Thursday: A Spin on 'Ask Me Anything'...and more!

Plus: Featured ad space is now available. Also: A job lead + A 20% discounts on my virtual consulting/lunch & learn sessions!

Good morning!

First of all, a sincere apology for not having as many newsletters out as usual this week. As everyone knows, my world has been in a bit of flux and I’m not entirely on my game - I do want to to try to make it up to you though!

I’m going to host an impromptu AMA - but not a Zoom one, this time. Send me any question - email is fine, in the comments below is fine, about anything to do with events, pitching, trips, followups, mailers…what have you. I’ll gather them all and answer them in an upcoming newsletter. (I can give you credit for the question - or I can keep it anon. Your choice!).

Some good news (lord knows we all need some of that right now!): The new season of Bridgerton is out as of today!

If you are planning a binge this weekend, check out my new Forbes.com piece: Celebrate Season 3 Of ‘Bridgerton’ With Regency-Inspired Cocktails (it’s this week, thank goodness!). Also new for Forbes.com: Martha Stewart And Breads Bakery Collaborate On Martha’s Good Thing Babka — as a Martha fan who is also a Breads fan, this is very exciting as well.

Grab the Dads and Grads Gift Guide Pitching Webinar Recording Now!

Thanks to all who attended our Dads and Grads Gift Guide Pitching Workshop last week. We had a full house and an hour packed with really great questions and conversation — and now the full recording is available to any subscriber who may have missed it (or wants to go back and give another listen.) You can check out how to grab that recording and what we covered right here.

Featured ads are now available!

This newsletter goes out to well over 8,000 engaged publicists, business owners, and journalists each and every day. If you are looking to sponsor a daily installment of this newsletter or place an ad (assuming it’s an organic fit for the interests of my audience!), that is now available. Email me at alywalansky@gmail.com to discuss.

The steepest discount I’ve ever offered on consulting sessions

In exciting news, I’m doing something I’ve never done before: I’m currently offering 20% discounts on my virtual consulting/lunch & learn sessions. Times are really tough and I am hoping to make these insights as accessible as possible to any of you who are interested. If you want to schedule a session for yourself or your team, to discuss anything from pitching to followups to events or press trips or anything else…drop me an email at alywalansky@gmail.com and lets chat!

Job Lead

Quinn PR is seeking: Account Supervisor - LA

Newly published or freshly updated

Since people are often asking about the status of stories from a while ago, and I only share stories in this newsletter that were published or updated in the current week, I have created a list of my author pages at various publications to which I contribute. Bookmark it and make your life a bit easier.

This list will live on my Substack URL and be updated as necessary. That way, you can see what I’m doing at any publication, at any time, from types of stories to general structure of stories to even volume and frequency of my content at that outlet.

This can also help you to target pitching a bit better. That makes your job easier, and mine too!

• Forbes.com: Celebrate Season 3 Of ‘Bridgerton’ With Regency-Inspired Cocktails

• Forbes.com: Martha Stewart And Breads Bakery Collaborate On Martha’s Good Thing Babka

• FoodNetwork.com: It Was Only a Matter of Time Before Velveeta Started Making Its Own Queso

• Southern Living: What Is An English Cucumber?

• Best Life: 11 Essential Kitchen Items to Always Have for Entertaining

• Clean Plates, 11 Mediterranean Diet Foods You Can Get at Trader Joe’s

• RetailMeNot: How Using My Air Fryer Makes Cooking on a Small Budget (and In a Small Space) Possible

• Southern Living: How To Preheat An Air Fryer

• RetailMeNot: How to Save on Food Delivery Apps: 10 Tips That Actually Work

• Today.com: These affordable drugstore wrinkle creams are recommended by derms and makeup artists

• Southern Living: My Recipe for Air Fryer Green Beans (these are so good!)

• Clean Plates: The Healthiest Tomato Sauces You Can Buy at the Grocery Store

• RetailMeNot: How Growing My Own Herbs At Home Has Helped Me Keep Meals Creative Without Busting My Budget

• Clean Plates: How to Clean and Organize Your Fridge for Spring

• HerMoney: The Best Timing For Hotel Bookings - How To Save On Your Stay

• RetailMeNot: Savings Star Origin Story: How I Learned to Eat Well (In NY!) On a Shoestring Budget

If you or your client are featured in any of these stories, I super appreciate any social media shares! Please remember to tag @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.

Please remember when pitching me: Email me at alywalansky@gmail.com - do NOT just hit reply on this newsletter, or there’s a good shot your email will be lost in the heap. Give your email a subject line that makes it clear which story you are pitching me for — it’ll help you in the long run.

Please consult my industry insights guides on submitting expert commentary, sending emails that will catch a journalist’s attention, how to craft pitches journalists will say ‘yes’ to, and the right and wrong way to submit photos, if you need any extra guidance before sending your pitches.

Saatva

The Best Nighttime Dental Routine for a Healthy Smile: For Saatva’s blog, I’m doing a story on how your bedtime oral care routine can help ensure your mouth stays as healthy as possible. Would love to chat with a dentist for this one! Please don’t send commentary before emailing me first, I have specific questions I want to address for this one.

