3 Ways To Create Content By Answering Questions
Among the easiest and fastest way to create content is to answer questions. I’ve done it for years and truly enjoy it because almost no stress is involved especially if you know your subject matter intimately. It’s also a great strategy for new blogs. So, how do you go about doing this?
Photo by [F]oxymoron
A Simple Form
You can use a simple form – you know, like the ones used for contact forms. Change up the wording a little bit. Realistically, you only need one field which is a text box for people to enter then submit their questions. The submissions could come to you in an email and you’d simply copy and paste the question into a new post when you answer it.
If you prefer, you can also add a name and/or email address. When we collected questions only, we found that giving an option to add at least an email address is helpful because sometimes people submit questions that aren’t clear, too broad or simply difficult to follow. Having a way to contact the person who asked the question can be of great help to clarify the question so you can give a better answer.
On the same token, people are also wary of entering the email addresses. So you might want to make that field optional or add some sort of text near it to say they aren’t being subscribed to a list (make sure they truly aren’t) and the address is simply to make sure you can contact them for further clarification if need be.
Form Plugins
If you use the excellent WordPress system, you could have a really neat option available to you. Using plugins like Formidable Pro, you can create a form where each submission is turned into a post. You can set these submissions to draft status so it doesn’t publish until you are ready. From there all you need to do is log in to WordPress, open each question (post), add your answer and hit publish. Super easy, but an investment is involved. However, investing in a form plugin is smart because eventually, you’ll need one and you can create all kinds for form goodness with these plugins.
Survey Tools
I love it when you can re-purpose tools for other uses than it is originally intended. In essence, a “Ask Your Question” feature is really a method of surveying your readers. There are many survey tools (some even free) that will let you create a basic one question survey. Once you create that, you can simply copy and paste the code they provide into your site. You’d still have to copy and paste the questions into your blog to answer but really, it’s not that big a hassle.
Building Something Else?
What if you aren’t building a blog but an FAQ type site? Well, because WordPress is so flexible, you can certainly use it to build an FAQ center. In a scenario like that, I’d probably use a dedicated FAQ plugin. Here are some you can get started with for free.
Do you collect questions from readers and visitors to create content? How do you do it? And since we are talking about collecting questions, to the right of this post there is a form asking what you’d like to learn or read more of. Send me some of your suggestions OK?
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@fergusonsarah Most certainly, my pleasure.
I’ve done this as well by using an emailed question someone sent me and my response as a blog post. It’s a great way to identify and address an actual problem affecting your audience and providing a fix. Plus it’s and easy way to put together a blog post in a pinch.
@richescorner Oh yes that’s a good point! Sometimes we are so used to our subject matter, it becomes difficult to see what problems others are really facing. Thanks for pointing that out.