BlogTalk: Media Kit

As a follow-up to last week's conversation on Advertising, I thought this would be a good topic to tackle next: what to put in your media kit.

So what is a media kit? Basically, its a tool you use to sell you - your brand and your blog. Its written for anyone you want to attract. That could include brands you want to work with, businesses you want to advertise on your site, or traditional media (magazines, newspapers etc.) that perhaps want to pitch a story to. In short, its your best promotional vehicle.

What goes in a media kit? There are a few essentials:

Blog Overview: What is your blog all about? What do you write about? Give people a taste of your site by including photos of projects you've done and highlighting some of your most popular posts. List some memorable quotes and comments from your readers too.

Statistics: There are a few key numbers that you should include in your media kit. There are tons of sources for these stats but I've indicated the most common.

• Page views per month (Google Analytics)
• Unique visitors per month (Google Analytics)
• RSS subscriptions (Feedburner)
• Time on site (Google Analytics)

Reader Demographics: Brands and advertisers will want to know who your readers are. The standard variables you should include are

• Gender
• Age
• Income
• Education

but beyond that you will want to include things like what are their interests and hobbies? Do they have children or not? What and where do they spend their disposable income? So how do you find out this information? Alexa.com provides limited demographics. You might also be able to glean it from comments your readers leave, or be straightforward and ask them in a survey.

Advertising Rates: Figure out your rates and different advertising options. Don't know what to charge? Do a bit of research and find out what other bloggers in your niche are charging.

Press Mentions & Testimonials: Have you been featured by traditional media (magazines, newspapers, TV)? You'll want to mention that here. I'd also include any features from notable online sites (such as Apartment Therapy or Design*Sponge). Basically, you want to convey that you have a media presence and are garnering attention.

You can also include testimonials from anyone who can attest to your awesomeness. This could include past advertisers who had great response from their ads on your site, or a satisfied customer from your etsy shop.

So that's it... a basic media kit. What do you think? Anything I've missed?

Full disclosure: while I think a media kit is an excellent thing to have, I actually don't have one. Yet ;)