Outreach Batch 01 — Resource-Page Emails (send this week)

5 personalized pitches, top of the tracker. Each one references a real detail from their actual post — that's what separates a reply from the spam folder. Send Tuesday–Thursday, mid-morning. Personalize the [bracketed] bits if you spot anything fresh, and never send two identical-looking emails.

Link you're pitching: the always-updated lottery list → https://www.borninthecity.com/broadway-lottery-tickets/ Backup link (the evergreen guide) → https://www.borninthecity.com/how-to-win-every-broadway-lottery-2026/

After you send each, mark it Contacted + date in BITC-Backlink-Targets.xlsx.

1. The Pod Hotel — Shanna Soares

Where to send: Contact form at thepodhotel.com/contact-us (address it to Shanna Soares / the blog team). If you can find a marketing@ or blog email, better. Why it's a strong target: Their 2026 guide already walks through lotteries, rush, TKTS, and a 3-day budget itinerary — your live list is the natural "here's where to actually enter today" companion.

Subject: loved the 3-day Broadway weekend in your cheap-tickets guide

Hi Shanna,

Your "How to Get Cheap Broadway Tickets in NYC" piece is one of the few that gets it right — the $150-for-three-shows weekend breakdown is exactly how locals actually do it.

One thing that might help your readers: I run Born in the City, where I keep a free, always-updated list of every active Broadway lottery and where to enter each one (I'm a New Yorker who's entered — and won — hundreds of them). Lotteries shift constantly, so a live list saves people chasing dead links.

Here it is if it's useful for the post: https://www.borninthecity.com/broadway-lottery-tickets/

Either way, nice work on the guide. Enter often, see Broadway cheap.

Regards, Bradford — BornInTheCity.com

2. Daddy Travels Miles & Points — Jason

Where to send: No public email — best path is a short, genuine blog comment on the post, plus an Instagram DM to @daddytravelsmiles (or via the Facebook group facebook.com/groups/daddytravels). He's active on socials. Why it's a strong target: His post literally ends with a "Helpful websites for discount ticket hunt" list (Playbill, Broadway for Broke People, Broadway Roulette). You want to be the next bullet in that list. He also clearly lives this — won Two Strangers at $43, Maybe Happy Ending rush at $49.

Subject / DM opener: your Two Strangers lottery win + a resource for your list

Hi Jason,

Just read your Dec 2025 update — scoring Two Strangers for $43 in Row K and Maybe Happy Ending rush at $49 in the same weekend is a clinic. That's exactly how it's done.

I run Born in the City and keep a free, always-updated list of every active Broadway lottery (where to enter, which app, current shows). Given you've got that "Helpful websites for discount ticket hunt" section at the bottom, thought it might be a good fit alongside Playbill and Broadway Roulette:

https://www.borninthecity.com/broadway-lottery-tickets/

Either way — happy travels, and enjoy the next NYC run.

Bradford, BornInTheCity.com

3. Custom Travel Insider (Broadway Exclusive) — Bryan F

Where to send: customtravelinsider.com/contact (note it's Bryan F / the Broadway Exclusive team). Why it's a strong target: Their Broadway Travel Guide has a whole "Buying Broadway Tickets" link list (rush, TKTS, discount tickets). They sell full-service group trips, so a free lottery resource doesn't compete — it rounds out the DIY end for readers who aren't booking a package.

Subject: a lottery resource for your Broadway Travel Guide

Hi Bryan,

Your Broadway Travel Guide is a solid one-stop resource — the "Buying Broadway Tickets" section especially. Readers planning their own trip around it would get one more useful tool from a live lottery list.

I run Born in the City and maintain a free, always-updated rundown of every active Broadway lottery — which shows, which platform, how to enter. It pairs well with your rush and TKTS explainers for the budget-minded traveler:

https://www.borninthecity.com/broadway-lottery-tickets/

Feel free to use it if it's helpful to your readers. Nice work on the guide.

Regards, Bradford — BornInTheCity.com

4. Undiscovered Path Home — Samantha Tatro

Where to send: undiscoveredpathhome.com/contact-me-undiscovered-path-home (she's a former journalist — a sharp, specific pitch lands well here). Pitch her newer post specifically: "Ultimate Guide: How to Find Cheap Broadway Tickets" (June 2025), which has the lottery/rush/SRO section — that's the better fit than the solo-trip guide.

