Interviewing a blogger is often related to marketing your blog with the audience of that respective blogger whom you’re interviewing.
When you interview a blogger, you and your blog is put into the limelight as such interviews are likely to be shared by that respective blogger and readers.
He/she is likely to have good audience around him/her which would be interested in knowing what questions you asked and what the answers were.
Thus, sparking a first step towards marketing your blog, your blog will start receiving a good traffic and thereby reputation among the readers.
But it’s not easy to interview a top blogger.
How many of you have had tried interviewing a blogger?
How many of you’ve really succeeded in interviewing a blogger?
And here comes the final question – Did you fail in getting a nod from a blogger for interview? I’m sure if you’re one of those who have failed, you would’ve abdicated the idea of interviewing a blogger by now and you would probably be thinking of some fresh ideas for your next blog posts or may be some other reason which I don’t really want to find out.
I don’t really know how much ravenous you’re in the beginning of this post, but what I do know is you’ve either tried to interview a blogger in the past and failed or you’re interested in getting a blogger for interview.
Whichever the case would be, you’ve arrived at the right place and you won’t be disappointed. ;)
Before beginning out with this in-depth article regarding interviewing a blogger, there are few things which I would like to share with you.
Something about mini-index
I call it a mini-index as it really puts an idea about my blog posts in handful of bullet points or whatever you call it. This article is composed of following points-
Preparing Yourself for Interviewing a Blogger
- Selecting a Blogger
- Building Communication
- Communication Medium
- Writing Purpose of Interview (POI)
- Getting “YES” from a blogger
1. Selecting a Blogger
The process of selecting a blogger is often considered as hectic because it involves pinning down skills, interest of your audience and comparison between various bloggers.
Although, it’s not a good idea to compare between two or more bloggers because each one of them have their own flavors. Once you’ve selected that special blogger to host on your blog, it’s time to proceed ahead in building communication.
2. Building Communication
I’m sure that some of you would be having a good relationship with a plenty of pro bloggers but if that’s not the case then you don’t worry.
Actually, the process of building communication and selecting a blogger often depends on whether you know the blogger already or you’re the one who wants to know him.
In the first which assumes that you know the blogger well, you would have improved communication before getting into him or her. Now, let’s assume, you’re just starting up and you don’t really know that specific blogger but you did choose him because he is very popular and could help you garner good amount of attention.
In this case, it’s pretty much sure that he/she is not going to accept your interview request unless he knows something about your existence.
So, to mark your existence, you got to follow their social profiles and blogs regularly.
Don’t rush into sending a friend request. ;)
Instead, subscribe to follow their public updates or simply follow their twitter account and start interacting with their updates. Often leave a beautiful comment on their blog posts but make sure you don’t spam and don’t post short comments such as the following ones.
- Thank you. Excellent article. I enjoyed it a lot.
- Super Article buddy
- Thanks for the informative article
- … And so on
3. Communication Medium
I don’t think I really need to stress on this point because I’ve already discussed few key element in building communication section.
Various social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, StumbleUpon, Google Plus, LinkedIn etc. are great platforms to improve your communication with that respective blogger. Make sure that you use these communication mediums wisely.
Writing Purpose of Interview (POI)
Why do you intend to interview that respective blogger?
That’s the simple question which you need to answer well in good format to make it look like purpose of interview. At the moment, there is no hard and soft rule for purpose of interview.
A blogger is very eager to know your purpose behind interviewing him and be aware that it’s the only way to impress him/her with your intentions and skills.
4. Getting Yes from a Blogger
If you’ve followed steps that I’ve mentioned in this article appropriately then there is absolutely no chance of getting rejected from a blogger.
Although, I can’t really guarantee you on this, all I can say is there are more chances of getting yes from a blogger through this method instead of others.
Don’ts to follow during this process
- Don’t ask too many questions. Ideally, 15 questions are enough to reveal most of the information of a blogger.
- Don’t really ask them to disclose their financial details with respect to blogging.
- Don’t ask general questions, instead go for some quality and useful questions.
Over To YOU!
Did I missed any points to follow before interviewing a blogger? Did you ever interview a blogger on your blog? Do share with us in comments
I am lucky I am starting to get interviewed by other bloggers :D I should start my own round of interviews soon :D Any volunteer? :P
Thanks for these guidelines. I just started a blog in the health niche (see website), I’m glad I read this article. Would like to read an article that explains the appropriate questions to ask when interviewing the blogger.
really must follow guidelines before interviewing a blogger, thanks Pawan for sharing these important guidelines.
Hi Bipul,
Thank you for appreciating my efforts.
Really it is tough to interview a blogging person. When you don’t have experience and you are going to interview the blogging man, Then interviewer has no problem because What you will ask him, just formal question, how much your experiences has? What is your favorite and what is not? why Favorite and why you don’t like this one?
Hi Abdul,
From what I can interpret from your comment – Yes, formal questions won’t really help much. You need to think creatively to ask genuine or rather important questions intelligently.
Hi Brian,
From my understanding of the comment by you – Yes, interviews are indeed special because they can teach us numerous things. That’s how we get to know path followed by guru bloggers.
Having interviewed in a great and I must say a guru blogger is really a the best thing of it because you will really learn a lot of things about everything specially in blogging.
If that’s a top-notch blogger, we might actually know enough of the person. But, in other cases, a quick research is also very important. That’s how great questions hit our brains.
Great tips here, Pawan.
Thank you Koundeenya.
Yes, research has critical role in understanding the blogger and making set of questions specifically for the respective blogger.
Excellent share Pawan. In my opinion, interviewing a blogger who hasn’t been interviewed much will be a good idea because audience may not show interest in reading the interview of a same person through different people.
Well written! I was thinking that interviewing is too easy but it’s like another road in blogosphere :D . Indeed getting a yes from the blogger you want to interview is a small step towards the final interview !
