If you’ve followed me online for while you’ll probably know that I’m a huge fan of interviewing experts.

It’s one of the fastest and easiest ways to create a product online.

Especially if you…

• …don’t consider yourself to be an expert in your niche.
• …you don’t already know anyone in your niche that you could possibly form a joint venture with in the future
• …want some free consulting with an expert that would otherwise cost you money 😉
• …want a “lazy” way to get started with your web-business!

When I say “lazy” I don’t mean this is about cutting corners or delivering a sub-standard product.

Quite the opposite really, you can create some amazing value to build your business and be extremely productive with this method.

This said, I’ve received a number of frequently asked questions recently from subscribers about this. Let’s take a look…

1. How do I conduct the interview? What do I say?

Here’s the structure I use:

1. Get the interviewee on Skype and have a brief informal chat
2. When you are both ready, start the interview with a 1 minute introduction
3. Ask the expert a list of pre-agreed questions that you have sent to them before the interview takes place.
4. At the end of the interview ask them about where listeners can find them online. Offer them free advertising in other words.
5. After the interview is finished, stay on the call. Ask them how they think it went and chat to them to build your relationship further (you never know they might become your next joint venture partner!).

The key to success with your questions is to always be thinking of what your audience would like to know.

Usually this will involve thinking from a beginner’s perspective and don’t be afraid to bring your interviewee back on track if they stray off on unrelated tangents (this happens a lot in my experience!).

2. What tools do I need to record and publish my interview?

Of course you can interview people on video but the best format to get started is to simply record a phone call with your expert.

For this you need:

• Skype. Sign up here. If your expert doesn’t already use it ask them to sign up and add you as a contact. If they don’t want to then use Skype to call their landline (Skype has very cheap rates for this!)
• Record your Skype call with Pamela (for the PC) or Call Recorder (for the Mac).
• Edit the interview (usually this just involves cutting out the start and end of the recording) using the free Audacity software program.
• Upload the audio interview MP3 file to Amazon S3 (super fast and ridiculously cheap storage service)
• Publish the interview to your blog or product download page using the audioPlayer WordPress plugin or the built in audio/video player in the brilliant OptimizePress (my affiliate link).

3. How do I find experts?

1. Top blogs in your niche (search Google for your niche keywords then click Blogs on the left menu)
2. Authors of Amazon best selling books
3. Other website owner you come across
4. People you’ve met at live events or meetups

Start off by sending a simple email to them:

1. Introduce yourself
2. Make a genuine compliment about their work, website or product
3. Ask for an interview
4. Explain the benefits (i.e., they will get free exposure)
5. Call to action (ask them to reply and let you know whether they are interested).

4. How much do I have to pay interviewees?

Nothing. Zero.

Seriously, if they ask for money (which has never happened to me) then politely say no and move on.

The interviewee should agree based on the free exposure they can get from the interview itself and the fact that being interviewed makes them look even more like an expert! Seriously, it’s a great deal for them for just 30-60 minutes of their time).

If you find someone you would like to interview and they are reluctant then a couple of tricks that have worked very well for me are:

• Tell them you would like them to talk about their latest projects, products, websites at the end of the interview. Tell them they can advertise their squeeze page.
• Offer them a copy of the finished MP3 file to use as they wish. In my experience this usually gets them to agree if they are initially reluctant to do the interview 😉

5. How can I use my interview to build my business and make money?

Here’s some of the things I do:

1. Publish it on your blog to add value to your subscribers
2. Publish it in your membership site for your paying members
3. Add it as free content in your autoresponder sequence (perhaps even chop it up into 3 parts using Audacity to keep your subscribers engaged over several emails)
4. Sell it as a cheap product ($5-$10) on your Thank You Page (i.e., the page your new subscribers see immediately after they sign up for your list)
5. Package it with other interviews you’ve recorded and sell it as a standalone product. Offer affilliates 100% commission so they send you lots of traffic and you build your list with buyers which you can sell to again and again. Top Tip: Ask the interviewees to promote it.
6. Give it away for free to other product owners as a bonus for their customers (powerful: see this previous blog post for more details).

So…

Of course, doing interviews isn’t a new idea but it’s an evergreen strategy and I can’t recommend it enough to you as it’s so fast and effective. Especially if you’re just getting started.

Do you think you’ll give this a try? What are your objections? Please hit LIKE if you liked this and let me know your thoughts below 🙂 Cheers, Rob.