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How To Find Talented Writers To Fuel Top Quality Content Creation

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For content marketers, it is the best of times, it is the worst of times.

They know that creating top-quality content will fuel their success, but finding talented writers seems to be getting harder.

With more people than ever spending time online due to lockdowns and work-from-home mandates, many organizations discovered last year that content marketing presented a prime opportunity to get and stay in front of their target audiences.

But, about two-thirds of B2B marketers have been asked to do more with the same resources over the last year, according to research by Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs.

In small organizations, the content marketing staff is typically just one person.

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Even at medium- and large-sized companies, the content marketing team is often in the two to five-employee range.

This explains why 50% of content marketers say their organizations outsource some content marketing activities even though their organizations value creativity and craft in content creation and production.

So, How Do You Find Talented Writers To Fuel Top-Quality Content Creation?

I asked a couple of content marketing pioneers and thought leaders to tackle this question.

This dynamic duo has an extraordinary amount of Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T).

The first is Rebecca Lieb, who wrote “Content Marketing (Que Publishing, 2011)”, one of the first books on that topic.

As a high profile and well respected analyst, educator, practitioner, strategist, advisor, author and speaker, Rebecca has been at the forefront of digital advertising and media since the beginning.

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She’s also published a significant body of original research, including a large body of work on the topics of content marketing, content strategy and converged media.

The second was Robert Rose, the Chief Strategy Advisor for the Content Marketing Institute (CMI).

Robert is a sought-after consultant, best-selling author, keynote speaker, and one of the world’s most recognized digital content strategy and marketing experts.

He is the author of three best-selling books including “Killing Marketing (McGraw Hill, 2017)”, “Experiences: The 7th Era of Marketing (CMI, 2015)”, and “Managing Content Marketing (CMI, 2011).”

Here are my questions and their answers.

Who really needs top-quality content creation?

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Rebecca Lieb: “It’s hard to think of a brand, product, or service that doesn’t need excellent content – and search is only the beginning.

Content can help customers decide that they need you, it can establish thought leadership and authority in your industry, or it can simply be so fun, amusing, and delightful that it makes customers and prospects like you more.

Perhaps they’ll even share it, amplifying your brand, reach, and message.”

Robert Rose: “In a word: Everyone. It matters not how big your business is, every business that seeks to create value for customers is as much a media company as they are in whatever business they started as.

But this is no secret of course, and so as I’ve said before, not every company will have a great content strategy – but every successful company will.

What should they look for in talented writers?

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Lieb: “The ability to write in the style and tone of voice of the brand, as well as some subject matter knowledge and experience.

They don’t have to be PhDs on your subject matter – a good writer is adaptable – but by the same token, you probably wouldn’t hire a science writer to sell soft drinks, for example.”

Rose: “Answering this question with “writers that are talented” seems both unhelpful and circular, so I’ll perhaps answer the question [of] what you should prioritize.

I’m a firm believer in talent over subject matter expertise.

There’s an old saying (I don’t know if it’s true) that UPS didn’t hire drivers and teach them how to provide customer service. They hired great customer service representatives and taught them how to drive.

The same is true with writing.

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In my business, I’ve always had much better success with hiring talented content creators and teaching them the business.”

How should they evaluate a writing portfolio?

Lieb: “Do you like the style and tone? Is it clean and professional? Is it broadly aligned with your subject matter, voice, and tone?

For example, if you’re a tech company, have they had other tech clients? If they mainly do CPG work, it might not be the right fit.”

Rose: “To me, a great writing portfolio is when I’m interested in reading, even when I don’t care about the topic. When I look at a writing portfolio, I want great stories, compelling world-building, and solid characters – not just a neatly formatted view of the “facts.”

This is why I always recommend against someone reviewing a portfolio, and then saying, “Okay, now write me a sample for my industry.” Nope.

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If they’re good at what they do, then they’ll only be good once they can do the same level of research for your business. And for that, they should be paid.”

Do you have any tips for interviewing writers?

Lieb: “Ask about their work: was research required, how did they go about it? How many rounds of edits are included in their price? Can they turn the project around on your deadline?

Ask deeper questions about samples of their work that you’ve read. Do they seem professional? Are they asking you questions? (They should!).”

