The 68 Strategy – I’ll Do You and You’ll Owe Me One

Do you keep track of how many times you’ve gone down on your partner? I think deep down, everyone does. There’s a reason they call a blow job a job, and that’s because its work. By why to women do it? To build goodwill equity. Maybe their partner will return the favor later, maybe they won’t, but they still have goodwill equity built up.

An interview is a great way to create goodwill equity on the internet. It is your internet blowjob. Even though it looks like your being altruistic, you’re actually doing something to get something. You make out on two fronts. You look like a saint, but you’re secretly getting off.  

On my personal site, I host something called Friday’sFeatured Bloggers. Every Friday, I post an interview with another blogger asking them weird, invasive questions about their sites. I accept guest blogs from a large range of bloggers, from religious types, to dating experts, mommy blogs and more. There is virtually no subject I won’t write about.

Once a week, I pick one of these bloggers and I go through their sites, asking them questions about their page.  Then, on Friday, I post a funny interview with them. I put a humorous slant on everyone, regardless of the blogger, because my site is above all, a humor site.

Then, I wait for the hits to roll in. See, people love being interviewed and most of them will want to show it off. They’ll reblog my posts on their pages. They’ll share it on Facebook and Twitter. Even though the interview is about them and it is designed to increase their exposure, it increases my exposure as well. 

Both I and the featured bloggers make out on two fronts. They have my followers going to their page, and I have their followers coming to mine. They average about 100 site visits per interview (give or take) and gain a few followers. I get around 500 hits per interview and gain at least 10 new followers.

And the whole time, it looks like I’m doing something selfless and nice. I’ve built up my internet blowjob equity.  

Of course, the trick is being the type of page where someone would want to do this. Remember, you only want to play with nice pages, not the sleazy barfly pages that will post everywhere. So if you want to set up your own interview campaign, you need to know how to make it work.

1. Be established. By established, I mean have a regular following of 200 or more. These 200 should be quality followers who actually read what you write and who interact on your page. Otherwise, it’s a waste of time to do an interview marketing campaign. The sites you interview don’t have to be established to do this, but you do. Otherwise, no one will ever read the interviews and you won’t attract quality bloggers to interview.
2. Have a clear set of guidelines. You can do like me and allow everyone in, or you can pick only a niche topic. Regardless, you must have standards. For my interview campaign, I don’t do sites that are obvious spam sites or are poorly written. I don’t do sites that are more than 20% reblogs. Finally, I don’t do sites that write about writing. The first two I don’t do for obvious reasons. The last one I don’t do because I’m a writer. I’m not going to sent traffic to my competitors’ page. That’s just stupid. Also, I find writing about writing pages boring. There, I said it.
3. Have a posting schedule. Let people know when their interviews will posted and give yourself some time. I would recommend only doing one interview per week. Unfortunately, most people don’t really like reading interviews, so if you do too many, you’re followers will get bored.
4. Have a slant. Because most people aren’t crazy about interviews, you have to give them a  reason to read. For my interviews, I ask normal questions, then I toss in a few weird ones. I also do made up intros where I pretend to meet my bloggers for in person interviews in places like rehab, prison or a men’s locker room.
5. Archive your featured blogger so you can keep gaining equity into it for the long term. I have a separate featured blogger page set up where all my bloggers are archived. This way, people can click on their picture and get taken to the blog post about them. This is also where all the people who want to be featured bloggers can sign up. If you choose not to do that, you can always put them on your blog roll. The point is to keep your pages transparently connected.Above all, only interview people who have something to say. I only pick interesting individuals to feature because, again, interviews are not popular. The more interesting the person, the better a chance I have of getting people to read the interview with that person. 
6. Make sure to link. If they’re going to the trouble of answering your question, be sure to throw in at least 3 links in the bargain. I allow unlimited links, as long as people don’t get crazy.

 

A featured blogger campaign is a great way to build goodwill among a quality audience on the internet. Everyone likes oral, whether its receive it or talking about themselves. Give them a chance and you can increase your page views as they increase theirs. Much like Deep Throat, you’ll be quietly getting off while they think they’re getting all the attention.