findasource.org connects journalists and reporters to sources for free
May 22, 2009 8:12 AM Subscribe
findasource.org connects journalists and reporters to sources for free
findasource.org matches sources with journalists and reporters who need help or expert opinions on what they are writing about. we were fed up with similar paid services, so we decided to pull our resources together and create a free professional sourcing community. when a reporter needs a source, he or she will fill out the request form and submit it. after we approve the request, it will immediately be emailed to our source list. its that simple.
Please let me know your thoughts on design, usability, bugs.
What I am really trying to do is get good ideas for marketing it and driving users to the site (both journalists/reporters and expert sources)?
Thanks
findasource.org matches sources with journalists and reporters who need help or expert opinions on what they are writing about. we were fed up with similar paid services, so we decided to pull our resources together and create a free professional sourcing community. when a reporter needs a source, he or she will fill out the request form and submit it. after we approve the request, it will immediately be emailed to our source list. its that simple.
Please let me know your thoughts on design, usability, bugs.
What I am really trying to do is get good ideas for marketing it and driving users to the site (both journalists/reporters and expert sources)?
Thanks
So if I'm reading this right, any request goes to the entire mailing list? Once the site gets some traction, that's not going to be any fun for the experts on linguistics in Chicago whose inboxes are full of requests for geneticists in Tokyo.
I'd sign up for this if sources had to tag themselves by location and specialism. That way journalist requests would only be sent to a small pool of relevant people.
posted by the latin mouse at 12:36 AM on May 27, 2009
I'd sign up for this if sources had to tag themselves by location and specialism. That way journalist requests would only be sent to a small pool of relevant people.
posted by the latin mouse at 12:36 AM on May 27, 2009
@the_latin_mouse: I have that as a suggestion on my feedback on uservoice. Please see my response here and let me explain it a little more:
Any request will not be emailed automatically, I will first screen it. Only then will I send it out to all sources who have to determine if they can provide relevant information for the journalist. But its easy to organize through the use of email filters as described below (I want to definitely create a page on how to create filters for findasource and use the system effectively)
I currently subscribe to a service called HARO that is setup very similarly to findasource. It has gained a lot of attention and has proven widely successful for people in their network (over 40k sources and about 60 requests/day from journalists and reporters)...
and yes "experts on linguistics in Chicago whose inboxes are full of requests for geneticists in Tokyo" would happen and its the responsibility of the source list to filter out those that are the most relevant. And this is very easy to do. All you have to do is create a filter that puts all emails from findasource into a email folder. Once the source is 'full of requests', that linguistic expert can do a search for things like language, semantics, grammar, sytax, etc on their folder. Thats what everyone does on HARO and it works beautifully.
Your comments and suggestions are great. Thanks for the feedback. I will definitely be adding a page like 'How to use findasource effectively through the use of filters'
You can also use the official site's feedback system through uservoice, available here.
posted by schindyguy at 10:02 AM on May 27, 2009
Any request will not be emailed automatically, I will first screen it. Only then will I send it out to all sources who have to determine if they can provide relevant information for the journalist. But its easy to organize through the use of email filters as described below (I want to definitely create a page on how to create filters for findasource and use the system effectively)
I currently subscribe to a service called HARO that is setup very similarly to findasource. It has gained a lot of attention and has proven widely successful for people in their network (over 40k sources and about 60 requests/day from journalists and reporters)...
and yes "experts on linguistics in Chicago whose inboxes are full of requests for geneticists in Tokyo" would happen and its the responsibility of the source list to filter out those that are the most relevant. And this is very easy to do. All you have to do is create a filter that puts all emails from findasource into a email folder. Once the source is 'full of requests', that linguistic expert can do a search for things like language, semantics, grammar, sytax, etc on their folder. Thats what everyone does on HARO and it works beautifully.
Your comments and suggestions are great. Thanks for the feedback. I will definitely be adding a page like 'How to use findasource effectively through the use of filters'
You can also use the official site's feedback system through uservoice, available here.
posted by schindyguy at 10:02 AM on May 27, 2009
@bru: I know we already talked, but I wanted to respond on this project page as well...
2 - Who are you? I personally don't want to know but you absolutely need to have an "about" page that details what is your org., who are the principals, what have you done before, what is the background of your associates, how we can have a good approximation of your honesty and trustworthiness. This whole process revolves around trust and all you present is a process.
I am a non-biased, neutral entrepreneur who will be happy if people use the system effectively. I dont have a PR or advertising firm, but I have a promise that I will never filter out a media request like Shankman does on his service HARO. Please read here for more. The fact that I am neutral and not biased is my strongest selling point for this.
3 - Design: come on, do your homework first: every hot-link should be colored or highlighted; the blog title should be clickable to go back to the front page; and how can you think that journalists will trust you when you aren't able to put a cap at the beginning of each sentence?
You are 100% correct. After creating the site in 1 day, I forgot to use the correct css on the sidebar and make the header clicakble. non-caps are the style I was trying to go for, but I definitely appreciate your feedback on the typeface of the site.
4 - Overall, you have a great idea but you don't seem to have a professional approach to your design or to your users. You need to work with real journalists first, ask them questions and maybe take a few on board.
Thanks, I will look into this.
5 - Good luck.
posted by schindyguy at 10:10 AM on May 27, 2009
2 - Who are you? I personally don't want to know but you absolutely need to have an "about" page that details what is your org., who are the principals, what have you done before, what is the background of your associates, how we can have a good approximation of your honesty and trustworthiness. This whole process revolves around trust and all you present is a process.
