Almost everyone wants to find a way to make money from their blog, whether they admit it or not. One of the best ways of doing that is to get direct advertisers on your site. What’s the first step to attracting those advertisers and getting them to reach out to you?

Billboard: Wikimedia Commons

Create a media kit for your blog.

Your blog media kit should contain similar information to what the magazines and newspapers use to sell advertisers. It needs to give potential sponsors an opportunity to learn some behind-the-scenes facts and stories which will supplement the content on your site. It’s almost like a resume for your blog.

Before you can entice advertisers to contact you, you need to answer several questions upfront, including advertising rates, key demographics, blog traffic information and your contact details. You also want to make sure that you include the possible ad sizes available so they know what they can do with your site.

Also, do you have any specific products or services you do not want to advertise for? Develop a strong, effective advertising policies for your site.

Make sure your blog media kit information is accurate, consistent and up to date. Check your kit monthly, to make sure that it is updated as your site grows.

The things that you need to be sure to include in your media kit are:

Blog profile

Start simple by tailoring your kit to describe your blog, define your blog values, describe your blog content and you personally.

Blog target audience/traffic

It is important to show the potential sponsor what they are buying. Your blog traffic and your blog target audience are two primary motivators for the advertiser. Keep working to build your blog traffic and be ready to share your blog traffic stats, number of RSS subscribers, and number of email newsletter subscribers.

External references

Add credibility to your blog by including external, third-party references. Include links from popular blogs to your content and also include links of your guest articles on other popular blogs. Also include third party rankings of your blog like Google PageRank and Alexa Ranking.

Be prepared to back up your blog traffic stats with graphics from your Google Analytics account. You may also need to grant the potential advertiser the access to your Analytics report. Google Analytics features a very safe option to do that without giving away your username and password.

Search engine rankings

When people search the Internet for keywords relevant to your potential advertiser and they end up on your blog, you have a key selling point. One of the most powerful strategies of selling advertisements is to show the potential sponsor how you rank in search engines for their product / service related keywords. Compile a list of keywords that you rank for that you can include in your blog media kit.

Advertising options / rates

Let the potential advertiser know what kind of advertising options you offer on your blog. Include the position of ads, the size of ads, show it by including a screenshot which has the potential ad position marked. Do not forget to include pricing for each of these ads.

Contact details

This is vital! Make sure to include all the contact details needed to get in touch with you.

When you’ve compiled all of this, create an attractive PDF that you can send to advertisers. Create an “Advertise” page within your site that gives advertisers a fast overview and some key points from your media kit to entice them to request your full kit!

This is something I’ve been meaning about to tell you about for sometime now - a little technique that I’ve developed to help me blog faster. I have three sites on the b5media network, and for them, I’m producing a minimum of 75 posts a month in order to keep my traffic up and fresh content available.

There’s a lot of content to produce; a lot of information to opine on, comment on  is a lot of content to produce, and finding fresh ideas, fresh thoughts on a weekly basis can be tough. Not only that but I’m affected strongly by “shiny object syndrome” - I spend a lot of time wandering around the internet, following links and hoping and praying in the back of my head that I don’t lose the thread 100% and that my browser doesn’t crash.

What I’ve discovered is that by following links and opening whichever window I’m interested in at the time can lead to some really interesting articles that I wouldn’t have found, and might not be able to find my way back to, without one lovely little Firefox Plugin: Tab Kit.

ScreenShot Tab Kit

I absolutely love this little plug-in. Basically, it allows you to open several tabs, colour codes the parent and child tabs and makes which you’ve read and which you haven’t.

The official description of what it does includes:

Tab Kit makes tabs more efficient for power users, allowing a wide variety of tweaks, all of which are optional, notably:

- Group tabs, by domain or opener (parent) tab, manually or automatically
- Multi-row tabs
- Vertical tab tree (with splitter)
- Sort tabs, by address, last loaded, last viewed, order of creation, origin or title
- Control new tab position and close order
- Easily duplicate tabs and copy/move them between windows by dragging
- Scrollwheel tab switch
- ‘Mouse rocker’ to go back/forward in history
- Highlight unread tabs (and emphasise current tab)
- Scrollbar instead of scroll arrows in over-long Bookmarks and All Tabs popups
- Open Selected Links feature

For me, what this does is allow me to trip across the internet, free to follow as many tabs as I want, as many as windows as I want. I know which ones I opened off which article.

