Interviewing Writers on a blog

[Dee Owen]

Interviewing Writers

I have been trying to help out some writers by doing interviews on my blog.  I really thought that many people and other writers would take some interest and leave a comment or two of encouragement.  In spite of my efforts announcing the up and coming interviews each week on many social groups, I have been quite disappointed in the lack of support. 

Perhaps I am going about it the wrong way.  Maybe someone could give me advice.

[Benjamin Sobieck]

There are thousands of author interviews posted every day. What sets yours apart?

[J W Nelson]

Benjamin's point is well-taken. How much traffic does your blog generate? Does it specialize or is it a general blog for writers of all types? Can you share the link with us? (could not find it in your message)

Thanks for the offer!

[Brian Hoffman]

I agree with Benjamin.  In addition, how did you get the word out?  I didn't even know you were interviewing.   

 

I think making people aware of your blog and why it is interesting or informative to read is a critical point for all of us.  What do we do to get the word out that our particular blog is worth reading?  Personally, I don't have a great answer.  Maybe others could weigh in with ideas.

[EDWARD C MORGAN]

Think about these odds.

First is the sheer number of blogs. These numbers are hard to come by, but according to Wikipedia, as of February 2011, there were more than 156 million public blogs in existence.  Is that number accurate? I don't know - wordpress.com has more than 15 million blogs and wordpress.org hosts more than 17 million. Tumblr hosts more than 10 million. Other popular platforms (blogger and typepad for example) do not share their numbers.

It is hard to say how many people read the average blog, but the number is very low.

As others have mentioned, you must have something that makes your author interviews different. Next, you must have a solid plan using social media to get word out about your blog.

[B.R.Stateham]

You really have to put your blog out there.  That means getting on Facebook and other social networking sites and telling everyone what you're doing.  And Time . . . it takes time to build up a following.  I've been blogging for over a year now . . . but it's been only the last three months that the blog has acquired any following.

Finally it also has to look good.  Visually attractive.  A point I think a lot of bloggers pass over.

[EDWARD C MORGAN]

I would agree with that. I can't put my finger on them, but I've seen some stats about the use of photos and videos and how much those elements increase readership.

[Jarrett Rush]

Something else that I haven't seen mentioned here is that it's also up to the interview subjects to let people know about the interview.

I did a series of interviews at my blog a few months ago. I think I did six or so and, interestingly, the one with the most comments featured an editor. But he did a lot of promoting and letting people know it was out there. I was actually very happy with all of the interviews, but that's because they generated traffic. But it all seemed to be one-shot traffic. It wasn't people who keep returning to my blog. I think you have to be prepared for that.

I also know that, for me, if I read a few questions into an interview and the person doing the questioning seems to be feeding questions that aren't subject-specific I lose interest pretty quickly. A lot of it has as much to do with the questioner as it does the questionee.