Apartment Therapy

The One Thing I Never Remove from My Luggage (It's My Favorite Packing Hack)  - The toiletries bag is the last man standing of packing and unpacking. We may plan for a trip by packing clothes and shoes days in advance, but as we need those toiletry items — those are often packed the final hours before departing. Of course, that last minute scurry and hurry has proven to be a great way of leaving items behind, so I've found a different solution. I keep a dedicated toiletry bag in my luggage at all times. That toiletry bag has everything I need as far as hygiene, skincare, and makeup as I travel — everything from a hair brush to a toothbrush, to moisturizer, cleanser, and all my makeup and styling needs. For this story, I’m going to cover why I keep a stocked toiletry bag in my luggage at all times and only replace things as needed. Would totally be open to a travel expert or flight attendant to quote as far as why this is good for people who travel frequently — and as I’ll be taking some photos of my toiletry bag and its contents in my luggage for this piece, am open to toiletry and toiletry bag related pitches!

We Asked Travel Writers for Their Best Packing Hacks: For this, I’d like to chat with a handful of travel writers to ask for their top packing hacks/tips — how to stay organized when packing for short/long trips.

Clean Plates

I’m working on a story pegged for July 4th/BBQ season, geared toward all my fellow Trader Joe’s lovers out there: Products at Trader Joe's RDs love for summer cookouts …I’m trying to focus on newer products coming out this spring that would be great for summer grilling or a summer cookout - obviously with a component that RDs are a fan, and why. So if you have a RD that will want to comment, please reach out!

RetailMeNot

Budget shopping and cooking/eating smarter: As you all know, I write a lot of content for RMN related to budget shopping and cooking/eating smarter. I’m going to be working on a monthly column on the subject of cooking/eating well on a budget, and I’d love you to pitch me products/ideas to consider for it - maybe a new meal-stretching product that is a good deal at a grocery store, an awesome product to try that may cut my meal prep time in half, other themes as far as saving money on food/cooking/eating and doing it in a way that is smarter.

For my next installment of my saving stars column on RMN, I’m going to focus on a summer-friendly angle of batch-cooking and meal prep — that’d be summer salads! Batch cooking in fall and winter is all about casseroles and roasts, when we get to the summer months, (at least for me!) it's more about salads. I’’m going to talk about how I save money on those crazy pricey create-a-salad options by buying a few staples on the weekend and meal prepping salads for the week..that includes making my own salad dressings or batching up- stuff like grilled chicken or salmon to go on it. It saves money and time on busy days. (Pre-building salads is also good for a grab and go meal if you are planning a summer picnic or road trip or travel day, too!) - I’m trying to work in some product suggestions too, so if you rep anything (ideally available on Amazon) that’s great for salad meal prep - please drop me a note!

Forbes

For Forbes, I’m working on FOUR Father’s Day gift guides. Here’s what I’m working on and how to pitch me. Please pay attention to ALL these details before pitching to save us both time (and if you want some tips on how to best pitch for Father’s Day gift guides, be sure to check out the webinar I linked to above!)

The best gifts for the culinary traveler: He loves to travel, but maybe his wanderlust can't be realized right now. Or at least not realized to his preferred frequency. These are food/spirit gifts that are globally inspired and related to travel.

The best gifts for the dad who thinks he's Bobby Flay: For the guy who doesn't just throw steaks on the grill but gets really into creativity and sourcing ingredients and the latest chefy gadgets, really unique spices/sauces/hot sauces, fun techy kitchen gadgets, celebrity chef cookbooks…

The Best Gifts For The Traditionalist Foodie: Maybe he loves steaks from Texas or bagels and lox from NYC. He appreciates the classics and knows where to find them and how to best enjoy them.

The Best Gifts For the Sandwich Lover: This could be meats, cheeses, sandwich lover cook books, fun breads and spreads…

To pitch for ANY of these gift guides, please include:

• name of product

• a few sentences describing the product so I know if I want to learn more

• a LINK to an image (and any necessary photo credits)

• a link to a major retailer where available (it must be currently in stock and not a presale link or out of stock or discontinued…people need to be able to click and buy it right now.)

Looking forward, my favorite culinary food holiday is soon upon us - that’d be National Martini Day! If you have a fun or unique martini going on, tell me more about it (and i’m of course also open to dishes inspired by martinis for this one!). I need name of drink, where served, a description, a quote about it, and an image of the cocktail. These cocktails MUST exist on a bar or restaurant menu in order to be considered.

It’s also National Burger Month and for Forbes, I’m looking for inventive and creative spins on the burger, available on menus at bars and restaurants. (Same parameters as above, please!)

Looking to up your affiliate marketing game?

Affiliate marketing is complicated, and it seems that the landscape keeps changing. If you are looking to be prepared for gift guide season and all other shopping-related content, you may want to try the 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!)

Virtual (and now in-person!) consulting sessions...

Whether you need a consult as you plan your next event or trip or just want someone to take a look at the pitches you’ve been sending and give some feedback, I’m available for PR team virtual meetings to answer questions about pitching, events, followups, mailers and trips from a media perspective.  Note: I’m also available to travel for consulting sessions as long as travel expenses are covered. We can chat! This is available for entire agencies or smaller group lunch and learn type concepts.

<3

aly