With the new year fast approaching now is the time to start thinking about putting together a blog media kit – or updating your current one for 2015.
First things first – what is a media kit and why do you need one?
What is a Blog Media Kit?
A blog media kit is, at its simplest, a CV or resume for your blog. It tells people you may want to work with (and who may want to work with you!) who you are and what your blog is about.
The first step is to gather all your information. There are some basics you’ll definitely want to make sure you have in place:
Basic Items Your Blog Media Kit Should Include
The FBC Media Kit includes our social media follower accounts presented visually in a way that matches our branding.
- blog author name and short bio
- blog address, email address and any other pertinent contact info
- readership numbers (rss subscribers, email subscribers)
- readership demographics (location, gender, age, interests)
- blog stats (page views, unique visitors, sessions)
- blog focus (healthy recipes, gluten-free, baking, restaurant reviews etc)
- social media accounts and followers
Once you’ve got the basics you need to decide how you want to present it. Some people are very comfortable posting the information on their blog’s About page. Others prefer to create a one or two page PDF that they can send to brands, editors, or potential clients either on demand or as part of a pitch they are making. Either way, it’s probably a good idea to make a note on your About page if you do have a media kit that’s available upon request.
Davida at The Healthy Maven has a great, visually appealing media kit. It shows her stats at a glance, who she's worked with, what she does and where you can find her!
Taking Your Blog Media Kit Up a Notch
Once you’ve got the basics, it’s up to you to decide if you want to take it up a notch. This will depend entirely on your goals for your blog.
Some questions to ask yourself are:
- do I want to sell ad space on my blog? And if so, what sizes will I offer?
- do I want to offer review posts on my blog?
- do I want to do allow sponsored content on my blog?
- am I available for brand ambassadorships?
- do I want to offer other services that might not be limited to my blog such as recipe development, food photography or styling, freelance food writing?
- If I am going to offer any of the above, do I want to include my rates and my policies for working with third parties in my media kit or encourage people to contact me directly for more information?
If you answered yes to any of the first five questions, you need to gather that information as well.
Kristy at She Eats outlines all the services she offers in her media kit - some are blog related and some are her freelancing services. You can view her full media kit here.
Offering Ads In Your Media Kit
Make sure you outline the sizes of ads you will offer and how long the ad period is for. If you offer discounts for signing up for more than one month, note that as well.
It can also be handy to include a screenshot of your blog that shows where the ads would appear on your site.
Review Posts, Sponsored Posts and Brand Ambassadorships
Outline your policies for reviewing products. Do you require a sample to be sent? Will you keep the sample afterwards? Do you require a second sample for a giveaway?
For sponsored content, will you write it? Will you accept pre-written posts? Outline your policy on no-follow links. If you only do one sponsored post/month, say so. Will you have an additional charge for social media support for a post (tweets, FB mentions etc)
Are you open to extended brand ambassadorships? Do you have policies on how you will work with brands in an ambassadorship program? Include them.
Offering other services In Your Media Kit
If you offer other services such as recipe development, food photography, styling or freelance writing or guest posts, this is the time to tell people. While these projects may not appear on your blog, if you are hoping to earn extra income from them, putting them in your media kit can be a good idea.
Including Your Rates In Your Media Kit
This is entirely up to you. Rates can fluctuate depending on many factors. Some of the more creative blogger campaigns may not fit neatly into your offering list so you may want to charge more or less for those and want to discuss the project before assigning a rate to it.
One way to address this is to include a “starting rate”. In other words, a sponsored post may start at $150 for a basic post with no social media support and no recipe creation. But it may increase as more pieces are added. A starting rate helps brands know if you are in their budget or not.
Other pieces to look at including in your Blog Media Kit
Amy at Family Feed Bag includes a page of testimonials in her media kit. You can view her full media kit here.
Creating a media kit should be a balance between letting people get to know you and your blog while still keep it short and to the point for the reader.