Rose: “Yes, my favorite question is to ask writers to tell me their origin story. I find great writers have thought about their own story and can tell it well.”

Would you share a few places to find top writers?

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Lieb: “To find freelance writers, start by asking: What are the sources of written information on your topic? Trade publications? Scholarly or academic journals? Blogs on the subject matter?

Go where the experts are and get in touch with them. If they won’t or can’t write for you, it’s likely they can make good recommendations.”

Rose: “There are plenty of great content marketing agencies – especially those that have been formed within (or adjacent to) traditional publishers that have top writers available.

CMI actually has a directory of them here. Otherwise, my favorite thing to do is to identify the writers at magazines, newspapers, or other publications that I really enjoy, make a list, and contact them directly.

Many of them offer up freelancing services – or are freelancers themselves. This is usually a more expensive investment – but well worth it.”

5 Must-Read Articles About Content Creation

In addition to the great advice above, you should also read five articles about content creation by my colleagues at Search Engine Journal, who also have an amazing amount of E-A-T:

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10 Specific Places To Find Top Writers

What can I add to all of this advice? Well, you can always check out freelancing platforms and writer job boards like:

  • Fiverr: A global platform connecting businesses with on-demand freelancers in the simplest way possible.
  • Guru: A platform where professionals can connect, collaborate, and get work done.
  • LinkedIn ProFinder: A freelancer recruitment platform for helping people hire freelancers.
  • ProBlogger Job Board: A leading marketplace for blog-related jobs.
  • Upwork: A work marketplace that enables companies and talent to work together in new ways.

And, you can also check out content marketing platforms like:

  • Contently: Powers the content marketing programs of some of the world’s most valuable brands through their complete content marketing solution: Expert content strategy, an industry-leading content marketing platform, and one of the highest-rated creative networks. They’ve received numerous honors, including G2’s #1 Enterprise Content Creation Solution and Gartner Peer Insights’ Customer Choice.
  • Scripted: A leading provider of original written content for thousands of customers – ranging from small businesses to large enterprises. Their curated user-base of writers and editors collaborate with clients to produce a wide variety of engaging content, including original blogs, newsletters, web copy, video scripts, social media posts, and much more.
  • Skyword: A solution recognized by customers and analysts year after year, having been named a 2020 Gartner Peer Insights “Customers’ Choice,” ranked as a leader in the Gartner 2021 Magic Quadrant for Content Marketing Platforms, and consistently rated a leader in content creation, experience, and distribution by their customers via G2.
  • Textbroker: A top online platform for custom-made, unique written content. The online marketplace brings together customers looking for unique and exclusive textual content with more than 100,000 U.S.-based freelance authors who can write about virtually any topic. Their parent company was founded in Germany and offers its services in 36 languages.
  • WriterAccess: A talent marketplace with nearly 2,000 clients, and more than 500 agency partners. The platform offers streamlined workflow tools to empower marketers to easily go from the ideas stage to publishing on their websites. Acquired in April 2022 by Rock Content, a global leader in content marketing solutions.

Whichever approach you take to finding talented writers or freelancers, remember that they need to create high-quality content in order generate results.

Why? There are three key reasons:

  • You need to create valuable, relevant, and consistent content to attract and retain a clearly defined audience — and, ultimately, drive profitable customer action.
  • Google has been reducing the rankings of low-quality content since the first Panda update back in February 2011.
  • Millions of articles and blog posts are published daily, so cranking out more average content won’t help you stand out.

And, when you migrate to Google Analytics 4, you’ll be able to measure distinct user interactions with the articles and blog posts on your website by using enhanced measurement events, including:

  • Scrolls: The first time a user reaches the bottom of each page (i.e., when a 90% vertical depth becomes visible).
  • Video engagement: For embedded videos with JS API support enabled, the following events are triggered: When the video starts playing, when the video progresses past 10%, 25%, 50%, and 75% duration time, and when the video ends.
  • File downloads: when a user clicks a link leading to a file (with a common file extension) of the following types: document, text, executable file or program, presentation, compressed file, video, audio.

And, you can mark any of these events as conversion, add a monetary value to your conversion events, and start measuring the economic value of your content marketing program.

