Okay, this probably sounds like a really lame topic for an article but let me tell you something, there are people out there who are involved with online marketing who don’t have a CLUE how to ask a question. Well, it is my intention, with this lame excuse for an article, to teach people who don’t know how to ask questions, just what they should do. Hopefully, when they are done reading this, they will stop asking questions like “How can I make money online?”

So why don’t we start with that one because it is one of my favorites. So many people ask this question. Just from reading these articles that I have put together, you can see that there are a number of ways to make a living online. So asking the question “How can I make money online?” only leaves the person trying to answer frustrated and annoyed.

A better question would be, “I am interested in music, how can I use my interest to make money with it online?” Now granted, there are still quite a number of answers to this question, but at least by asking this particular question, you have narrowed down the number of answers that you are going to get.

Here’s another question that drives me up the wall. “How can I get more traffic to my site?”

Again, there are many ways to get traffic on the Internet. Instead of asking an open ended question like that, how about giving a little more detail telling us what you’ve done so far? Maybe ask something like “Are traffic exchanges any good for getting traffic to my site?” This gives us a little less to work with and will give you better answers. Now, obviously you will have to do a little research just to figure out that using traffic exchanges is one way of getting traffic. Jumping into a forum or sending somebody an email with the question, “How can I get more traffic to my site?” is only going to get responses like “Well, what have you done so far?” You’d be surprised how many people write back, “Well. I haven’t started doing anything yet. I was just wondering what to do.” In other words, they want to be spoon fed and don’t want to do any preliminary work.

I am not saying these things with the intention of scolding anyone. I am only trying to point out that if you ask wide open ended questions that either will get you no concrete answers or won’t get any answers at all because they are so vague, you’re not going to get the help that you’re looking for. But, if you ask pinpoint questions that people can narrow in on, you have a much better chance of getting a response that will be easy for the person you’re asking to answer and provide you with the information that you need to make an informed decision based on that answer.

So, here is my golden rule of thumb. After you ask your question, ask it to yourself and see if it’s a question that you could see having a very specific answer. If it doesn’t, then it’s probably a very bad question to ask!

© Neil-Harvey.com