Help A Reporter Out, popularly known as HARO, is an excellent online service for professional PRs, publicists, content managers, writers, and journalists. It offers a free plan and is decently cheap if you choose to go with one of their paid options. So then, how come so many people are searching for HARO alternatives?
The truth is, HARO isn’t a “one-size-fits-all” solution. If you put a lot of time and effort into your HARO responses you’ll slowly start seeing some progress but if you’re pressed for time then it’s likely not the best option.
In this article, I will talk about both HARO alternatives and supplements – programs and services you can use “while” using HARO to reap the best benefits and ensure your work gets the marketing and attention it deserves.
What Are the Best HARO Alternatives?
HARO has been talked about for years now. On one hand, it’s great to get the message out there and build a community of experts and journalists but on the other hand, it makes things quite competitive. Every time a HARO request comes through you’re likely competing against hundreds of responses so yours better be great.
That being said, if you’re looking for a HARO alternative with less competition, here are some options:
1. Niche Website Builders
Overview
Niche Website Builders is one of the largest and most comprehensive platforms for anyone that feels like HARO isn’t quick or consistent enough.
It is the best HARO alternative mainly because it offers its clients an opportunity to cherry-pick the services and packages they want to use. Its subscription options are significantly more versatile than HARO’s; you can order heaps of fresh content, launch marketing and press campaigns for your publications, and most importantly, utilize its HARO link-building services at scale.
Aside from its regular services, Niche Website Builders’ HARO-specific services are otherworldly good. Even the cheapest subscription offers 3 HARO links each month, link tracking, and more.
Key Features
- HARO link building & white-label reporting
- White Hat link building
- Affiliate websites and marketing campaigns
- Content creation
- Internal linking
- Guest posts
- Niche edits
Pricing
Niche Website Builders offer two HARO-based subscriptions, including Contributor at $1,225 and Newshound at $1,999 per month. The Correspondent package is a one-off costing $2,150, granting you five HARO links, journalist outreach, at least 40 DR links, link tracking, and white-label reports.
What I Like / Dislike About Niche Website Builders
What I love about this service the most is its versatility. There are multiple contract length options available, the minimum DR for links you’ll receive is 40, and they even provide you with link tracking and whitelabel reports.
The drawback of Niche Website Builders is that it’s among the most expensive services on the market. Fortunately, you can buy “bundle” packs and purchase subscriptions that last longer to drastically reduce the price, or buy the One-Off pack while you’re getting accustomed to your HARO subscription.
Who Is This For?
Niche Website Builders offers a broad spectrum of unique services. It is best suited for freelancers and PR managers who want to reap the biggest advantages HARO offers without using the service personally. Even if you aren’t searching for a HARO alternative, NWB is a fantastic, well-rounded service for entrepreneurs and SMEs.
2. Terkel
Overview
Terkel.io is an innovative content-building and publishing platform designed to help its users become featured in media articles, establish stronger domain authority, and expand their online presence.
Terkel is significantly different from HARO while the common denominator for both platforms is access to easier, more dependable publications and backlinks. In HARO, you would get text and keyword alerts; in Terkel, you receive questions and, depending on your answer, have an opportunity to have your insights published in relevant media outlets, posts, or websites.
All Terkel features are custom. After creating a profile, users pick their realms of expertise, which influences the questions Terkel sends. The “answers” provided by the users are essentially credited quotes or articles that Terkel publishes on media websites.
One of the key advantages of Terkel is that all “answers” include link attribution. While Terkel does offer a free trial, Premium subscription plans allow users to choose the type of link their answers will be attributed with.
Key Features
- Unlimited answers per month
- Link attribution to answers
- Fully customizable user profiles
- Domain rating
- Supports over three accounts per profile
Pricing
Terkel offers two subscription plans, including Premium at $99 per month and Team at $199 per month. A free Lite version is also available, offering up to 5 answers per month.
What I Like / Dislike About Terkel
Terkel is a qualified alternative to HARO because it can help you find major publications looking for expert commentary on a platform that isn’t quite as saturated.
The streamlined method of simple Q&As takes minimal time while the profile customization ensures you’ll get matched with questions that are relevant to your field of expertise.
The main disadvantage of Terkel is that you need to do all the outreach yourself and you’re limited to 5 outreaches per month. There is no done-for-you option.
Who Is This For?
If you’re looking for a platform that isn’t quite as saturated as HARO then Terkel is a great option. If you’re a freelancer or small business that doesn’t have a ton of budget then answering these questions yourself and getting the chance to be featured in a major publication is a great opportunity.
3. Muck Rack
Overview
Muck Rack is a comprehensive online platform for freelancers, journalists, and PR professionals. Upon entering its virtual community, you will be welcomed into a network comprised of thousands of journalists, podcasters, entrepreneurs, and business people from all walks of life.
Its main draw is the thoroughly streamlined dashboard, from which you can monitor news, broadcasts, social media campaigns, and the performance of freshly acquired backlinks.
The “Who Shared My Link?” tab is a game-changing feature in the realm of free HARO alternatives, as it tracks total engagement, post interactions on social media outlets, journalist reach, and other metrics before granting you a unique “Sentiment” score.
