Tuesday: A real-life example of why a searchable inbox (and those search-friendly pitches) is everything

PS: Don't miss out: The completely FREE recording of last month's Zoom webinar event covering pitching, trends, and all things holiday gift guide season is now available -- grab the link right here!

Good morning!

We chat often about how pitching me via text or social media will not move the needle, because if your email has to be in my inbox for me to find it when searching for pitches related to a topic.

But the reason for that is that it largely comes down to searchable phrases. Here’s an example that happened just yesterday that had nothing to do with pitching but explains it all in a pretty easy to digest way.

I was voice noting with a close friend, and I mentioned I currently had a white bean chicken chili in my slow cooker. This is one of my go-to staple cold-weather meals, and I’ll make it as soon as the seasons change. I can get like three storage containers worth out of one pot, so I’ll enjoy a delicious dinner and then freeze the rest. Freezer meals are my life blood.

Anyway, my friend thought it sounded delicious and asked for the recipe, but she’s a vegetarian so I promised to modify the recipe for her before sending. But then I remembered that I had actually modified the recipe in exactly the same way for another friend and sent it to them years ago.

So, I searched those key words in my gmail inbox. “white bean chili” and “vegetarian”

Within a second, I found the vegetarian modification recipe email for my white bean chicken chili and forwarded it to my friend, and didn’t have to write out the recipe again.

Anyway.

What does this have to do with pitching? Am I just rambling?

Well, it goes back to why it’s so important to pitch to email. Much like with searching for my recipes and modifications, if I was working on a story on, say, duvets, I’d search for duvets in my inbox. And I’d find it — if your pitch mentioning duvets was in my inbox. If your pitch for duvets also was a really fun color or feature or value, I’d find that too if you mentioned all that.

So, make your pitches as searchable as possible and include all the important information as succinctly as possible. And always pitch to email…that’s how your email will be found, opened, read, and most likely acted upon :)

Hope this is helpful!

In the meantime, if you have a topic or question you want me to cover in a future newsletter, drop me an email at alywalansky@gmail.com.

OK, now on to today’s business! Check out fresh newly published content and also pending assignments I’m working on by scrolling below…

Check out our complete holiday gift guide pitching recording - it’s available right here, right now!

For those who missed out, you can grab the whole recording of our best practices for pitching holiday gift guides this season webinar for free (yes, completely free!) as a benefit for upgraded subscribers - it’s well over an hour of commentary, Q&A, and tons of information you can use this season. Grab the details here.

If you are pitching holiday gift guides this season, you’re competing with thousands of other emails in every journalist’s inbox. Make sure your pitch stands out and gets noticed.

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Upcoming travel: I’ll be in Fort Lauderdale for one afternoon/evening later this week and also in Vegas for nearly a week in early December. Other fun travel upcoming soon!

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Book your consulting session!

I still have some space available for November!

I can join your team on Zoom, a phone call, or in-person and do a team Q&A and answer any of your questions about planning events, mailers, trips, pitching, followups, etc — giving you a very necessary media perspective. Email me at alywalansky@gmail.com if you are interested in chatting more and setting something up :)

We can switch it up in any way you or your team needs. While most of my calls do end up being virtual, I just did one where we did our session over a martini lunch! I’m available for whatever your team prefers. Lets chat.

I’m now contributing to the Yahoo Creators platform, writing a wide range of lifestyles topics: check out my author profile to see some of my most recent pieces! (This is updated daily - usually multiple times daily - so you’ll want to keep checking it out for new content!)

Limited-time deal on ad placement!

I’m offering a seasonal special on advertising in this newsletter. I’d love to place your sponsored posts and advertising in this Substack, which goes out to more than 10,000 media professionals every single day.

Note: I do limit advertising to only what would be of interest to my readers, but am open to both short paragraph blurbs and dedicated posts - if you are interested in chatting details and scheduling something, please email me at alywalansky@gmail.com today!

Tools of the trade

Thanks so much to everyone who attended my Pitchcraft panel last week on everything to you need to know about Yahoo creators. We covered a ton of ground and Pitchcraft will actually be sharing a replay — but it’s only available to members.

Luckily, I’m excited to share I partnered with Pitchcraft to be able to share a special offer just for my readers: Use code ALY200: new users will get $200 off their first month of the monthly PR Membership or code ALY400: This one offers new users $400 off their first year of the annual PR Membership.

This is a great network to join because it’s a community of both PR professionals and journalists working together to find better ways to work together and share opportunities, and you know how much I believe in all of that.

Absolutely check it out!

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Exciting news from our friend Sarah Karger (who recently was a star expert panelist for our big holiday gift guide pitching workshop!) - she just launched her new course, Affiliate Marketing & Performance-Based PR for Publicists - It’s built specifically to help PR pros and agencies add affiliate management as a core capability, something we all know is completely essential in today’s media landscape. This is in-depth training that equips publicists with the exact strategies to:

• Set up affiliate programs for clients

• Pitch commerce editors with confidence

• Deliver measurable ROI through performance-based PR

It’s a must-have for anyone trying to navigate this ever-changing biz!

