Comments on: How to Respond to Individual Requests for Help From Blog Readers

By: visit

visit — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 13:32:51 +0000

This is great, look forward to looking into every area. Thanks for being there.

By: loans

loans — Fri, 23 May 2008 08:14:23 +0000

My answer is only this ‘Ignore all such requests for help’, lol…cruel but true…

By: Amrit Hallan - Online Copywriter

Amrit Hallan - Online Copywriter — Thu, 22 May 2008 10:54:31 +0000

I sometimes answer their questions in my blog posts. I think the best thing to do is develop content that explains their queries and whenever they ask that questions, quickly send them a link. For instance, somebody asked me what’s the difference between a content writer and a copywriter. I quickly posted the difference on my website and sent him the link, and he really appreciated that. As an added bonus, this also gives you lots of search engine relevant content.

By: coolingstar9

coolingstar9 — Sun, 18 May 2008 09:40:30 +0000

Problogger, I am coolingstar9, I fully understand your feeling that you feel sad to say ” no ” while people especially the new blogging asking some questions.
I did see some blog site who mentioned the anger about asking but no respone from the famous blogger.
For me, I know blogger like you really do not have enough time to answer all question but you had systematically say it out on your past blogs already.
I havd readed your blogs whenever I am free. For example, your previous post- fear of blogging-motivate me to continue blogging with passion. You had mentioned joining ezine, I also participated and already be an ezine expert author- william tan seng.
Thanks for your unselfish contribution and efforts.
Have a wonderful life. from; coolingstar9.

By: Majo

Majo — Sun, 18 May 2008 08:34:39 +0000

Thanks for the post Darren, I’m having this problem too. When people ask me to teach them the pathways to success I just say – look I only got to where I was by failing and learning, by imbibing tons of information and experimenting some more. It took many failures to reach my point of success and even now over half of my websites are flops. Then I tell them to go look at your blog, Digital Point forums and a few others to get ideas about how to sort the wheat from the chaff so to speak.

Also completely off topic but Erwin McManus was speaking at Citylife Church in Wantirna South this weekend and I know you would have loved it… From what I have read on your perspective on Christianity I would say that he would connect with your style of thinking.

By: Political Disgust

Political Disgust — Sat, 17 May 2008 14:05:44 +0000

I have a set response letter/email, but I wrote it much more personally so it does not have the sound and feel or a “form letter”
Next I always respond in some fashion. There is no quicker path to failure then ignoring your customers, or readers in this case. And let’s be honest, we are “customers”. Our loyalty, participation, and contributions on this site (and others) help the site owners make money. We are as much customers as we are readers, plain and simple.
Finally, you can only really take the paid Paid Consulting route unless you actually have something to say, teach, advise. I have seen far to many people who are getting paid, but offer very little in actual, tangible, advice or information. This type of scam, or negative experience is what hurts the others who are actually offering some real helpful knowledge.

By: PaPo

PaPo — Sat, 17 May 2008 04:53:43 +0000

For me the idea of collaborating with other dedicated health care professionals and providers can have great business benefit. I generally get requests to be featured on the blog. I postpone some and convert most to non-public collaborations.

By: MetropolisMom

MetropolisMom — Fri, 16 May 2008 17:09:13 +0000

I am new to blogging, I already ordered your book to educate myself about blogging. I was very touched when you replied to my email with my request on getting me a copy of your book. I did not expect that you will reply promptly to my request. I will be writing about it on next coming days. I am just sorting out all the necessary things that needs to be accomplished to establish my blog, which is according to what you have written. More power to you!

By: Mel T

Mel T — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:45:12 +0000

Normally what i do is answer questions personally or publically on my blog.

However, recently I’m starting to offer paid consultations. It gets difficult when you want to help everyone who contacts, but it’s just not possible to do it all for free.

By: Michael Aulia

Michael Aulia — Fri, 16 May 2008 14:43:19 +0000

I get a few request for help every now and then. As long as I know how to answer them or help them, I usually do the best I can.

Sometimes I searched in Google just to head them to the right directions (gave them the link and asked them to follow the instructions on the page, forum, etc)

I guess you may or may not have the time to help them all

By: Dave

Dave — Fri, 16 May 2008 12:18:53 +0000

Although I have not gotten many requests for help on my blog, this could be useful for when my blog gets a lot bigger. Usually try to be as helpful as possible and certainly respond as quickly as possible, but if I were overwhelmed with questions and requests then these things would have to be done. I think I like the idea of a public response much like this post. If you respond to someone publicly then it will likely help others having the same problem and decrease your work load. The best part is you even get more material that is relevant to your blog and to your readers. It is a win win situation.

By: traveler

traveler — Fri, 16 May 2008 10:22:58 +0000

I always try and answer every question. I think it is the least I can do for people who are reading my blog.

having a faq page does helped me to reduce the num of help i get thou. and alot of the question that pops up helped me to make my page better too

By: Kevin

Kevin — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:57:02 +0000

Great post! You are amazing to write simple things, so they become smart an easy! :D

By: Sentences

Sentences — Thu, 15 May 2008 18:20:06 +0000

What if you don’t have time to respond to help everyone?

By: Globalbiz

Globalbiz — Thu, 15 May 2008 17:08:43 +0000

Paid consulting always works best after we reply with a soft email + reasonable response that many people ask us for the same advice and therefore have no time for ad-hoc replies. Then sum it up with, “…….but with $……., I can gladly give you a comprehensive, detailed study, report, & consultancy on your behalf…..” Feel free to contact me for further inquiries….

By: Bryan Clark

Bryan Clark — Thu, 15 May 2008 14:54:04 +0000

It got pretty tough to respond to these types of emails so I went with the last option – paid consulting. It’s actually been a blessing in disguise!

By: Darla (pencil artist)

Darla (pencil artist) — Thu, 15 May 2008 13:45:34 +0000

I receive a lot of emails and questions from aspiring artists. I do try to email them individually, but one day I realized that I wasn’t able to help someone by email with as much detail as I would like, because I have 4 kids and here I am like a crazy woman trying to get work done!

So what I did was create pages on Squidoo.com to deal with the kinds of questions I receive – how to price pencil portrait art, how to communicate with clients, how to advertise a pencil portrait business, how to start a pencil portrait business, and so on. Now I can direct people to the page that helps them with what they need. They are still getting the help from me, but it’s so much more detailed and useful for them. I feel better, and I actually make money from my Squidoo pages! So I highly recommend this as an option to everyone. The Squidoo pages bring a lot of extra traffic to your website or blog, too. You can put RSS feed to your blog in your Squidoo pages. You really can’t lose. Check it out.

My art help pages on Squidoo:
http://www.squidoo.com/pencilportraitmoduleslist

By: Barbara Ling

Barbara Ling — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:19:09 +0000

It all depends – if I see a tweet about it and can solve it in less than 56 seconds, I’ll do so. Researching online is one of my specialties – I’ve been it since 1988.

If I receive a question in email, I’ll generally answer it and if it’s relevant to my audience, craft a blog post about it.

It also depends upon who is asking. Folks who have been there for me in the past get priority in the future. I always believe in returning good deeds.

Data points,

Barbara

By: Bohol News Forum

Bohol News Forum — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:28:12 +0000

I’ve seen several bloggers setting up forums. A forum site will save a blogger’s time in answering the same questions asked by different people.

By: hekim group

hekim group — Thu, 15 May 2008 10:13:10 +0000

When replying you can quickly piece together a reply by selecting predefined templates to build up