WOMInfo Custom Media Kit Giveaway!

WOMInfo

We’ve all got different reasons for blogging; it can be an outlet, a chronicle, a community and more. But blogging can also help your bottom line. It’s no surprise that there are a myriad of ways to make money blogging like sponsorships, giveaways, and reviews, but for lots of bloggers it’s hard to figure out how to get started.

When I went to my first blog conference, I can’t even tell you how many people told me I needed to have an elevator pitch: Basically a twenty second spiel that dazzles everyone from casual readers to brand representatives so much that they become an adoring fan or a blog sponsor. Or something like that.

Turns out it isn’t quite that simple. There’s a lot more to developing brand relationships than just stalking people in an elevator.

One of the tools that can really help is a media kit. A media kit is basically a one- or two-page snapshot that presents your blog – your brand – to potential partners or sponsors. It combines your “elevator pitch” with some quick statistics about your audience and your contact information. You can include awards, memberships, and past brand campaigns. It’s basically a resume for bloggers. You also display your advertising rates or other opportunities for companies to get involved. So, it’s also kind of like a take-out menu – the PR representatives can look over the options and pick what works best for them.

WOMInfo makes media kits simple. With their very reasonably priced Custom Media Kit option, you pick from one of their templates, fill out a survey with your information, and they do the rest. You get to include your photo and your own logo, so your media kit matches your brand identity. The process was quick, easy, and painless. In fact, it was so easy, it’s hard to say much else about it. It just worked.

See the results for yourself:

Before you know it, you’ll have a professional way to introduce yourself and your blog, and that just might help potential sponsors take you more seriously. Then you’ve got to start putting yourself out there: look for brands that fit in with your life and look for brands that work with bloggers. Armed with your media kit, you can send a short email to PR representatives with just a quick, catchy email about yourself with a couple of your strongest selling points and invite them to get “the rest of the story” in your attached media kit.

WOMInfo also has lots of tips on getting started in monetizing your blog and building your business, so make sure you check those out.

And one of you lucky readers will win your very own media kit from WOMInfo in Blogger Idol’s first ever giveaway.

All you have to do is enter on the Rafflecopter widget below. The giveaway is open worldwide, and you will receive the details for your custom media kit, as well as the media kit itself, via email. The giveaway ends October 24, 2012.


a Rafflecopter giveaway
Blogger Idol received a custom media kit as compensation for this post. This did not affect our opinions of the product. All opinions and statements are 100% our own.

What the Judges Are Thinking: Week 4

Hello. Your good buddy DKL here, back to report what the judges have told me they want to see from the contestants this week. But first, I have something to say about your cakewalk assignment this week: Superheroes? Really? How cool is THAT? Consider yourselves lucky, Top 9. We had vampires last year. That's right. A day in the life of our family as if we were VAMPIRES. Real cute, Little Miss Twilight-Lover Heather. We all nearly revolted. (Here is my vampire post from last year.)

Your assignment is so much cooler than ours was. And the judges are super psyched to read what you put together. All of our judges are returning for their second go-around of judging this week, including our guest judge. So let's get right to what they're thinking:

One of them knows a thing or two about superheroes. He's the Sooperdad, and here's what he says:

"Being semi-well versed in superheroedness (It's a word, Mrs. C., Trust me.), I'm looking for originality. Invisibility, flying, super speed are great powers, but somewhat trite. Like the hipsters of the superhero universe. Again, grammar doesn't concern me as much as spelling. KEEP MY ATTENTION. I have a short attention span. So make your post interesting! Funny, heartfelt, intelligent, toilet humor, it doesn't matter. As long as it's interesting. (To ME, because I know everyone's tastes are different. Like Daddy's In Charge prefers double malt scotch, but Wildflowers & Whimsy likes moonshine. I just like cheeseburgers.) Good luck contestants!"

Our guest judge this week is the one and only Tara from You Know It happens at Your House Too. I was sneaky the last time she judged, and didn't share her insights. I won't do that to you this time:

"I still want to be entertained. I am not the grammar police. I know I don't always use proper grammar. So I don't feel it would be fair to judge others on that fact alone. (Damn, are you sure I'm qualified to do this?) It doesn't mean I am not looking at it. We all know it is important, but it is not the most important part of a great blog for me. I want to be entertained. I want to feel as if I am sitting in the room with the writer and they are telling me the story. I would hope that the contestants would take into consideration any constructive criticisms that are offered, mainly because it's part of this competition.

This week I would hope to get to know the contestants and their families. I think this assignment offers so many openings for greatness and hilarity. I truly hope to see some incredible creativity, not just a replay of a Disney Movie."

Tessa Taboo, the potty mouth who is not afraid to be brutally honest, also has high expectations this week:

"Superheroes should be powerful. I want to see something that shows your super power. I don't want to see nine stories about how your super power is raising children, or something like that. This is a chance to take the reader on a kryptonite-infused journey of your day. I also think that pictures could make or break the posts this week. A small piece of advice: It only takes a minute to read your post out loud before you are done, but it could be the thing that saves you."

I totally agree with her last point, because I gave you the same advice last week. (Did you read it?  Are you listening?)

Next, my sweet and snarky friend Roni, The Mommy-In-Law is pulling back-to-back judging duty and it turns out she's more sweet than snark (I could have told you that):

"After judging last week, I realized how much I hate being a judge. I don't like to hurt people's feelings. Especially when it comes to something as personal as their writing. But, I signed up for it. So I've got no choice. I went in expecting to be Simon but quickly learned I was more of a Randy... not too mean, not too nice. 

This week I'm looking for creativity (as always). This is a hard topic (I know because I had to do this myself last year). Make me laugh, people! Or cry! Or think. Catch my attention! Can't wait to read them.

Lisa, The Spaghetti Westerner, is arguably the nicest judge of all of us. She's back to be nice to you again this week. But don't be fooled by her kind critiques. She was right up there leading the revolt against the vampire nonsense that was thrown at us last year. (Roni too.) You've also got Chris, ...from the Bungalow. He's the guy who's going to count the spaces between your sentences but give you arguably the most honest, detailed, and helpful constructive criticism out of the bunch.

Now for the DKL Tip of the Week: It's about getting votes. You know what I did? I personally emailed  all of my close family and friends with the link. Both days. Every week. And I have a gigantic Italian family. I did it at work too. Both days. I work at a major television network, and THIS is what I was emailing almost EVERYONE two days out of the week. I totally admitted I was being annoying. But I promised them my undying love. And in the case of my co-workers, I promised them cookies. Don't be too proud to beg. Just know that your followers might find it annoying. Being entertaining and creative with them (and admitting you're being a little annoying) is key.

I hope you all embrace this assignment and make this very hard on the judges. Until next week, may the judges' scores and the votes be ever in your favor.

Week 4 Play-at-Home Link Up!

I've had several people ask if there are deadlines for when to post your link. There is not a deadline. The Link Ups are set up to be open for a year, so even if you wanted to go back to Week 1 and do that post right now, you still can!

Here is this week's assignment:

In Week 2, you wrote a fictional tale of a day in the life of you, but as the opposing gender. This time, you are writing about a regular day in the life of your whole family, but how it would go down if you were all super heroes. There is no length requirements, but somehow, you must work the words: frazzled, ukulele, and horse into your post. Don't forget the pics!