“How to Convince Someone to Be Interviewed on Your Blog” plus 1 more

How to Convince Someone to Be Interviewed on Your Blog

Posted: 13 Apr 2014 08:47 AM PDT

NewImage This 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?

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

How to Convince Someone to Be Interviewed on Your Blog

The Benefits of Making a Business Blog Available in Multiple Languages

Posted: 10 Apr 2014 09:16 AM PDT

Your company blog: while often neglected due to its perceived lack of purpose (and the commitment it requires), it is also a personal way to convey a message to a client base that isn't possible with different forms of social media.

Far too many business owners forget that a comprehensive blogging strategy is essential for a company's greater marketing plan: a company blog puts a face and personality to what appears to potential customers everywhere as a faceless entity offering a product or service. In short, it's a cost-effective and simple way to connect to an audience and receive their feedback.

Breaking the Barriers

For businesses that have a presence in multiple countries, maintaining a blog that reaches different groups of people–who speak different languages–offers an intriguing challenge. Visiting a company's website to find that their blog is in a different language is a turn-off. It creates a barrier between a customer and the business he is paying for a service. It's impersonal and seems like the company isn't making an effort to coalesce. A blog that is available in more than one language makes for a much more positive experience for the consumer; something many often pay more for, rather than dealing with an unknown, unfriendly commodity.

As the TheWebsiteCenter.com notes, customer trust and the website level of rectitude typically needs to be more significant when purchasing a service, as opposed to a product. A service implies an extended relationship, while purchasing a product usually ends when payment is accepted. A service, however, is an ongoing event, which requires constant communication to ensure the effectiveness of the relationship.

Connecting with the World

Connecting with the consumer is impossible with barriers. A potential customer will go elsewhere if they encounter anything that makes them feel uncomfortable or inconvenienced by the business they are about to give their money to. For companies with a business in multiple countries, a multilingual blog is a way to connect with potential consumers, as well as showing them they are dedicated to providing a comfortable business experience. More eyes will be privy to a blog that is available in different languages. It enhances a business's internet presence by ranking the blog higher in non-English search engines, in addition to English search engines.

Having a multilingual blog provides new avenues for interaction with consumers, meaning a company can improve their product or service to fit the wants and needs of potential customers. Interaction is good: it helps create a relationship between two parties. Interaction with customers that are feeling-out different businesses makes it more likely they will choose your company, plain and simple.

Nothing to Lose

The process of setting-up a multilingual blog certainly isn't a huge undertaking, by any means. Set-up is easy to do, and duplicate content doesn’t count across languages. There are specific companies that specialize in content development, integrating translation capabilities into their services.

The alternatives include using a dedicated translation service, or even just hiring someone that is fluent in the desired language. Site maintenance and coding often prove to be obstacles to companies focused on providing a service a product, so having someone with great familiarity with HTML, in addition to the desired languages, is essential for providing a respectable, friendly blog.

The ultimate goal of offering a blog in multiple languages is to make it as interactive and friendly as possible. By catering to the needs of potential consumers, offering blogs in different languages reaches to a wider base than offering posts in English, exclusively.

Sloan McKinney enjoys sharing her knowledge on International Communications with readers. She contributes some of her writing to TollFreeNumberNow.com, and specializes in topics of business globalization and technology.

Originally at: Blog Tips at ProBlogger

The Benefits of Making a Business Blog Available in Multiple Languages

Writing Clinic #5: Tom Roelandts’ Post - DailyBlogTips

Writing Clinic #5: Tom Roelandts’ Post

Posted: 11 Apr 2014 08:41 AM PDT

Welcome back to Writing Clinic! If this is the first Writing Clinic post you've read, here's a quick reminder of how it works.

I take a look at a blogger's post (published or unpublished) and explain what's working well and what might need some tweaking. The posts can be on any subject, and we've had quite a range so far.

If you'd like to submit a post,there are guidelines and instructions here.

Today's post is by Tom Roelandts and it's titled Do Not Ignore the ASTRA Toolbox!

ASTRA-toolbox

Tom's blog is pretty technical (covering topics like photography, mathematics, and tomography). The fundamentals of a great blog post, though, remain unchanged.

Here's what I thought:

What's Working Well

#1: The Writing Style

Tom's writing is confident and clear. It's clear his blog is aimed at a specialist, advanced audience, and he doesn't shy away from using technical language — but he still manages to write in a friendly, approachable why.

#2: The Post Structure

While I don't understand a fair bit of the post, it's at least easy to know where I am within in! Tom has a clear introduction, an explanation of what the ASTRA toolbox is, and then a couple of subheadings that divide up the post. He links to further information on tomography at the end.

#3: The Formatting

It's always great to see images, blockquotes, subheadings, links and italics being used well — and Tom has all of these elements here. It's particularly great to have the code section (under "Python Wrapper") given so clearly, as I often see code being rendered badly on blogs.

What Tom Might Change

#1: Small Text Tweaks

I have a couple of small suggested tweaks:

In the introduction, cut this sentence slightly:

Original: Well, actually, I am confident that you can, if you put your mind to it, but what I want to say is that you shouldn't.

Suggested new version: Well, I am confident you can, if you put your mind to it, but you shouldn't.

It's a nice touch of humour either way, but I think my shorter, punchier version is better!

I spotted a single typo: under "MATLAB Wrapper", the word "All" is mis-typed as "Al" at the start of the second sentence.

#2: Add an Explanation of the Image at the End

Now, this might be my lack of subject knowledge, but it wasn't quite clear to me how the image at the end was related to the rest of the post. (My guess is that it's what's produced by the Python code example?)

I'd like an extra sentence or two immediately before or after this image to give it more context.

And that's it! I thought this was a great, functional blog post that (despite its technical subject matter) manages to be very readable. Thanks for contributing it, Tom!

If you have any extra suggestions or feedback for Tom, just add a comment below.

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