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January 23rd, 2008

10 Reasons to do Blog Interviews

Posted by: Brian

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As you probably noticed, I am a big fan of interviewing others on my blog.

And why not? Aside from the fact that I get to exchange ideas with brilliant people, it gives the blog a different, more conversational flavor. Here are 10 reasons why you should think about doing blog interviews, too:

1 – Mix things up. It is difficult to be a news beacon, constantly finding the latest of what’s going on before others. Even if you’re great at it, you have to sleep sometime. Someone else may have the inside scoop.

2 – Create a real conversation. Some of the top diggers have done a good job of every post being a conversation in their weekly podcast, the Drill down. They make a point to have regular guests as well. Social Blend does a fine job of this as well.

3 – Paid reviews seem cheap. It comes off as more believable to have an interview over a paid review any day.

4 – Interviewing will get you links. You’ll get links from the interviewee at a minimum, potentially along with part of their audience as well.

5 – Other people will get the idea and interview you. Since you will now serve as a forum for others to get noticed, people will want to interview or quote you as well.

6 – Become an influencer. If you interview a software company, you should be on their list of private beta testers. This will allow you to get a head start in the next new new thing.

7 – Bring in a new discipline of expertise. No matter what your blog focus is, you can bring in folks from all sorts of disciplines. Squareoak had a good example of this recently, considering that they write a social media blog and interviewed an economist.

8 – Freeze writer’s block in its tracks. Can’t think of anything meaningful to blog about? A good back and forth interview will not only produce a sweet piece of content (the interview itself), but will also get you thinking about follow up questions and new post ideas.

9 – Beef up your journalism skills. Show the world that you are more than a borderline crazy person / ranter with some solid journalism skills. Doing some background on the interviewee and verifying sources goes a long way, and shows that you know your stuff.

10 – It helps you get new gigs. Regularly doing interviews brings such a fresh source of content that you will reach your blog goals more easily, be it RSS subscribers, consulting, or new blogging gigs.

About the Author

Brian Wallace is the founder of NowSourcing, Inc., a social media agency since 2005 serving everyone from startups to the Fortune 500 and everything in between. Prior to founding NowSourcing, Brian worked in a variety of technical and marketing environments being a Chief Technology Officer for a noted media company. Brian holds an MBA and MS in Information Systems and resides in Louisville, KY with his wife and children. He started the group social media blog, Collective Thoughts and appears as a guest author on Mashable and Google Tutor.
View all posts by Brian

http://www.socialmediamom.com Kristen

This is a very informative post, Brian and has come along at just the right time. I am planning on posting an interview next week and this gives me 10 more reasons why and some examples of questions I should be asking.
Many Thanks

Kristen’s last blog post..Just What Is The Digg Crew Recommending?
http://broadcasting-brain.com Mark Dykeman

Thanks for the link, Brian! Good post about interviews.

Mark Dykeman’s last blog post..Humpday Linkage – Jan. 23/08
http://www.publicplease.org Will

Thanks Brian for the post. I am taking a computational journalism class at Georgia Tech and it’s great to read about how bloggers are teaching each other about the social function of interviewing.

Will’s last blog post..Why Did MSNBC Exclude Kucinich?
http://socialpowerlinking.com/ Jack

Great ideas and all true from experience, although I have to get back into interviewing! Funny, it did wonders for traffic and participation and I quit doing it. Duh!
http://www.viperchill.com/blog/ Glen Allsopp

Hey I’m still waiting to be asked

So true, I’ve interviewed Aaron Wall, Lee Odden, Shawn Hogan (Digitalpoint) and Donna Fontenot (SEO-Scoop) and they have all had a good response

Glen Allsopp’s last blog post..6 Features I’d Like to See at Mixx
http://www.arkayne.com Paul

How about an interview Brian? I’m starting up a blog linker called Arkayne for content linking to compete with BlogRush, EntreCard, and SphereIT. I think your audience would like to hear about a guy trying to make it against the odds. Fighting through online marketing lessons, getting clobbered by bad hosting companies, and wrestling with an ever growing code base all while trying to keep his full time job at a big Silicon Valley company.