Once I’ve opened as many articles as I’m interested in, I skim them, making sure I’ve got something to actually talk about, and then open as many Text Edit windows (or Notepad, depending on your operating system) as I’ve got stories to write about. And then off I go, cutting and pasting as need be - depending on which part of the story I want to quote, copy the links and off I go.

I’ve managed to knock off 5 or 6 posts in a couple of hours this way without issue. For me, that’s a week’s worth of posts for one of my sites, leaving me with 4 other days of the week to do everything else I’ve got going on!

Do you have any power blogger tips and tricks? What’s your favourite firefox or wordpress plugin that makes you more efficient?

Through a link on Twitter which I can no longer find unfortunately, I came across a 23 page report on Social Media Predictions for 2009. It’s been contributed by such greats as Chris Brogan, Charlene Li,  Joseph Jaffe, and Jason Falls. The information is invaluable, and it’s all fantastic reference for the book I’m working on about social media and public relations.

Social Media 2009

Given the fact that I’ve always considered the Air Force and the other military organizations as being pretty conservative, the fact that the Air Force has a well organized policy for social media interaction is totally impressive.

Not only do they have a Twitter account, a YouTube channel and Wigets and Podcasts as well as having Airmen proactively “counter-blog”, which is what they refer to replying to bloggers. They’ve got a complete, strategic flow chart for response, and of course have to be careful about what they reveal online.

I first found this through friends, but David Merman Scott also wrote about it - and had an interview with Capt. David Faggard, Chief of Emerging Technology at the Air Force Public Affairs Agency in the Pentagon.

Capt. Faggard told David that the Airforce has 330,000 communicators, because their goal is to have every airman act as a communicator. Their mission is to use current and developing Web 2.0 applications as a way to actively engage conversations between Airmen and the general public. It’s amazing to me, and to David, considering that so many private companies are so very gun-shy about all this new fangled technology stuff.

I’m thinking that the private companies should take a page from Capt. Faggard’s playbook and engage a little. It’s easy guys, I promise.

Check out David’s interview with Capt. Faggard and check out the blogger chart here. 

This evening was Vancouver’s monthly Third Tuesday, where Mhairi Petrovic, the founder of Out Smarts, explained how to sell social marketing to the traditional marketing decision makers. Raul (aka Hummingbird 604) live-blogged the event.

The information was fantastic, and I thought it needed a wider audience. The full post from Raul is here, but the salient points are below.

Some of the primary objections to social media that traditional marketers have to social media include: 

1) “We already use social media” Complete misconception -  having a website or a facebook page is not participating in social media.  

2) Perceived as a tool for only the younger set. This is a misconception. Yes, MySpace was adopted by young music lovers. The over 35 demographic is the fastest growing sector of the users of Internet. Social networks for professionals are the fastest growing social media segment. 

3) Social media does not apply to me. Technorati and its State of the Blogosphere report stated that they have 133 million blogs in 36 countries. 100 million people on MySpace, 140 million people on Facebook, 20 million photos on Flickr. You have to join in the conversation, before you get left behind.

4) Social media as simply a fad. It’s got no long term/staying power. The case of Friendster is commonly cited as the example of social media being a fad. This is only one case, but the first blog is dated 1982 so it’s not a flash in the pan. If you don’t start using these new technologies NOW you, and more importantly, your business, risk getting left behind.

5) The need for transparency and the fear of losing control of your brand. Those that need to control every press release and make sure that what is being said meets the party line think that social media is too risky. Business owners who think that participation in social media makes you vulnerable and means that you lose control of your brand need to learn this is not the case. Participating in social media means that you actually get more control than you may have had previously - you can respond to any negative comments and move the discussion to your corporate blog.

6) The need for privacy. LinkedIn and Facebook have privacy settings. Set appropriate limits both in terms of who to add and what information you put out there. You control the content. Don’t put EVERYTHING if you feel that it may infringe on your privacy. Use these tools appropriately, understand that you’re in control, and limit your risk by using these technologies in the right way.

7) “Social Media is just fluff.”  People say that Facebook is just fluff - all those zombies and bunnies and garden patches! But the sheer volume of people using it, shows that there is relevance in it. There is a lot of fluff in TV but that doesn’t stop companies from spending billions in advertisements in these media. Your company can benefit from social media if you implement the tools appropriately.

