There's a whole lot of malicious content slamming us in the face all over the internet right now. From vile comments on every single Youtube video you come across, to *that* rant about Mrs Hinch and feminism, it feels as though everyone is on a campaign to destroy any ounce of positivity anyone has.
About a month ago a brand that I was considering collaborating with asked me for my media kit. My immediate reaction was 'well fuck, I don't have one'. Obviously I could hardly email them back to tell them that, so all of a sudden I was thrust into an emergency mission to create my own media kit. I had no time to ask anyone to create one for me, or to do masses of research into how to sort one out. Naturally I headed to twitter and Pinterest (my new love) to discover how other bloggers had made them.
In case you're wondering what the heck a media kit is, it's basically a document in which you showcase your blog brand to PRs, potential advertisement clients and potential blog collaborators. You effectively need one if you want to get serious about blogging, or want to start monetizing your blog.
Foolishly when I printed my media kit out for this post I used the web version of the image rather than the printable version *pats self on back sarcastically*, so I promise you that it does actually look a lot better than this when viewed online, or printed with the correct version. You can find the online version in my Contact section.
I didn't want to spend a lot of money making my media kit. In fact I didn't want to spend a penny. So, I headed to Canva to create my media kit. Canva has a whole variety of free to use templates, backgrounds and images to help you create almost anything. Since making my media kit I've actually used the site to create a Youtube thumbnail and a couple of pinterest-worthy images for blog posts. All in all, using this site it probably took me about an hour and a half to two hours to create my finished piece.
Now we come to the really tricky part: what to include. Here's a list of things I think you need if you want to make an effective and memorable media kit that PR brands can use to quickly assess whether your sponsored posts fees are acceptable and whether they want to get on board with collaborating with you.
1.) A design that resonates with your blog brand. Use a similar (if not the same) colour scheme, and try to include your blog header if you can. Immediately the person reading it will then be able to recognise precisely who you are and what you are representing.
2.) A picture either of yourself or that sums up your blog. Potential sponsors want to know that there's a 'real' person behind the brand, someone they can connect with. A picture of yourself is a good way to ensure this.
3.) Information about your blog: when it started, why it started, and the ethos/business idea behind it. It's useful for people to know how long the blog has been about, how you've developed it over the time it has been in existence and what your hopes for the future are. This shows that you've thought seriously about your blog brand and have tracked its course of progress over its lifespan.
4.) Your sponsorship policies. State exactly what someone can expect from sponsoring you. Set disclaimers as to what types of sponsorship you accept, what determines whether a sponsorship application will be accepted and what the sponsor can expect for your flat fee. You can also include your sponsorship fee. I simply chose not to because I would like to discuss the possibility for a sponsorship personally with a brand before them demanding a sponsorship slot on my blog for the fee I have stated in my media kit.
5.) Recent blog statistics. I would definitely make sure to keep these updated on a monthly basis - Canva is a good site to use to create your media kit because it is simple to edit text on it. You don't want a potential sponsor to come along and get disillusioned with the notion of sponsoring you because your five month old blog statistics are too low for them. I've included my monthly average pageviews and users for the past three months, how my statistics have improved during this period and my social media statistics. It's important to use Google Analytics for these, as other trackers, especially the one on blogger can be incredibly inaccurate.
6.) Previous brands you have worked with. This is simply a chance to showcase your previous work, and let PRs know that you have experience in collaborating with brands.
I hope this was useful! I'm currently offering you the chance to have your media kit created by me for £15 if you feel it is too much of a challenge! If you want to do so simply email me at the email address in my contact section
Is there anything you would add?