The main feature of Muck Rack for freelancers is the inbuilt search function that enables its users to find and connect with thousands of journalists, significantly reducing the time required for backlink hunts.
Key Features
- Auto-updating profile
- Real-time reports and performance analysis
- Link interaction alerts
- Monthly rankings of trending media outlets
- Job Updates
Pricing
If you’re a PR professional and want to use Muck Rack you’ll need to contact them for custom pricing.
What I Like / Dislike About Muck Rack
I love nearly everything about Muck Rack.
The main drawback of Muck Rack as a HARO alternative is that only some of its features are similar to Help A Reporter Out. Its database is enormous, and only a chunk of it is comprised of journalists and reporters.
Who Is This For?
Muck Rack software is an ideal choice for emerging freelancers that need to expand their reach quickly. Its networking capabilities are amazing while its monitoring and reporting functions are just as great. The Muck Rack platform is essentially a suite of collaborative programs and functions that is better suited for more experienced freelancers, PR pros, and journalists.
4. Prowly
Overview
Prowly is one of the top-rated PR and publishing platforms equipped with innumerable quality tools and features. Its media database features over 1,000,000 contacts, ensuring that it would be nearly impossible for you to not find a reputable journalist to work with.
Custom media monitoring is its newest feature, encompassing up to 150,000 mentions each month, 30 queries, unlimited alerts, campaign projects, and customizable dashboards.
PR analytics is another important feature of Prowly; when combined with the Press Kit, you’ll have all the tools you need to build a strong online presence regarding an upcoming release/event and to monitor its performance afterward.
Given that Prowly software has dozens of advanced tools and features, the company also offers free training sessions across all premium subscriptions.
Key Features
- Professional media monitoring
- PR reports
- Features a database of more than a million contacts
- Supports up to 3,000 new media contacts in its database
- Supports up to 15,000 monthly emails and corresponding analytics
- Up to 5 seats
- Contact management
- Press kit
- GDPR compliance tools
- Newsroom SEO settings
Pricing
Prowly offers two subscription plans, including Essential at $189 per month annually or $269 per month, and Professional at $259 per month annually or $369 per month. Media monitoring costs an extra $99 or $279 per month depending on the chosen package, just like PR Reports cost an extra $50 or $80 per month.
What I Like / Dislike About Prowly
Prowly is among the cheaper HARO alternatives. What I loved about it the most is that it’s got a tool for everything. Whether you want to integrate your media contacts into an already massive database, analyze the performance of your mails, develop a professional press release, launch follow-up campaigns, or set up several projects for multi-tasking, Prowly’s got it all.
The fact that you have to pay extra to gain access to the Monitoring suite is not a deal-breaker, but it’s a shame that some of Prowly’s finest and newest tools aren’t available out of the box.
Who Is This For?
Prowly is a feature-packed platform for freelancers and SMEs that are searching for a versatile backlink & link monitoring solution. It is ideal for emerging brands, enabling smaller companies to craft professional press releases and build a strong foundation with robust link-building services.
5. Incrementors
Overview
Incrementors is an SEO & PPC agency that offers custom HARO link-building services. Its system is very detailed and after your company/brand adopts it, you’ll be connected to some of the top-rated relevant websites in record time.
Incrementors works by auditing your company; during the discovery phase, its team will learn your website/content’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and direction.
After that, they immediately start working on driving conversion rates on your pages by deploying advanced marketing strategies. For brands that want to go a step further, you can leverage their lead generation services atop of the links they’ve provided you with to boost your Google ranking, leads, and website/page traffic.
Key Features
- Conversion rate optimization
- HARO-specific link building
- Lead generation funnels
- Strategy & analytics consulting
- Online competitive analysis test
Pricing
You’ll need to contact Incrementors and schedule a free 30-minute session to discuss pricing and strategy.
What I Like / Dislike About Incrementors
Incrementors makes it easy to get HARO links with virtually no work on your end. Although this is a custom service, their team is focused on building a relationship with their clients instead of just getting one-off purchases.
There are no major drawbacks to Incrementors. As usual, custom pricing means that everyone receives a different bill and a different service; what matters is that they’re great at what they do, as vouched by dozens of verified reviews.
Who Is This For?
If you simply don’t have the time to invest into HARO outreach and want to get a service to do it for you then Incrementors is the way to go. Although you’ll likely need to be running a SMB in order to afford their fees. This likely isn’t your best option as a freelancer.
6. JournoLink
Overview
JournoLink is robust publishing software equipped with straightforward features that you can use to publish unlimited press releases or articles each month.
What makes this app unique is that JouroLink guarantees online publications and allows you to submit responses to media requests from a unified platform. With the hosted press room feature you will have an opportunity to interact with your targets, publicists, and pretty much anyone relevant to the project.
In terms of link-building and networking, JournoLink’s database of media contents is quite comprehensive, although it’s better suited for journalists than freelancers and brands outside of the publishing sphere.
Key Features
- Unlimited press releases and media request responses
- Guaranteed online publication
- Robust analytics
- Hosted PR room
- PR calendar
Pricing
JournoLink offers two subscription plans, including Starter at £59 per month and Unlimited at £119 per month. A free version is also available with limited features.
