The best HARO alternatives for PR coverage [+ how to pitch to journalists]

Ding dong, the pitch is dead… but is it?

After dominating the #journorequest world for many years, the once beloved HARO platform closed its doors on December 9th, 2024.

Here in this (updated) article, you’ll find details of the HARO alternatives available to journos, PRs and founders, plugging the gap of HARO backlinks the digital PR world has become so accustomed to.

We’ll also cover some of the lessons learned from HARO, and expert sources can apply to journalist pitches to maximise press coverage potential on the new media platforms.

History of HARO link building

HARO stood for ‘Help A Reporter Out’ and was the first online portal that connected journalists with experts in their relative field.

Journalists predominantly used HARO as a speedy way to get factual information and expert insights or quotes for an article, via the ‘open door policy’ that allowed anyone to respond to a query posted within the platform.

The payoff for experts responding was of course exposure in a publication, usually including a backlink to their website as a crediting source.

Where link building is concerned, in an era of ever increasing difficulty – HARO link building was a simple exchange: insight for a link. Help a reporter out, and in return you may be granted a well earned backlink or citation to your website.

An easily accessible way to grow the backlink profile of a website, with relevant website publications. But, in many cases, HARO link building also provided the potential to achieve backlinks from high quality, well known domains too.

Why did the HARO platform close down?

In this FAQ post published by Cision on the closure of Connectively, they state:

For anyone that used Help a Reporter Out (or Connectively, as it was later called), however, it was on the cards.

In a symbiotic world where one needs the other, the quality just wasn’t there like it used to be. Journalists using the platform likely grew tired of low quality pitches, and with fewer requests – fewer pitchers were taking their shots.

For Cision, the decision made business sense, allowing them to focus on their CisionOne platform.

But, no one mourns the wicked – so where have all the journalists and digital PRs gone now? (that will be the last Wicked pun, I promise…)

In this HARO alternatives article, we’ll be looking at what platforms journalists, digital PRs and link builders should consider transitioning to – as well as our top tips and lessons learned that can be carried across to the new platforms.

How did HARO work?

HARO paved the way for journalists and expert sources to communicate one-to-one, sharing valuable insight or information in exchange for press coverage.

Topic requests varied widely from day to day, covering everything from ‘the best makeup brands’ and ‘tips for visiting Florida in summer’ to ‘the worst dad jokes’… and everything in between.

HARO was widely adopted, in part, due to how easy to navigate and understand it was. Users could simply create a free account (as a source) and browse through the journalists’ requests to find queries that best suited the industry they were associated with.

As we’ll discuss below, although the HARO link building honey pot has dried up, there are now many other PR platforms filling the void (and in my opinion, doing a better job of it too).

Whilst HARO had a clear structure and method for connecting journalists with sources, each alternative has its own unique selling point (USP), including expert profiles, extensive media databases and even community based get togethers.

Benefits of using HARO alternatives for links

High quality links are hard to come by, so having a central hub where you could essentially pitch for press coverage, a powerful citation or ideally a relevant link to your website based on your expertise.

Naturally, this is viewed by the marketing community as highly beneficial from an exposure and search engine optimisation (SEO) perspective, as well as from Google’s perspective.

“After identifying relevant content, our systems aim to prioritise those that seem most helpful. To do this, they identify signals that can help determine which content demonstrates expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness.

One of several factors that we use to help determine this is understanding if other prominent websites link or refer to the content. This has often proven to be a good sign that the information is well trusted.” – Google

Much like today’s HARO alternatives, if you’re a credible source for information that a journalist can cite as a reputable source to enhance their article – a powerful link to your website and the exposure from a well known domain seems like a fair exchange.

There was a slight scare back in April 2014 when a rumour emerged that Google really didn’t like marketers earning links this way. However, Barry Schwartz allayed those fears in an SE Roundtable article, and confirmed what we had all suspected – that white hat link building isn’t bad.

