Aly's Newsletter: Story opps, productivity tips, and how to get free subscription upgrade for you and a friend...

Working on all sorts of stories this week, from July 4th to travel and cooking!

Jun 21, 2022

Good morning!

There's nothing quite like the state of one's inbox on a Tuesday morning after a long weekend...(Especially when that long weekend directly followed them being away from their desk for two days playing cocktail creatrix.)

My go-to survival hack for those frenzied starts to the work week is to heavily use Gmail’s schedule email function on weekends. I, like most of us, usually spend a lot of time catching up on emails on the weekend. But I also know that's not the ideal time to send (or receive) an email. So, I schedule bunches of what I draft to arrive at 9:02 am on the next workday morning.

That means a whole lot of emails from me are going out into the world at the same time. It also means a whole lot is being responded to all at once this morning.

Egads. It's indeed a perfect storm!

While we're on the subject, writing a bunch of email responses to send later comes in handy in another way -- while in flight! For years now, even before inflight wifi was a thing, I had a policy of using flights to open and answer hundreds of emails in my backlog and then...whoosh...send them all when I land. (It really does make a whoosh sound...). It helps to pass the time, and also makes me feel productive during what could have been a completely lost day or evening of work. I highly recommend giving it a try, and the best part is - it's a way to work and get stuff done without spending money on wifi!

Also speaking of getting more done and making the most of your time, this weekend's industry insights edition of my newsletter focused on getting the most out of HARO. You can still check it out here.

Aside from that small productivity tip, I want to give SO MUCH THANKS to all the incredible messages of congratulations I got this weekend about The Dirty Aly. Every single note and good wish was incredibly appreciated and I'm just so grateful to have so many good friends out there who care about me and support me during these wild times. It was also so incredible to see NYC (and our industry, since this is the first in-person event I’ve myself hosted since before-times) feeling vibrant and alive, with a backdrop of the gorgeous skyline, live jazz music, and beautiful cocktails. It really was a special night.

Speaking of, I made a short reel of Thursday’s night’s launch party fun, if anyone wants to see! Special thanks to my dear friend Cessie, who took video of me behind the bar mixing cocktails and shared it with me after.

It’s the first reel I’ve ever made so please be gentle…

alywalansky

A post shared by alywalansky (@alywalansky)

Going to segue into pending stories right now, because there's TONS....

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Newly published or freshly updated stories

If you or your client are featured in any of these stories, I super appreciate any social media shares tagging @alywalansky and the outlet.

Here's what I'm working on:

Be sure to read the below list carefully. Many are stories I posted about yesterday, but some of yesterday's stories are no longer listed and a few new ones have been added since yesterday. This (below) is everything that is still a currently open opportunity as of today.

Forbes.com

There's a Sriracha shortage coming. If you are a fan of keeping things hot, what are some other great products to try? (Personally, I always have Sambal, Gochujang, and Chili Oil in my arsenal) Would love pitches and links to where they are sold. Also, if someone wants to try to make their own Sriracha at home (or a close substitute, tastewise), how could they do that? Would love a chef to weigh in on this one with an easy step by step. Thanks!

HerMoney

How to save money and get a better deal when booking/planning a cruise. I'd love travel experts and personal finance experts to weigh in on this one.
Are meal kits a good value? How to get the most value out of your meal kit. I love them so much, and I think they can be amazing for people who live alone and aren't super comfortable being creative in the kitchen or tend to overbuy ingredients and end up with a lot of waste (I'm looking at you...produce!). These kits were so popular during the pandemic, but are they still? How to know if you are getting a good deal...(also, are some better than others? What to look out for. I absolutely know I've personally had a range of experiences.) Would love experts to weigh in on this one.
10 surprisingly affordable last-minute vacation deals/destinations for your summer vacation. For each one, I want to mention a hotel in each that is a good find and/or a few restaurants that are known to be great but aren't pricey, too.

RetailMeNot

Fourth of July Store Hours + Stores Open Fourth of July (similar to the Easter and Memorial Day store hours roundup I did for this same outlet). This is for major retailers, look at my versions for other holidays for an idea of what I'm looking for.
I'm also working on - Fourth of July Sales: The Best of the Best - it's an update of last year's story, but in a format more like this like this. Basically, I'm just going to be featuring the retailer and then a blurb about what kind of sale they're doing for Fourth of July. So, instead of being product specific, it'll be more "store specific" so, i'm looking for store-wide sales with promo codes (or department-wide discounts). Looking to include major retailers such as the following, so if you rep any of them, please do reach out! ie: Kohl's, Macy's, Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, Home Depot, Lowe's, Old Navy, Gap, Casper, Mattress Firm, Ashley HomeStore, Target, Walmart.
I’m also writing a roundup of senior discounts. I am updating this article, so if your client is listed among the existing deals, I’d love if you can confirm for me whether it has changed or not. But I’m very open to new deals too!
Finally, I’m working on a story on best reusable cups freebies and discounts - establishments that give some kind of BYO cup discount. These types of discounts fell by the wayside for COVID, but have since started coming back.