Subject: your cheap Broadway tickets guide — a live lottery list to add

Hi Samantha,

Your "Ultimate Guide: How to Find Cheap Broadway Tickets" is genuinely useful — the breakdown of rush vs. standing-room vs. lottery is clearer than most. As a fellow theater obsessive, the bit about buying Hamilton eight months out for $149 made me wince in solidarity.

I run Born in the City and keep a free, always-updated list of every active Broadway lottery — where to enter each one, day by day. Since lotteries change constantly, a live list might be a handy thing to point readers to in that section:

https://www.borninthecity.com/broadway-lottery-tickets/

Either way, thanks for writing the kind of guide first-timers actually need.

Regards, Bradford — BornInTheCity.com

5. The Wanderbug

Where to send: Contact page at thewanderbug.com (find the contact/about link in the footer). This is the lightest-fit of the five — their NYC guide is broad "things to do," not Broadway-specific — so it's lower-priority. Send it last; if their guide doesn't have a tickets/Broadway section, skip rather than force it.

Subject: a Broadway-on-a-budget add for your NYC guide

Hi [Name],

Your New York City travel guide covers the city well — neighborhoods, food, the big sights. One thing first-timers always ask me about that could round it out: how to see Broadway without paying $200 a seat.

I run Born in the City and keep a free, always-updated list of every active Broadway lottery (most shows release $30–60 seats daily — locals rarely pay full price). If you ever add a Broadway or "things to do at night" section, it might be a useful link for readers:

https://www.borninthecity.com/broadway-lottery-tickets/

Thanks for the guide — bookmarking it for my own next trip recommendations.

Regards, Bradford — BornInTheCity.com

Quick rules so these actually land

• One follow-up only. If no reply in 7–10 days, send a two-line bump ("Just floating this back up — no worries if not a fit"). Then drop it.
• Don't attach anything. A single in-line link. Attachments + outreach = spam filter.
• Lead with their detail, not yours. The first sentence proves you read the post. That's the whole game.
• Log every send in the tracker so your one follow-up is timed and you don't double-pitch.
• Realistic outcome: 1–2 of these 5 convert. That's a normal, good hit rate for cold resource-page outreach.

Outreach Batch 02 — Journalist PR (Featured / Qwoted / SOS)

This is your highest-value link channel. Reporters at Fortune, Yahoo, travel mags, and local outlets post requests for expert sources. You answer with a sharp quote backed by real lottery data, and if they use it, you get a link from a site Google already trusts — the kind you can't get by emailing a travel blogger.

Your edge: you have actual numbers (entry odds, price tiers, win-rate timing) plus a "won hundreds over 15 years" story. Most people answering these queries have neither. That's why you get picked.

Setup (do once, ~20 min total): 1. Sign up free at featured.com, qwoted.com, and sourceofsources.com (SOS). 2. Paste the profile bio below into each. 3. Set your topics/beats so relevant queries reach you (list below). 4. Then just check the inbox 2–3x a week and answer the ones you can genuinely speak to.

Your profile bio (paste into all three platforms)

Short version (≈50 words — for profile fields with a tight limit):

Bradford Buonasera is a third-generation New Yorker and founder of Born in the City, a Broadway lottery and discount-ticket tracker. He's spent 15 years entering Broadway lotteries — and winning hundreds — and now maps every operator, price tier, and win-rate quirk for budget theatergoers.

Long version (≈100 words — for the main bio):

Bradford Buonasera is the founder of BornInTheCity.com, a Broadway and Off-Broadway lottery tracker run by a born-and-raised New Yorker. Over 15 years he's entered Broadway lotteries across every major operator — Broadway Direct, Lucky Seat, TodayTix, and Telecharge — and won hundreds of $40 tickets to shows from Hamilton to Hadestown. He tracks the data nobody publishes: which lotteries pay off, what they actually cost, and when the odds tilt in your favor. He's a credible, quotable source on seeing Broadway cheaply, NYC-on-a-budget travel, and how the discount-ticket ecosystem actually works. Based in Kips Bay, Manhattan. Reachable at brad@borninthecity.com.

Topics / beats to set: Broadway, theater, NYC travel, budget travel, things to do in New York, entertainment, lottery/ticketing, family travel, arts & culture.