“I don’t have time for social media”  This excuse allows people to negate doing something that they have to do. You can’t afford not to at least consider what your competition is doing with social media and to find out what you can do with social media. You can reach your customers more effectively through social media and by building community. Overall, a social media campaign costs less than a traditional campaign. You may need to hire someone to help you navigate the social media waters and to do it correctly, but that cost will only be a positive investment. 

9) “The only professional way of doing it is the traditional way.” Social media tends to be seen as either “for, or by amateurs”. Social media strategists are considered snake oil salesmen still. Social media is NOT only for amateurs, it’s not an appropriate comment at all. For people who only do traditional marketing, they should transfer the budget for those projects to social media for one month to see how it effects it.

10) “Show me the money. Where is the ROI (Return On Investment)”. There is a dearth of information (publicly available - what has been the return on investment in social media?). Wal-Mart episode - got bad marketing. Mazda did a similar thing. Despite their huge presence, they still had to lay off people and cut off costs. Social media-based marketing is not the end and be all, but it is a component that you can use in your marketing arsenal. Traditional marketing campaigns are even harder to measure in terms of ROI.

Mhairi’s main and central example on huge ROI for using social media - a UK company “ WigglyWigglers” that engaged in a great social media campaign. This is a gardening company. They have a podcast, YouTube channel, a blog, a newsletter and they use them actively to share information on the worms for gardening. The result: they now have over 40,000 podcast subscribers, 43,000 newsletter subscribers, more than 800 friends on Facebook, customers in New Zealand and North America, they’ve improved their Google Page Rank massively, online sales 50% of their total sales, and they’ve done this all with a 97% reduction in their advertising costs. That really proves the ROI on these technologies.

The bottom line is that traditional marketers can no longer ignore the benefits of social media. All the results attest to the fact that traditional, old-school marketers need to learn some of these tools, and harnessing these tools can only benefit you. 

Blogworld Expo really threw a wrench in my blogging routine. I was scrambling to get packed and ready to leave, and in that scramble, managed to completely miss my entire pre-posting regime that I normally subscribe to. Instead, now that I’m back and awake, I’m scrambling to get caught up again.

So, what do you do if you’ve lost your blogging mojo?

Well, for me, I write posts like this and start looking around to see what others are writing. I go through my (neglected) google reader and find posts that intrigue me. Can I add to them? What are my thoughts? What caused me to save that particular post? (image source: Termie on Flickr)

There’s always something thought provoking out there, it’s just a matter of getting your ‘oomph’ back to find it.  Go back through your starred items in Google Reader. Maybe you declare google reader bankruptcy and start fresh with only the few that are new since you pulled the plug?

The main point is, much like getting thrown off the horse, you just have to climb back on. Your readers want to see your new content, your new thoughts. They want to see what you’ve got to say, so just go say it.  Don’t apologize for your absence. That just draws even more attention to it.

Also, try and set yourself a goal of how many posts you need to have done by the end of the week, or if you’re just climbing back onto the horse today, till the end of the month. Personally, I’ve set a goal to achieve by the end of the month for here and Drinks After Dark to get back in the groove.

I’m writing up a mini editorial calendar and ideas to get covered off in the next few days and ideally, those thoughts will put me right back on track!

What do you do when you lose your blogging mojo? Do you have a good technique that might help me?

Jason Calacanis thinks so.

I’ve gotten more press than any entrepreneur could dream of–certainly more than I deserve–and I’ve never had a public relations firm working for me. [source]

Ok, fair enough, and I agree with Jason for the most part. I don’t think that all start ups need PR. What’s pissed me off about Jason’s article is his overall perception of the industry.

You must realize that journalists are constantly getting banged by lazy, clueless PR folks who fire first and don’t understand what the word "aim" even means.

Now, while that can be true, not all of the PR people in the world are lazy or clueless. In fact, painting all of the PR people in the world with that same brush is like a Canadian (yes, that’d be me) saying that all Americans are fat and ignorant.

When I was doing PR full time, I was adamant about doing it right, not being clueless about anything I pitched or the way I pitched it, when I made phone calls, who I pitched, what they covered etc.  Even more important, now as a journalist, I want to be pitched properly. I’ve written about this in the past, and I suspect it won’t be the last time.