How to pitch to HARO alternatives for link building

Having started as a Facebook group, HARO later became a newsletter of sorts – sending journalist requests in an email three times a day (10:45, 17:45 & 22:45 GMT), in a big long list or a targeted category snapshot.

For those scouring every single request looking for opportunity, this was feeding time. Roughly 100-150 opportunities per email would be there, ready for the taking.

As marketers soon came to learn, the sooner you got your answer in, the higher the likelihood of it being used (all things considered).

However, for those looking for that needle in the haystack, this meant a whole lot of sifting – even with filters turned on. Unless this was a big part of your job, HARO link building was quite time consuming, and not always fruitful.

The email system was also a bit clunky at times, and viewing the requests meant an awful lot of scrolling, clicking – and finding your place in the list again. Just me? Maybe, but I doubt it…

In my experience, the best way to manage HARO requests was with a filter straight to a dedicated folder. Or, better still – use a mail parser that did your identification for you, and lifted the opportunities (based on your keyword input) straight into a spreadsheet.

Although HARO backlinks are dead – this little nugget of email filtering advice certainly isn’t.

Here’s a list of top tips we learned from using HARO that apply to any PR tool where you might be pitching and responding to #journorequests.

Finding relevant requests

One of the many great features of HARO that likely inspired today’s platforms was the tailoring of industry selections, ensuring the requests received in your inbox are relevant to you, your business and your professional background.

There are thousands of journalists and hundreds of potential publication opportunities – so the chances are, only a tiny fraction of those requests are relevant to you. So, by tailoring your industry selections you can save time, resources… and avoid inbox fatigue.

Much like the other platforms discussed below, HARO link building was only effective when you pitched for relevant stories.

It was easy to see the domain first, and think ‘yes please’ then work back from there, but in reality, your chances are highly unlikely at best – and entirely fruitless at worst.

As it was with HARO, to avoid being swayed by opportunities you probably aren’t suited for on the alternative platforms, use the filters to restrict what you’re able to see. The more relevant and tailored your selection is, the higher your likelihood of being approved by the journalist (and achieving a quality backlink to your website).

Use keywords from your industry to cut through the noise. This will help you work more efficiently when reviewing new opportunities, and enable you to respond as quickly as possible.

For example, when searching HARO opportunities for Hive19, I used the following keywords to quickly identify opportunities that were relevant to our brand:

• Link building
• Email outreach
• SaaS marketing
• Fintech marketing
• Content marketing
• Reputation management
• Remote agency

Naturally, if you’re only receiving requests related to your industry then this shouldn’t be an issue.

However, don’t feel the need to go pitch crazy and apply for everything – as you’ll likely have an unproductive time. Sure, pay-per-click (PPC) is in the same vicinity as SEO – but that doesn’t make you an expert when you’re up against someone who has 10 years experience.

Save your time (as well as the journalists’) by only going for the requests that invite your expertise, and you are confident you can offer real value to.

Make sure to craft your own pitches

Ultimately, a contributing factor to the downfall of Help a Reporter Out, along with AI generated responses, I believe, was marketers and agencies offering a HARO link building service – which essentially puts the link at the forefront of the exchange rather than the unique insight being shared.

Makes sense from a company or link builder’s perspective. But, from the journalist’s side, this is not what they are looking for.

An agency executive could be given access to a prominent figure’s email account, and pitch diluted information (not direct from the source) purely to get the exposure… which while legitimate, is not ideal.

This slightly sneaky and ever so cheeky form of link acquisition no doubt rubbed journalists up the wrong way, and was another fatal blow for the OG platform before taking its final breath in December 2024.

E-E-A-T: give journalists everything you’ve got

Experience, Expertise, Authority and Trust.

A huge ranking factor for Google, and fundamentally, a huge part of everyday life that we all consciously and subconsciously succumb to.

When pitching to journalists, be sure to demonstrate all of the experience, expertise, authority and trust you have for the best chance of being included in their piece. Put it on a plate for them to see your qualifications, your experience and what makes you a reliable source of information for the article that they are writing.

