Help a Reporter Out, which rebranded to Connectively, just announced it’s shutting down.
This was, for over a decade, the best-known platform for transforming expertise into SEO backlinks.
Journalists post a question saying they need an expert quote for their article. Experts respond. The expert that is picked gets a backlink and substantial press.
This was used by the top publishers in media (TV, too). NY Times, Fox News, Washington Post, WSJ, Reuters, AP, The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, and many, many more.
I used this to get backlinks from the highest domain authority news sites possible.
Sidenote: a backlink is when one site links to another site. If the linking site has many high authority backlinks of its own, then it too becomes authoritative. This authority helps to rank for keywords within Google (and even prioritizes which websites are used in some AI chatbots).
SoS
SoS – Source of Sources – I’m obsessed with this tool.
Peter Shankman (above) founded Help a Reporter Out, sold it in 2010, and left the company in 2012.
Years later he founded Source of Sources, a competitor to Help a Reporter Out, and it is LEGIT.
Before I share why it’s so legit, this is why Help a Reporter Out had become unusable:
- Tons of AI generated responses to journalists.
- Tons of people sending journalists irrelevant pitches.
- General nonsense responses to journalists that wasted their time.
- Help a Reporter Out’s expert scoring system was never used.
And then comes along SoS – Source of Sources:
- If you pitch a journalist something irrelevant even once, you’re booted from the platform.
- If you respond to a journalist with AI written text, you’re booted from the platform.
- If you waste a journalist’s time with nonsense… you’re booted from the platform.
- No forgiveness for offenders. Bans for life.
And here’s why I’m now obsessed with Source of Sources
Less spam means a way higher likelihood of journalists actually seeing your response.
Here is where these journalists are from:
Source of Sources is a 2x/day email that goes out sharing journalists who need expert sources for their content. As the expert, you read through a list of queries, and respond to whoever you want. You literally are given the journalists’ personal emails.
This is what it looks like:
And the kicker: it’s entirely free! 100% free.
Respond to journalists. Get top backlinks. Appear in authoritative publications. Put those logos on your website and flex on LinkedIn that you were quoted in so-and-so top news outlets.
So pour one out for Help a Reporter Out. But its incarnation, Source of Sources, is excellent too.
