask the question via email.

If the blogger refers you to an eBook or service….buy it. These guys have hundreds to thousands of requests every day; they can only answer a few questions personally but have eBooks and products that will answer virtually all of your blogging questions.

Resist urges to:

• spam questions
• blurt out anything on your mind

or else pros tend to ignore your questions going forward.

I sometimes mute well-meaning but unclear bloggers who routinely ask off topic questions in response to my live videos.

Stay on topic.

Don’t stray off course.

3: Asking Questions When the Answer Is in the Blog?Post

This one is a classic of classic mistakes, often attributed to new or struggling bloggers.

I may publish a post titled “10 Tips for Driving Blog Traffic” and a blogger asks me in the comments section:

“I am having trouble driving blog traffic….any advice?”

Ummm…. I just gave you 10 pieces of advice, via the blog post ??

I have compassion for said bloggers because only intense fear causes you to ignore advice that is right underneath your nose. Goodness knows I was in that boat for many years.

In the same regard though, I did not turn around and head toward success until I was truthful about my tendency to ask questions in response to pieces of content was my questions had been freely and easily answered.

Your Turn

Have you made these mistakes in the past? I sure did.

How are you asking the proper questions to accelerate your blogging success?

Originally published at https://www.bloggingfromparadise.com on September 27, 2022.