Aly's Tuesday Newsletter: Tons of new story leads, and some more fun updates
Happy Tuesday!
(Or as some of my friends and I know it, This Is Us day...so sad it's leaving us in a few weeks!)
Last night's Ask Aly Anything subscriber Zoom event went GREAT. We had a really good turnout and people asked incredible questions. I am so grateful for the community we have built here, and I'm so excited to plan the next one.
I'm also hoping to do a one-off Zoom in a similar format for ALL subscribers...but I have to figure out a way to temporarily increase the amount of people I can have in a Zoom session. I currently have an account that allows for 100 people in a meeting. I know that Zoom offers a higher subscription level with a large meeting add-on feature where you can have something like 1,000 participants in a Zoom meeting session, but it's STEEPLY priced and I honestly can't afford it (but if anyone already has that type of subscription with them and wants to host this meeting just one time, let me know, and I'm happy to upgrade your team's subscription to this newsletter for free as a thank you!)
Also, to everyone: Let me know if this is even something that interests you! I really only do these chats as a form of added value to the community, so if there’s a way I can improve upon them, or something else I could or should be doing instead (or in addition), let me know.
Newly published:
Clean Plates: The Best Items to Buy from Trader Joe’s for Really Fast, Low-Lift Lunches, According to Nutritionists
Forbes: Mother’s Day Gift Guide: The Best Foodie Gifts For The Mom Who Loves To Travel
Forbes: Mother’s Day Gift Guide: The Best Luxury Kitchen Gifts
The Kitchn: This Recipe for Peanut Butter Chocolate Oat Cups Is No-Bake and Easy to Make
As always, if you or your client are featured in any of these stories, I super appreciate any social shares.
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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.
Clean Plates
I'm looking for organization experts to comment for a story I'm working on: The Best Decluttering Advice from TK Organization Experts. For this, I'm focusing on decluttering the kitchen but really all the rooms in the house are up for organizing (and closets, too). I think the less expected/anticipated the advice is, the better — so if your client wants to say something along the lines of "try buying an organizing tool to keep under the bathroom sink" I'm going to want something a little bit less obvious, but otherwise, everything is fair game!
RetailMeNot
For RetailMeNot, I'm rounding up Father's Day gifts for every type of dad.
I'm looking for great gifts that's affordable ("affordable" obviously varies by budget, but I'm trying to stay under $200 and have a wide range of prices) for a variety of categories. I'm hoping to include picks for the following categories:
Foodie dad
Techy dad
The dad who has everything
For the fashionable dad
For the outdoorsy dad
For the indoorsy dad
For the bookworm dad
For the handy dad
The Dad who's trying to downsize and doesn't want clutter
For the fitness-obsessed dad
For RetailMeNot, I'm also doing Memorial Day store hours for 2022. This is the Memorial Day version of the Easter store hours story I JUST did for them, so take a look at that one for format, but I'll have 3 sections - Stores Open on Memorial Day + Store Hours, Stores Closed on Memorial Day, Restaurants Open on Memorial Day + Hours. This Memorial Day story is an update of this piece from last year. So if you represent a store or restaurant in that story, it'd be so helpful if you can reach out with your Memorial Day info if you have it handy.
Forbes.com
I said it was coming and here it is, I'm working on a bunch of Mother's Day gift guides for Forbes. Here's the topics:
Mother’s Day Gift Guide: The Best Mail-Order Gifts For A Mother’s Day Meal At Home
Mother’s Day Gift Guide: The Best Celebrity Chef Merchandise For Home Cooks
To pitch me for any of these, please be sure to start a new email thread, email alywalansky@gmail.com (NOT my substack) and let me know which one(s) you are pitching for. please be sure to include:
name of product
where solid, link, price
description, and why it's a good fit for this theme
and a LINK to a high res image (dropbox preferred...just please make sure you are SHARING the image and not just cutting and pasting a URL...that will ensure I actually GET it and not ... a dropbox home screen lol.)
Today.com
I'm rounding up restaurant/food chain deals for Cinco De Mayo. I'm ALSO rounding up deals at restaurant/food chains for MOTHER'S DAY.
For either of these, please be sure to send the name of the chain, what the deal is, and how customers can claim it. (Do they need a promo code? A rewards app? A QR code? etc)
To pitch me for ANY of these stories, please email me at alywalansky@gmail.com (and start a new thread, please!).
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aly