Hey there! If we don’t know each other, I’m Lidiya, and I’ve been blogging since 2013, mostly over at Let’s Reach Success.
After I became a full-time blogger (my favorite business model!), I also started teaching blogging as a business (with a focus on earning from brand deals). And I also interviewed some big and small publishers.
In fact, I now have 100+ success stories in my archives. This just happens to be my favorite type of content to create, and it’s such a win-win for everyone.
Some of these bloggers earn 5 figures a year, others earn 6 figures a month. There are also people who are bestselling authors, run multiple sites, retired their partner, provide for their whole family, travel the world, lost their traffic and gained it again, diversified their income, and so much more.
I love every part of the interview process - the outreach (I wrote a guide on how to do that here, by the way), the emails we exchange, how down to earth even the millionaire bloggers happen to be (because we all started from nothing and are in the same industry, after all). I love researching their blog and business to write the best questions, reading their responses, publishing the interview, and sharing it with my audience.
Then it can live on my blog forever, and it’s always such an inspiring story + powerful insights that can be found in each piece.
If you also want to interview fellow business owners in your niche, especially if they are content creators, maybe you struggle coming up with good questions.
That’s why I wrote this post. While you still need to do your research, personalize the interview and include questions based on what the entrepreneur has done, learned and earned from, the ideas below might help.
So, here we go. I grouped the questions by topic.
The Best Questions to Ask Successful Bloggers in Interviews
The Story/Starting The Blog
Hey, [name]. Tell us a bit about yourself and what you do.
What inspired you to start [blog name]?
At what point did you realize this could become more than a hobby?
Was there a specific moment or milestone that made you take it seriously as a business?
How did your niche evolve from [x] to [y]?
Early Growth
Do you remember your traffic or income numbers during the first year?
What helped you grow in the beginning?
Was there a specific post that changed everything for your traffic?
How long did it take before the blog started generating meaningful income?
Content + SEO
What’s your content strategy like these days?
How do you decide which content to create and publish?
What type of content performs best for you?
How much of your strategy is SEO-driven versus storytelling-driven?
How often are you publishing content these days compared to before?
How important has SEO been in your growth strategy from day one?
How do you approach keyword research?
What does your content creation process look like from idea to publish?
Do you prioritize volume, quality, or a mix of both?
How long does it typically take for a post to rank and bring traffic?
Any underrated SEO tips that have worked well for you?
What would you stop doing if you started over?
How do you repurpose one piece of content across platforms?
Do you batch content or create more spontaneously?
Blog Traffic
Your growth numbers are impressive. What do you think contributed most to that jump early on?
What were you doing differently compared to other new bloggers?
When did you start building your email list, and how did you approach it?
What are your most effective ways of getting subscribers today?
If you had to start again from zero, how would you grow traffic in [current year]?
Besides Google, where does most of your traffic come from today?
Which social platform has been most valuable for your brand?
Has Pinterest changed for you over the years?
Are short-form videos important for bloggers?
What platform are you most excited about right now?
Do you treat social media as a traffic source, a brand builder, or both?
What’s one mistake you see bloggers making on social media?
If someone only had time for one platform, which would you recommend?
If your Google traffic disappeared tomorrow, how would your business survive?
Pinterest
When did you start using Pinterest for business growth?
What makes Pinterest different from social media platforms?
What types of businesses benefit most from Pinterest today?
What actually works on Pinterest in [current year]?
How often should someone realistically pin each week?
Is consistency more important than volume?
Do fresh pins still matter more than resharing?
Should bloggers embed pins directly inside blog posts?
How many pins per blog post do you recommend?
Are idea pins still worth creating?
How long does it take to see traffic results from Pinterest?
What analytics should creators pay attention to?
What are common mistakes beginners make on Pinterest?
How do you balance Pinterest strategy with SEO?
Monetization
What was the very first way you made money from the blog?
How long did it take to earn your first income?
What income streams do you rely on right now?
Which one brings in the biggest percentage of your revenue?
Are there any income streams you expected to work but didn’t?
Can you share a rough monthly income range at this stage?
How important are ads in your business?
Do you think relying only on ads is risky today?
How diversified are your income streams?
Did recent Google or social media changes affect your monetization strategy?
Which income stream feels most stable long-term?
Brand Deals
Do you allow sponsored content on your site? If so, how do you go about it?
How did you land your first brand partnership?
What do brands look for when working with creators today?
Do brands approach you now, or do you still pitch?
What advice would you give bloggers who want higher-paying partnerships?
How do you stay aligned with your values while working with brands?
Affiliate Marketing
How does affiliate marketing work specifically in your niche?
What types of products or services convert best for you?
How do you naturally include affiliate links in your content?
What’s your advice for beginners trying to make their first affiliate sale?
Any mistakes to avoid with affiliate content?
Digital Products
What was the first digital product you ever sold?
How did you know your audience was ready to buy from you?
Which digital product has performed best for your business?
Do you prefer low-ticket offers, memberships, courses, or coaching?
What does your current product suite look like?
How has your approach to selling changed over the years?
What’s one digital product that failed or underperformed, and what did you learn from it?
Funnels + Launches
What does your sales funnel currently look like?
What freebie or lead magnet converts best for you?
How do you move readers from blog visitors to paying customers?
What role does email marketing play in your business?
What’s your philosophy around selling online?
How do you sell without making your audience feel constantly pitched to?
Do you prefer evergreen funnels or live launches?
What has been your most successful launch so far?
What launch mistakes have taught you the most?
How far in advance do you plan launches?
What metrics do you pay closest attention to during a launch?
What separates a high-converting offer from one that flops?
Running The Blog
What tools are essential for running your blog?
What do you use for SEO, email marketing, and analytics?
Have you automated or outsourced any parts of your business?
What does your weekly workflow look like?
What’s one tool you couldn’t live without?
Has AI changed the way you approach content creation?
Are you using AI for brainstorming, outlining, SEO, or editing?
What content tasks should creators never fully outsource to AI?
The Future of Blogging
Where do you see the [specific niche] blogging industry heading in the next few years?
Do you think SEO will remain as powerful as it is today?
How has AI impacted your workflow so far?
Are you using AI tools in your business? If yes, how?
What should new bloggers focus on to stay relevant?
How has AI affected your business?
Do you think blogging is getting harder or easier?
What types of creators will survive long-term?
Final Advice
What would you tell someone starting a blog today?
What would you do differently if you could start over?
What’s one belief about blogging that you no longer agree with?
What’s something about building [blog name] that people don’t see from the outside?
What does success look like for you now?
What’s next for you and your business?
I hope you enjoyed this list.
Of course, don’t include all of these. No one has that much time.
Aim for 15-25 questions, but make sure they are the right ones and that they apply to the blogger’s business.
Let me know if you have any thoughts or questions. And here’s to sharing some awesome stories on your blog or Substack ✨
Also, when you publish your first (or next) interview and use some of the questions above, share a link below so we can check it out 😍