Some suggested topics come with a few questions attached. They are short, and they matter more than they look. This post covers what the questions are, where your answers go, and what happens if you leave one blank. It also covers when to switch on Human in the loop, so a post is never written while a question is still open.
What the questions are
A topic hunt reads your website profile and comes back with five suggested topics. Each one has a title and an outline. Some also arrive with questions, up to four per topic.
The questions are the things the agent could not find out on its own. Typical ones are:
- a price
- a customer name
- a date
- whether you support some integration
Why the agent asks instead of guessing
The agent works from your site and your website profile. If a fact is not in either of them, the agent has no way of knowing it. Guessing would put a made-up fact into a post that goes out under your name.
So the agent asks. This is the point where the agents stop and ask a person for the facts they cannot find. Nobody knows your prices, your customers or your plans better than you do.
Where to find and answer them
You answer the questions in the app, on the topic itself.
You do not have to go looking for them. Needs attention lists everything across your team that is waiting on you, and topics with questions to answer are part of that list. If you check one place each week, make it that one.
Answering costs nothing. Credits are only spent when a post is written, and writing a post uses 10 of them. You can answer, change your mind and answer again without touching your allowance.
How to write a good answer
Think of it as telling a colleague a fact over your shoulder. A few habits help:
- Be plain. Write the fact, not a sales line about it.
- Be specific. If the question asks for a date, give the date.
- Stick to what is true today. If something is planned but not done, say so, or leave it out.
- Leave it blank if you are not sure. A blank answer is safer than a half-right one. More on that below.
What happens to your answers
Once the topic is approved, this is the path your answers take:
- The topic arrives with its questions.
- You answer what you know in the app.
- You approve the topic.
- The writer gets your answers as facts from the business.
- The post comes back, with its key points shown above it.
The writer works from the topic, the outline, your answers, the website profile and the project's writing rules. From those it writes the full post in markdown.
The important part is step 4. Your answers are not hints or suggestions. They reach the writer as facts stated by your business. So whatever you type is what the writer works from. If you put the wrong price in, the wrong price is what the post is built on.
That is why it pays to read your answers once before you approve.
Checking that your facts made it in
Alongside the post, the writer hands back a short list of key points: what the post says. They sit above the post for review only and are never part of it. A quick scan of them tells you whether the post uses your answer the way you meant.
If something is off, you have two easy fixes. You can tell the editor agent what to change in your own words, and edit turns are free. Or you can fix the line yourself in the block editor, which saves as you go. Every version is kept in the post's version history, so you can always put an older one back.
Approving with questions left blank
Questions are not a gate. You can approve a topic with some or all of them blank, and the writer still starts.
What the writer does not do is fill the gap with a guess. It writes the post so the missing fact is not needed, rather than inventing one. A sentence that would have quoted a price gets written without one. A point that hung on a customer name gets made without naming anyone.
This makes a blank answer a real choice, not a mistake.
When leaving one blank is fine
Leave a question blank when:
- The fact is a nice-to-have. The post makes its point either way, and the detail would only add colour.
- You do not want it public. Maybe a customer has not agreed to be named. A blank keeps them out of the post.
- You do not know yet. A date that has not been fixed is better left out than guessed.
When to answer before you approve
Answer first when:
- The fact is the point of the post. If the topic is about your pricing and the question asks for a price, a post written around that gap will be thin.
- The answer changes the post. If the question asks whether you support an integration, a yes and a no lead to two very different posts.
- You will only fix it later anyway. If you already know you will add the fact by hand afterwards, it is quicker to type it into the answer now.
If a topic only works with a fact you cannot give, you can decline it instead. You can add a reason, and every later hunt is told what you declined and why, so it stops suggesting the same thing.
How questions work with the publish cadence
Things change a little once a project fills its own calendar.
With the publish cadence on, RankMill keeps the next two weeks of slots filled with the posts the project already has. Finished posts go first, then suggested topics. Topics do not need approving to be placed on a slot.
A topic on a slot is written once its questions are answered. If they are still open 24 hours before its slot, it is written anyway, around the gaps, the same way an approved topic with blank answers would be. That write spends credits like any other.
This keeps the calendar moving. A busy week does not leave an empty day just because nobody got round to the questions.
One thing to watch: with the cadence on, a topic you never meant to use can still end up on a slot and be written. If you do not want a topic written, decline it.
When to switch on Human in the loop
Human in the loop is a per-project switch. It removes the 24-hour fallback.
With it on, a topic on the calendar is not written until its questions are answered. If its slot passes and the questions are still open, the topic gives the day back. No post is written for it, so no credits are spent on it.
Good reasons to switch it on
- Your posts lean on facts only you have. Prices, dates and customer names are what make them worth reading.
- You would rather skip a day than publish around a gap. A missed slot bothers you less than a vague post.
- You want every open question answered by a person. Nothing on the calendar gets written while one is still waiting.
Good reasons to leave it off
- A steady schedule matters most. You want something to go out on every slot.
- Your questions are usually nice-to-haves. Posts written around a blank still read well for you.
- You rarely check the app. With the switch on, unanswered topics simply give their days back.
If you do switch it on, make Needs attention a regular stop. That is where the open questions wait, and every one you answer is a post that can go out on time.
A simple routine
Here is a short habit that works for most teams:
- Open Needs attention once or twice a week.
- Answer the questions you know, plainly and specifically.
- Leave blank the ones you do not know or do not want public.
- Ask yourself whether the post still works without them.
- Approve the topic, or decline it with a reason.
The questions are small, but they are the one place where your knowledge goes straight into the post. A few minutes spent on them is what turns a decent post into one that sounds like it came from you.