This will enable you to identify the writers, topics, and posts that are generating the best bang for your bucks.

This will be a game changer.

Up to now, finding talented writers to fuel top-quality content creation has been what Avinash Kaushik, the Digital Marketing Evangelist at Google, calls “a faith-based initiative.”

Soon, it will become a normal cost of doing business.

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So, you will want to know how to do it before your competitors snap up the best ones.

More resources:


Featured Image: Khakimullin Aleksandr/Shutterstock



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Why Big Companies Make Bad Content

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Why Big Companies Make Bad Content

It’s like death and taxes: inevitable. The bigger a company gets, the worse its content marketing becomes.

HubSpot teaching you how to type the shrug emoji or buy bitcoin stock. Salesforce sharing inspiring business quotes. GoDaddy helping you use Bing AI, or Zendesk sharing catchy sales slogans.

Judged by content marketing best practice, these articles are bad.

They won’t resonate with decision-makers. Nobody will buy a HubSpot license after Googling “how to buy bitcoin stock.” It’s the very definition of vanity traffic: tons of visits with no obvious impact on the business.

So why does this happen?

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I did a double-take the first time I discovered this article on the HubSpot blog.

There’s an obvious (but flawed) answer to this question: big companies are inefficient.

As companies grow, they become more complicated, and writing good, relevant content becomes harder. I’ve experienced this firsthand:

  • extra rounds of legal review and stakeholder approval creeping into processes.
  • content watered down to serve an ever-more generic “brand voice”.
  • growing misalignment between search and content teams.
  • a lack of content leadership within the company as early employees leave.
Why Big Companies Make Bad ContentWhy Big Companies Make Bad Content
As companies grow, content workflows can get kinda… complicated.

Similarly, funded companies have to grow, even when they’re already huge. Content has to feed the machine, continually increasing traffic… even if that traffic never contributes to the bottom line.

There’s an element of truth here, but I’ve come to think that both these arguments are naive, and certainly not the whole story.

It is wrong to assume that the same people that grew the company suddenly forgot everything they once knew about content, and wrong to assume that companies willfully target useless keywords just to game their OKRs.

Instead, let’s assume that this strategy is deliberate, and not oversight. I think bad content—and the vanity traffic it generates—is actually good for business.

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There are benefits to driving tons of traffic, even if that traffic never directly converts. Or put in meme format:

Why Big Companies Make Bad ContentWhy Big Companies Make Bad Content

Programmatic SEO is a good example. Why does Dialpad create landing pages for local phone numbers?

1714584366 91 Why Big Companies Make Bad Content1714584366 91 Why Big Companies Make Bad Content

Why does Wise target exchange rate keywords?

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Why do we have a list of most popular websites pages?

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As this Twitter user points out, these articles will never convert…

…but they don’t need to.

Every published URL and targeted keyword is a new doorway from the backwaters of the internet into your website. It’s a chance to acquire backlinks that wouldn’t otherwise exist, and an opportunity to get your brand in front of thousands of new, otherwise unfamiliar people.

These benefits might not directly translate into revenue, but over time, in aggregate, they can have a huge indirect impact on revenue. They can:

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  • Strengthen domain authority and the search performance of every other page on the website.
  • Boost brand awareness, and encourage serendipitous interactions that land your brand in front of the right person at the right time.
  • Deny your competitors traffic and dilute their share of voice.

These small benefits become more worthwhile when multiplied across many hundreds or thousands of pages. If you can minimize the cost of the content, there is relatively little downside.

What about topical authority?

“But what about topical authority?!” I hear you cry. “If you stray too far from your area of expertise, won’t rankings suffer for it?”

I reply simply with this screenshot of Forbes’ “health” subfolder, generating almost 4 million estimated monthly organic pageviews:

1714584367 695 Why Big Companies Make Bad Content1714584367 695 Why Big Companies Make Bad Content

And big companies can minimize cost. For large, established brands, the marginal cost of content creation is relatively low.

Many companies scale their output through networks of freelancer writers, avoiding the cost of fully loaded employees. They have established, efficient processes for research, briefing, editorial review, publication and maintenance. The cost of an additional “unit” of content—or ten, or a hundred—is not that great, especially relative to other marketing channels.

