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Unusual Way to Find White Paper Content

By Michael Stelzner

Coming up with great content is half the battle in completing a white paper.

You can search for hours on the Internet in hopes of striking gold (as your eyes blur from fatigue…).

Or you can simply pick up the phone and talk to an expert.

I know, I know… You’d rather burn the midnight oil interacting with Google than talk with a real live person.

Here are five reasons people resist interviewing experts:

o We hate asking for directions
o We think we know it all
o We don’t want to look bad
o We don’t know who to ask
o We don’t know what to ask

Now here are the facts. Interviewing experts:

o Speeds the research process
o Provides access to information you could never find any other way
o Results in excellent content that can strengthen your paper

Did I mention it’s also more fun than Internet searches?

My secret weapon for white paper success is interviewing experts.

After more than 500 of these interviews, I learned that by simply asking the right questions, experts will literally spoon-feed you awesome content AND they will enjoy doing it.

Do you want to master the art of extracting golden content from experts?

Do you want to greatly reduce your white paper research time?

If you’re thinking “Yes,” then you’ll want to hear what Lawrence Grobel has to say.

I am very excited to be joined by Grobel-the heavyweight champ of expert interviewers-for a special class entitled Proven Techniques for Interviewing Experts (How to Extract Knowledge From People).

Larry authored the bestselling book, The Art of the Interview: Lessons from a Master of the Craft.

Together Larry and I will explore practical techniques for interviewing experts.

This will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to interact live with Larry. You’ll pick up some tactics that will forever change your approach to writing.

The class format is like a radio talk show. You’ll have the opportunity to interact live with Larry from the comfort of your home or office.

This class is sure to fill up quickly.

Click here to reserve your seat.

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 5:24 am and is filed under Writing White Papers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

  • Interview's put us on edge.. It sucks but its true.. Acknowledging that someone else is an expert and that we need their help is like putting ourselves back into high school where we have to bow to the superior knowledge of an authority..
    Google, on the other hand, is somewhat like getting information behind the teachers back and then hitting them with it in the middle of class, proving your own superiority!!

    But you are quite right, despite the discomfort we often feel with interviews, they are the most effecient way to get information, and people love teaching others what they know, makes them feel real smart! :-)
  • Another reason why people choose Google sarch rather than interviewing the expert, maybe because we don't have to make appointment with Google :). Except, the expert have reguler meeting we can attend (like your class with Larry)...
  • Hiya Michael.

    Have just found your blog during my search for information on writing and content writing. Am most impressed with what you have to share, and will be perusing your site content comprehensively. Keep up the good work!

    Regards, Jacques
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