Aly's Newsletter: Hump Day Edition

Congrats! This epically long week is half over.

Hi, friends!

How’s everyone doing this week? I feel like things have been so busy, one day is just blurring into the next…

But, we’ve made it to Wednesday!

I want to take just a really quick moment to chat about following directions and paying attention. I try to be super specific about what I need, and there’s a reason for all of it. But there’s certain things that happen time and again, which makes me think people are not reading to the end of my instructions…or just ignoring those instructions because they are doing what feels easier for them regardless of what I said. This is not helpful to either of us.

1 - Please start a new thread when you respond to these queries. I get tons of responses every day that are just hitting reply on the newsletter. Doing that makes it impossible to organize and categorize your pitches. And makes it really easy to be buried in the onslaught of emails (and you can’t even begin to guess how many emails I get in the average day).

2 - I always ask everyone to avoid pitches via DM (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) or via text. And people keep on doing this anyway. People also have been using DM to follow-up with me. Sometimes, even, they will preamble with “I know you do not want DMs, but…” — I get it. It’s an attempt to skip the line and get a quicker, more direct access. I appreciate your hustle. Please stop doing it. It happens at all hours of the day every day and it’s a lot.

3 - And, no, I cannot add your donut deal/corkscrew/sleep expert to my already published story. Just like a restaurant can’t add cheese to your burger after you’ve already eaten it. I WILL let you know when a story is being updated and open the door to pitches in that case. But, no, if I did a roundup of Veterans Day deals and gave a solid two weeks to send in pitches and you missed the window, I can’t just add it in once the story is published because that’s when you took notice. It’s not even an OPTION, if I wanted to. I am not the boss of me! So, if you want your client/product/deal included in a story? Pay attention to the calls for pitches and get me what I need in the format I need by my deadline. It’s that simple.

OK, whew. Soap box over. Adore and appreciate you guys. I really do. Lets help each other!

Here's what I'm working on right now:

1 - For SPY.com, I'm rounding up Hanukkah gift ideas (this story will wrap up by this evening.)

2 - For SPY.com I'm also constantly updating Black Friday deals at Walmart over the next week (as in, updating daily) - so if you have a product that will have a BF/CM deal either pre-BF/CM (deals for days!) or day-of...please let me know all the deets.

3 - For YourTango, I'm rounding up subscription gift ideas. This could be subscription based boxes or any sort of subscription.

4. For RetailMeNot, believe it or not...I'm beginning work  on Valentine's Day. I'm working on the following two stories:

-- fab Galentine's day gift ideas for your besties --  a roundup of affordable gift options. What "affordable" is lies in the shopper's budget, of course, but I want to try to steer clear of anything exorbitant and steer toward major retailers known for affordability.

--- Valentine's Day gift ideas for your pets -  a roundup of affordable gift options. I want to steer clear of things that owners like more than pets do (like costumes) and focus on things pets will LOVE.

(For both the V-Day stories, I have a bit of time to play with, and will be accepting pitches through December 1.)

5. For Forbes, mail-order dinners will be wrapped up by tomorrow AM, so any last minute pitches, please send today!

For ALL of these, please start a new email thread, and email alywalansky@gmail.com. Yes, I know that it's annoying that I keep saying this...but people ignore my instructions every single day (which, to be fair, is annoying too) so I'm going to keep trying anyway...

Here's what has published since yesterday:

Food Network

Starbucks Brings Back Its Reusable Red Cups

Goalcast

Lifeguards Personally Carry 95-Year-Old Woman To Make Sure She Can Enjoy The Water

Her Money

How To Make The Most Of Your Holiday Leftovers

SPY.com

Best Amazon Black Friday deals

Best Black Friday mattress deals 

The best self-defense key chains

have a great day!

<3

aly