Comments on: Two Tips on Landing Interviews for Your Blog

By: putrago

putrago — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 22:00:37 +0000

this good news, thanks for your tips

By: Michelle Rafter

Michelle Rafter — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 20:23:09 +0000

As a reporter I’ve had no trouble lining up interviews with people for my blog. The biggest hurdle is getting over the fear of asking – don’t let yourself get in the way of yourself – just write the email and hit “send” or pick up the phone. You’d be surprised how many people will say yes.

One-question interviews are great – but I mainly use them for round-up blog posts. I’ve had great success with this by posting my question in LinkedIn’s Answer section. In my request, I always ID myself as a blogger & explain that I’m soliciting information for a blog post. That way I’m letting anybody who responds know that I could use what they say in the post in case I don’t have time to email them directly.

Since I interview people for a living, I have often used outtakes from those interviews – which I primarily do by phone – in a blog Q&A. This happened recently when I interviewed Paul Gillian, author of the NewspaperDeathWatch.com blog for this blog post: http://michellerafter.wordpress.com/2008/12/18/wordcount-interview-newspaperdeathwatchs-paul-gillin-on-online-community-news/. I interviewed him for a magazine piece, then used some of the comments I didn’t use in the piece for a Q&A. It got a tremendous amount of traffic when one of the Websites that he cited in the interviews linked to it from their front page

Michelle Rafter
WordCount – Freelancing in the Digital Age
http://michellerafter.wordpress.com

By: Drex

Drex — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 17:24:20 +0000

Great article.

Interviews are an excellent way of providing your readership with fresh insight from other sources. At my site, we do question and answer exchanges on a regular basis and at the very least, they are always an informative and entertaining read.

Incorporating interviews into the endeavors of blogging is a good thing.

By: TYCP Entertainment Magazine

TYCP Entertainment Magazine — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 12:20:01 +0000

It’s funny how different celebrities & bloggers are. I’ve found that with celebrity interviews, most of the celebrities actually like it when people ask them a lot of questions just as long as they’re good ones.

By: millionaireblog

millionaireblog — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 21:29:20 +0000

Great article Darren. I also believe that allowing guest bloggers to write articles for your site can also create additional interest among readers with the different writing styles.

By: gendut

gendut — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 02:44:24 +0000

focus on big bloggers is good but getting more wide networking on blogger more better…..agree, nice tips

By: Ragnarok Guide

Ragnarok Guide — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:21:26 +0000

I definitely agree with the tip #1. This way, you are building your blogging social circle.

By: J.D. Meier

J.D. Meier — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 09:10:37 +0000

Good thing you prefaced with #1 or you might have ended up with a bunch of #2 in your inbox.

By: uwak

uwak — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 08:21:35 +0000

thanks for the tips daren………. interview to be more better

By: Gary Lee

Gary Lee — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 04:48:35 +0000

I think most bloggers blog about their respective industries. I usually have good success when I let them know that they don’t have to answer all the questions, but instead pick the ones they feel most comfortable answering.

By: Web Hosting Sleuth

Web Hosting Sleuth — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 04:33:33 +0000

I think problogging is becomming more difficult all the time as competition is always increasing. The interview idea is great, because it’s interesting for the reader and it is great content for the search engines.

By: Feurzty

Feurzty — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 03:10:31 +0000

I just concluded my first “big shot” interview. I’m glad I kept it simple and focused. I did a few interviews prior to this one and really find that people respond well to direct and short formats.

I will continue to follow your blog for many more wonderful ideas as I am new to blogging.

Thanks,

Fleurzty

http://www.textureplayground.com/blog

By: Heather Hapeta

Heather Hapeta — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 20:17:42 +0000

Hi all of you looking for interviewees …….. if travel is your thing, maybe an interview with me will work for both of us . gets my name out there, a blog for you, and links both ways.

i have had one interview on a blog .. written by a woman who had attended one of my travel writing workshops.

cheers from the kiwi travel writer

By: Lani Rosales

Lani Rosales — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 18:15:21 +0000

Darren, besides brevity, I would add that when making a request, use a tone consistent with your blog. I got a request last week that was excruciatingly formal and even called me ma’am but when I visited their site, it was a storm of cussing. I don’t have a problem with either, but I felt that their intro email was misleading, so I would add for those looking to interview bloggers to *be consistent with your tone* because bloggers are quite observant.

By: Brandy

Brandy — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:58:32 +0000

Excellent Advice! I am new to blogging with my two blogs but hope to get out there and learn from those who do well with their blogs :-) I love meeting new people so interviews would be great!

By: Edward Brown

Edward Brown — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:52:21 +0000

Great article agan, you problogger! haha..

Thanks for sharing. I asked a few people to interview my blog, as well as my investment program.

Have a great day!

Edward Brown
http://www.edwardsmoneyblog.tk

By: Jon

Jon — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 12:17:12 +0000

Good post, I have done a few interviews already with my blogs and overall, I have found doing them over the phone as the simplest method for all involved. Cut it to 5 or 10 minutes and you are done!

Jon
http://Buzvia.com – Where’s Your Traffic Going?

By: PoLR

PoLR — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:31:37 +0000

Hi, I’ve been thinking for a while I would like to have a few interviews on our blog but haven’t known how to go about it (which is how I came across ProBlogger). Your posts have been a great help in not only giving tips such as the one question interview but also in giving encouragement to just go for it.

So, thanks for the posts and now it’s just down to me to think of questions and send out a few e-mails – my fingers are crossed!

By: Graham

Graham — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 07:11:27 +0000

Interviews would work, like someone said before, if it is interesting and catches your attention, sure why not? You just have to make the effort.

By: Vickywebworld

Vickywebworld — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 22:17:19 +0000

Thank you Darnen for such an cool write up. I think the major proble most bloggers have when it comes to interviewing popular bloggers is fear of rejection. Any one who overcomes this fear will surely be successful with conducting interview with famous bloggers.