PETER SHANKMAN
| POSTED ON January 15th, 2010 | 100 COMMENTS | + ADD YOUR COMMENT |
Updated with more info in bold! We didn’t know if this part would make it in time, but it will! Scroll down to the bold part!!
When I first launched HARO on the web in March of 2008, I never ever could have imagined that in under two years, we’d become the de-facto standard for how crowd-sourcing is done. I never imagined over 50,000 journalists would send queries out to over 150,000 sources – that people would wind up in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Oprah, Shark Tank, Chicago Tribune, LA Times, Fortune, Forbes, the NY Daily News… You name it – Almost every media outlet in the country has used HARO – and here’s one of the best parts – 93% of all journalists that have used HARO, come back to use HARO again. We’ve really grown up.
Along the way, I brought on some wonderful brains to help me grow a little more – our Editor-in-Chief, Michael Griffin, his loyal partner in crime Laura Spaventa, and of course, the wonderful Meagan Walker, who offers me read-only access to my calendar, and for good reason. I’m so proud of what we’ve created, that it can only be surpassed by what’s coming next.
On Tuesday morning you’re going to receive the HARO as normal – But we also encourage you to head over to http://helpareporter.com and check out the fundamental changes we’ve made to HARO.

First off, you’ll create a password. This will allow you to do many things – You can determine what emails you want to get – See, on Tuesday, we’ll also be launching “Vertical HAROs” – Every section of the Master HARO you receive today will also be available as an individual list – It’s the number one request we’ve had – “Can I just get the tech queries?” “How about just feeding me lifestyle queries?” Now you can get them. From the feedback we’ve gotten, we know you won’t leave the master HARO list – but rather, will keep the Master HARO to look at when you have time – We know that the beauty of HARO is not only the queries you can answer for clients or your company, but also the ones you can forward to friends, colleagues, family, and the like. And we want you to keep doing that. So you’ll be able to subscribe to the individual HARO emails, as well as the master list.
You’ll also, if you desire, be able to answer queries directly from the website – which, if reporters choose to do, will allow them to rate your pitches – did they like them? What did you miss? How could you have improved your query? We hope this will become a valuable tool in helping you to learn how to pitch reporters.
And get this – Reporters who use us will no longer have to worry about SPAM – EVERY SINGLE QUERY WILL HAVE THE REPORTER EMAIL MASKED!! For reporters, this means that instead of joe@theoprahshow, sources will now send queries to 34531@haro.net, or something similar! AND, even MORE, reporter email addresses will SELF-DESTRUCT as soon as their query deadline is reached! No SPAM! No harvesting emails! We’ve officially created the largest SPAM FREE/HARVEST FREE source repository in the world! CAN I GET A WOOT!!
Best part? Nothing here is mandatory – You can do nothing, and continue to get the Master HARO, three times per day. These are all added features we’re building in, for you.
Finally – Are you, or do you want to be an advertiser? Now, instead of going through me to book an ad, you can sign up, see a specific calendar for your list (want tech only? Master and lifestyle, etc.) and see what’s available, when. Pick a date, choose how many you want (with discounts for multiple buys) and simply enter your credit card. It honestly doesn’t get any easier to reach a large, listening audience, ready to buy! And hey, let’s not forget about targeting! Only want tech sources? Only lifestyle? Done!
One final thing – Every single upgrade we’ve made to HARO has come from you – You told us what you wanted – So we listened.
Check us out on Tuesday morning, January 19th – Let us know what you think – either here, or at http://getsatisfaction.com/HARO – And thank you. We can’t WAIT to share the second phase of our HARO lives with you.
