Backlinks stay important for natural search visibility, but link-building alternatives are more and more uncommon. Most ways are both dangerous or ineffective. People who work properly — digital public relations, direct outreach — are sometimes too costly or time-consuming for small and medium-sized companies.
However one link-building methodology is each cheap and efficient: being quoted in on-line publications as an knowledgeable. This methodology produces backlinks and builds topical authority.
The tactic is “entity-driven” as a result of it helps the quoted knowledgeable turn into an “entity,” i.e., a model. Historically, the tactic concerned laborious handbook outreach to editors and writers providing experience for articles.
There at the moment are platforms to simplify the method. All join publications with specialists. None promote paid hyperlinks or placements so far as I do know.
Listed below are three choices.
Featured
Featured is a freemium platform itemizing requests from publications in search of experience. Any account holder can submit quotes in response. Account holders may be both publications or people, permitting them to request and submit quotes from a single account.
To be cited and linked:
- Submit your knowledgeable quotes to the requests.
- Counsel related questions based mostly in your experience, helping publications with concepts.
- Reply to publications in search of writers.
- Create a profile to draw publications searching for interviews.
When submitting a quote, present your attribution to assist guarantee a correct quotation.
Account holders can submit as much as three quotes totally free every month. Premium packages begin at $19 monthly for 10 quotes.
Featured just lately acquired HARO (Assist A Reporter Out), a longtime and strong database of publications and reporters in search of specialists.

Featured permits account holders to finish a profile and submit three responses monthly totally free. Click on picture to enlarge.
Supply of Sources
HARO’s founder has launched Supply of Sources to attach journalists with specialists. It’s a e-newsletter itemizing categorized requests for quotes. The format is straightforward to scan and click on requests to find out the subject and wish.
Supply of Sources is free, nevertheless it requires handbook monitoring of requests. There is no such thing as a dashboard to trace submitted quotes, statuses, and deadlines.

Sources of Sources is a e-newsletter itemizing categorized requests from journalists for quotes. Click on picture to enlarge.
Journo.com
Journo.com is a freemium platform connecting reporters with knowledgeable sources. Reporters can submit quote requests with out creating an account.
Consultants require an account, which is free for 20 month-to-month responses and a dashboard to submit and monitor these responses. Paid plans begin at $99 monthly for 100 responses and 200 Information Searches — a device to seek out related shops for PR campaigns.