There is also relatively little opportunity cost to consider: the fact that energy spent on “vanity” traffic could be better spent elsewhere, on more business-relevant topics.

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In reality, many of the companies engaging in this strategy have already plucked the low-hanging fruit and written almost every product-relevant topic. There are a finite number of high traffic, high relevance topics; blog consistently for a decade and you too will reach these limits.

On top of that, the HubSpots and Salesforces of the world have very established, very efficient sales processes. Content gating, lead capture and scoring, and retargeting allow them to put very small conversion rates to relatively good use.

1714584367 376 Why Big Companies Make Bad Content1714584367 376 Why Big Companies Make Bad Content

Even HubSpot’s article on Bitcoin stock has its own relevant call-to-action—and for HubSpot, building a database of aspiring investors is more valuable than it sounds, because…

The bigger a company grows, the bigger its audience needs to be to continue sustaining that growth rate.

Companies generally expand their total addressable market (TAM) as they grow, like HubSpot broadening from marketing to sales and customer success, launching new product lines for new—much bigger—audiences. This means the target audience for their content marketing grows alongside.

As Peep Laja put its:

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But for the biggest companies, this principle is taken to an extreme. When a company gears up to IPO, its target audience expands to… pretty much everyone.

This was something Janessa Lantz (ex-HubSpot and dbt Labs) helped me understand: the target audience for a post-IPO company is not just end users, but institutional investors, market analysts, journalists, even regular Jane investors.

These are people who can influence the company’s worth in ways beyond simply buying a subscription: they can invest or encourage others to invest and dramatically influence the share price. These people are influenced by billboards, OOH advertising and, you guessed it, seemingly “bad” content showing up whenever they Google something.

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You can think of this as a second, additional marketing funnel for post-IPO companies:

Illustration: When companies IPO, the traditional marketing funnel is accompanied by a second funnel. Website visitors contribute value through stock appreciation, not just revenue.Illustration: When companies IPO, the traditional marketing funnel is accompanied by a second funnel. Website visitors contribute value through stock appreciation, not just revenue.

These visitors might not purchase a software subscription when they see your article in the SERP, but they will notice your brand, and maybe listen more attentively the next time your stock ticker appears on the news.

They won’t become power users, but they might download your eBook and add an extra unit to the email subscribers reported in your S1.

They might not contribute revenue now, but they will in the future: in the form of stock appreciation, or becoming the target audience for a future product line.

Vanity traffic does create value, but in a form most content marketers are not used to measuring.

If any of these benefits apply, then it makes sense to acquire them for your company—but also to deny them to your competitors.

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SEO is an arms race: there are a finite number of keywords and topics, and leaving a rival to claim hundreds, even thousands of SERPs uncontested could very quickly create a headache for your company.

SEO can quickly create a moat of backlinks and brand awareness that can be virtually impossible to challenge; left unchecked, the gap between your company and your rival can accelerate at an accelerating pace.

Pumping out “bad” content and chasing vanity traffic is a chance to deny your rivals unchallenged share of voice, and make sure your brand always has a seat at the table.

Final thoughts

These types of articles are miscategorized—instead of thinking of them as bad content, it’s better to think of them as cheap digital billboards with surprisingly great attribution.

Big companies chasing “vanity traffic” isn’t an accident or oversight—there are good reasons to invest energy into content that will never convert. There is benefit, just not in the format most content marketers are used to.

This is not an argument to suggest that every company should invest in hyper-broad, high-traffic keywords. But if you’ve been blogging for a decade, or you’re gearing up for an IPO, then “bad content” and the vanity traffic it creates might not be so bad.

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Is It Alternatives You’re Looking For?

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Is It Alternatives You’re Looking For?

You probably clicked this result because a) you appreciate a good Lionel Ritchie pun, or b) you’ve heard that HARO is dead and want some alternatives—hopefully both.

Whatever the reason, in this article, I’ll share some alternatives to HARO and a few extra ways to get expert quotes and backlinks for your website.

Disclaimer: I am not a PR expert. I did a bit of outreach a few years ago, but I have only been an occasional user of HARO in the past year or so.

So, rather than providing my opinion on the best alternatives to HARO, I thought it would be fun to ask users of the “new HARO” what they thought were the best alternatives.