I am a non-biased, neutral entrepreneur who will be happy if people use the system effectively. I dont have a PR or advertising firm, but I have a promise that I will never filter out a media request like Shankman does on his service HARO. Please read here for more. The fact that I am neutral and not biased is my strongest selling point for this.
3 - Design: come on, do your homework first: every hot-link should be colored or highlighted; the blog title should be clickable to go back to the front page; and how can you think that journalists will trust you when you aren't able to put a cap at the beginning of each sentence?
You are 100% correct. After creating the site in 1 day, I forgot to use the correct css on the sidebar and make the header clicakble. non-caps are the style I was trying to go for, but I definitely appreciate your feedback on the typeface of the site.
4 - Overall, you have a great idea but you don't seem to have a professional approach to your design or to your users. You need to work with real journalists first, ask them questions and maybe take a few on board.
Thanks, I will look into this.
5 - Good luck.
posted by schindyguy at 10:10 AM on May 27, 2009
@jbickers, yes I am quite aware of them and Peter Shankman. But thanks for the SWOT analysis :)
The problem with Peter's HARO is what I talk about above and on the homepage of findasource: By his own admission, he filters the best media requests for his own clients...talk about a bias. You can read more about it here and here
Basically I not some PR guy nor someone who has any reason to filter out good media requests. He does.
posted by schindyguy at 5:20 PM on May 27, 2009
The problem with Peter's HARO is what I talk about above and on the homepage of findasource: By his own admission, he filters the best media requests for his own clients...talk about a bias. You can read more about it here and here
Basically I not some PR guy nor someone who has any reason to filter out good media requests. He does.
posted by schindyguy at 5:20 PM on May 27, 2009
All you have to do is create a filter that puts all emails from findasource into a email folder. Once the source is 'full of requests', that linguistic expert can do a search for things like language, semantics, grammar, syntax, etc on their folder. Thats what everyone does on HARO and it works beautifully.
My experiences with high volume mailing lists where I have to search the filter for relevant posts are that I'll go through it maybe once a month*. My experiences with being a source for newspapers are that they want the content very quickly.
(What usually happens is a journalist will write something touching on women's issues, do a Google search for local feminists, then send me an email summarising the story and giving me a couple of hours in which to condense all my outrage at Nick Eriksen or whoever into a pithy quote they can use in the article.)
I don't doubt that the HARO system works for a lot of people, but there's an additional untapped demographic here of us rent-a-quote types with a fast turnaround time. You could draw these additional sources to your site if you had tagging.
* Sometimes less. Apparently I have one hundred and seventeen thousand unread messages from Freecycle sitting in a Gmail filter. I don't know whether to be impressed or horrified.
posted by the latin mouse at 6:30 PM on May 27, 2009 [1 favorite]
My experiences with high volume mailing lists where I have to search the filter for relevant posts are that I'll go through it maybe once a month*. My experiences with being a source for newspapers are that they want the content very quickly.
(What usually happens is a journalist will write something touching on women's issues, do a Google search for local feminists, then send me an email summarising the story and giving me a couple of hours in which to condense all my outrage at Nick Eriksen or whoever into a pithy quote they can use in the article.)
I don't doubt that the HARO system works for a lot of people, but there's an additional untapped demographic here of us rent-a-quote types with a fast turnaround time. You could draw these additional sources to your site if you had tagging.
* Sometimes less. Apparently I have one hundred and seventeen thousand unread messages from Freecycle sitting in a Gmail filter. I don't know whether to be impressed or horrified.
posted by the latin mouse at 6:30 PM on May 27, 2009 [1 favorite]
but there's an additional untapped demographic here of us rent-a-quote types with a fast turnaround time. You could draw these additional sources to your site if you had tagging.
great suggestion! thanks so much... but I have to respectfully disagree with
I don't doubt that the HARO system works for a lot of people
Its a very successful sourcing system. Many journalists and sources use it on a daily basis. Its grown so popular that he sends out 3 emails a day with about 20 requests per email. And the beauty of both HARO and findasource is that if you don't like it or it becomes too much or isnt useful to you, you can opt-out...
posted by schindyguy at 10:57 PM on May 27, 2009
great suggestion! thanks so much... but I have to respectfully disagree with
I don't doubt that the HARO system works for a lot of people
Its a very successful sourcing system. Many journalists and sources use it on a daily basis. Its grown so popular that he sends out 3 emails a day with about 20 requests per email. And the beauty of both HARO and findasource is that if you don't like it or it becomes too much or isnt useful to you, you can opt-out...
posted by schindyguy at 10:57 PM on May 27, 2009
findasource.org is DEAD
It now forwards to Peter Shankman's HARO
posted by schindyguy at 6:24 PM on July 9, 2009
It now forwards to Peter Shankman's HARO
posted by schindyguy at 6:24 PM on July 9, 2009
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1 - Great idea. Very timely.
2 - Who are you? I personally don't want to know but you absolutely need to have an "about" page that details what is your org., who are the principals, what have you done before, what is the background of your associates, how we can have a good approximation of your honesty and trustworthiness. This whole process revolves around trust and all you present is a process.
3 - Design: come on, do your homework first: every hot-link should be colored or highlighted; the blog title should be clickable to go back to the front page; and how can you think that journalists will trust you when you aren't able to put a cap at the beginning of each sentence?
4 - Overall, you have a great idea but you don't seem to have a professional approach to your design or to your users. You need to work with real journalists first, ask them questions and maybe take a few on board.
5 - Good luck.
posted by bru at 5:54 AM on May 24, 2009