While running the Geek Factory, Inc., Peter wanted to find a way to connect journalists with sources outside of his client roster. He picked Facebook as his initial platform and created a group called “Help a Reporter Out” where he would send out requests he received from journalists for sources about a variety of topics. This wasn’t anything new because there were a few services out there that did it. The difference was that he was doing it for no charge. Knowing what could happen if he built up the platform, he wanted to build a wild community of fans and subscribers. It soon outgrew the Facebook group setting and he turned it into a newsletter style at www.helpareporter.com. Three times a day (morning, afternoon, and evening) he sends out a listing of journalist requests for experts in every topic in the world, it seems.

With more than 100,000 sources subscribed (including myself), Peter has built a huge supportive list. He protects the integrity of the list like a rabid wolf, letting it be known that if anyone misuses the requests for information by spamming reporters, he will not only remove them, he will out them to the list. I remember the first time I read this, I actually said, “Yeah!” When was the last time something you wrote in your newsletter made a reader yell “Yeah!”?³⁸

Such a strong list, with rumors that it gets a 90 percent open rate, is in another stratosphere than most newsletter publishers will never achieve. Peter sells one ad per edition, but the key here is that the ads are written by him, with his comments. It almost makes them feel like they aren’t an ad. They make me smile or, at the very least, curious, so I want to learn more about the product or service and I click to take a look. At just more than $1,000 per ad cost, three issues a day, he pulls in more than a million dollars a year from these alone, with placements being sold out months in advance. Not bad for starting a Facebook group.

Peter proves two things: he builds a list of rabid fans and he engages with them (he is active with them on Twitter, Facebook, and answers e-mail). He inserts personality into what he does, so it’s worth its weight in gold.