Expert Quotes as Link Bait: Qwoted, Featured and HARO's Successors

What happened to HARO, and why the tactic still works

For fifteen years, Help a Reporter Out was the default way for experts to earn media mentions: journalists posted source requests, experts replied, and the best answers appeared in articles with a name-check and often a link. Cision rebranded it as Connectively, then shut it down entirely in December 2024. The audience scattered, but the underlying exchange never stopped making sense. Journalists still work to brutal deadlines and still need credible sources fast.

For a small business, the appeal is obvious: no data study to build, no pitch list to research. You answer questions in your area of expertise, and a proportion of those answers convert into brand mentions and editorial links from real publications. The catch is that the field is now split across several platforms of very different quality, and the tactic can quietly eat hours if you let it.

The platforms worth your time in 2026

• Source of Sources (SOS): launched by HARO's original founder Peter Shankman after Connectively closed. Free email digests, closest in spirit to the old HARO, with a broad mix of outlets
• Qwoted: a proper matching platform where journalists browse expert profiles as well as posting requests. The free tier caps how many pitches you can send each month, which usefully forces selectivity
• Featured: question-based, with answers compiled into round-up articles. Free to start; outlet quality varies widely, so check where answers actually end up before investing time
• Help a B2B Writer: niche but efficient if you sell to other businesses, since requests come mainly from B2B content writers
• UK-specific routes: the #JournoRequest hashtag on X remains busy with British journalists, and alert services exist that monitor it for keywords so you do not have to

Start with two platforms at most. Spreading across all of them multiplies scanning time faster than it multiplies links.

Writing the response that gets picked

Journalists sifting fifty replies pick the ones they can paste straight into an article. That means your response should read like a finished quote, not a cover letter.

• Open with your credential in one line: name, role, company, and why you are qualified on this exact topic
• Answer the actual question in two to four quotable sentences, written in the first person
• Add one specific example, number from your own experience, or counterintuitive point; that detail is usually what gets you chosen
• Skip the sales pitch entirely; any mention of your services gets edited out or gets you binned
• Close with a headshot link, your preferred attribution, and your website URL

Speed matters almost as much as quality. Requests often close within hours, so a reply sent the same morning beats a polished one sent tomorrow.

The honest time-budget arithmetic

Run the numbers before committing, because this tactic is paid for in founder hours. Suppose you spend fifteen minutes each weekday scanning digests and write three tailored responses a week at twenty minutes each. That is roughly two and a quarter hours weekly, or around ten hours a month.

Hit rates vary enormously with how well you match requests to genuine expertise, but if one response in six lands, that is about two placements a month for ten hours of work. Compare that with what an agency would charge per earned link and the exchange looks reasonable, provided the placements are on real publications. The moment you find yourself answering questions outside your expertise just to keep volume up, the arithmetic collapses: hit rates fall and the time cost per link balloons.

Red flags and time sinks to avoid

HARO's closure created space for less scrupulous operators, and you should assume some requests are not what they appear.

• "Journalists" who reply asking for payment to publish: that is advertising, not PR, and the links usually violate Google's spam policies
• Content farms harvesting expert quotes for thin, AI-padded articles on domains with no real readership
• Round-up sites that quote twenty experts and link to none of them, or link with nofollow only
• Requests with no named outlet; a legitimate journalist will usually say where the piece will run

Before writing a word, spend one minute checking the outlet: does it have real articles, named staff and an audience? A nofollow mention on a respected publication still carries brand value; a followed link on a zero-traffic blog carries none.

Making it a sustainable weekly routine

The founders who get consistent results treat this as a fixed calendar slot, not an ad-hoc scramble. Set keyword alerts where platforms allow them, block twenty minutes each morning, and keep a document of your credentials paragraph, headshot link and three reusable positioning lines so each response starts half-written.

Keep a simple log of responses sent, placements won and the domains involved, and review it quarterly. If a platform has produced nothing in three months, drop it and reallocate the time. Expert commentary works best as one steady strand of a wider link and PR strategy, and if you want help building that around your business, our team at Thind Global Services can help.