Taking Questions from Your Audience

I've recently implemented a new ask-a-question feature for one my niche market websites geared toward how to import into the United States and the results have been outstanding. Since a large part of making a website successful has to do with generating unique and valuable content for the reader, it's sometimes difficult to come up with different topics on which to write.

By asking the audience for questions, I've essentially addressed three important issues with one solution.

Virtually unlimited topics

The subject matter for the importing website is highly complex, and as a licensed Customs Broker in real life I'm qualified to dispense advice on import related questions as well as offer opinions on international trade. As you can imagine, readers on that site often have specific scenarios that would be impossible to cover in a thousand word generalized article.

By answering individual questions, I cement myself even further into my niche and at the same time can dominate highly specialized topics like What's an Inbond Transit (IT) Number? and How to Import Software from India to the US.

In addition, readers also provide the topic for more generalized questions like Do I Need an Import License? that I might not have considered previously.

Value

A critical success factor for any content driven website is the ability to provide value to the reader. If the information you provide is valuable, readers will return for reference, link to it as a resource from their own websites, and purchase the products/services you're selling.

By taking questions directly from your audience, you're guaranteed to provide value at the very least to the individual asking the question in the first place and, in my experience, to others who did not have the forethought or inclination to ask the question themselves.

You might have seen this kind of reaction before if you've ever been in a classroom or meeting and asked a question only to be told afterwards by fellow coworkers/classmates that they wanted to ask about the same thing. Take that scenario and compare it to the thousands of visitors a site can serve everyday and the logic for answering one on one questions makes a lot of sense.

Organic marketing

Website growth is dependent not only on the value of the site itself, but also on your ability to market it effectively. When I take a reader's question and answer it directly and publicly on my website, the first thing I do is to let them know that I've provided an answer and where to find it. I thank them for the question and always include the URL of the specific post.

Many readers don't respond to the email, but I can tell from my referrer logs that they almost always come back to read the answer. This not only guarantees return traffic from the original source, but also opens up my website as a resource to an individual who is likely to have connections to others in the same field. Recommendations and word of mouth can go a long way in the web publishing business.