Everything’s Connected—Now What?
Breaking down what matters in Affiliate Marketing and PR + how to pull it all together.
This is our very first newsletter & whooooweeeeee are we more than a little excited to finally share. It’s like opening the floodgates. We’ve both spent years collecting knowledge, testing strategies, learning what works (and definitely what doesn’t)—and now we get to pour it all into one place, together.
It feels energizing and honestly…overdue. The media and PR industry is filled with incredible substacks. We plan to bring you a fresh take on the PR industry specially from an affiliate lens.
Wait...who the hell even are we?
Meet Kris
I’ve been eclectic my entire life. Always pulled in a variety of directions. This was accentuated by my mother - I mean the woman enrolled me in hula classes at the community ed building when I was 7 years old & took me to sing the national anthem at the american legion on the weekends. I had to be diverse.
My first job was at the trading post 5 miles outside of my town of 1200 people and instead of them giving me a paycheck I traded my work hours for the items I lusted after that week. A new hot sauce, a light up Route 66 clock, or handpainted dolls that would sit on my lime green shelf & collect dust. I’ve held dozens of positions in the past 2 decades since that first work situation and it’s led me to an industry that pulls it all together.
I fell in love with PR nearly 6 years ago which led me to affiliate marketing and every other medium in between. Hindsight is always 20/20 - looking back at the 35 years of my wild life lessons, I am nothing but consistent with the amount of variety I like to indulge myself with at all times. Let’s be friends on IG! 🤗
Meet Sarah
In another life, I was an eCommerce director for a men’s accessory retailer, overseeing all aspects of our team's marketing efforts for the .com direct-to-consumer website, as well as marketing for the wholesale side of the business. So my experience in marketing spans the gamut, from media relations, PPC, and ad buying to email marketing... and you guessed it, affiliate marketing.
Today, I’m a partner and full-time publicist and affiliate manager for the boutique public relations house Comm Oddities.
I consult with agencies (big and small), as well as publicists and freelancers, on how to pitch in this performance-based world and—if you’re committed to this thing we call PR—integrate affiliate marketing into your scope of work.
Oh, and during COVID, my husband and I left the Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex and moved to the country to learn how to become regenerative ranchers. My cow, Baby, just had her first calf. I’m a proud grandma! You can follow along on my socials @sarahkarger and @newranchwhodis.
Would also love to connect over on LinkedIn.
L to R: Baby (aka Baby Mama now, I guess?), her new bull calf, and another calf checking in on him, Hazel.
The Sticky Truth About Modern PR
We know you spend your time on many Substacks filled with information & 🔥 tips/tricks of how to do it. It being many things. Pitching. Relationship building. Affiliate marketing. Networking. All - the - things. We don’t want to tell you how to do it. We want to help you learn how to combine it all in to a cute little M&M filled popcorn ball that’s buttery and sticky and perfectly delectable.
Alone, each ingredient is kind of bland. But it’s only when you mold them together—affiliate and PR, pitching and performance, creativity and data—that the whole gooey treat comes into focus. Suddenly, all those tasty pieces stick, creating something bigger and better than the sum of its parts. Patterns pop, decisions get sharper, and you move with more purpose—because now, everything’s connected and working together.
Apollo IO
You know the frustration when you find a contact in Muck Rack only to not see their email? Meet Apollo.io.
Apollo is a sales and lead generation platform that gives you access to 200M+ contacts, filtered by job title, company, tech stack, and more with the key here being their database of verified emails.
Intrigued? Unlike other email and lead generation tools like Rocket Reach, Apollo doesn’t have any maximums, at least right now, for how many people you can look up.
They also have this incredible chrome extension that when you pair with LinkedIn stalking - er um networking, can help you find some of those missing emails!
Link to download Chrome Extension here.
Which brings us to the next section of our newsletter that we hope to be a staple. Giving you the real real on partners we LOVE working with.
New York Post
Bold. Iconic. And a magnet for millions. The New York Post reaches a high-intent, high-income audience across every platform—and their Shopping section is where affiliate dreams come true. Think major visibility meets smart commerce strategy.
Their Similarweb UVPM, which you may or may not be using in your 2025 reporting, is 43.1M and they have an incredible DA (Domain Authority) of 93. Domain Authority is how they rank from 0-100, for the websites overall strength and trustworthiness. At 93, they’ve established a high authority to rank on Google, which means getting your brand performance led placements in the Post’s content bring real SEO and potentially GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) juice to the table. They prioritize direct partnerships over subnetworks and love collaborating on deals, evergreen content, and shopping roundups that actually convert.
The partnerships manager over at the NY Post has been such a great advocate for publicists owning affiliate marketing in our many conversations with him on behalf of our brands. If you work with a brand that has been featured editorially in their shopping content, be sure and reach out, request to jump on a call to discuss how you can optimize your program with a direct connection.
Network IDs
Impact ID: 2229206
Rakuten ID: 3805656
AWIN ID: 796935
Contacts
Ryan Murphy, Partnerships Manager, Commerce for NY Post
Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rc-murphy
Email: rmurphy@nypost.com