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How to Convince Someone to Be Interviewed on Your Blog

Posted By Darren Rowse 14th of April 2014 Miscellaneous Blog Tips 0 Comments

NewImageThis question was submitted recently via the ProBlogger Facebook page.

How do I get an established blogger like yourself to do an interview with me? or How can I get an established blogger like yourself to do a guest post for me on my blog? – from Sandra Tillman

Good questions. I think you’re much more likely to get a popular blogger to do an interview with you than to write a guest post for you.

I can only speak for myself really but writing a guest post for someone else’s blog is low on my list of priorities when I already have a blog to create content for.

The exception might be if I had something I was launching or wanted to get some attention for – but even then unless your blog has a sizeable audience and/or and audience that is right on target for the type of reader I want to reach – I’m not likely to take you up on that offer.

It’s simply that there’s just not the time in the day to offer that.

An interview on the other hand may be more achievable – particularly if you make it easy for the blogger you’re approaching to do.

It might be hard to get a full-on interview with a popular blogger unless you have a big audience, profile, or some way in with them, but you might pull it if if you’re willing to make it short and easy to complete.

In my own early days when I didn’t have much profile I used to do it by doing ‘one question interviews’. I would send the blogger a single question and ask them to write something in response – big or small.

Sometimes they’d send back a paragraph or two, other times it might only be a sentence. I’d often ask 3-4 bloggers the same single question and then put their responses together to create a longer post.

The beauty of doing this kind of approach is that you’re able to make it easy for the blogger to do but you also get a little benefit from having them on your blog (which makes it easier to get the next interview).

Keep in mind though that many bloggers get a lot of interview requests. I’m not the biggest blogger going around, but on a typical day I get asked to be interviewed 2-3 times. Couple this with requests to write articles, be in Twitter chats, appear in webinars, be interviewed by media, and the top bloggers must be getting approached many many times a day!

5 quick tips on how I’d go about approaching bloggers for an interview:

1. Introduce yourself

Be personal, quickly introduce yourself, and explain why you’d like to interview the blogger. As you do so, think about the benefits not only to you but also to your readers and to the blogger. For example – do you have a relevant audience to them?

2. Outline how the interview will be used

If you’re planning on using the interview in some way that people have to pay for then say this up front. I’ve had a number of people ask me for interviews that I’ve later found out were used in books, behind paywalls, or as incentives to sign up for newsletters.

While I am not against using interviews in this way, you’ll want to be clear about your intentions with the person you’re approaching.

3. Outline how you’ll conduct the interview

Tell the person how you want to conduct the interview and how much time they’d need to dedicate. If it is a written interview via email tell them how many questions. If it’s a recorded audio/video interview tell them how long it’ll take and what technology you’d like to use.

4. show you know them and make it relevant

Before you approach someone do a little research into who they are and what they do. Showing them this in some way by making your approach personal will show them that you’re not just copying and pasting interview requests into emails. It’ll show them that you’re going to some effort rather than just wanting them to essentially create content for you.

5. Followup

If the person agrees and you do interview them, make sure you use it! I’ve had times where I’ve put aside considerable time to respond to questions for interviews and then never seen the content used in any way – frustrating!!!

When you do publish it – shoot the blogger a note of thanks with the link. You might even find that they share it to their network!

One Last Tip

Big bloggers may not be the best starting place – in fact, they may not be the best interviewee at all.

I say this for two reasons:

1. if you’re new, it’s hard to land a popular blogger. You might have more luck landing a small- to medium-sized blogger. Once you’ve done a few of these you then have something of a portfolio to be able to show others that you approach later (this might help you land the big interview).

2. the other reason you might want to approach smaller bloggers is that they might just make a more interesting interview subject. Everyone’s heard the big blogger’s story in countless other interviews, so why not try to unearth something fresh and new from someone that is up and coming?

What Would You Add?

Have you ever landed a big interview for your blog? How did it happen for you? What tips would you give?

About Darren Rowse
Darren Rowse is the founder and editor of ProBlogger Blog Tips and Digital Photography School. Learn more about him here and connect with him on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.
Comments
  1. When any blogger try to convince a famous blogger for the interview then there are many problems he/she has to face. As you have explained that in starting we can’t reach to a famous blogger, we have to go for some medium size bloggers. It is helpful as we can have experience after that. It is really necessary to introduce ourselves if we want to approach to any famous blogger. You have given worth applying tips like always. Thanks for sharing.

  2. I feel given a small token of gift after the interview is published to the person could be good…..Madhavi

  3. Great Insights given here on how we need to approach other bloggers for interview. This will surely help to convince the bloggers to give interview for us. Thanks for sharing these tips.

  4. Great Post Sir,
    I am looking for this type of the post from some days as I wish to take interview of some blogger on my blog but confused how to approach for interview but this post solve my problem Thanks.

  5. Hello darren,
    Thanks for the ideas you have shared in this post. i really liked the point where after publishing the interview we need to let the blogger know about it and they may share it within their network.

