To my friends, clients and associates:

Maybe you’ve heard of Help A Reporter Out or HARO. If not, Peter Shankman is a ferocious marketer who provides a free PR service that is just incredible. Journalists and authors send him queries for stories, HARO compiles them and sends out alerts 2 or 3 times a day. There are HUGE media outlets (USA Today, NYTimes, CNN.com) and they’re nearly always on a short deadline, so we have to be quick.

Subscribers (like me) review these queries and then send them out to their clients and friends. These are usually professional public relations folks and agencies, but I subscribe to the list because I know a lot of people who could really use some free PR. I also know some interesting people who have done interesting things.

Some of the people who have been quoted or contacted for stories are people like you.

• Do you have a specialty?
• Do you have a business, product or service you would like to promote?
• Have you seen something or done something exciting or unique and want to share it?
• Do you know things no one else knows?
• Do you know (or represent) someone interesting who might want free PR?
• Are you (or do you know) a Someone?
• Do you have a cause or charity or passionate concern you’d like to tell reporters about?
• Are you just curious or have opinions you’d feel comfortable sharing?

A couple of days ago Peter was featured on Good Morning America and 1,000 new subscribers came on board.

These are legitimate, screened requests and I see a LOT of these stories appear in print or on the news within a day or two.

Here are some examples from this morning’s list:

• “I’m reporting a story about foreign social networking sites, specifically those based in distinct countries or regions of Europe, such as Spain’s Tuenti and the Netherland’s Hyves. I’m looking to find a user of these sites (preferably not someone with a PR day job), who prefers to use one of these sites over local-language Facebook or MySpace for whatever reason. Maybe they stopped using the American sites, or maybe they have avoided these altogether. Will need to touch base with someone by 5 pm EST on Tuesday.” [Business Week]
• “Seeking small and medium-sized companies (up to 1,000 employees) that are using technology in surprising ways to survive the recession. Email only, no calls. Please have hard evidence (ROI) as
  to how your innovative tech strategy is helping your company survive or thrive during the downturn. ” [Information Week]
• “I’m writing a behaviour column for a national Canadian magazine about the kid who has to win. If you’re a Canadian parent (preferably outside of Toronto, Ontario) whose young child breaks down whenever she loses or a Canadian expert brimming with advice (preferably who has written on the subject of kid competitiveness), please email me asap at xxx@xxx.com. Note to parents: I can change names.”
• “I am looking for women who would be good candidates for More Magazine’s “Second Acts” feature. This is a national magazine for women. The story focuses on a woman having a second act in her life. The candidate should be between 40 and 60, and there should be enough of a narrative arc to make it a “story” with a complication and resolution. Readers should both learn and feel something, feeling
  that the story resonates with them.”

You are more than welcome to sign up directly with HARO and use the service yourself.

If you sign up with me, I’ll contact you when I see something you might be interested in. That way you won’t get bombarded with queries all day like I do. Sometimes the queries require a pitch instead of a simple response. In that case, I can help. Just tell me and I’ll do what I can. Otherwise, simply respond to the reporter or writer and go from there.

I almost always find opportunities for one or two people, but now I’m going to start a special HARO list. I’ll simply forward the questions (with all the information I have) and you do the rest. If you end up getting published or helping with a story, let me know–I’d like to see how this works out. I’ve already hooked up several of my friends and clients.

Although I’m a writer who does her own stories, I am doing this for fun. There’s nothing in it for me except the satisfaction of seeing good stories and helping you get your name out there.

Click here to sign up.

(It’s just a questionnaire and you won’t be added to anything but my personal address book so I can quickly remember who to send queries to. It’s not a professional service, it’s just a faster way for me to do what I’ve been doing informally and it’s free. I won’t spam you, I won’t use your email address for anything else. I’m simply creating a distribution list so I don’t have to scan every single name in my address book and try to think of who might want to know about a free PR opportunity. I promise, I’m just doing this for free–there’s nothing more to it.)

If I’ve already talked to you about this or set you up with a journalist, author or blogger, don’t worry about filling out the form. You’re all set up.

And that’s it! Have fun!

Sari

P.S. Let me know if you’d like me to include your link on my page or if I can help you tell your story another way.