Journalists are human at the end of the day, and are far more likely to want to credit a source that has studied the subject in great detail, has experience in the field or is kind of a big deal.

No one likes a show off, but now is the time to be up front and say it how it is.

Keep pitches concise

If restricting the requests you receive to only those that are relevant is a time saver for you, consider it on the other side, as the journalist.

They’re also looking for a needle in the haystack, multiplied many times over if hundreds of experts are pitching. That’s a lot of haystacks.

In all likelihood, journalists want 1-2 sentences from you – max. Don’t make them read your manifesto in search of that one line they can use (as they probably won’t).

So, keep it punchy.

As a rule of thumb, try to keep your responses to 2-3 paragraphs, unless the journalist specifically requests more information.

I’d also recommend using bullet points to highlight the important pieces of information in a way that journalists can easily skim.

Using the notorious man-stealer and tormentor of Dolly Parton, we can much easier see Jolene’s credentials in the bulleted below list, as opposed to the paragraph with the same information:

“Your beauty is beyond compare With flaming locks of auburn hair With ivory skin and eyes of emerald green Your smile is like a breath of spring Your voice is soft like summer rain And I cannot compete with you Jolene”

Compared with:

• Beauty beyond compare.
• Flaming lock of auburn hair.
• Ivory skin.
• Emerald green eyes.
• Bright smile.
• Soft voice.
• Formidable challenger.

Stand out from the crowd

OK, so you’ve shared your credentials and you’re keeping it short. This helps journalists to skim read their inboxes, but how do you reach out from the screen and grab their attention?

Well, with unique insight of course!

If you’ve taken the advice laid out so far, this is kind of the point, and the very essence of why HARO was created in the first place.

It might be the enemy of the link builder, but at its core – this should be the easiest part: the value YOU can provide.

In theory, you as the expert should be able to provide an answer that a marketing agency couldn’t fake. The type of insight that is only gained through genuine knowledge or experience.

It doesn’t hurt to be a little controversial sometimes (journalists want a balanced piece, afterall) but essentially journalists want:

• Intelligent insight.
• Succinctly pitched.
• In a timely manner.

*See, you read the above because as it was in bullet points.
**Do this in your pitch email, because it stands out for skim readers (I see you).

Anonymous requests and what to do with them

What are you hiding there? Is it an article on the BBC? The Guardian?

When it came to HARO, most ‘anonymous’ requests came from low quality blogs, and the journalist knew it would likely limit who replied if the information was shared at the start.

All that work crafting a perfect response, all the hoping and dreaming of where it would land – only to see a .blogspot hit your Google Alerts a couple of weeks later. Sigh.

But, we can’t tarnish every opportunity with that cynical brush – and some PR platforms use anonymity differently.

Do the HARO alternatives under the spotlight in this article allow anonymous requests, I hear you ask? Let’s have a look:

Featured
❌ Opportunities are not anonymous.
Users can use a credit to unlock the source, if they wish to know before pitching.

Qwoted
✅ All opportunities are anonymous.
Users can use a credit to unlock the source, if they wish to know before pitching.

OnePitch
❌ Not applicable.
OnePitch is an expert / media facilitator and there are no requests.

Help a B2B Writer
❌ Opportunities are not anonymous.

Press Plugs
❌ Opportunities are not anonymous.
Journalists can keep anonymity, but not the sources.

PitchRate
✅ Some opportunities are anonymous.

SourceBottle
✅ Some ‘Call Outs’ are anonymous.
❌ Not applicable to the ‘Expert Pitching’ service.

Prowly
❌ Not applicable.
Prowly is a media contact database and there are no requests.

Subject lines matter when responding or pitching to journalists

Again, imagine the haystack – on the other side. Picture this, you’re a journalist requesting some insight – when suddenly you receive an onslaught of replies. Fine for the first time, how exciting it would be! But, when it’s your 20th piece this quarter, are you still dutifully checking every email – skim reading to see what jumps out?