I wanted to give the “new HARO”—Connectively—the benefit of the doubt.

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Still, a few minutes after my pitch was accepted, I got two responses that appeared to be AI-generated from two “visionary directors,” both with “extensive experience.”

My experience of Connectively so far mirrored Josh’s experience of old HARO: The responses were most likely automated.

Although I was off to a bad start, looking through most of the responses afterward, these two were the only blatant automated pitches I could spot.

These responses weren’t included in my survey, and anyone who saw my pitch would have to copy and paste the survey link to complete it—increasing the chance of genuine human responses—hopefully.

So, without further ado, here are the results of the survey.

1714560965 992 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For1714560965 992 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For

Sidenote.

The survey on Connectively ran for a week and received 101 votes. Respondents could vote for their top three HARO alternatives.

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Price: Free.

Help a B2B Writer was the #1 alternative platform respondents recommended. In my survey it got 22% of the vote.

Help a B2B Writer is a platform run by Superpath that is similar to HARO but focused on connecting business-to-business (B2B) journalists with industry experts and sources for their stories.

Is It Alternatives Youre Looking ForIs It Alternatives Youre Looking For

Price: Free and paid plans. Paid plans start at $99 per month.

Coming in joint second place, Featured was popular, scoring 18% of the vote.

Featured connects journalists with experts and thought leaders. It allows experts to create profiles showcasing their expertise and helps journalists find suitable sources for their stories.

1714560966 485 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For1714560966 485 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For

Price: Free and paid plans. Paid plans start at $99 per month.

Qwoted is another platform that I’ve heard talked about a lot. It came in joint second place, scoring 18% of the vote.

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Qwoted matches journalists with expert sources, allowing them to collaborate on creating high-quality content. It streamlines the process of finding and connecting with relevant sources.

1714560966 768 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For1714560966 768 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For

Price: Free for ten pitches per month

Despite being the “new HARO,” Connectively came 4th on my list, scoring 12% of the vote—surprisingly, it wasn’t even the top choice for most users on its own platform.

Connectively connects journalists with sources and experts. It helps journalists find relevant sources for their stories and allows experts to gain media exposure.

Is It Alternatives Youre Looking ForIs It Alternatives Youre Looking For

Price: Free and paid plans. Paid plans start at $5.95 per month.

SourceBottle is an online platform that connects journalists, bloggers, and media professionals with expert sources. It allows experts to pitch their ideas and insights to journalists looking for story sources. It scored 9% of the vote in my survey.

1714560967 683 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For1714560967 683 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For

Price: Free.

JournoRequest is an X account that shares journalist requests for sources. UK-based journalists and experts often use it, but it can sometimes have international reach. It scored 7% of the vote in my survey.

1714560967 333 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For1714560967 333 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For

Price: Paid. Plans start at $1,150 per year.

ProfNet connects journalists to expert sources. It helps journalists find knowledgeable sources for their articles, interviews, and other media content. It helps subject matter experts gain media exposure and share their expertise. It scored 5% of the vote in my survey.

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Price: 7-day free trial and paid plans. Paid plans start at $147 per month.

JustReachOut is a PR and influencer outreach platform that helps businesses find and connect with relevant journalists and influencers. It provides tools for personalized outreach and relationship management. It scored 3% of the vote in my survey.

1714560967 678 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For1714560967 678 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For

Price: 14-day free trial and paid plans. Paid plans start at $50 per month.

OnePitch is a platform that simplifies the process of pitching story ideas to journalists. Businesses and PR professionals can create and send targeted pitches to relevant media outlets. It scored 3% of the vote in my survey.

1714560967 17 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For1714560967 17 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For

Price: Free.

PitchRate is a free PR tool that connects journalists and highly rated experts. Useful for subject matter experts looking for free PR leads, media coverage, or publicity. Or journalists looking for credible sources. It scored 1% of the vote in my survey.

1714560967 890 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For1714560967 890 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For

Price: Free and paid plans. Paid plans start at ~$105 per month.

A UK service that connects media professionals with expert sources, press releases, and PR contacts. It scored 1% of the vote in my survey.

1714560968 51 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For1714560968 51 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For

Price: Invitation-only platform.

