You’re a blogger. Do you have a media kit? If your answer was “no,” don’t panic. It’s okay — many bloggers don’t! However, if you’re interested in engaging with businesses (however large or small) for things like sidebar ads, giveaways, and sponsored content, it’s important to put something together to outline who you are as a brand and what you can offer an advertiser (and how much it’s going to cost them!).
While media kits can be designed to match your specific aesthetic and look super profesh (and yes, shameless plug here: I design them or can teach you how to create and use them!), it’s not necessary to have a multi-page PDF if you don’t have the time, know how, or money to make one. Often, a simple Word doc or PowerPoint can suffice. On the flip side, kits are a great way to tell a visual story about who you are as a brand, and as it’s likely the first business doc a brand will see from you, it’s never a bad idea to give them a positive first impression. As a blogger, you already know: visuals matter!
Here’s what a media kit should include:
(PSST! Get the full version of the post, and a TON more info on media kits, right over here)
Want info on when to actually send your kit (and when not to), additional stats and qualitative data you should include, where you can find those numbers, and more? You can download my entire guide to creating the perfect media kit here.
{Image Credit: Glitter Guide. All graphics by vmac+cheese}
Capeche!! I JUST had this conversation with someone last week, so this is right on time! What should the stats look like before considering selling ads on the blog?
I KNEW I would get this question. Along with probably a rates question.
It’s a very complex issue, primarily because there are endless variations
between the blogger, the content they produce, their particular community,
the advertiser, the advertisers goals, and of course, most obviously, the
nature of the sponsorship itself. I think it depends on the type of partnerships
you’re looking to do. Obviously, a smaller start up (think Etsy shop) will be
happier with different numbers than say, The Gap. A new Etsy shop who’s looking
to reach your exact demographic might be happy with a stat of 10,000 pageviews
a month (but correspondingly, you likely can’t charge them very much, and at the
end of the day, with the amount of administration in running the ad and ensuring
people know about it, you might question whether it’s really worth it). If this
provides any sort of context, major ad networks such as GLAM and Say Media require
100,000 pageviews per month/25,000 unique visitors (each of those stats is respective
to each network). If you’re a smaller blogger, a very close (and also expert) blog
friend of mine recommends running Reward Style ads first, and waiting til you hit
at least 50k pageviews per month. But again, lots of variables at work here. The
main thing to remember is you want to provide value to all parties involved: the
advertiser, the reader, and YOU. And the most important thing: if you’re blogging
for the money… well, you probably should pick another industry to get rich from!
Thanks girl! I have been thinking of selling ads and this helps lots!
Thanks so much for your post and this additional comment. And I appreciate your honesty in the last sentence…thanks again!
YOU ARE BRILLIANT! That’s all ;)
Such a wealth of information here- definitely bookmarking this so that I can read it again! Also, in your comment above you answered several questions that I’ve been wondering about for ages! Thank you for a well-written and informative post. :)
total newbie here, so thank you on the clarification on page views and unique visitors- i was wondering why my page views didn’t align with traffic sources, etc. thank you!
Thank you! Great information!
This is such a great post – Thank you! You have given me so much to think about and get working on.
Lotts
http://lottsandlots.blogspot.com/
Great post!
This is fantastic! You seriously provide the most perfect mix of eyecandy/fun reads and practical, useful information. We’re grateful for your blog!
I just bookmarked this page now! Thank you so much – I was thinking about media kits the other day and wondering if I should have one…. so your article came in perfect timing! This has been so helpful, off to make one now!
Kate {Modette}
http://modetteblog.com
What great advice! Thanks Victoria. I’m not ready for this yet, but will definitely be storing it away for the future.
You are amazing! This is just what I am looking for!! I think I’m still in the beginning stage of building up my readership. I’ve recently moved to a wordpress self hosted blog and still getting used to the whole stats thing… I was wondering what plugins would you recommend to use? (there is so many out there and it gets ovewhelming)
Thank you SO much for this!
Make sure you have Jetpack installed so that you can get the basic
WP stats on your dashboard. Also, set up a Google Analytics account!
I also have StatCounter set up, just to get a third source of info.
I find my stats vary between the three services, so it’s a good way
to get a sense of where things really are.
Such great info!!! Thank you!
Also, Amanda raises a good point, albeit my question is a derivative of hers. If I am still a relatively small WordPress-hosted blog but have a great Google page rank, should I consider moving to a self-hosted platform to get those google analytics unique visitor stats now (since free wordpress only allows page views, not unique)? Or, should I wait until my traffic is higher and potentially lose my great page rank then rather than bite that bullet now? I’ve been trying to decide and read so many conflicting arguments on this…
I migrated from .com to .org earlier this year with no reduction in traffic
(though I can’t say I could tell you what happened to my page rank. If it
makes any difference, search engines are consistently my first or second
highest referrer!).