So, as the pitcher – be sure to grab the journalist’s attention. Tell them what you’ve got for them, and make it very clear.

Writing a descriptive subject line matters, so don’t skimp out on this chance to optimise – it might be the only one you get.

Whether it is by email, or contained within the PR platform you’re using – make your subject line unique, but directly relevant to the query so that the journalist feels confident about opening it.

Reference the query in your subject line; journalists may have multiple requests out that week so make it obvious which piece you’re offering your expertise to.

Your subject line should also be short and concise, including as much of the requested information as possible.

Include all relevant information

When writing your pitch, it is important to include all relevant information about you and what you can offer in the most succinct way possible.

Remember, you’re aiming to be as helpful as possible (as the OG states: help a reporter out), so be sure to make sure to include:

• Full name.
• Company name.
• Website URL.
• Social media profiles.
• Phone number (sometimes when journalists work to strict deadlines they might prefer to get their answer quickly over the phone).
• High-res headshot (Dropbox link or Gravitar).
• Author bio.

Creating an email signature that formats all your link information and a simple Google doc which includes your author bio is even better. Plus, it means lots of time saved for each email response.

Personalise Help A Reporter Out pitches with email templates

Sure, you could be sending a handful of pitches every day, but it is important to spend as much time as you can perfecting your pitch.

We recommend creating a killer email template for your press coverage seeking responses. That way, you can simply personalise with efficiency for each recipient.

Doing this also means you can address the journalist by name, making them feel valued while saving yourself some time. And, while it may seem trivial, little things like this can make a big difference to journalists who are reviewing hundreds of emails every day.

Journalists are people at the end of the day, so avoid robotic mass email replies – it will only hinder your success rate when using a platform like HARO for link building. If you’re stuck on how to pitch to journalists, here’s one of our previous successful pitch examples:

Edit, edit, and edit again

Many expert sources for journalists write great pitches that get rejected because they fail grammatically.

This is a pitch to demonstrate your expertise, and must be dressed up for the occasion accordingly. Don’t let a typo or a silly mistake stand in the way of the promised land. Show that journalist you mean business, and are more than worthy of inclusion in their piece.

Edit ruthlessly, and always read it one final time before hitting send.

If journalists have to edit your pitch, you run the risk of them choosing a more polished version that requires less work for them. Imagine that, someone stealing your exposure based on a typo. The horror.

So, take the time to check your work – it could be the difference between being cited or ignored.

Respond to pitches promptly

Aim to respond to pitches within 4 to 5 hours – anything longer than 11 hours is probably too late.

Keep an eye on the deadline for the request. Journalists work to very strict deadlines and pitches often have to be turned around very quickly. Therefore, the faster you can get your work in, the higher the likelihood of being cited as a source (and achieving a backlink).

What’s more, responding to pitches quickly often endears you to journalists – as they come to know you as reliable, making them more likely to turn to you for future opportunities.

Patience is key when it comes to HARO link building

“When will my quote be published?”

Sigh… Rule no. 101 in ‘How to pitch to journalists’ – don’t ask this.

In all likelihood, they probably won’t know this information – nor have the time to let every pitcher know if they were successful. Pitching is a resource you have provided, and is almost certainly appreciated by the journalist – but does not guarantee anything, sadly.

Freelance writers and content producers contribute their work to many publications, and very rarely have insights into the editorial calendar of each. Therefore, patience is key.

The best thing to do is to create a Google Alert for the publication’s feed so that you get notified – if and when the content goes live.

Promote your work

If and when you have achieved coverage in a top news publication, it’s time to share, share, share!

Promote your piece everywhere, both on your company profiles and personal accounts (mention the journalist to help their exposure, they may even reshare your post with their audience), newsletters, and industry or topic related forums.

Let the journo know that you’ve been promoting it everywhere. Send them an email to thank them with the links to all the places you’ve promoted it.

