Making Your Smutlancer Media Kit

We’ve discussed creating a smutlancer portfolio — something that lets you showcase the work you’ve done to encourage other brands and companies to hire you to do similar work. But there’s another tool you can use to get attention from brands and earn money — a media kit.

While they’re not as well known in the sex blogging world, they can definitely be useful. Here’s what you need to know about what it is, how it can be used, and how to make one for yourself.

What is a Media Kit?

A media kit is a one or two-page document that summarizes who you are as a creator, what your online space (blog, YouTube channel, or podcast) is about, and how big your audience is. This is your calling card when you pitch a brand to work with you. It’s also what lets brands know that they should want to work with you because you’ve got an audience they want to get in front of.

If “kit” makes you think of reams of paper and binders of information, take a deep breath. All you’re going to do is compile information that gives brands a snapshot of who you are and why you’re someone to work with.

How Does It Help You?

Media kits can be used for a variety of paid opportunities. They’re not used to convince clients to hire you. They help you get paid for gigs directly related to your brand, your audience, and the content you create:

• Sponsored blog posts
• Podcast sponsorships
• Website sponsors
• Banner ads
• Social media influencer — posting to social media on behalf of an adult brand

What Goes Into a Media Kit?

A media kit can be as complex or simple as you want it to be. In general, most have specific elements:

• An introduction of you and your sex blog or website
• Relevant graphics and or photos — your blog icon, pictures you’ve used on your blog, screenshots of your home page
• Statistics about your site and audience
  • Page views to your site per month
  • Unique visitors to your site per month
  • Subscribers on your YouTube channel
  • Downloads of your podcast
  • Sources of traffic to your site, podcast, or channel
  • Social media following for each platform you’re on
  • Any other statistic that lets a brand know the size of your audience
• Testimonials from happy brands or audience members
• Policies for working with you
  • What kind of opportunities you offer
  • Prices
  • Whether giveaways or reviews are available
  • Available ad sizes

The thing to remember about a media kit is that you only have to put in the information you want. None of this is set in stone. If you want to keep your prices fluid, either omit the exact amount or give a range of “typical” prices. (I use language like, “Prices starting at…” so there should be no objection if my quote is higher.) If you don’t offer certain things (like banner ads), don’t include it.

What’s Most Important in Your Media Kit

The most important aspect of a media kit is giving any potential brand a quick glance of who you are (so they know you’re a potential fit) and the size of your audience. Having a small audience doesn’t automatically disqualify you from working with a brand — but it may dictate how much they’re willing to pay you.

You set your own rates, and there’s nothing wrong with sticking to them. But there’s also nothing wrong with negotiating to find a number both you and the brand can work with. Your media kit acts as a starting point for those negotiations.

Never fudge your numbers on your media kit.

Most of them are too easy to check (like social media followers). And if you can’t deliver engagement or clicks proportionate to the audience size you claim to have, you lose your chance at repeat business.

How to Make a Media Kit

Once you have the information from the list above, making a media kit can be as easy as plugging in the information.

My preference is that a media kit should be one page, two at most — someone who has never heard of you is unlikely to skim through multiple pages. But a Word Document with a bullet point list isn’t going to cut it. You need something that will catch someone’s eye and help them take in a lot of information at once.

If you’re good with graphics, layout, and design, you can probably whip up something in no time. I, however, am graphically-challenged, so I use FREE templates.

My personal favorite is Canva. The free level offers plenty of customization, and they have several layouts to choose from. All you need to do is replace the text and graphics, change the fonts, and customize the colors. Voila, you’ve got a professional media kit that you can update as you need.

Create a Media Kit with Canva here

Speaking of updating media kits: Ideally you’ll update your media kit every few months, especially if your audience grows significantly. At the very least, update it once a year. I find that I tend to update it when someone asks for it but that can be a hassle.

Once you’ve created your media kit, save it as a PDF. From there, you can upload it to your site and link it in your “Work With Me” page or your advertising disclosure or wherever makes sense for you. When you want to send it to someone, you can send them a link or just attach the PDF.

Media Kits are Living Documents

As your brand grows and changes and as you gain an audience, your media kit will change too. If you go through a restructure of your sex blog — changing colors and graphics, you may need to update your media kit to reflect that. If you get an amazing testimonial, it’ll be something you want to add. Certainly as your social media followers and blog views grow and change, your media kit will need to reflect that.

A media kit might be your splashy ad for what makes you the right content creator to work with, but it’s also a living document. It grows and changes as you grow and change. And it’s the easiest way to give adult brands an idea of who and what you are — so maybe they’ll say yes when you start talking about partnerships and money.

Okay, over to you…do you have a media kit? If so, what did you use to make it? How often do you update it? If you don’t have one, do you think you’ll make one?