#freelance-gigs

I get some terrible answers because people outsource their answering, or are playing the volume game.

More answers = higher chance of getting a link.

I'm very specific with my requests. I always include what I'm not looking for and I often get exactly that.

HARO is great if you're looking for answers from sources you don't already have but you are signing up to weed through tons of terrible answers.

In my experience, better quality sources come from people you know or in your secondary network.

Bonus thought: don't ever ask about SEO or digital marketing because you will get thousands (literally) of replies!

Oh yes! I got three (irrelevant at that) quotes from the same company, lol.

I'd say skip Haro and just go straight to LinkedIn and reach out to people there. Stopped using Haro because even when I'm super specific about what I'm looking for, the replies are so generalized.
Example, I used Haro because I was looking for ecommerce agencies that work with Wix sites and I asked specific questions about their experience A/b testing on Wix. What I got were people telling me the pros and cons of building your ecommerce site on Wix.
Had better results with asking someone to introduce me to an ecommerce agency that works with Wix on LinkedIn

Twitter is great too as there are companies helping amplify your request. Try tagging #journorequest and you'll get free help!

Thank you, @Dominic Kent. I'll try this next time I need quotes.

I recently used HARO for an opinionated piece that rarely had any info online and got some stellar answers. I've also used it for generic requests, where I wasn't very specific on what I was looking for, that was definitely a mistake and filled my inbox with irrelevant answers.

But I’ve found that when you frame it in a way that asks for their opinion, better if it's situation-based, you get better responses.

But I definitely recommend personally reaching out to experts on LinkedIn and Twitter, I've started building lists of experts in my niches so I generally reach out to them directly.

Try helpaB2Bwriter website - it's been great for me

@Brett Farmiloe is working on a better version of HARO

Go to helpaB2Bwriter by Elise Dopson, I used it recently and got quality answers.

Interesting thread.

As Jimmy mentioned, we're differentiating from HARO by sparing a journalist's inbox from pitches (the only thing we deliver to a publisher or journalist is a ready-to-be-published article); expert verification (only insights from real people, with real identities), and answer selection (we select insights based on Google's Content Guidelines to only give journalists the best, most diverse insights to satisfy the search intent of their question)

Fancy way of saying, you can ask a question to get a Google Doc and image with the top "X" insights from vetted experts.

Downside is that we don't work well with quick turnarounds (yet), and takes about 1-2 weeks. You can give it a try at: https://terkel.io/signuppublisher

Disclaimer: I created Terkel. Sorry if the above is too promotional. I'm new here, and proud of what we're building. 🙂

Top HARO alternatives outside of Terkel that we've heard from publishers include Elise's HelpaB2BWriter, Qwoted, Quora, and Dot Star Media.

cc@Saphia Lanier

I use HARO for both pitching and for my writing. You always get some completely irrelevant answers, but there is a button to click “This pitch is not relevant”. I get very trigger happy with it when I get stuff I didn’t ask for.

The more specific you are the better you are. I once made the mistake of asking a very broad question and got hundreds of emails and then had to email people back asking for headshots.

Help a b2b writer is better in terms of quality answers from what I have heard (though most of the content I need help with is B2C), and I use it regularly as a source when there is something relevant.

Sourcebottle is another alternative (good for AU/UK markets as well as US), though I use it less these days as I find for our business HARO is a better place to get the answers I am looking for.

I don't have any experience in asking, but lots of in answering. Tbh lots of questions are so broad, feels like author want the pitchers to write the article for them. Some ask 5-6 questions in a single pitch.