Look me up, I’d love to chat.

Oh yeah and the site I’m working on: http://www.arkayne.com
http://Markmytropicalescape Mark

Thanks for linking to my Darren Rowse interview!! Now, I am off to read the other interviews you have listed.
Pingback: links for 2008-01-25
http://www.nowsourcing.com/blog brian

@Kristen: glad you enjoyed it! Drop a line back when your interview is out.

@Mark Dykeman: you bet – it was a good interview you did with Shana.

@Will: computational journalism sounds interesting, can you elaborate? And yes, bloggers help each other.
Bloggers support each other through information exchange and all sorts of critique.

@Jack: Yes, get back into interviewing, it is the way to go.

@Glen: you asked for an interview, and now you got it

@Paul: drop me a line, we can talk about it.

@Mark: you bet – you had a good interview there with Darren. Happy reading!
http://anzman.blogspot.com Charlie Anzman

Great collection. Enjoying watching them. Thanks!

Charlie Anzman’s last blog post..Microsoft to the rescue ?
http://www.last.fm/user/simon_slade Simon Slade

Interviews are a great read if you pick the right people and ask the right questions, for sure.
Pingback: Gabfire web design » Around the blogsphere: 24 Jan 2008
http://www.myartspace.com/blog Brian Sherwin Myartspace Blog

Great post. Interviews are indeed a great way to get traffic to your blog. Most of the entries I post are interviews with visual artists. We get traffic from the websites of artists who post a link to their interview with me and I’m certain we also get traffic from people who have done a google search for some of those artists.

If you do enough interviews people will start to write you asking if you would be willing to do the same for their blog and all that jazz. I’ve actually done a few articles for art magazines because they were aware of my interview series.

The important thing is to not just go after the really big names. For example, I have posted my interviews with artists like Michael Craig-Martin, James Rosenquist, and Vito Acconci but I also interview artists who are just starting out. In my case, emerging artists are more likely to post links to the interview on several sites and to use the interview as part of their marketing strategy.

Interviews are enjoyable to read because most blogs tend to repeat the same information you can find on other blogs dealing with the same subject. The majority simply alter AP content. Thus, interviews give you unique content to post. They also give you ideas for original content to write about. We keep a list of my interviews at http://www.myartspace.com/interviews if you are interested.
http://www.nowsourcing.com/blog Brian Wallace

@Brian Sherwin:
that looks like a great site, and I’m glad to see that you employ interviews as well. Drop me a line, would love to talk interviews with you!
http://kipsang.wordpress.com/ Kipsang

Dear Brian,

I would like to repost this article followed by a link to your blog for publication on mine (http://kipsang.wordpress.com/).

Hence this comment to ask your permission to do so.

Looking forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,

Kipsang.

Kipsangs last blog post..Africa: Blueprint to Process E-Waste Developed…
http://www.desertrealproperty.com Elizabeth Schulze

I am getting ready to start doing interviews for my reale state website. Do you have any specific preparation techniques you would consider sharing? Such as do you give them questions in advance, how do you request an interview and minimize the chance of getting shot down etc.
Pingback: Challenge: Conduct an interview for your blog | The Daily Post at WordPress.com
http://eof737.wordpress.com Elizabeth

I love reading interviews and have done them on my blog since April of 2009. They are a great way to connect with people on a deeper level and build new friendships. I also see it as a way to give others a platform to shine… We all have something to share.
Excellent points.
Regard,
Elizabeth
http://www.beyondthepedway.com Tim Jahn

Along the lines of your point #4, interviews are a great way to help increase your blog traffic. I’ve just released an e-book that expands on this point and gives you the step by step process for creating high quality interviews that will help increase your blog traffic and boost your credibility. You can find the e-book here: http://www.beyondthepedway.com/increase-blog-traffic

Thanks for the great tips!

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