Andrew Lock is the best at finding useful Web resources for cash- and time-strapped entrepreneurs, and SmallBusinessComputing.com has the details on three of his latest finds.
HelpAReporter
This NiftyClick — HelpAReporter.com — has its own slogan: everyone’s an expert at something. This is an e-mail list where you basically register as a source of information, and you might get 15 or 30 queries per day from reporters. Reporters can come to the same Web site and post a query, and these queries go out to the entire mailing list of subscribers to help a reporter out.
I guess more than 50,000 people have registered so far. A little back story here: the owner says it started as a part of Facebook, but since they cap e-mails at 1,200 this is the next incarnation of the Web site. He did it because a lot of his friends are reporters, and they called him all the time for sources. Rather than going through his contact list each time, he figured he could push out the requests to people who actually have something to say.
Of course the advantage to you is that you might get some free publicity out of it by responding to a reporter’s question. First of all it is free from both ends — for both the reporters and for the people who respond to the reporters’ questions. Please make sure your response is really on target meaning are you going to help the journalist or is this just a way for you to get your client or yourself out in front of the reporter? The site asks that you think about that for three seconds before you reply to a reporter’s query.
If you’re a reporter, you put in a summary of the information that you’re looking for as well as your media outlet, e-mail address and the specific query. Again it’s HelpAReporter.com, and it’s designed to help reporters get questions answered, and it might help you get your name or business out in front of the media.
Read the complete Web resources article.
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