Hi Dhaval,
As I said earlier, thorough research should be done before interviewing a blogger and off course, getting a nod from blogger is one small step towards the final interview.
Super Post!
Now, Planning to follow these points to get interview of a blogger, Especially Ammar! for my blog
Thank You
Hi Vishesh,
Thank you for your kind words. Yes, Ammar is definitely an excellent person and you should probably get him for interview as soon as possible. ;)
Interviews are always important to choose the right person for the right position.For example interviewing a blogger is needed.So, following the right way of doing so is based on knwoing some guidlines.Then, thank you pawan for this great post.
Thank you Nabil for stopping by and expressing your views.
Regards,
Pawan
Interviewing a blogger is always a great thing.But it should be good and right in the sense that we should follow some guidlines which are stated above.I really appreciate this post.This is good enough to choose th eright blogger.Thank you for sharing this golden information.
Thank you Robert for appreciating my post.
Yes, interviews should be conducted in right sense and proper research and questions are must.
By this article I have got an idea to make a new blog, where I will interview famous and new bloggers and the techniques they are using to run their bog successfully. I think this kind of blog will help other bloggers to improve their blog’s traffic and also knowledge of every blogger will also increase.
Wow.! Seems very nice idea to me but do remember that too many interviews can also harm your reputation if they are not conducted appropriately.
Great guidelines Pawan, these will really help in interviewing the bloggers for hiring. Even you gave points which should not be done during interview. Keep it up!
Once again thanks buddy. I really appreciate your kind words. :)
Hey Pawan, great article with the guidelines to follow before interviewing the bloggers. As I hire many bloggers for some or the other time and this guide lines will be really helpful for me. Thanks dude……….
Hi Sai Praveen,
I’m very thankful for your kind words. I hope the article serves for its purpose. Do share your interviews with other bloggers. I would love to check them out.
Hi Pawan, you have posted an article on very interesting article. All the guidelines are very clear and helpful. Thanks dude.
I’m very glad that you liked it Jason. :)
Thank you.
Great post Pawan. I haven’t interviewed any blogger till now but after reading this post I want to do. Can I take any interview in Skype?
Hi Dipra,
Yes, you can conduct an interview in Skype as long as that respective blogger doesn’t have any problem. :) By the way, why you’re choosing to go ahead with Skype? Any specific reason?
Hi Anirudh,
I would love to see you interviewing someone. Do drop your comment when you do so.
Regards,
Pawan
Thanks Pawan for sharing such an informative post. I am actually planning to interview a blogger and really happy to find this post before making any mistake while interviewing.
:-)
Hi Ayesha,
I’m sure that this article will definitely help you. Do revert back to me when you’re done interviewing a blogger. I would love to check the interview. :)
Great post Pawan – something that is most needed today since there is an increasing number of bloggers who take advantage of interviews (which is infact a healthy trend).
I’d like to add one more to the don’ts – Don’t ask the same set of questions to a blogger who has answered those questions on another (or at many other) interview(s). Always do your due research about the blogger/entrepreneur you are going to interview for past interviews and their answers.
Yes, dear Jane! Your additional tip is exactly right! I hope all readers here do check on that point as well. Throwing same set of questions on the respective blogger is really annoying and waste of time.
Great article Pavan. I’ve been considering doing some interviews lately and this is going to spur me on to action. Thanks for for great informative sharing. Btw I just checked you site eBloggingHow.com (from Londond) and the site wasn’t loading so wondering when we can access your site for some more articles on the subject.
My next 3 tasks for for next few 10 minutes:
1. Hit submit on this comment
2. Get in touch with people I want to connect/interview at LInkedIn
3. Search your site for tips on HOW to interview :)
Thank you Fernando.
It seems that there was some problem with my site yesterday. It should be loading fine now on-wards. And yes, there is detailed guide regarding how to write purpose of interview with one example template of how to approach a blogger for interview. Do read it for detailed information.
I’ve embedded the link to that article for you in this comment.
Regards,
Pawan
Haven’t interviewed any Blogger still, but will follow these tips and will soon interview someone! Cheers Bro! :)
Hey Pawan,
You`re right man.
Am one among them you never tried but what to try this out.
In conclusion part you gave some useful tips. Getting yes from a bloggers then asking simple and same old questions which were asked by others can`t be worthy.
As you mentioned coming up with new things can always makes the ineterview worth reading.
~@Khajamoin1
Hi Khaja,
I wanted to make it clear that interviewing a blogger is not that tough provided you’ve done enough research.
will you Believe that if I say, this is the best post of it’s type I’ve read ever. Actually I have read at least 5-6 articles on same topic but I found this as best now I can Interview almost any Blogger, all I need is just sometime and I will get it soon, Thank you for this superb info..
Thank you Shivani for your kind words. If this post has helped you, do take 2 minutes to share it on social channels.
And by the way, Good luck! Go ahead and try this techniques.
Nice effort Pawan as it is must have information for professional bloggers, also you’ve covered all the major points nicely.
Thank you Sarah for appreciating and stopping by for leaving your views.
Regards,
Pawan
You’re welcome :) Hope to read more from you there.
Best Regards!
Sarah
Thanks Pawan Bawdane for this post. I haven’t interview anybody yet or anyone has interview me but I can tell that interviews blogger is a difficult job.
Hi Tan,
Yes, interviewing a blogger is difficult task but unless you’re done with your homework, you won’t really find easy either.
Do your own research and then proceed for interviewing a blogger.
Good luck! :)
hi
Great article … Really very helpful post.
Visit my website also for such posts and if you like them or not pls comment.
Thanx..
Hi Vishal,
Thank you for stopping by and putting your words of appreciation. I will surely check out your website/blog.