The Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Start Publishing Interviews

Every blogger tries to diversify the content on their blog. Therefore, we see different types of posts: roundups, lists, how-to’s, case studies, slideshows, video posts, and podcasts. However, many often forget about interviews, can’t do them or are skeptical about this type of content. And it’s clear why: if your blog is far from TechCrunch or Mashable level, top experts, popular bloggers and celebrities will hardly notice your offer to be interviewed in a heap of inbox emails. However, this is only a prejudice.

When we started freemake.com’s blog, we were known for our free software, but nobody heard of our blogging activity. Still we had a good relationship with a few successful people in our niche whom we could interview at first. In a few months we already published interviews with Chris Pirillo, Efim Voinov (Zeptolab founder) and other top managers of big IT startups. So it’s not so impossible as it may seem.

In this article we’d like to throw light on interview posts and list the top 10 reasons why they can bring your blog to a new level.

1. Interviews increase blog authority

Well, you have a small blog in a certain niche with loyal readership. Your readers appreciate quality posts you write on blog, but definitely you can’t go beyond your expertise and write about things you don’t know. Here comes a nice work around: you may interview other experts in your niche to bring your readers new precious information. No doubt, your blog visitors will take a fresh look on your blog and will give it more authority as ever.

2. Interviews improve link building

Quality interviews are often republished on other sites. This will bring you a good backlink to your source. If you interview people who run their own blogs, you may expect a backlink on their sites as well. Interviews have really a long SEO-tail. Even if the interview was published several years ago, other blog would refer to it continuously, as long as the person you interviewed or their project is on top.

3. Interviews are SEO-friendly

The right topic for an interview is a clue to its success in search engines. If there are tons of other interviews on the Web with the person you’re going to ask questions, don’t hurry up to publish another “Interview with …”. Invent a SEO-friendly title and just add [INTERVIEW] at the end. You’ll see that search engines would appreciate your efforts.

4. Interviews increase social sharing

Usually the person you interview shares the interview with their networks. If he or she has a lot of followers, your post will be reshared exponentially. A nice bonus, isn’t it?

5. Interviews are easy to make

Publishing interviews, you may get relevant content in a hustle-free way. If a person agrees to give you an interview, you just have to think about the interesting questions and write a small intro. The rest of the job is done by the interviewee.

6. Interviews can be repurposed

You can use content from interviews to create more posts. For example, ask each person you interview to name their favorite blogs, YouTube channels, places, food, etc. Then you can round up the answers and write a new post.

7. Interviews help build PR relations

Blogging is an exercise in give-and-take. You promote a person on your blog and expect to get some reward from their side. If you market some other things apart your blog, you may drop a letter to you interviewee with an update notice and ask their feedback on your new product. Your request will hardly be ignored.

8. Interviews be turned into podcasts

With the rise of iTunes, podcasting became very popular among bloggers. Haven’t you thought about the idea of launching your own podcast channel on iTunes? It might bring new visitors to your blog. With the help of free text to speech tools, interviews can be easily turned into podcasts.

9. Interviews will bring you new gigs

When you interview people on a regular basis, you don’t only develop your journalism skills, but acquire new knowledge about your niche. Maybe, one day you will grow in a good consultant or influencer…

10. Interviews push commenting

You may offer you readers to write more questions in comments and ask your interviewee to find time to answer them. Or you may offer your readers to leave their feedback on the points touched in the article, either they agree or not with the interviewee. It’s always interesting to see how readers react similar articles.

So, don’t waste time and start publishing interviews right now! Good luck.