You can have WordPress help you migrate everything with no loss of data
(or any effect whatsoever, as far as I could tell) for $119. The only time
I’ve heard about people losing traffic was when they migrated from another
platform (Blogger, etc) to WordPress, and even then, the loss of traffic is
only temporary. If you aren’t yet ready to migrate, you can use a third party
stats program like StatCounter to gather unique visitor data for your blog.
http://statcounter.com/
Another great post, love how you share your thoughts freely and authentically. Pinning it and sharing with my readers tomorrow. Thanks!
This is so helpful! My little blog is too small right now for selling ads and getting sponsors but one day this will come in very handy. :) I love your Blog Tips series!
This is such an incredibly helpful post! Thank you SO much for sharing this!!
So helpful! Thanks girl!
thank you for this and for the extra good stuff in the comments/questions!
Thanks! Great information that I needed to read!
You are so business savvy Victoria! When/if I decide to ever get serious about my blog, I’m coming straight to you!
Fantastical advice! This type of media kit would also be a great thing to send out to DIGITAL PR firms since they usually aska number of bloggers to cover their events/clients/etc {make sure you send out to “digital” pr firms…blogging = digital coverage}.
Thank you for this incredibly helpful advice! You are one smart lady.
Thanks so much for the info! Im pretty new to the world of blogging so this really helps. Also, how do you guys know what your page rank is? I dont see anything like that on my google analytics. Thanks so much!
I was sitting down to the computer to work on my press packet, not knowing where to start. But FIRST I procrastinated by going to Pinterest to…well….procrastinate. Best thing i have done so far today. I found this pin. Thanks so much!
yay! thanks victoria!
xo julesinflats.blogspot.com
I don’t have 10k interest followers yet, but this is a great exercise and something to build up to. The advise is much appreciated!
Thank you, thank you! what a great bunch of advise, and so candid as well. Definately some things to take away from this.
http://www.puddingandlace.blogspot.com
amazing amazing advice, as always Victoria!
Hi! I just started following and just read this wonderful post. These are great tips! I am really having a difficult time with this and I’m a little confused. Yesterday I put together my “sponsor” page and there is a lot of info. I tried to make it as brief as possible, if I don’t give enough info, they won’t understand what Skylar Magazine and they won’t get the concept or my mission. There is like no possible way for me to shorten it anymore than I have.
Anyway, I basically have most of what you mentioned above written on that page, so I’m wondering if I would still need a media kit, or if I could just use that and have potential sponsors go there. Or could I copy and paste it and save it as a doc and use that as my media kit?
http://skylarinc.blogspot.com/p/sponsor-us.html
Thanks:)
Sarah
Thank you so much for writing this! I keep saying that I need a media kit, I just didnt know where to start!
I enjoyed this post very much, thank you for the tip. I have been meaning to create a media kit but have to proscrastinating! Thanks again
Thanks for the great information! I still have a lot to work on in the way of advertising considering my low page views.
This post is awesome and I must say thank you very much for taking out the time to publish such useful info for the rest of us.
I have actually been struggling with how to build my media kit. My stats are not all that yet but my blog is getting there so was thinking that this would be a good time to start building the kit. I will be sure to check out statcounter and commence the process with all the info you have given us.
Thanks again,
Barbara
This was really helpful, thanks so much, I am a beginner bloger, al do I have bast experience in what I write about. I want to turn my blog in to an intresting income.
Thanks, LInda.
Really really awesome content. Wish I’d found you about 6-8 months ago when I was struggling with a lot of stuff. Oh well – at least I know you are around for future stuff (which is coming). Looking forward to seeing what you publish – keep it up!!!
Just found this via pinterest – great help! I know have some clear direction on where to go next and how to get this started :) xo
Thank you, I had a company contact me recently requesting this information as they wanted me to review a product. I responded in an email, but a PDF Media Kit would have been much better.
This was SO helpful! I had started a similar “fact sheet” a few months ago but this helped streamline it and know who it was appropriate to send to.
Love you blog!! Would love if you would check out mine too :-)
Thank you for this! I’ve just been asked for a media kit and had no idea what I was getting myself into! Glad I have some great guidance now. :)
xo
Melyssa
http://thenectarcollective.com
This information was so amazingly helpful. Thank you for being so awesome and information. I love that there are people out there like you. Stay magical! <3
I’ve been exploring for a bit for any high quality articles or blog posts on this sort of house . Exploring in Yahoo I at last stumbled upon this website. Studying this information So i’m satisfied to convey that I’ve an incredibly just right uncanny feeling I found out exactly what I needed. I most undoubtedly will make sure to do not overlook this site and provides it a look on a continuing basis.
Thanks for the tips! I’m starting to get media attention so I needed to know advice about media kits. Thanks!
Do you have a new link to the full post that you mention above?