How to Create a Blog Media Kit or Buy a Great One

Create a blog media kit as a business card and resume for your blog. Use this guide to create one and even how to position it with brands and sponsors to earn more income from your blog!

I originally wrote this article for the International Bloggers’ Association. I am vice-president for the organization and would love for you to join the IBA, an organization which seeks to elevate all bloggers.

Do I Really Need to Create a Blog Media Kit?

Let’s define a media kit first… A media kit is a set of pages containing a blog summary, statistics, and demographic information about your audience. It also contains work and collaborations and structured service offerings for potential partners.

Basically, a media kit says, “Hi! This is me, my blog, and why you should work with me!” 

We all know bloggers who send out media kits to help them grow income and opportunity. Conversely, we know many content creators who have never created a media kit and are succeeding. In this two-part series, we’ll look at the benefits of having one, whether to create or purchase a kit, and even how to leverage a media kit for your blog.

There are most likely affiliate links in this article, which could mean I may receive a commission if you purchase something mentioned in this post. To read more about my affiliate partners, see my full disclosure here.

The Benefits of a Media Kit

Many bloggers have the same questions: do I really need to create a blog media kit? How long should it be? Should I buy one or make one? In order to answer these questions, let’s examine three ways a media kit is beneficial:

1. Business Mindset

One of the biggest benefits of a media kit has nothing to do with working with sponsors! In creating one:

• you will structure your offerings and general pricing schedule.
• you give thought to your audience (metrics and surveys) that will help you position relevant content.

2. Timely Response

If you’re ever asked for a media kit by a brand, you can deliver a response quickly. Sometimes, the bloggers who respond the fastest are the ones who are able to capitalize on the opportunity!

3. Time-Saver

There are many times when small- to mid-sized brands will contact bloggers requesting posts for their product. If they didn’t indicate the pay rate for the partnership in their pitch email to you, you can respond with your media kit to educate and fish for a budget.

[Tweet “Should you buy or make your blog’s media kit? #contentmarketing”]

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Should I Buy or Create a Media Kit?

Bloggers have stiff competition these days. A clean, concise, and bold professional resume will help any blogger stand out, no matter their page views or history working with brands. My recommendation is to purchase a media kit design.

The benefits of purchasing a media kit:

1. Easily and Quickly Updated: Template creators make it easy. They know time is money in blogging, especially if you don’t have a team.
2. Focus on Growth: There are so many things in blogging you could be doing to focus on growth. Warring with margins, columns, and text boxes aren’t going to help you grow!
3. Design Expertise: Are you a designer? I am not, which is why I believe a few dollars spent on a template made by someone who IS trained in design is well worth the small fee.

If you want to be sure you’re getting an easily-updated, vibrantly-designed version for PC or Mac, check out HIP media kits (awesome affiliate). Many of my clients love these designs because they can customize them and update them quickly.

They can also easily create multiple media kits for their sites in order to help them win more sponsored posts!

Components of a Media Kit

If you want to spend the time to create a blog media kit yourself, there are a few general guidelines. Consider the design and make sure it doesn’t overpower the message. It is beneficial to include the following sections when you create your own media kit.

Introduction and Information

• Your blog name, URL, tagline, contact information, and a close-up picture of yourself is useful as a ‘get to know me’
• A short description of your blog. Consider this your “30-second elevator speech” and include your niche(s)
• Include a blurb explaining what makes you and your audience unique.

General Blog Statistics

• Follower counts (email subscribers, RSS feed followers, and social media fan count)
• Comparison metrics (Google Page Rank, Alexa rank, Klout score, monthly page views and visitors)
• Demographic data (gender, age, and country breakdown) from Google Analytics and Psychographic data (if you’ve done surveys)

Offerings and Partnerships

• Examples (links) to sponsored work of which you’re most proud
• Advertising options (newsletter, banners, sidebars, and in post advertisements, and pricing for each)
• Sponsored posts, ambassadorships, podcasts, social media shares, giveaway, and review options (pricing and offerings)

Additional resources on how to create a blog media kit yourself can be found at The Blog Maven, Melyssa Griffin, and Being Reese.

Summary

You can create a blog media kit or purchase one from a tried-and-true firm, but the key is to have one! Spending the time developing one now will put you into a business blogging mindset, and will have you pitching with confidence. Stay tuned for our next article on how to use your blog media kit.