If you have room, a few other pieces to consider are:
- testimonials from readers or brands you’ve worked with
- a short list of some of the clients you’ve worked with or you best client projects
- media appearances (television, in print, online)
- a list of links to your 5 most popular posts or posts you think showcase your very best work
Making Your Media Kit Look Good
Media kits can be as simple as a word doc that’s been PDF’d (always PDF it so it can’t be edited by anyone other than yourself). But often, a media kit that’s highly visual can grab a person’s attention, just like a great resume.
If you’re handy with a graphics program, you can easily add some graphic touches to your media kit to highlight stats or other important factors. Take a look at some of your favourite sites and poke around - see if they have their media kits on their sites and get some inspiration. You'd be surprised how many people do share!
If you need a little help in the design realm ask around for the services of a graphic designer. There are many graphic designers who specialize in media kits and who will work on them for very reasonable rates.
A special hank you goes out to Amy, Davida and Kristy for generously sharing their media kits with our readers! We hope you found them useful.
Putting Together a Blog Media Kit, was written by FBC Editor & Co-Founder, Melissa Hartfiel. By day, Melissa wrangles content for Food Bloggers of Canada while also working as a freelance designer, writer and photographer at her own studio, Fine Lime Designs. By night she writes Eyes Bigger Than My Stomach, her food photography blog. She hangs out in Vancouver with chocolate and her dog, Sam.
Connect with Melissa on Twitter: @mhchipmunk, Pinterest, or Facebook: Eyes Bigger Than My Stomach and Fine Lime Designs.
You can unsubscribe any time!
As a media buyer, I have been using media kits and making advertising buying decisions based on those for 30+ years. The media kit should do a bit more than tell people you might want to work with what your blog is about. You want to think about it from your potential customer’s point of view and, if he or she is in a position like mine, I need to know:
(i) your editorial focus
(ii) your editorial calendar – how often do you post; do you have regularly scheduled topics; any big features planned that might be of interest
(iii) your readership – all the stats; what do you know about them demographically/geographically; level of involvement
(iv) rates for ads – flat rate/CPM
(v) production specs & sizes for ads
(vi) deadlines for services
Thanks for the extra tips Kelly!
Thanks for including me Melissa! I like the point about taking it up a notch! I actually have a few different documents I use to “take it up a notch”. My media kit is just a general overview but I have a second page which tells “my story” and goes into a bit more depth about what THM is all about. Then I also have a pricing guide which includes my rates for various partnerships, some examples of partnerships I’ve done in the past as well as some photography and writing samples. What I send to potential clients depends entirely on what they are looking for and my level of relationship with them. Usually I try to keep money out of it until that point is reached so generally I start with just my media kit (so they can get a sense of my numbers and the kind of work I do) and then follow-up with the additional docs if they seem interested!
That’s a great way to do it! The one page PDF is a great intro piece to have on your blog or to send out so people get the basics. Then having other pre-prepared pieces that go out as needed help flesh things out for people who are really interested in working with you. Plus, you don’t have to write up a new document every time a new opportunity comes up!
Great post; gorgeous media kits, guys.
Is there a FBC resource with recommended designers or something similar? I’d love to engage someone to do a new media kit for our blog.
Hi Jess,
You can check out this post that lists some FBC Members who are also designers. It’s a little old but, I think everyone on it is still taking new clients. I know there are a few others but they never respond when we put a call out for FBC Members who are graphic or web designers so I’m guessing they’re probably not taking on new work. https://www.foodbloggersofcanada.com/2013/05/how-to-find-the-right-web-designer-for-your-blog-part-2/
Thanks for all the tips, I went and updated my page with some pretty brand pictures. Such great info!
Angie
great stuff Angie! Glad it was useful 🙂
This is really useful. Thanks to Davida, Kristy and Amy for sharing their media kits!!
yeah – that was awesome of them! It really helps to see some examples!
Great post! I presented to YVR bloggers on this topic last year – i will link the slides here if helpful to your members.
http://www.slideshare.net/LeeannFroese/yvr-blogger-media-kit-slides
These are really great tips! I have a media kit and now I’m wondering if I should take it up a notch and get into more detail. Thank you for all the info!
Very informative! I had never heard of media kits before attending BlissdomCA is year. I’m still working on my own.
How much does a designer typically charge for a media kit?
Kim
My to do list just grew by a country mile!