If you missed the first post in this series, make sure you check it out here.
Beyond getting in contact with your interviewee, you need to be asking the proper questions to him or her. If I were to pick anyone to interview, they would obviously be in my niche and someone successful at it (Darren Rowse for instance). Now, these top guys get 100s of other emails and inquiries every day, so I need to make my subject title stick out. These guys are immediately deleting the emails that ask “How can I make 10,000 dollars in my first month of blogging?”
Make the Subject Interesting
I won’t be asking “Can I interview you?” in the subject. Generally, these get turned down because they are just so busy and can’t take enough time out of their day to do a little networking with you. Instead, say something interesting in the topic. “Hey, did you know this about your blog?” or “I’ve got something interesting to share with you about blogging.” Anything, be creative, use your imagination, but you need to stay friendly. I sure as hell wouldn’t reply to an email saying “I want to know why your blog sucks so much.” Then again, that could work.
Introduce Yourself
So we are past the subject. Now, you will want to say Hey, (Blogger’s Name), or whatever formality that you feel appropriate. I discussed this in the first post of this series. Then, put in a small introduction. When I mean small, I mean short and sweet and small. Your name, your blog, and a few other short details about yourself are enough. You aren’t interviewing yourself here, you are interviewing them.
Why did I decide to interview you?
Leave a short message about the interview next. Why you chose them, and what you plan to do with any answers. Let this, again, be simple. You can’t bore the blogger into closing your email. A few sentences about the details of the questions is enough.
Get on with it
Now what? Just get into the questions. Don’t wait to see if they agree to arranging an interview. It just creates hassle and once again, the blogger won’t want to separate time from daily activities to answer your questions.
Make it Easy
Write your questions out and make them clear and noticeable. Maybe bold them, bullet them, make them bigger. Do anything to draw attention to this point. This is the most important part of the email, and you won’t want to skimp.
Say Goodbye
After your questions have been asked, conclude it. Say thanks and I hope to hear from you; all that goodness and candy to make them feel appreciated. Don’t threaten them by saying you won’t read them anymore if they don’t reply. That’s pretty ridiculous to think anyways. I don’t need pissy readers. Just realize they were probably too busy to answer.
Ask the Right Questions
Or, perhaps, you just asked the wrong questions. I will be covering that in the next series post.