What I Like / Dislike About JournoLink
JournoLink is decently cheaper than most HARO alternatives I’ve covered so far. On top of that, it’s very easy to use and guarantees results.
The downside is quite obvious. JournoLink’s lack of versatility implies that “one-size-fits-all” solutions can be useful to everyone. You’ll still need to market your releases and optimize SEO.
Who Is This For?
JournoLink is best for people that are searching for a cost-effective way to publish their articles and PR posts on high-profile media outlets. If you are a freelancer or a brand owner seeking journalists for quality backlinks, you’ll find thousands of contacts in its database regardless of which plan you subscribe to.
7. JustReachOut
Overview
JustReachOut is an advanced outreach platform. Its main draw is that it can be used to reinforce online reactions and presence, reach specific audiences/individuals through targeted campaigns, and design the best pitch for each post/article.
With JustReachOut, you can create up to 100 campaigns each month, discover innumerable press opportunities, communicate (and collaborate) with famous podcasters, and send up to 1,000 emails through it each month. It’s not a dedicated link-building platform, but it enables you to reach people that can provide you with their links if you persuade them to.
Key Features
- Pitch writing help
- Supports up to 10 seats
- Podcast outreach
- Can launch up to 100 campaigns monthly
- Queries from over 20 social media platforms
- Podcast outreach
Pricing
JustReachOut offers three subscription plans, including Starter Outreach at $49 per month; Advanced Outreach at $99 per month, and Ultimate Outreach at $199 per month.
What I Like / Dislike About JustReachOut
JustReachOut is the ultimate marketing tool for journalists while being a decent option for freelancers and smaller companies. It brought dozens of tried & tested outreach methods under one umbrella and enriched its scope with various integrations, pitch-writing help services, and more.
It is not the easiest tool to use, as it gives the user plenty of freedom, which isn’t always the best thing. While JustReachOut allows you to sift through hundreds and thousands of podcasters, publicists, social media platforms, and other media outlets, you’ll need to decide where your content should go.
Who Is This For?
JustReachOut is ideal for people that have covered more “technical” aspects of their work and need a tool that will help them find the right people and platforms to support it.
8. LinkBuilder.io
Overview
LinkBuilder.io is considered one of the best link-building companies on the globe. Regardless of your niche, their experts will ensure your website, post, or article becomes the leading authority in the market.
This website is laser-focused on link-building, but what makes it different is how they approach it. By constantly analyzing the competition, deploying tailored outreach campaigns, and cutting-edge analytics, LinkBuilder.io always hits the mark.
Key Features
- White Hat link building
- Detailed competitor analysis
- Custom outreach
- Regular reports and notifications
Pricing
LinkBuilder.io offers four subscription packages, including Startup at $2,999 per month; Pro at $5,999 per month, Growth at $9,999 per month, and Enterprise at $14,999 per month.
What I Like / Dislike About LinkBuilder.io
To summarize its highest and lowest points, LinkBuilder.io offers a surefire way to establish a firm, uncontested online presence with the strongest, most reputable links, but it will cost you a small fortune to reap these benefits.
Who Is This For?
LinkBuilder.io is, despite its expensiveness, the best long-term solution for all professionals, as it effectively eliminates the need for in-house backlinking staff.
9. Qwoted
Overview
Qwoted is a comprehensive network of media experts, journalists, and PR specialists. By creating a free account on its platform, you will get an opportunity to find, connect, and build business relationships with thousands of publicists, founders of newspaper companies, other journalists, and businesspeople from all walks of life.
It’s essentially LinkedIn with a slightly narrower niche, featuring a range of filters that can be used to accurately find people of interest.
Key Features
- A network comprised of thousands of PR professionals, journalists, and publicists
- Status filters
- Free-to-make profiles
- Customizable accounts
Pricing
You can join Qwoted’s network for free, but it also offers a “Pro” subscription at $149.99 per month. A custom “Teams” subscription also exists for PR teams that want to benefit from unlimited pitch ideas, daily request roundups, an improved media search function, and a variety of advanced features.
What I Like / Dislike About Qwoted
Qwoted is a comprehensive network that is home to people that you’ll want on your team if you’re a freelancer or work in your company’s PR department. It’s also great for staff augmentation while its main advantages lie in custom pitch opportunities and one of the largest databases that encompass the latest events, awards, and “media moves”.
On the downside, many people outside of your zone of interest are using it. Grasping all of its filters may take a while.
Who Is This For?
Given that it’s one of the top-rated networks of journalists, PR experts, freelancers, and corporate heads, you’re more than likely to find the owner of a reputable website or a prolific reporter on Qwoted.
Final Thoughts
The best HARO alternative is the program that you need but you don’t have. If you’re done with content, you may not need Niche Website Builders, but if you’re struggling with writer’s block while juggling multiple projects, NWB is ideal.
As for the best and most versatile solution on the list, it’s either Niche Website Builders or Muck Rack. Regardless of your needs, I’m sure either of the two will be able to help you. I hope this guide was helpful and that you’ve learned something new.
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