Also, be sure to thank them for selecting you to include in their work, highlighting that you’d happily be a reliable source for them for any future related topics.

Examples of successful link acquisition with HARO

At Hive19, we’ve never offered HARO link building as a standalone service.

Instead, we monitored requests, perfected our craft in how to pitch to journalists – and shared the most relevant opportunities with clients who were keen to respond (as part of the editorial link building campaigns we are known for).

Over many years we helped clients secure lots of amazing HARO backlinks that would have been challenging to achieve via other avenues – and built many great relationships with journalists along the way.

A couple of successful press coverage pitch examples that stood out for me, were:

Our client, a specialist in luxury cruises, was able to share valuable tips on how to get the most from a cruise holiday, in a timely manner – and the contributing editor to Reader’s Digest loved it.

In the next example, we helped a local eBike company get featured in a publication on Lifewire, discussing how eBikes could help create car-free cities.

Both of these links would have been otherwise difficult to achieve – but a simple sharing of resources created an authority building link, and for me what HARO was all about.

HARO alternatives to supercharge your link building efforts

HARO certainly forged the path when it came to connecting journalists with PRs (and link builders), but over the past few years a number of challengers have thankfully emerged.

In this section of the article, we will consider the main websites like HARO, before casting the net a little wider and consider how to get press coverage from other avenues.

HARO link building alternatives

Using a similar request-based process, these are the platforms that HARO users will most easily transition to, and feel right at home.

Note: these are not in any particular order – but every list has to start somewhere.

• Featured
• Qwoted
• OnePitch
• Help a B2B Writer
• PressPlugs
• PitchRate
• SourceBottle
• Prowly

Featured

Founded: 2022
Headquarters: Arizona, USA
Free version: ✅ Yes
Pricing: from $39 p/m

First up on our list is Featured, which started life as Terkel (named after writer and broadcaster Louis Terkel). Like its former namesake, Terkel, or Featured.com as it is now known strives to give a voice to everyday people, and a platform for businesses to share knowledge.

“Made for every kind of marketer” Featured allows experts to “turn expertise into influence”. With a free account, experts can track 3 keywords and answer up to 3 questions per month, which might be picked up by any of the 1000+ publications using the service.

We spoke to Featured founder, Brett Farmiloe to ask what makes the platform an ideal HARO replacement:

With a paid account, users can answer unlimited questions and track up to 25 keywords per month. More keywords can be tracked by increasing the number of profiles on the account, which naturally increases the monthly billing fee.

With a paid plan, users can also filter queries by link type and domain authority, providing a more targeted and efficient service.

Featured has an algorithm which rewards sources (based on volume and success of submissions) with greater exposure, via their expertise score. In my view, this is a great way to sidestep the inevitable lower quality and (ahem) ChatGPT ‘experts’.

Qwoted

Founded: 2018
Headquarters: New York, USA
Free version: ✅ Yes
Pricing: from $99 p/m

Next up is Qwoted, the “network connecting media with brands, experts and small businesses.” Used by over 230,000 experts, and 24,000 journalists, Qwoted is now considered the largest media and PR network.

With Qwoted’s pitch intelligence, you can filter requests by competition, allowing users to decide whether they want to try their hand and stand out from the crowd – or have a quieter run at a journalist requesting more niche expertise.

With the free plan, users will appear in the expert media database, receive real-time alerts and the daily email update. However, the free plan is restricted to 2 pitches per month, with a 2 hour delay after the request is shared by journalists.

With a paid plan, Qwoted users can send unlimited pitches without any delay – and benefit from additional features including profile view notifications, pitch intelligence and enhanced opportunity research.

One particularly nice feature of a paid Qwoted plan is its notifications, alerting you as to when a journalist or media outlet has read your pitch. It is of course up to them to respond, but at least with the knowledge of a read receipt (and a notification when your profile is viewed) you can hone future pitches for greater press coverage success.

