Where ever your field of expertise may lay, once you establish a respectable profile – all eyes will be on you. This ‘statement’ cannot be any more truthful than in the world of blogging as we see big time bloggers like Darren Rowse and ShoeMoney, along with several others dominating the blogging niche.
Everyone visits their sites just as much as everyone reads their content. You probably thinking if there was only a way to stream some of their readers on your blog? Well, every now and then big time bloggers feel generous and devote their precious time to an interview or two. Your quickest route, the unopened door to stardom.
Once of the quickest ways to get attention to your newly opened blog is it to run a series of useful interviews. The bigger the interviewee (person being interviewed) the more attention you shall grasp. Having said that though, my success in this technique revolves around not by interviewing big time bloggers, but instead the mediocre ones that have a small yet solid community.
The main purpose of an interview is to gain information from the interviewee. You may have experience in interviews from job applications you have made, or you might have had even played the role of being interviewed yourself.
What makes a good Interview?
The best interviewers:
- engage the interviewee in a conversation, not just run a question and answer session
- listen very carefully to the responses of the interviewee and respond to them positively
- recognize opportunities to ask more about particular points and when to move on
- are flexible enough to pursue other topics that arise during the course of the interview rather than sticking rigidly to prepared questions.
Many people are renowned for their ability to interview in depth and with absorbing attention to detail. They demonstrate the active listening necessary to respond to the other person’s information. Think of Clive James, Oprah Winfrey, Geraldine Dooge and Ray Martin for inspiration, watch some of their interviews and experience how they manipulate the conversation.
The 6Ps for a ‘Great Interview’
You can adapt the 6P approach to an interview using each ‘P’ to remind you of key elements.
Purpose
What is the main aim of the interview? What information do you need to elicit from the interviewee? Don’t host run-off conversations where the interviewee just keeps talking because you’ve asked a rhetorical question.
Plan
List the things you need to do and also the things you want to accomplish. Be prompt with what you do, and organize a date and location for the interview as soon as possible, but make sure the interviewee is able to make it on that day. Divide tasks between your fellow administrators, if your running it as a team.
Preparation
Brainstorm your list of topics for discussion and the types of questions you are going to ask. Identify the information your readers/wider community in your niche will benefit from. Conduct any research necessary. Refine your questions to best meet your needs.
Props/Persona
How will you go about recording the interview — Have someone take notes? Or perhaps use a video camera? First, check that the interviewee doesn’t mind (most likely they won’t, but just ask anyway). Make sure you have all the required equipment. What persona will you take on — humorous? serious? down-to-earth? Whichever you pick — keep it simple and not too wrapped around one persona. Don’t over do the jokes, nor have such a serious face your making the interviewee want to cry.
Practice
Practice your questions. Be attentive in your manner when listening and responding to the interviewee. AS you build up your interviewer profile, you will gain experience but till then start off with small-time bloggers, or even friends with a similar interest in your niche.
Presentation
Keep the pace relaxed; allow the interviewee time to think about their response to a question. Make sure you thank them for their time at the end. Don’t use slang when interviewee someone of status, and make sure your properly dressed for the environment.
Tips on being interviewed!
Through out this article, I’ve mentioned that interviewers should pursue small-medium time bloggers, before they go after the key players. With that advice, comes the strong possibility that you might be the interviewee. This is more than likely, especially if your content is speculative and raises a few eyebrows in your niche-community. There a couple of tips that will better prepare you, if the situation should arise;
- Make sure your have understood the question asked. If you don’t understand the question don’t be afraid to ask the interviewer to repeat it. You much rather ask them to repeat than make a fool of yourself, by answering it with a totally irrelevant reply.
- Attempt to answer each question directly and honestly, if you can’t answer it truthfully for what-ever reason — just be upfront about it with the interview and admit you can’t. They should be understanding.
- Make sure you know your niche — as a blogger who is deemed worthwhile to be interviewed, this pointer should not be a factor but nevertheless — a quick revision prior to the interview of what your currently doing/working on wouldn’t hurt.
That’s about it for interviews, if you have any questions or areas where you want us to further explore — please drop by and leave a comment. We’ll be sure to try and reply to everyone!
2 Discussions
Really cool article, Janith
I know it’s old, but it’s the first time I’ve read it (thanks to Alex’s Top 20 list) and it was a great read. I personally am looking to do more interviews on my blog, so this post will come in really handy
Simon | Teenius’s last blog post..Using Internet Forums For Marketing
i need for the some important information about the hosting when i interviewee with some one , please send me the interesting tips.