Much love, happiness, and of course, blue skies,
The HARO Team (Peter, Thom, Laura, Meagan, and Mike)
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Congrats on all the new changes Peter and Team HARO! It looks like it’s going to be a wild new ride and we all love coming along. |
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Many congrats to you and your team – HARO comes of age big time! An awesome achievement. |
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Thanks HARO…got my first feature in a blog about Valentine Gift ideas through you..terrific promotion for my etsy shop! look forward to the new features next week! |
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It amazes how you continually improve on a great business model! Looking forward to the upgrades, Peter! |
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Way to go Peter !!!! Congratulations from your # 1 Canadian fan !!!!! I can’t wait till Tuesday !!! Nelson Hudes |
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Wow! Tuesday can’t come fast enough! I love the pitch rating feature. Congratulations on all your success! |
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You practice exactly what you preach. Listen to what people want and then do it! Thank you for being an amazing teacher. I am always learning from you. |
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Peter and the HARO team, congratulations! This is very exciting news all around. |
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Congratulations! We’ve been fans of HARO since its inception. You do a great job so we can too. |
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You have to love HARO! They were already the best at what they’re doing, but of course, that wasn’t enough. A better HARO…it’s almost unimaginable…Thank you HARO for all of your hard work. |
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This is great news, Peter and team. Thank you so much for all that you do! We appreciate it. |
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I love your big mission. Horo is one of the top resources/models for my Group Collaboration online training and membership site. Way to go! |
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Peter and Crew, you have made a molehill out of a mountain. Your streamlining of the process, tongue-in-cheek headlines that remind me you’re there, and fount of inquiries is like PRWeb in reverse: Disintermediation at its best. Direct-to-the-media doesn’t get any better than this. And it works. I have used HARO for both inquiries and response. Incredible response (28 professional, bona fide responses to my first query). And phenomenal selection of topics and reporters to work with as well. Keep it going. Real-time media is your domain. |
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I am looking forward to Tuesday with excitement. Caught your interview on http://www.socialmediaexaminer.....a-network/ |
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Congrats on the upgrades, and for listening to those who use your services! |
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Thanks for changing our lives. We use HARO for sourcing, pitching clients and we have convinced our biggest client to advertise. Perfect product! |
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Congratualtions on your evolving site! Thanks to HARO, Nicole-Leigh flip flops have been featured in luxuryspot.com and blissfullydomestic.com.I am always referring friends to HARO. Thank you! |
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HARO has helped me out many times – the service absolutely ROCKS. So happy to see you doing this the right way and letting it grow just like it was meant to. Looking forward to seeing the NEW HARO. |
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All I can say is WOW. You continue to WOW me. Cant wait for tuesday. |
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Peter, Nothing you do surprises me any more. You make this old pro proud! Bravo from Mr. Mentor |
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The new changes look exciting! Looking forward to Tuesday… Thanks for this awesome resource! |
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What amazing improvements to an already incredible service! As a small business owner, HARO has become my PR firm and has been so amazingly helpful. Big thanks to you and all of your team! |
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Fantastic! Love this service. Love your creativity. Delighted with the upcoming changes. Thanks, Peter and kudos to all the rest of the team. |
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As your parents, we know how terrific you are, but we still want to say congratulations on this next exciting chapter of HARO! |
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Peter, Dara Blaker |
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Per your request………w00t! Congratulations on entering the next chapter for HARO! |
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Hey Peter, you got my WOOT! Thank so very much for your hard work!!! |
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Peter and Team–You all have done an awesome job for a long time, keeping it interesting, informative and spirited. Now it’s getting better. Good luck with the new HARO. Jack Goldenberg |
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Can’t wait for the next generation of HARO. Love the pitch rate system. Congrats on a great product! |
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Peter, Wow! You told me that some of what we discussed what going to come soon but this BLOWS IT ALL AWAY! Amazing work. You truly deserve all the success you have! |
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New to the HARO community… what a great service. Looking forward to all the new functions rollin’ out tomorrow. |
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Wonderful! I have used HARO several times, and have been quiet happy with the outcome. Easy to use, quick, and an excellent way to connect people. Thanks |
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Thanks Peter… It’s amazing the number of radio shows, blogs, magazines, etc. I’ve been on or quoted in or had my articles published since I found HARO in 2008. Maria Marsala |
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HARO has guaranteed I will have the sources I need on virtually any topic. Thanks! |
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A incredible inspiring story. HARO is an amazing resource and it’s fantastic to see how far it has come. |
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HARO is an inspiration – proof that cooperation is possible and makes us better. Thanks HARO! |
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I have used HARO and it was amazing how many great responses I got. It saved me a lot of time hunting sources down. Thanks! |
PETER TO SPEAK
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