HARO - A Great Resource

Today, I want to share a great resource with you. Some of you may be familiar with Profnet, a service reporters use to post their calls for expert sources and a service that sources pay for to receive these calls.

As an author, you are the expert they want to connect with. It gives you the opportunity to be quoted in articles or even featured in stories. However, it's rather pricey to sign up for this service.

But there is a new service in town (play appropriate Western music here).

You'll want to tell the PR people, marketers, publicists, editors, and journalists you work with about it too, because it's all about them and their needs.

If you're not already using www.helpareporter.com, check it out. It's a service much like ProfNet, but it's free. Yes, F*R*E*E. It used to be on Facebook, but grew too large for it. Once you subscribe, you receive about three to four emails a day with reporter, editor and freelance writer queries compiled in it, written so you can quickly and easily scan the topics for relevance.

If the topics do not apply to you, just hit delete. If they do, you may contact the reporter or editor directly, as instructed.

Note that Peter Shankman, the list facilitator, is very strict about helping out these reporters. Respond only if your information is relevant and on target. If not, you'll get bumped off the list. Quickly. I've seen it happen. So, don't pitch off topic to the media journalists. It's a great resource and you don't want to risk blowing the opportunity to use it.

Peter's a big believer in good Karma, and he’s also quite funny, and tends to also include a link to a fun site, or a funny story about his day in the emails. It's a nice refreshing change from the boring, non-funny emails we usually deal with daily.

Not only can you sign up to receive these source calls, but if you are writing a book or freelance article and need expert sources, you can submit a call to the HARO members. Peter just announced this week that membership hit 11,000.

Reporters/source seekers can post queries at www.helpareporter.com/press. Sources can sign up at www.helpareporter.com to receive the calls for submissions. As I said, it's free. Peter asks that if you find it useful, then you make a donation to any animal rescue charity or animal hospital.

You can forward the queries to others who are a fit, but do not post any queries (or the editor/reporter contact info) on any blogs or public websites. I received permission from Peter to blog about this, since this is a private group and I'm helping to spread the word to both subscribers and media to sign up.

The more people who use HARO, the better it becomes. Sign up, check it out, use it responsibly, and spread the word.