Your data arsenal (the numbers that make journalists pick you)

Keep these handy. All from your own tracking — specific, contrarian, and quotable:

• Win rates aren't equal. Hadestown's Lucky Seat lottery runs roughly 1-in-200 on a weekday; Wicked's is closer to 1-in-1,000 because every tourist enters daily.
• Weekdays double your odds. The crowd fighting you for seats shrinks ~60% Tuesday–Thursday. Tourists enter weekends; locals enter weekdays.
• The price reality: most lotteries are $40–$49, two seats max. Premium shows (Hamilton, MJ) run $79. Hamilton's in-app lottery is still $10 — and almost nobody uses it, so the odds are roughly double the standard draw.
• Standing room is the secret. $30–$39, day-of, box-office only. Never sells out because most people don't know it exists — and the sightlines often beat the cheap seats.
• The 6 PM TodayTix rush window reloads unsold seats nightly and is the highest-quality rush of the day.
• Scale: you track ~58 active Broadway and Off-Broadway lotteries at any given time. Digital since 2016.

Pick the 1–2 stats that fit the specific question. Never dump all of them.

Master pitch structure (every response follows this)

Keep it under 150 words. Reporters skim. Format:

[One quotable sentence they can drop in verbatim.]

[1 sentence of proof — who you are + a number.]

[2–3 tight, specific tips. No fluff, no "it depends."]

Happy to share more or the underlying data. — Bradford Buonasera, founder, BornInTheCity.com, brad@borninthecity.com

The first sentence is everything. Write it so a journalist can paste it straight into the article with your name attached. That's what earns the link.

Pre-written responses for the queries you'll see most

Lightly edit each to match the exact question. Don't send cold — these are starting points.

A. "How can travelers see Broadway on a budget / get cheap tickets?"

The cheapest Broadway ticket isn't TKTS — it's the lottery, and the trick is entering on the right days. Most shows release $40–$49 lottery seats daily, but your odds roughly double Tuesday through Thursday because the tourist crowd that floods the weekend lotteries isn't entering.

I'm Bradford Buonasera, a New Yorker who's won hundreds of Broadway lotteries over 15 years and tracks every operator at BornInTheCity.com. Three tips: (1) Enter weekdays, skip weekends. (2) Stack 4–6 shows the same night — a win is just the right to buy, so you can decline with no penalty. (3) If you don't win, ask the box office about standing room — $30–$39, almost never sold out, and the sightlines are often better than the cheap seats.

Happy to share more. — Bradford Buonasera, BornInTheCity.com

B. "Things to do in NYC / first-timer NYC travel tips"

Locals rarely pay full price for Broadway, and visitors shouldn't either. A midweek orchestra seat can run $200 — the same show's lottery is $40–$49, and the odds on a Tuesday are far better than people assume.

I'm Bradford Buonasera, a third-generation New Yorker who runs BornInTheCity.com, a Broadway lottery tracker. For first-timers: build your trip around a Wednesday or Thursday (best lottery odds and most shows run matinee + evening, so you can see two in a day), enter several lotteries at once, and keep standing-room tickets as your backup — $30–$39, box office only.

— Bradford Buonasera, BornInTheCity.com

C. "Money-saving / budget travel hacks" (general roundup)

My favorite travel hack is a $40 Broadway ticket. Most major shows run a digital lottery for deeply discounted seats — $40–$49 versus $200 at the window — and the single biggest factor people get wrong is timing. Enter Tuesday through Thursday; the crowd you're competing against shrinks by more than half once the weekend tourists drop off.

I've won hundreds of these over 15 years and track every operator at BornInTheCity.com. The overlooked move: standing-room tickets, sold day-of at the box office for $30–$39 — they rarely sell out because most visitors don't know they exist.

— Bradford Buonasera, BornInTheCity.com

D. "Expert sources on theater / entertainment / arts"

Broadway's lottery system is the most misunderstood part of theatergoing — it's been fully digital since 2016, spread across four operators that each work differently, and almost none of the win-rate data is published. I track it: Hadestown's lottery runs about 1-in-200 on a weekday, Wicked's closer to 1-in-1,000, and Hamilton's in-app $10 lottery has roughly double the odds of its main draw because so few people use it.