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.

• Yahoo Creators: Check out my author profile (I have several new stories a day across the lifestyles umbrella, so that’s the best way to stay updated!)

• Travel & Leisure: Traveling Alone Can Be Expensive—Here Are 15 Budget-friendly Hacks That Save Me Money

• Forbes.com: 6 Delightfully Briny Ways To Celebrate National Pickle Day

• Travel & Leisure: A Travel Writer’s $8 Amazon Packing Hack for Shoes

• Forbes.com: 18 Ways To Savor The Season Via Thanksgiving-Inspired Dishes And Cocktails

• Apartment Therapy: What Pro Travelers Never Pack in Their Carry-On Bag

• Forbes.com: The Best Celebrity Spirits To Gift This Holiday Season

• Forbes.com: 13 Great Variations On The Classic Cheese Pizza

• Yahoo Creators: From packing cubes to toiletry bags, these are the 13 best gifts for travelers this holiday

• Yahoo Creators: The 10 best cookbooks to give the aspiring chef in your life as a gift this holiday season.

• Yahoo Creators: From gadgets to skincare: The ultimate guide to gifts for the special guy in your life this holiday season

• Southern Living: The Difference Between Chives And Green Onions

• Travel & Leisure: I’m a Solo Traveler, and I Tell All My Friends to Pack These Anti-theft Essentials—Up to 56% Off at Amazon

• Forbes.com: 15 Plant-Based Dishes So Delicious, Even A Carnivore Would Ask For Seconds

• Travel & Leisure: I Travel Solo Often, and I Won’t Stay in Another Airbnb Without Packing This 1 Safety Device

• Travel & Leisure: This $8 Flight Attendant-loved Hack Helps Me Carry More Bags at the Airport—Without Paying Extra

• Food Network: You Can Pre-Order Your Entire Thanksgiving Feast

• Today.com: Best drugstore wrinkle creams 2025, according to experts

• Today.com: What Are The Best Drugstore Eye Creams? Experts and Editors Reveal Their Favorites

• Southern Living: The Best And Worst Times To Go To The Grocery Store

• Southern Living: How To Cook A Perfect Steak Every Time, According To Southern Chefs.

• Southern Living: The One-Pan Cheesy Meal I Make Whenever I'm Too Tired To Cook

• Travel & Leisure: I’m a Travel Writer, and I Swear by These Packable Ballet Flats for Comfort, Support, and Long Days on My Feet

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.

Newsweek Readers Choice

As you know, I am on the panel of journalists to come up with the nominations in various categories for Newsweek Readers Choice. Current categories are National Moving Company, Climate-Controlled Storage, Packing Cube, Storage Container Company, and Outdoor Storage. Let me know if you have any fits I should keep in mind!

Meanwhile, recent categories that voting went live on includes All Things Wine, Casinos, and Happy Holidays — so check them out and cast your vote!

Yahoo Creators

I’m working on a few holiday gift guides! I’m seeking:

• Frilly/girlie gift ideas (think cute, pink, lacey, girlie, frilly, sexy, fun, lingerie, underthings, etc)

• Travel-related gifts

• gifts for your man

• home/kitchen related gifts,

• food/spirits gifts,

• tech gear/gadgets,

• office-related gifts

To pitch me for these guides, please be sure to include the following:

• Name of item

• Links to major retailers where sold (it’s in your best interest to include several retailer link options when pitching, especially major ones like Amazon)

• Link to image and any necessary credits

• Description why it’s a fit

Item must be currently available and currently in stock. Be sure to start a new email thread and be clear in the subject line what specific gift guide(s) you are pitching. Just replying to this email is a great way to get your pitch buried in a heap - we don’t want that!

Tip: If you want any guidance on how to pitch for gift guides more successfully, be sure to check out the complete webinar recording linked here — it’s free!

Forbes

Before pitching: Please be sure to refer to my photo submission guidelines for help with photo submission best practices!

I’m working on a story on enjoying lower ABV cocktails in December. I know a ton of people (not me, obviously) are doing Sober October, as a way of having a total body reset before the active holiday event season, but another option is to try to moderate a little in December by focusing on lower ABV versions of your favorite drinks, made with low or mid-ABV spirits. So if you work with low-ABV spirits that have low-proof (vs. zero proof) holiday cocktails on the menu at bars/restaurants, please drop me a line! (Same pitching format as usual.)

Please make sure to pitch in the following format only:

• Name of dish/drink

• Where found (name of restaurant, city, state, URL)

• Description

• Chef quote/name of being quoted

• LINK to image of dish/photo credit

have a great day, and thanks again for being such an incredible community <3

aly