RISE Episode #155

From Facebook Group To Million-Dollar-Plus Company: How Peter Shankman Built HARO


Click Here If You Prefer Audio Only

Peter ShankmanThis is it for 2010! Lucky episode #155 and the final episode of 2010. And you know darn well that the year should be ended in style. And that is why I’m SUPER excited to bring you today’s episode with the Founder of Help A Reporter Out, aka HARO, Peter Shankman. Peter is a good friend of mine and an amazing entrepreneur with an incredible story that I’m excited to share with you.

A couple funny things about this interview:

#1: Peter was the FIRST person I tried to interview on Skype before the technology was “great” over a year ago. I was super excited. We taped it…and then realized we only taped him and not me. So thank you world for evolving in technology so it didn’t happen again.

#2: Peter is one of the first marketing stories in my book, Smarter, Faster, Cheaper. I realized “whoops I forgot to get him on the show to tell the story”, panicked, emailed him, and now he is on. Hah!

Back to the task at hand. HARO is an incredible story. It went from 0 – $1,000,000+ in revenue in a hurry and recently sold (although Peter remains heavily involved). In this behind-the-scenes interview, Peter dishes on everything, including:

  • How HARO got started and evolved.
  • How Peter formed great relationships with journalists.
  • Why it is much more than “overnight success”.
  • Keys to marketing and promoting HARO.
  • How HARO generates revenue and how Peter landed the first sponsor (and how he priced it).
  • Nice guy syndrome: How Peter avoids being taken advantage of by being so nice, outgoing, and accessible.
  • Why Peter sold HARO recently (interesting story here).
  • …and much more.

Enjoy! And as usual, feel free to chime in with your thoughts, comments, questions, and more.

Connect With Peter (and tell him you saw him on RISE!):

On His Blog
On Twitter (Peter is a beast on Twitter…and super funny.)
Sign Up for HARO

This Episode Is Ever-So-Proudly Sponsored By:

Jeff MichelmanJeff Michelman: *A special ONLY FOR THE RISE COMMUNITY* – Jeff has generously offered a free legal consultation to RISE viewers. It is like getting some free time with a Rolls-Royce (or other exotic, valuable car…umm, you know what I mean). Trust me, some lawyers are scary, and Jeff is not. He is one of the good guys (and also an author, entrepreneur, and my personal attorney). Reach out to him via email, or at 314-244-3669, and make sure to mention RISE.

On The Run MobilOn The Run Mobil: Head over to On The Run’s website to sign up for the home team and get special deals on things like food and gas right to your email. It has been proven that buying gas at On The Run Mobil is 10,000% more fun because they sponsor RISE.

FeedblitzFeedblitz: I use Feedblitz for email marketing and I love it. Why? Because it is all automated. Our subscribers receive shows and updates when, where, and how they want to receive it. And you don’t even need to click the send button. Feedblitz does it for you. You can try a 60-day FREE TRIAL on us.

Interested in sponsoring an episode (or twenty?) in 2011?

Plugging your biz, website, book, whatever to our 100,000+ RISE community? We have pretty much the best deal ever for you (and fun)…reach out right here and we shall chat.

Did you hear? My book Smarter, Faster, Cheaper officially launched!

If you are a hustling entrepreneur looking for ideas on how to market and promote your business, I think you will love it.

Have You Seen These Episodes?

Reminders & News:

There are new episodes of RISE every Tuesday and Thursday (Monday, Wednesday, and Friday feature articles, blog posts, and other videos) featuring unique entrepreneurs, thought leaders, and other interesting folks here to help you build your business. You can hear about them first and have them directly delivered to you in a few different ways:

Email:

RSS: You can subscribe via RSS right here.

iTunes: You can get RISE episodes right to your iTunes, iPhone, iPad, etc. Here’s video, and here’s audio only.

RISE is mobile friendly (sweet!) and can also be viewed right from the site on your mobile phone or iPad.

Connect With David & Hop Into The Conversation:

On Twitter

On Facebook

Book Update: It’s here! Smarter, Faster, Cheaper: Non-Boring, Fluff-free Strategies for Marketing and Promoting Your Business is officially on sale! You can grab a copy on Amazon or at your local bookstore.

Comments