If you’re a blogger and you want to make money, you need to have a media kit. It is an essential! But even if you know that, it can be difficult to know how to go about making one. In this post, I’m going to share what is a media kit, why you need a media kit, when you should use a media kit, how to make a media kit, and what you should and shouldn’t put in a media kit.

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Your Guide to Making and Using a Media Kit as a Blogger

What You Should Know about Media Kits

A media kit is one handy bit that has everything a potential collaborate could want. It holds your statistics – as many as possible – the services you offer, how to reach you, about your blog, and sometimes the prices that you charge for your services.

Your media kit is your blog’s resume.

It is an overview of everything you’ve done and everything you’ve achieved.

It is the place to brag about your blog.

You might not know a ton about media kits, and that’s okay. That’s why this blog post is happening! But that’s all because media kits are used behind the scenes.

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Why Do You Need a Media Kit?

1. It makes you more professional and trustworthy. Having a media kit means that you are a professional. You have thought through what services you offer and have experience providing them. You also have proof of your reach and what partners will be getting with their money. Additionally, potential partners will know that they’re being offered the same price as others.

2. It reduces the time you spend on emails. When someone reaches out to you to work with them, instead of typing out a whole thing, you can reply quickly. My go-to response is something like: Thank you for your interest! I have attached my media kit, which includes what I offer and the prices I charge. Please let me know if you have any questions.

3. It explains the services you provide, which can attract more partnerships. You might offer a service that a company was not considering, or your prices might point someone in one direction rather than another. With a media kit, you have everything in just a page or two.

When To Use a Media Kit

When someone emails you for a partnership – Whether or not someone asks for a media kit, if they want to work with you, you should send them your media kit. This way, you can make sure that you are sending them everything you need. Like I said, having a media kit reduces the amount of time I spend on emails. I explain in the body of the email that I’m attaching my media kit and that it includes examples, rates, and data.

When you’re pitching someone for a partnership – I don’t do a lot of this, but my friend Austen Tosone wrote an ebook on pitching called Right on Pitch. She says:

“I’ve been paid to partner with brands like Glossier, The New York Times, and Walmart because I was able to convince them that out of thousands of other bloggers, I could help tell their stories in a way that my audience would understand and relate to” (x).

If you pitch someone, you should include your media kit.

When you’re setting up your account on blogger-to-company intermediaries – These are sites that help you get partnerships. Sometimes, those sites have you input all of your data, so your profiles can sometimes work as a media kit. But sometimes, you have the ability to upload your media kit or any relevant files.

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How To Make a Media Kit

1. Pick a tool to make your media kit – I use Canva for mine, and it’s an easy (and free!) tool to use. I suggest making a PDF print that’s the size of a standard page.

2. Gather your blog’s statistics – Check out your Google Analytics statistics, check out your website host’s statistics, take screenshots, gather the number of followers you have for each of your social media platforms, maybe take screenshots of the insight page for your Instagram, etc. You need to have all the data in order to make your media kit.

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3. Pick what images you want to use – You might include a combination of: a picture of you; some images that are examples of your sponsored work, whether that be for Instagram or your blog; some images that are examples of your regular work; or something else entirely.

4. Take screenshots of your statistics – Anyone can say they get 100k page views a day. So you need screenshots to back up what you’re saying. Like I mentioned above, there are a whole bunch of different statistics you might include. Pick what is applicable for you.

5. Figure out whatever services you want to offer – Do you want to do sponsored blog posts? What about sponsored Instagram posts? Basically, whatever you offer or want to offer, you should include it on your media kit. But most importantly, include some statement about how if they don’t see an offer that they’re interested in, you are open to discussion. (Unless you’re not, which is also fine.)

6. Figure out what policies you have – Some of these are simple: if you’re in the US and you’re going to have sponsored opportunities, you have to use nofollow links. It’s the law. So you’ll want to mention that. You can also include your payment policy – when do you expect payment and what happens if they don’t follow through? For example, my policy is that I haven’t received payment 2 business days after the post has gone up, then I take the post down until I receive it. (I’ve only had to enforce this once, thankfully.) Whatever policies you have, it’s good to include them on your media kit.

7. Compile it all in your media kit! – This is pretty simple – put it all together! Once you’re done, download it. You’re all set!

Now that I’ve covered those steps, here is some more specific info on what you should and shouldn’t include.

What you should include in your media kit

Blog statistics – Some statistics you might include are unique visitors, unique page views, unique sessions, bounce rate, etc. Like I mentioned, use screenshots! You can use your average of these statistics and/or your statistics for the past year. I like to do an average because these stats can vary a lot over the course of the year. Generally, for example, my stats are lower in the summer because people are off doing summer things.

Social media followers – I suggest you use individual followers per network and total reach. So x Instagram followers, x Twitter followers, x Pinterest followers, etc. Then, I like to combine the numbers of all of my social media followers and my average total of unique visitors per year.

Examples of successful posts – This is a way for you to brag about yourself and to also give people an idea of what you post. As I build my media kit in Canva, I also link these posts to those posts so people can go check out those posts.

Examples of past sponsored posts – This is another way for you to brag about yourself. You can show off the partnerships you’ve had before and also to give people an idea of what your sponsored work looks like. Again, I like to link to those posts.

Rates – This is totally up to you, but if you’re worried about potential partnerships trying to negotiate low, it’s good to include your rates. I really suggest trying to figure out what other bloggers of your caliber are charging for sponsored posts. Contact them directly (privately) to ask, or search for a formula to use. These formulas generally use page views, visitors, engagement rates, and more.

Policies – Like I mentioned above, it’s good to have your policies clearly written in your media kit.

What you shouldn’t include in your media kit

Fake or manipulated statistics – Like I’ve mentioned, your integrity is super important. Do not fake or manipulate your statistics!

A sponsored thing that you don’t want to do – If you’re not interested in doing some sort of partnership, don’t include it in your media kit. Even if you think you have to put them, don’t offer something you’re not interested it.

If you want to build a media kit but you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed, my ebook for chronic health bloggers has a Canva media kit template based on my own.

There are 10 other awesome resources for bloggers, especially chronic health bloggers, in my ebook. The ebook itself is just $10, and it’s worth over $140. Get it here!

Like this post? Share it! Then check out these posts:

How I Manage Social Media Platforms for My Blog, 13 Blog Strategies for 2021, What Blogging Platform Should I Use?, The Dos and Dont’s of How To Get Your Blog Noticed