4 Ways to Overcome Blogger’s Block with Interviews

I love interviewing people.  I get a chance to learn about other people; gain new knowledge; and support people in their endeavors. Interviews also allow me to diversify content on my site while promoting others, which is a double blessing. They are also a great way to overcome blogger’s block.

You can give exposure to people who are just starting out in their careers; speak with experts in your industry; talk to someone “just because”, or provide a platform to share unheard voices, thoughts and opinions. They can be written, audio-recorded or video-recorded. Following are four ways you can use interviews to overcome blogger’s block.

Overcome Blogger’s Block with Interviews

Exposure for Newbies

This is a great way to bless people early in their careers. It’s also an ego boost for you because you can say, “I interviewed them when they were just getting started.” Then you both can look back on those early videos and say, “Remember when?” Additionally, these interviews are a great way to build relationships.

My conversations with Matthew Williams from Rich and Winning are such interviews. He reached out to me on Twitter asking for an interview before he started his company and we did a follow up after he got going. Also, these were my first recorded Skype interviews.

Speak with Experts

Interviewing experts is the ideal way to speak with those “big” people you want to reach. Most of them will probably charge you for asking questions, just because of who they are. However, if you ask them for an interview, they may agree.  When they say yes, be sure to ask ALL of the questions you want answered because this may be the only time you can get free information; take advantage of this opportunity.

I e-mailed Dr. Alan Weiss after reading his book, Million Dollar Speaking, to ask a few questions. He told me that I would have to pay $1,000 for his mentoring program to get responses. Well, I only had 3 to  5 simple questions about him, not about the business of speaking; I wasn’t going to pay for mentoring. I then asked if he conducted interviews; he said yes.

Just Because

Are there people who interest you and you want to speak with them “just because”? It may be their personality; their career or their hobby, or you just need clarification on something on which they have knowledge. I  had  a video-recorded interview with Da-Nay Macklin for that reason. She’s a certified life purpose coach and I needed to know exactly what that was since half the people I meet claim to be one. Specifically,  I wanted to know: what qualifies someone to tell you about your life when theirs may not be in order? She clarified this in our interview.

Provide a Platform

I’ve conducted several interviews with people from different community organizations on my community site, Shorty: Your Chicago South Side Resource. Even though there are tons of such organizations serving the community, we rarely hear from them or about them unless something bad happens. Listen to my audio-recorded interview with Diane Latiker, the mom with the big heart behind Kids Off the Block. In her effort to keep her own children close to home, she ended up opening her home to the children in the community.

Above are 4 ways you can overcome blogger’s block with interviews. They are great ways for you to gain exposure; to help promote others; and to build relationships. And, indirectly, you are setting yourself up for greater connections and opportunities.

To learn about more posts you can create on your site to keep your audience returning, as well as visual samples of these posts, purchase 62 Posts to Overcome Blogger’s Block.

Do you conduct interviews on your site? Do they fall into one of the categories above? How was your experience?