So, yes, take a look at Jason’s tips for doing PR for your startup, but make sure that if you’re pitching a reporter, that you’re doing it right! Don’t ask if they got your release. Make sure you know the beat your target is covering and for the love of god, don’t get upset if they say no.

Like I said, I’m sure that I’ll revisit this because, well, I’m still getting shitty pitches, so until that changes, I’ll keep harping on it.

First there was Janet and the Exxon Mobile twitter debacle, and now, Tim Walker uncovered the fact that the American Airlines twitter account was a fake as well. AA is aware of the situation and is taking care of it.

So, is Twitter, which is primarily a tool for individuals, right for brands? Some brands are doing it right, for sure. Zappos definitely is. Jetblue is out there and so is the New York Times. But I wonder if before brands jump into the Twitter arena with both feet whether it’s really the best place for them. Are they spending time as people, just being in the community?

Twitter is the simultaneously most difficult to explain and coolest social communications platform ever, but brands need to tread carefully when signing up. Think about what your goals are where your Twitter account is concerned and make sure you really join the community rather than just use it as a bullhorn.

I write on at least two sites (right now at least), six or more times a week. Sometimes, it’s hard to find the inspiration to keep going.

There’s a couple of ways that I’ve found to do this. I used to find it a bit tricky to rely on daily motivation for BuzzNetworker, until I started utilizing the Google Reader starred items feature along with the offline feature.

You can see above that I’ve been collecting posts from all sorts of different places, but I tend to frequent Chris Brogan, Jeremiah Owyang, Andy Beal, and Mack Collier for BuzzNetworker, and a host of liquor and wine blogs for DrinksAfterDark.

If I don’t find something that immediately strikes my fancy and that I have an opinion about, I dip into my starred items – whether I’m on, or offline – and remind myself what caused me to save the post in the first place.  Essentially, I’ve been keeping a gold mine of potential posts in my Google Reader.

The other thing that I’ve done, which I find immensely helpful, especially where Drinks After Dark is concerned, is create an editorial calendar.

Now, I personally find this easier to create for Drinks After Dark than it is for BuzzNetworker. I just think I haven’t put enough thought into what I want to do with BuzzNetworker yet.

Where do you find the inspiration to keep blogging?

Um. No. And yet, Jennifer Leggio, a dear Twitter friend and an uber smart security chick, had to point that out to people on her ZDnet Blog.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I completely agree with Jennifer, as well as with Al Krueger from Comet Branding whose post, “Regurgitator or Originator”, is what brought the whole Copy+Paste+Publish phenomenon to light.

Copy+Paste+Blog is when the blog author does one of the following:

• Posts only snippets of another blog with a link to said blog, sometimes posing a question but rarely offering additional ideas
• Using a blog solely for research and referencing that blog without doing the background work on his or her own 

Yes, I totally cut and pasted that from Jennifer, and like she said, if I wanted to just C/P/P, I’d ask you what you think and sign off. But that to me seems like lazy blogging. Where’s the author’s own opinion or voice here? If you just cut+paste+publish, why are you even bothering to blog?

I read blogs for the opinions and information offered by the author. Sure, I use a good number of blogs as source information, but I also make sure that I track down additional news stories, the original blog articles and additional opinions as well so that I can add to the conversation, not just regurgitate other people’s words. And if I can’t find something that I want to add to the conversation, then I don’t bother blogging it. There’s tons of other things in the world to blog about.

If you want to make sure that you’ve got your own thoughts out there – there’s some things you’ve got keep in mind, particularly the tenets of traditional journalism. To me, these were no brainers, but then I come from a PR/Journalism background. It’s just a given to me to follow the trail and find out what I can before posting madly.

If you remember these two things (well, ok it’s kinda three or four things in two points, but you’re smart. You’ll find it all), you should manage to avoid the majority of the problems Cut – N – Paste blogging presents:

• Don’t bandwagon jump – climbing onto the “me too!” bandwagon is only going to stir up the waters more, instead of adding to the conversation.  If you haven’t experienced something for yourself, and you don’t go tracking down the original information, then shush.
• Which brings me to: Find your own sources. Yes, absolutely, use the blogs you read as inspiration, but make sure you’ve got the true story and also that you formulate your own ideas, opinions and sources.

(image source: Vinyl Pulse)