I'm Bradford Buonasera, founder of BornInTheCity.com and a third-generation New Yorker who's won hundreds of these. Glad to go deeper on how the operators differ or where the system's headed. — Bradford Buonasera, BornInTheCity.com

Rules for journalist PR (these matter more than the writing)

• Speed wins. Many queries close within hours. Answer the same day you see it, or don't bother.
• Only answer what you can own. Broadway, NYC, budget travel, ticketing. Skip anything outside your lane — off-topic pitches train the platform to stop showing you good ones.
• Lead with the quote, not "I'd be happy to help." They have 40 responses to skim. Give them paste-ready copy.
• Always include the link + email in the sign-off. A used quote with no link is a missed backlink. Make the URL impossible to omit.
• One stat, maybe two. A focused answer beats a data dump every time.
• Track every pitch in the tracker (Tier 3 rows). Note which query, which outlet, and whether it ran — so you learn what converts.

Realistic rhythm at the free tiers: ~3–5 relevant queries a week across all three platforms, you'll pitch 2–3, and land roughly one quality link a month. One link from a Fortune or Yahoo roundup is worth more than twenty travel-blog links — this is the channel that moves your authority.

Outreach Batch 03 — Guest-Post Pitch (Travel Talk Tours)

Guest posts are slower than resource-page outreach but stronger: you control the anchor text, you get a byline link, and the same article skeleton can be re-pitched to other travel blogs with light edits. Do roughly one a month.

Target: Travel Talk Tours — Write for Us (traveltalktours.com/us/write-for-us/) What they want: travel stories, hacks, insider tips. Published contributors get a £50 Travel Talk voucher. Where to send: the submission form on that page (or the editorial email it lists). Pitch the idea first — don't send a finished 1,000 words cold.

The pitch email

Subject: guest post pitch: how a New Yorker actually scores cheap Broadway tickets

Hi [Editor name / Travel Talk team],

I'd like to write a piece for Travel Talk Tours that your readers would actually bookmark before a New York trip.

Working title: "How a New Yorker Scores Cheap Broadway Tickets (the Lottery, the Rush, and the Tricks Tourists Miss)"

Most "cheap Broadway" articles list the same three options and get the details wrong. Mine would come from 15 years of doing it: I run BornInTheCity.com, a Broadway lottery tracker, and I've won hundreds of $40 tickets to shows from Hamilton to Hadestown. The angle is practical and a little contrarian — e.g., enter lotteries on weekdays, not weekends (the tourist crowd you're competing against drops by ~60%), and standing-room tickets are the $30 secret almost nobody uses.

Roughly 1,000 words, original (not published anywhere else), written in a friendly, useful voice — no rehashed listicle. I'd include a few specifics travelers can act on the day they land.

Want me to send a full outline or the draft? Happy to work to your house style.

Regards, Bradford Buonasera — BornInTheCity.com brad@borninthecity.com

The outline (send if they bite, or attach to speed things up)

How a New Yorker Scores Cheap Broadway Tickets (~1,000 words)

1. Hook — A single midweek orchestra seat can run $200. Locals almost never pay it. Here's the system. (~80 words)
2. The lottery, explained fast — what it is, $40–$49, two seats, 30-minute payment window, fully digital since 2016. (~150)
3. The contrarian core — enter Tuesday–Thursday, never weekends; the competing crowd shrinks by more than half. Stack 4–6 shows a night since a win is just the right to buy. (~200)
4. The four operators in one breath — Broadway Direct, Lucky Seat, TodayTix, Telecharge — what each runs and one quirk apiece. Keep it skimmable. (~200)
5. The backups when you don't win — rush ($40–$49, in person) and standing room ($30–$39, box office only, better sightlines than the cheap seats). (~180)
6. The day-of checklist — bring matching ID + the actual credit card, get there 30 min early for the door upgrade. (~120)
7. Close + byline — one line of personality, link to the live lottery list at BornInTheCity.com. (~70)

Anchor link to request in the byline: "Born in the City" or "Broadway lottery tracker" → https://www.borninthecity.com/broadway-lottery-tickets/

Reuse note

This same outline, with the intro retargeted, works for any travel or NYC blog that takes contributors (the tracker has a "general write-for-us" row in Tier 4). Write it once, adapt the first paragraph, pitch it three or four places. One finished article can earn several links over a couple of months.

After you pitch, log it in the tracker (Tier 4 row) as Contacted + date.