Ok,  now this is just cool...

Recently I had the pleasure of interacting with an incredibly bright young man. Bright as in used to make a good $700 or so a month (don't quote me on the actual numbers) off of his i-phone apps alone. In addition to anything else he had going on, like stocks. And he's a sophomore in college.

 

How does he do it?! I don't know. I just fall asleep on a tear-soaked pillow thinking of my own accomplishments, in comparison.

 

He just introduced me to a really nifty website call Help a Reporter Out. What is this, you ask? Well, let me tell you:

"From The New York Times, to ABC News, to HuffingtonPost.com and everyone in between, nearly 30,000 members of the media have quoted HARO sources in their stories. Everyone’s an expert at something. Sharing your expertise may land you that big media opportunity you’ve been looking for."

Especially in the cases of those aspiring writers trying to enter the journalism world, you've probably run across the line "clips required" attached to some application or other. Clips being, as you know, cuttings or photocopies or links of published articles or snippets that you've written. Until this year, actually, I had no clips to my name (except for one APC blog post, and I'm not entirely sure that counts...), and so I've left the strict journalism world alone for the most part, other than in terms of administrative work. Now I have a good five or so articles that I could pass in, if I wanted to. But what do you do if you have none? How do you get them?

Well, you can submit freelance to magazines and newspapers all around your local area. But you can also use HARO. Basically, reporters and news sources come looking for stories, for quotes, for information about this or that topic and fact. Something they can use other than wikipedia, that's more professional and also more personal. That something is-- you.

So, according to their sign up page, here's how it works:

HOW IT WORKS:

1. Sign Up --> (easy enough, yeah?)
2. Read your HAROs every day! --> (that means read the queries from reporters asking for help)
3. Respond to reporters looking for your expertise, immediately. --> (give your advice and quotes!)

Simple! To me, it sounds a lot like an interactive twitter that gives you journalism and social media experience in legitimate sources and literary locations.

In fact, look at one of these success stories. Lisa De Fazio built up her professional portfolio using HARO, and then that professional portfolio turned around and gained her television publicity. Lots of it!

"HARO gets Lisa De Fazio National TV Appearances

Every week, I respond to seven or eight queries and get one media placement on average. Every time I get an appearance, I can put that outlet’s logo on my site. It builds my credibility as a media dietician.

The “Daily Buzz” – the national morning TV show – put out a HARO query asking for articles for their new Body Checklist website. They needed a nutritionist so I responded like I always do. When the producer looked at my website and saw all of my media coverage and TV appearances, she asked me to write a series of 15 weekly articles, with my picture and bio added to the site as a regular expert."

Read the rest of the success story on the website. If this sounds right up your alley, well, go for it! Build your credibility as a source of information, get clips and logos to your name, plaster it all over your resume. If you have a business or product, put that on there too.

You might just get flown across the country to be on tv. Or you might get some clips that you can put on your application to get you a job. But you'll build your credibility and portfolio either way.  And, if absolutley nothing else, you'll help a reporter out.

See what I did there?