Creating A Media Kit That Works – Sandbox To Success Ep 025

Listen to the Episode Below (00:16:32)
Get New Episodes In Your Inbox

Today on Episode 25 we’ll be talking about media kits, how to make your own and what’s included.

Creating A Media Kit That Works – Sandbox To Success Ep 025

Creating A Media Kit That Works

First, I’d like to say thank you for taking the time to listen! This is quite a milestone for me, so thanks for listening and thanks to those that have left a review. I’ll be going through our media kit and showing what we’ve done, and had success with to show you what works.

What is a Media Kit?

If you have a blog you’ve probably been asked for one before. They want to know how many followers you have, and how many people view your blog on a monthly basis.  What they’re trying to do is figure out how much of an influence you have. In blogging, everyone isn’t paid the same.  If you think of it in terms of sports, it’s like getting paid more to be in the major leagues than the minor leagues.  Same thing within in the team. You may have 10 million thousand a year players, and you may have $50,000 a year players. The difference comes with the skill and the reachability.  

Who Needs a Media Kit?

With a blog, I always say I want more traffic. I don’t try to get more money, because I know that if I can increase traffic by producing high-quality content, I can translate that into dollars. That’s the whole goal with us, because we are blogging as a business. If you don’t have a media kit right now, this is a great time to think about getting one. Even if you’re thinking, “Oh, I’m new and no one is really going to like this,” it’s still not a bad thing to have. Even if you have 1,000 page views a month, you might have tapped into a niche that is really hard to get people to tap into. For example, there are lots of food blogs that are very specific. They aren’t getting 100,000 page views per month. They may be getting 500, but show that they’re growing. You need to make sure you’re advertising with people that want the same thing that you do that.

You may be thinking that if you aren’t making money now, you’d be happy to take any money that comes your way. You can’t think this way. You have to think of your blog as more of a long-term thing. Blogging is something that generally speaking, people don’t get success with overnight. I’ve spent many hours achieving what I’ve built up to, plus Cat and our team as well.

Where Does The Media Kit Go?

We have our media kit on our website. It’s public and anyone can go look at it. Lots of bloggers make it on a PDF, and only send it when someone ask for it. We have ours public for two reasons:

  1. Anyone can see it at anytime, without needing to contact us. Potential advertisers can check and see if we’re a good fit for them and they’re a good fit for us. This saves time. You’re not a good fit for everyone.
  2. When someone requests the media kit, I can send them to the website. They can then look around the website and get a feel for what we do.

We are very specific in what we offer. We aren’t a blog that speaks about personal antidotes in our stories. We’re more of a specific “how to” blog. I’ve had people ask me to put more in, but I can’t get too much away from what we do, because it doesn’t fall in line with our blog.

Check out our media kits:

Thinking Outside The Sandbox: Family

Thinking Outside The Sandbox

So, the media kit. You want to explain who you are, what you do, what you have to offer, and what kind of reach you have. You don’t want to bury the headline. On our page you’ll see a big “download now” button on the top.  They can click on it and download the PDF, or scroll down to read the info right there. I explain who we are, and what makes us different. I also have a map showing where we are. This helps if they have something that is area specific. Sometimes if I’m not a good fit due to the area, I’ll throw out a referral for someone who may be a better fit… or maybe I’ll be a better fit in the future.

Next, we have who we are. We are a blog that focuses on children and family. There are certain things that we do NOT post about. We don’t post about weight loss, alcohol, drugs, tobacco, illegal activities or pornography, and gaming. They just aren’t a good fit for us. We do have five niche sites so maybe something that isn’t a good fit for this site may be a good fit for another… or maybe not.

Next, I put why they should work with us. When you’re working with someone, they’re looking to hire you. You’re a subcontractor. . There are other bloggers out there with the same niche and reach, so you need to explain why they should work with you instead. Our differentiator is that we prefer to create evergreen content. This helps us to be able to schedule them out 365 days a year rather than being subjected to a certain time and area.  We explain that with 59% of  our monthly users accessing our site through social sources, having us promote in this fashion is value added. That’s what we offer that’s value added. Maybe you do something different. Maybe you create videos and search optimize through YouTube. Maybe you are a photographer and offer high quality photos, that you may or may not offer the brand. Whatever sets you a part, include that.

What to include, at a glance:

  • Title
  • How to Contact us
  • URL
  • Email Address (we don’t talk to people on the phone because it isn’t’ practical so we prefer email).
  • A tiny blurb about who we are
  • Our stats (make sure you have Google Analytics installed. This is the standard, and what people expect). These are monthly stats. Don’t ever include your stats for what you’ve made all year, or since you’ve been blogging.
  • Behind the blog – your team, or just yourself and your background. This is a business, so keep it professional.
  • Something else I add is social proof. Who I’ve worked with in the past. I also reiterate who my audience is and where they come from.
  • What services we offer – we create recipes for people.  
  • How we like to be paid – we like to be paid via PayPal, but maybe you prefer check or credit card… it’s up to you.
  • Topics my viewers love to read.
  • Work samples – the type of post we right, photos we create, etc. If you’ve never worked with anyone before you want to start building your portfolio by reviewing things you like or things around the house.

I want every single person who advertises to me to be able to get the best experience from me.  Everything comes back to whether I’m a right fit. Will my audience love what they have to offer? That’s the main goal in any of our working relationships.

That’s it for today. I hope this was helpful! I’d love to see samples of your media kit, and what you do with them! Until next time, thanks for listening to the Sandbox to Success podcast, with your host: Katrina M. Thom. If you like what you just heard, leave us a message at ITunes or Stitcher.  We would also love to hear what you have to say. Use the hashtag  #totspodcast to connect with us on twitter. Don’t forget to check out the show notes, which can be found at www.totsbusiness.com. Join us next time for another edition of the Sandbox to Success podcast. Have an AWESOME day!

The post Creating A Media Kit That Works – Sandbox To Success Ep 025 appeared first on Thinking Outside The Sandbox.