  6. Giving an honor to a popular and successful is a very good thing which every blogger should do according to me. I am creating a list of a great bloggers and would like to take interviews. You are a great blogger Darren. I wish I would be like you. By the ways, I planned and wrote some questions. But these tips have made me to think in a good way to complete my task of attempting interviews. Thanks :)

  7. Hi Darren,

    Interviewing an influencer in ones niche and publishing that interview on one’s blog is great for traffic! So far, I’ve not had any interview series on any blogs of mine. Instead, I was approached to give an interview for a blog! :) I shied away from it because I felt I wasn’t authoritative enough in that particular niche yet.

    As of now, I’m planning to run an interview series of some influencers on an education niche blog of mine. I’ll be targeting few good bloggers related to that niche from India. Apart from bloggers, I’ll also try to get interviews of some eminent teachers also. Hope that the strategies you provided to rope in bloggers will also come handy while dealing with those teachers too!

    Thanks to Kingged, where I found link to this useful post! Will Kingg it for sure over there!

    Thanks for sharing these awesome tips!

    Arun

    • I think you are being Modest, Arun! Your site is awesome and I think you are an established authority. I would definitely go for it next time!

  8. You’ve shared a good post about convincing people to interview on our blog. Probably, I will follow all things what you’ve said in your post.

    Thank you again for share such a great post.

    Regards,
    Mohammad Reaz

  9. Indeed a great post from you.Taking interview of some popular blogger will definitely help any blog to boost the traffic but yes for a new blogger it’s too hard to get such interviews.So thanks a lot for sharing this.

  10. Got the lots of insight-ness of interview and soon I am going to publish two interview. Thanks for the directing to a helpful post.

  11. Thanks for sharing the new ideas with us Darren. I really haven’t interviewed any blogger yet but I would love to do so someday, especially a big blogger like you.

    However, I would like to start out small and start off with the suggestion you mentioned – asking one off questions to different bloggers and then publishing them. I would also love to interview upcoming bloggers who are really dedicated and making fast progress on the blogging world.

  12. Hi, Darren

    This is a good format for asking for interview for others, but I think before asking any pro blogger first we have to make a pro blog, I mean like good template, good amount of visitors, good content like case studies, reviews etc.

    That’s why the person who will spend his or her precious time, he or she will also get traffic to his or her blog.

    I think by telling them that you will be providing one or two do follow back links from the mid of the content would be much better way to convince others for the interview.

    By the way good blog post as a reference.

  13. You mentioned that small to mid bloggers are easier to land an interview. The problem is, there are harder to find on the internet. Can you write somethings like tips finding them? Thanks.

  14. Thank you for a great tips! I wonder, will these tips work if I want to interview you, Darren? :)

    http://www.dervish-az.com

  15. Hi Darren, helpful post. I’ve been including all of these tips when wanting to interview a high profile person. I think it’s also important to make sure the subject line of the email is also compelling. Another way is to build a relationship with them through Facebook and Twitter. Helps when you email them.

  16. LOL! Right. You have to introduce yourself first. If you are a total stranger and ask them for an interview like, “Hi. I wanted to interview you for blah blah blah.” certain they will cry off your offer and never talk to you again. Be respectful to them; tell your motive, show evidence that you are a real person etc. just like on your list. By doing so, they will say YES.

    I found this post shared on Kingged.com, the Internet marketing social news site, and I “kingged” it and left this comment.

  17. I am going to open a interview blog and I believe your tips are going to help me greatly.Thanks for sharing such a wonderful post for us.

  18. This is such a useful post. Really spot on. I just started a podcast I have been looking for people to interview. Indeed, the “smaller” and less popular blogs have been the ones to get easier access to. Yes, finding the smaller bloggers is harder but if you look hard enough, you can locate some.

    In my niche, I start with blog link-ups.

  19. This post was very enjoyable Darren. I agree that getting a Celebrity A industry blogger is probably out of the question; for us, someone from either Match.com or Eharmony probably wouldn’t bite, but it’s certainly worth the try anyway., There are plenty of very good industry bloggers we follow with compelling content who’d probably appreciate our invitation. When we launch, the ideas articulated here by both you and your responders will no doubt be incorporated into our SEO plan. Thanks!

  20. Not quite sure there is value in doing it. But certainly the short 1-question interviews are quite entertaining to read, and they can let you create very huge pompous titles for your blog posts.

    Read what these 5 Top Industry Experts Say On “Topic X”
    Top 10 Bloggers Revela Their Secrets
    ….

    And similar titles like that are surefire way to get clicks and harness some social media traffic.

  21. If you have a great blog, sharing high quality content and have a solid readership I think you can interview any successful internet marketer, including Darren Rowse :D , John Chow, Zac Johnson and any guy you want.

  22. Good article. I feel if you have good quality content on your blog, no matter who it is, you can interview any one. 2 year back, I called one person to interview about how he became millionaire (my blog is about investments) and he laughted at me. Later heard that he says that my blog was not that great during that time. Now he became a fan of my blog and of course I never got chance to interview :-)

  23. I’m looking for making an interview blog based on those your tips which i’m sure that they are going to help me.Thanks for the share.

  24. Adsense is actually a really great program for those who
    maintain blogs, as blogs get updated all the time and the Adsense possibilities are
    almost limitless. 20 percent of customers have the potential to
    spend five times as much as they do currently A relatively
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  25. Hi Darren. Great post. I have a financial blog and have been trying to interview some traders on my blog. Will surely implement the ideas shared here. Thanks again for sharing the post.

  26. Hi Darren,
    Keep up the good work.

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