Over the past few weeks there has been a rush of new members in the Wealthy Affiliate community which is great. Some people are excited, some apprehensive, some frustrated, some worried, some disillusioned ... These feelings can vary on a day to day basis but from observing the Live Chat, reading people’s blog posts or some of the personal messages I have received – I can see a common thread emerging and it is the issue of asking questions.

So here are some of the issues that have arisen and why asking questions can be difficult, some facts that may debunk some of the myths and some suggestions which might help.

Don’t ask questions for fear of appearing stupid

Fact: No one will laugh at you for asking questions. It’s a learning process

Suggestion: Ask your questions in the Live Chat or Forums or through your personal blogs.

Don’t ask questions in the Live Chat because you don’t want to interrupt other conversations

Fact: You are not ‘interrupting conversations’. The Live Chat can have lots of conversations going on at once. 99.9% of the time someone will pick it up. Occasionally a question may be missed but that is rare.

Suggestion: Just ask your question. It doesn’t matter if someone is talking about the holiday they’ve just been on an you want to ask about how to set up a custom menu.

Don’t ask question in the Live Chat because you’re worried about the length of question

Fact: There are no rules about the length of question you can ask

Suggestion: If you’re worried go to the Live Chat and say you have a lengthy question. Generally
someone will say ‘PM (Private Message) me’ and then you can ask your question without fear of taking up too much of the chat.

Don’t ask questions at all because you don’t know where to post them.

Fact: There are no hard and fast rules about where you should ask questions. If you want a quick answer – the Live Chat is often good, if you want to ask a private question – send a member a private message. Ask a question in the forum or through your blog.

Suggestion: Just ask your question. If you don’t get an answer as quickly as you need ask it again elsewhere but don’t get frustrated about it.

Don’t ask questions because you don’t know what questions you need to ask

Fact: A lot of people experience this, but help is still available. There are people skilled in drawing out of you exactly what you need.

Suggestion: You may not know the exact question your need to ask, but you can start by saying “I need help. I don’t know what I’m doing”.

Don’t ask questions because you think everyone else ‘gets it’

Fact: People come to WA with different skills and experiences and have different amount of time to spend on their IM (Internet Marketing) activities.

Suggestion: Don’t waste time comparing yourself with others. Ask the questions that you need to in order to make progress.

Don’t ask questions because you have asked once and didn’t get a quick enough answer

Fact: The members of WA live across the globe and therefore are in different time zones. Sometimes when you ask a question the people who can answer them are asleep:

Suggestion: Ask your question. If you don’t appear to have had an answer there’s nothing wrong in asking the question again. Just don’t get mad.

Don’t ask questions because you think everything should be perfect and you shouldn’t need to

Fact. Wealthy Affiliate is great. Is it perfect. No of course it isn’t. Nothing is.

Suggestion: Don’t let resentment get in the way of you asking questions. WA is constantly evolving so things are always changing and being improved. That can occasionally be frustrating but get over it.

Summary

If you’re going to be successful at IM one of the things that you will need to do is become an autonomous learner. Many people think this means that you need to have the ability to learn everything yourself with no help. It doesn’t. Being a successful autonomous learner means having the ability to take responsibility for your own learning. We all learn by asking questions.

If you are not moving closer to what you want out of IM (or life) , you probably aren't doing enough asking.
(adapted from an original by Jack Canfield)