OnePitch

Founded: 2017
Headquarters: California, USA
Free version: ❌ No
Pricing: $50 p/m

“OnePitch’s mission is simple: to connect the right journalists to the right pitches.” Built by a team of tech-savvy journalists and ‘rad data geeks’, OnePitch believes that great PR tools shouldn’t cost thousands of dollars.

Whilst there is no free version of OnePitch, the pricing is very simple at $50 pm ($510 if paid annually) for unlimited features, including: journalist recommendations, journalist and article searches, media lists, tracking of emails sent and reporting.

OnePitch also offers users a 30 day free trial.

We spoke to OnePitch co-founder, Jered Martin to ask what makes the platform an ideal HARO replacement:

Two features that stand out for OnePitch are:

The Pitch Checker feature, which ensures you have answered everything that the journalist has requested in your answer.

The Pitch Posse, an online and in-person community of publicists, where monthly how to pitch to journalists sessions and peer pods take place, to maximise opportunity and learnings.

Help a B2B Writer

Founded: 2021
Headquarters: Colorado, USA
Free version: Yes
Pricing: ✅ Free

The mission at Help a B2B Writer is a simple one: “Connecting B2B writers with top-quality sources”. The main difference to HARO is how targeted the pitching process is, by reducing the number of stories users will see, and the number of potential pitchers journalists will have to field.

Rather than an open door policy for pitchers, journalists tick the expertise required for their story, and only those registered as expert sources in the category are notified and invited to respond. The aim here is to save inboxes from being overwhelmed, and cut down on the pitch rate – aiming to help both parties.

Help a B2B Writer is a completely free service, run by the team at content marketing community, Superpath (having acquired it from Elise Dopson in 2022).

We spoke to HaB2BW owner (and Superpath CEO), Jimmy Daly to ask what makes the platform an ideal HARO replacement:

New for 2025, Help a B2B Writer launched an API to help agencies manage requests for clients. This provides expert sources instant access to requests (rather than waiting a day), and provides ‘verified sender’ status upon responding.

Press Plugs

Founded: 2017
Headquarters: Birmingham, UK
Free version: ❌ No
Pricing: up to £60 p/m

Press Plugs is owned and run by husband and wife Michael and Tracy Nolan who both come from a journalistic background, as “The media hub that connects journalists, agencies and businesses”.

We spoke to Press Plugs co-founder, Tracy Nolan to ask what makes the platform an ideal HARO replacement:

Press Plugs offers a free 7 day trial, and then a paid plan for businesses, journalists and PR professionals. The platform provides a similar process to HARO, where journalist requests are emailed out to users, with an invitation to respond.

The media database monitors opportunities across 20+ of the main categories (from business & finance to sport & leisure), which users can filter to streamline the number of requests received. It is also a feature of the dashboard, where users can filter by keyword, sector, journalist or even publisher.

PitchRate

Founded: 2009
Headquarters: North Carolina, USA
Free version: ✅ Yes
Pricing: Free

PitchRate is “a free PR tool that connects journalists and the highest rated experts”, run by PR company Wasabi Publicity Inc. Similarly to HARO, PitchRate acts as the matchmaker that allows expert sources to respond to journalist queries, sent out in a daily email.

PitchRate is a free service, without a paid plan option. The platform provides daily email updates, as well as a dashboard with active queries that are filtered to your chosen expertise categories.

At the time of writing, PitchRate has roughly 3,000 journalists across 2,750 publications – with a community of 8,000 active experts.

SourceBottle

Founded: 2009
Headquarters: Melbourne, Australia
Free version: ✅ Yes
Pricing: from $25 p/m

SourceBottle is “a free and easy-to-use connection platform that enables journalists to efficiently find knowledgeable sources”.

Founded by mumpreneur and veteran PR professional Bec Derrington, the service has expanded from Australia across North America, the UK and the Asia-Pacific – and is now considered “one of the leading resources in the global media industry”.