TODAY

I’m done with dads and grads, but I’m now putting out feelers for restaurant chains doing 4th of July freebies/deals/discounts. If you have anything that may be a fit, please send me info on the deal (what you get, when you get it, how you claim it), asap. Thanks :)

Virtual consulting sessions...

I've been popping into a lot of PR team virtual meetings and making myself available to answer all sorts of questions about pitching, events, and trips from a media perspective. If you are interested in setting anything up for your own team in the coming months, please email me and we'll get something on the books! This is available for entire agencies or smaller group lunch and learn type concepts. If you are a freelance publicist and want to join in with a few other freelance publicist friends and set something up, we can do that as well!

On the fence over whether this is a good fit for your team? Here’s some feedback I received from people who I have worked with recently:

"Aly’s advice and insight is invaluable to our team, not only is she incredibly knowledgeable, she is approachable, generous, and kind too. While we read every one of her newsletters, we decided to go one step further and invited Aly to host a Q&A with our agency. During the session, we felt comfortable asking her everything and anything. She went above and beyond, providing examples and reasoning for each answer, and the team walked away with an abundance of new insight, tips, and tricks, plus a new confidence in handling some of the most crucial parts of our jobs." Sacha Bell, Rachel Harrison Communications
"Looking for a brilliant writer that always goes above and beyond? Look no further than Aly! She is an incredible teacher, tells it exactly how it is and is so generous in sharing her knowledge. She knows what she wants from publicists, is very clear on her needs and expectations, and how to best support one another. Most of all, her kind personality jumps off the page, and her giggle and smile are infectious. In this consistently changing world of media, it’s so refreshing to know someone so genuine.” Kirsten Wanket
“Aly has very kindly agreed to join a few sessions for us talking to both smaller and larger internal groups, and it has been incredibly helpful for our team to understand more about her process, and garner best practices that we leverage as we work on various programs. From sharing dos and don’ts for virtual and in-person events to pitching tips, Aly is a pro and always so thoughtful in her responses. And her own first-hand knowledge has helped us all to better understand the work process for freelancers and how we can most effectively work with other freelancers like Aly. We always appreciate her time and insights!” Erin Delahanty, Edelman
“I would highly recommend booking a virtual consulting session with Aly for an agency of any size! She offers up to date perspective on everything from the affiliates to how to get your pitches read to timing your pitching correctly. These virtual consulting sessions literally save you time trying to figure out what the media is looking for and give your team an immediate edge. Aly took her time and answered questions from the team. She is super friendly and you can tell she genuinely wants to create a win-win relationship between the media and publicists. Our team loved having Aly on and we cannot wait to have her back! It was a blast!” Leah Cybulski, ChicExecs
“Aly was able to join our agency for a PR Perspectives chat and not only was it so much fun, but it was so informative! Keeping a pulse on the constantly changing media landscape is so important and we loved the insights and expertise Aly was able to share with us. Highly recommend setting up a chat with her!” Jennifer Haile, Dentsu Creative PR
“I am always looking for ways to share new ideas and learning opportunities with our team to improve how we pitch and offer value to journalists and in turn their audience. Aly's no nonsense approach gave us accessible advice about the best way to communicate to media, what formats works best, and basically how we can share our client news in a way that will get us noticed and included in stories. Would do again in a heartbeat!” Samantha Davidson, Say My Name Communications
“For my team’s first hybrid media event for a product launch in the COVID era, Aly quickly jumped on a Zoom and dropped great insights that drove many of the event elements. The direction she provided helped us increase attendance and gave her journalist colleagues a more memorable experience. It was a bonus that she was so easy and fun to talk to.” Apryl Ash, Approach Marketing

Now, it’s your turn! Email me at alywalansky@gmail.com to get something on my schedule for this summer.

Are you confused about affiliate marketing?

If you are having trouble learning how to navigate issues of affiliate marketing (trust me, we've all been there!), you may want to try out my friend Sarah Karger, a publicist, and former editor Dana Baardsen (and all-around fab girl!)'s Ultimate Masterclass and Introduction to Affiliate Marketing for Publicists. It's a brilliant course and it'll answer all your questions (including some you didn't know you had!)

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