Every Saturday so far we have shared an interview with you. This week I would like to take a break from the interviews and ponder about whether they help. Rather than just focusing on one party, I am going to see whether it helps the readers and the interviewees.

How could an interview help the reader?

• Motivation – By reading interviews about people’s successes it can comfort the reader if they are having troubles, and make them motivated to try harder and succeed.
• Inspiration – Many people are inspired by interviews they read, sometimes this can include actual life changing decisions such as moving house or changing job. It is good to be inspired as it makes you feel like you can do so much more with your life, and usually this is true.
• Knowledge – If somebody is being interviewed, it is normally because they have learned something through experience that is worth sharing with the world. So instead of just reading an interview and moving on, think about what you can learn from each interview. Many people say “Learn from your own mistakes” but I do not see why there is a problem with “Learning from other peoples mistakes“.
• Explore the Web – Many of the interviews I have read elsewhere have made me want to speak to the interviewee myself, this is where social networking is very useful. Not only is it good for meeting new people, it is also good for knowing about more websites. For example, the interviewee might be a hosting company which gives much better deals than your own. Interviews generally are good at seeing which websites are worth visiting.
• Crawl around in their skin – Reading interviews is a great way of understanding other people’s viewpoints about a subject. Surely it is better to understand different viewpoints than be biased? Understanding other’s beliefs does not mean you have to agree.
• Reality - Interviews are indeed very good for motivating and inspiring but they are also very good at telling the truth. This means you are able to understand how hard it is to be as successful as the interviewee is. For example, most people think that being successful in blogging is simple but it actually take a lot of hard work every day. Instead of being put off by the reality, think about how you could go about making the time to be successful.

How could an interview help the interviewee?

• Motivation – A lot of very successful people struggle to see their success. By being interviewed, it can motivate the interviewee to carry on as they are and proves to their self that they are doing well. This can also help with pride, which is something that most people think is bad… it can actually be a very good trait in some people.
• Helping – Almost everybody likes to help people. A lot of people seem to think the only way to help is to donate money, this is not true! If you give somebody a tiny piece of really good advice, it has the potential of helping them far more than any amount of money can.
• Free Publicity – This is one of the factors that a lot interviewees like the most but some people do not seem to realise that a quick interview could help their SEO massively. It is also a very good way (as I said above) of making readers realise that your site is a good place to go to. This often means more customers.
• Self-Actualisation – This is the last stage of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and is linked to motivation. Answering interview questions is a really good way of understanding yourself, similar to diary, as it allows you to write about yourself and can often show that you know a lot more than you are aware of. If you allow yourself to have a little bit of pride then it will help your Self-Actualisation and will let you feel very good.

You should now have a good understanding of how interviews help everybody. Please let me know (by commenting) how they help you and your beliefs about interviews. Also if you are interested in being interviewed. Remember, interviews are not only for famous people! If you are a start up, or even just have an idea, then you can probably give a better interview as you are going through all the problems right now. There will be problems, there always is, you just need to learn how to succeed from them.

Thank you,

Shane