Forbes Councils is an invitation-only community for executives and entrepreneurs. Members can contribute expert insights and thought leadership content to Forbes.com and gain media exposure. It scored 1% of the vote in my survey.

1714560968 753 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For1714560968 753 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For

Price: Free.

Yes, you read that right.

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HERO was created by Peter Shankman, the original creator of HARO, who said the platform will always be free. It scored 1% of the vote in my survey.

Peter set up the platform after receiving over 2,000 emails asking him to build a new version of HARO.

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Price: Paid. Sign up for details.

Meltwater received no votes in my survey, but I included it because I’d seen it shared on social media as a paid alternative to HARO.

It’s a media intelligence and social media monitoring platform. It provides tools for tracking media coverage, analyzing sentiment, and identifying influencers and journalists for outreach.

1714560968 923 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For1714560968 923 Is It Alternatives Youre Looking For

Price: Free.

Expertise Finder also received no votes in my survey, but it was included as I saw it had been recommended as an HARO alternative on LinkedIn. It’s a platform that helps journalists find and connect with expert sources from universities.

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HARO had a dual purpose for SEOs: it was a place to acquire links, but it also was a place to get expert quotes on topics for your next article.

Here are a few more free methods outside the platforms we’ve covered that can help you get expert quotes and links.

We’ve already seen that JournoRequest is a popular X account that shares journalist requests for sources.

But you can also follow hashtags on X to access even more opportunities.

Here are my favorite hashtags to follow:

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I used to track the #journorequest hashtag to find opportunities for my clients when I worked agency-side, so I know it can work well for quotes and link acquisition.

Here are two opportunities I found just checking the #journorequest hashtag:

Journorequest example for HuffPost USJournorequest example for HuffPost US

Here’s another example from the Telegraph—a DR 92 website:

Telegraph example DR 92 website journorequestTelegraph example DR 92 website journorequest

Certain types of content are more likely to be shared by journalists and PRs than others.

One of these types of content is statistics-based content. The reason? Journalists often use statistics to support their points.

Once they have included your statistic in their post, they often add a backlink back to your post.

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We tested this with our SEO statistics post, and as you can see, it still ranks number one in Google.

SERP overview for SEO statisticsSERP overview for SEO statistics

Another method is to use the Linking authors report in Ahrefs’ Site Explorer. This report shows the authors’ names who link to any website you enter.

You can see which authors link to their site by entering your competitor’s domain. Some of these authors may represent outreach opportunities for your website as well.

  1. Head to Site Explorer, click on Linking authors
  2. Type in your competitor’s URL
  3. Contact any authors that you think may be interested in your website and its content
Linking authors report, via Ahrefs.comLinking authors report, via Ahrefs.com

Tip

If you download your website’s linking authors and your competitors into a spreadsheet and put them into separate tabs, you can compare the lists to see which authors are only linking to your competitor’s website.

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When I was about to wrap up this article, I was contacted by Greg Heilers of Jolly SEO on LinkedIn.

He said he’d sent 200,000+ pitches over the years and wanted to share the results with me.

These are his top three platforms over the last 1,000 pitches he sent. Interestingly, we can see that it’s similar to my much smaller-scale survey.

Jolly SEOs 1000 link placements
Jolly SEOs 1000 link placements
Ordered by number of link placements. Average Domain Rating from Ahrefs. Average organic traffic from Ahrefs.

Hopefully, the data here speaks for itself. The high-quality links and traffic from HARO alternatives is considerable.

This research shows that Featured gained the most link placements in this campaign.

We have compiled some helpful content related to link building that you can get your teeth into. These hand-picked guides will take you from beginner to expert in no time.

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Here are my favorite resources on this topic:

Final thoughts

There are many options for sourcing expert quotes and getting links for your next marketing campaigns. HARO may be dead, but its legacy lives on.

My highly unscientific survey suggests that most “new HARO” users liked Help a B2B Writer the most, but for HARO purists, there really is only one choice—HERO.

Give your favorites from this list a whirl, and let me know if you have any success. Got more questions? Ping me on X. 🙂



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OpenAI To Show Content & Links In Response To Queries

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ChatGPT takes step toward becoming a search engine

OpenAI content deal will enhance ChatGPT with the ability to show real-time content with links in response to queries. OpenAI quietly took steps to gaining more search engine type functionality as part of a content licensing deal that may have positive implications for publishers and SEO.