We spoke to SourceBottle founder and CEO Bec Derrington to ask what makes the platform an ideal HARO replacement:

With a free plan, users can create a basic directory listing for their expert profile, with up to 10 keywords – and are able to respond to an unlimited number of call outs in the ‘Drink Up! Alerts’ email.

With a paid plan, users can enhance their directory listing for greater visibility, as well increase the number of keywords (20 in the No Pitch No Pay plan, and unlimited in the top plan).

The key feature of SourceBottle is the human driven pitching service provided in the paid plans. Depending on the level of the plan, SourceBottle will pitch your expert profile to relevant journalists, essentially creating the matches for you.

Prowly

Founded: 2013
Headquarters: Massachusetts, USA
Free version: ❌ No
Pricing: from $258

Last, and by no means least… Prowly, the platform that allows users to “Target the right journalists with in-depth analytics”. With a database of over 1 million contacts, Prowly helps users to build contact lists and target pitches, as opposed to the calls to respond seen with the above alternatives to HARO.

In 2022, Prowly was acquired by SEO software powerhouse Semrush – and now benefits from the marketing data and insights provided by the platform. From a marketer’s perspective, this is naturally a huge benefit for targeting pitches toward maximum SEO value.

There is no free version of Prowly, with subscription fees beginning at $258 per month (if billed annually). This entry level plan will provide users with full access to the media database, audience insights provided by Semrush, email pitching and online monitoring.

Upgraded plans will also include follow up sequences, social media listening and PR reports – and even broadcast monitoring, print monitoring and historic data (with the top plan).

Although Prowly differs from HARO in terms of who initiates the conversation, the software is a powerhouse of media contacts and data. And, from a link building perspective, the use of Semrush’s data is naturally a huge benefit to users looking to the Prowly platform for maximum SEO benefit.

HARO alternative: #journorequests on twitter

…or X, but yanno, it will always be Twitter to me.

One of the old school methods for finding journalist requests is simply searching the hashtag “#journorequests” on social media platforms. At the time of writing, these posts around a week or so old:

Also for The Parent Edit, i’m looking for Mother’s Day gifts she’ll actually love! PR’s – i’m looking for luxury, thoughtful, unique and independent brands if possible. #motherdaysgiftguide #prrequest #journorequest – by 21/02

— Mary Goodsell (@marygoodsell123) February 17, 2025

Hello hello! I’m looking for products to feature in an “everyday luxuries” page of My Weekly. Drop me a line at claire.macaulay@dcthomson.co.uk if you have anything that fits the bill! #prrequest #journorequest

— claire 🌿 (@clairemacaulay_) February 18, 2025

It’s not as refined or regular as HARO links were, or the providers listed above are, but you can find some gems and often build great relationships with journalists when responding to social media requests.

Is HARO link building still a thing?

Well, in terms of the HARO platform obviously not… but as a concept, I’d say it’s more alive than ever before. With many great free options, and many affordable paid plans across the platforms – the journalist and expert symbiosis is thriving in the space that was once dominated by HARO.

Like all types of link building, however, any potential benefit or success will always come down to quality. Spamming journalists with ChatGPT just to get the link is unlikely to deliver much reward.

Instead, streamlining your efforts to sharing insight on subjects that you are actually passionate about, or knowledgeable on will almost certainly be better for all involved.

Although Cision closed HARO (it was called Connectively by this point) to focus on CisionOne, I don’t think I’m alone in having a sneaky suspicion that the above issue ‘lack of streamlining’ (shall we say) played a significant role too.

Journalists will always need access to expert sources and good quality information, while companies and individuals will always require exposure for their products or services.

So, to maintain symbiosis in this here digital PR ecosystem, let’s finish with the wise words of Noah Levenstein:

HARO link building FAQs

What’s that, you still have questions – after all of the above? By jingo, you’re keen. But, if there’s one thing we’ve learnt in this article, it’s that standing out is the best way to get featured. So, top marks for you.