Content Licensing Deal

OpenAI agreed to content licensing with the Financial Times, a global news organization with offices in London, New York, across continental Europe and Asia.

Content licensing deals between AI organizations and publishers are generally about getting access to high quality training data. The training data is then used by language models to learn connections between words and concepts. This deal goes far beyond that use.

ChatGPT Will Show Direct Quotes With Attribution

What makes this content licensing deal between The Financial Times and OpenAI is that there is a reference to giving attribution to content within ChatGPT.

The announced licensing deal explicitly mentions the use of the licensed content so that ChatGPT could directly quote it and provide links to the licensed content.

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Further, the licensing deal is intended to help improve ChatGPT’s “usefulness”, which is vague and can mean many things, but it takes on a slightly different meaning when used in the context of attributed answers.

The Financial Times agreement states that the licensing deal is for use in ChatGPT when it provides “attributed content” which is content with an attribution, commonly a link to where the content appeared.

This is the part of the announcement that references attributed content:

“The Financial Times today announced a strategic partnership and licensing agreement with OpenAI, a leader in artificial intelligence research and deployment, to enhance ChatGPT with attributed content, help improve its models’ usefulness by incorporating FT journalism, and collaborate on developing new AI products and features for FT readers. “

And this is the part of the announcement that mentions ChatGPT offering users attributed quotes and links:

“Through the partnership, ChatGPT users will be able to see select attributed summaries, quotes and links to FT journalism in response to relevant queries.”

The Financial Times Group CEO was even more explicit about OpenAI’s intention to show content and links in ChatGPT:

“This is an important agreement in a number of respects,” said FT Group CEO John Ridding. “It recognises the value of our award-winning journalism and will give us early insights into how content is surfaced through AI. …this partnership will help keep us at the forefront of developments in how people access and use information.

OpenAI understands the importance of transparency, attribution, and compensation…”

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Brad Lightcap, COO of OpenAI directly referenced showing real-time news content in ChatGPT but more important he referenced OpenAI exploring new ways to show content to its user base.

Lastly, the COO stated that they embraced disruption, which means innovation that creates a new industry or paradigm, usually at the expense of an older one, like search engines.

Lightcap is quoted:

“We have always embraced new technologies and disruption, and we’ll continue to operate with both curiosity and vigilance as we navigate this next wave of change.”

Showing direct quotes of Financial Times content with links to that content is very similar to how search engines work. This is a big change to how ChatGPT works and could be a sign of where ChatGPT is going in the future, a functionality that incorporates online content with links to that content.

Something Else That Is Possibly Related

Someone on Twitter recently noticed a change that is related to “search” in relation to ChatGPT.

This change involves an SSL security certificate that was added for a subdomain of ChatGPT.com. ChatGPT.com is a domain name that was snapped up by someone to capitalize on the 2022 announcement of ChatGPT by OpenAI. OpenAI eventually acquired the domain and it’s been redirecting to ChatGPT.

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The change that was noticed is to the subdomain: search.chatgpt.com.

This is a screenshot of the tweet:

Big News For SEO and Publishers

This is significant news for publishers and search marketers ChatGPT will become a source of valuable traffic if OpenAI takes ChatGPT in the direction of providing attributed summaries and direct quotes.

How Can Publishers Get Traffic From ChatGPT?

Questions remain about attributed quotes with links in response to relevant queries. Here are X unknowns about ChatGPT attributed links.

  • Does this mean that only licensed content will be shown and linked to in ChatGPT?
  • Will ChatGPT incorporate and use most web data without licensing deals in the same way that search engines do?
  • OpenAI may incorporate an Opt-In model where publishers can use a notation in Robots.txt or in meta data to opt-in to receiving traffic from ChatGPT.
  • Would you opt into receiving traffic from ChatGPT in exchange for allowing your content to be used for training?
  • How would SEOs and publisher’s equation on ChatGPT change if their competitors are all receiving traffic from ChatGPT?

Read the original announcement:

Financial Times announces strategic partnership with OpenAI

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Featured Image by Shutterstock/Photo For Everything

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