Like most bloggers, my goal is to share content and generate a decent online income at the same time.
If you’re like me, you probably soon realize that is goal is pretty lofty.
Realistically, it will take years to accomplish unless you’re an SEO wizard.
While I’m doing my best with my SEO efforts, I wouldn’t say no to a revenue boost.
That’s where Mediavine comes in.
In this Mediavine review, I’ll explain its services and show you why it’s my chosen ad platform.
You might want to make the switch, too!
Let’s get to it.
What is Mediavine?
I’m sure ads have crossed your mind in your search for site monetization strategies.
With enough traffic, display ads can be a passive source of revenue in addition to affiliate marketing, sponsored content, and product sales.
With Mediavine’s help, bloggers can now earn more money from less obtrusive display ads than ever before.
It is an ad management tool that works with publishers across all industries.
The company was founded in 2004 and has its headquarters in the Greater Miami Area.
Its main focus is managing display ad placements for website publishers.
While they do specialize in ads, you shouldn’t limit their potential uses to that alone.
They also offer a plethora of other features that can improve your site’s functionality and draw more visitors.
How Mediavine Works
Mediavine takes ad management off your plate, leaving you to focus on what you do best: making content!
Following Mediavine’s approval, all you need to do to start monetizing your site is to implement their script.
You can leave all the technical details to them.
That’s all there is to it.
Mediavine provides this service for a cut of the advertising income that they will generate for you.
This business model has turned Mediavine into one of the biggest ad management services.
They have tons of mutually beneficial partnerships with thousands of publishers around the globe.
And since they’ve been around for a while, they know how to make sites and site owners thrive.
How To Join Mediavine
Getting your monthly page views up to 50,000 is the most important metric for consideration by Mediavine.
Getting there is fairly manageable.
In a nutshell, you consistently need to produce unique and engaging long-form content.
Pinterest and other social media sites may be a reliable source of traffic for some bloggers.
However, Mediavine is interested in the more stable organic traffic that can be attracted from Google searches.
You should prioritize SEO and provide readers with valuable content.
If you’re not quite there yet, please don’t pay to get more visitors.
Mediavine and its advertising partners will use specialized tools and methods to ensure that the traffic you are receiving is legitimate.
If you pay for visitors, you will either be rejected as a user or permanently barred from the site.
Don’t be impatient!
The following are some ways to build traffic naturally.
Tips For Qualifying For Mediavine
Conduct Keyword Research
Keyword research is paramount when it comes to creating blog posts.
I suggest using a keyword research tool.
With most of these tools, you just have to type in a subject that you’re interested in writing about.
They will then generate a collection of suggested keywords from long-tail searches.
You can find out how many people are looking up specific terms and how tough it is to rank for.
Publish Long-form Posts
Since long-form content performs well in search engine results and provides more real estate for Mediavine’s advertising partners, it’s no surprise that the company prefers it.
A long blog post more time spent reading and scrolling, which means more exposure to ads.
Build Links
When determining a page’s ranking, Google takes into account a variety of variables, one of which is the total number of links that lead to it.
You should work on getting links to your newly created, high-quality content.
Building links is a challenging task, but there are many strategies you can apply to succeed.
Get the ball rolling by distributing your content in various online communities.
The next step is to send out emails requesting links to your articles.
You can contact the brand or business you mentioned in your article by sending an email.
It’s possible they’ll share your work or refer to it on their site.
You can also look for related posts and send an email to the owner recommending they use your work as a source.
You can also engage in link exchanges, where someone links to your piece, and you link to theirs.
Promote Your Work
Adding guest posts to other blogs can help you reach a broader audience.
You can also reach out to other creators and see if they would be open to publishing a post about you.
Even though organic search should make up the bulk of your website’s traffic, it also doesn’t harm to get a little help from Pinterest.
Build an Email List
Optimizing your website for search engines and using visual bookmarking tools like Pinterest are both excellent strategies for expanding your online audience.
But the issue is how to keep readers coming back for more.
One solution is email marketing.
To convert casual site users into dedicated followers, nothing beats the convenience of an email list.
Subscribers to your mailing list will benefit from:
- Regular updates on every piece of content you put out
- Being given the option to share your posts on social media
- Being given a chance to purchase your products at a discount
Break Up Your Text and Use Bigger Fonts
Mediavine will evaluate the length of your articles as part of their review process.
If you want people to spend more time on your site, they recommend making the typeface bigger and the paragraphs shorter.
By breaking up text into smaller chunks, they can squeeze in more advertising.
This is also great for mobile optimization.
The Mediavine Onboarding Process
Let’s say you’ve sorted out everything you need to qualify for the Mediavine ad network.
Congrats!
Now, let’s go over the steps involved in the Mediavine onboarding process, which are:
- Filling out your application form
- Proving your traffic is real
- Signing a contract
- Preparing your new website for launch
After submitting your application to Mediavine, you will receive an email with instructions for verifying your traffic with Mediavine’s ad partners.
They will show you, in detail, how to export the last 30 days’ worth of traffic data from Google Analytics as a PDF.
You should then send them the PDF you just created so they can verify your traffic’s authenticity.
After everything is finalized, the Mediavine team will give you a contract via the e-signing service SignNow.
If everything proceeds smoothly, you’ll be given your account details and access to the Mediavine Dashboard.
Mediavine will then send you a document outlining the final steps you need to take before launching.
These steps typically involve the following:
- Granting Mediavine read and write access to your Google Analytics
- Clearing sharing buttons and widgets that might conflict with Mediavine’s adhesion units
- Setting up your payment profile
- Completing an influencer survey
- Filling out your privacy policy tab and enabling the Mediavine CMP
When things are looking good, Mediavine will activate your ads, and they’ll go live.
Lastly, you’ll get an invite to the Mediavine community on Facebook.
The Advantages of Using Mediavine
Let’s get to the meat of the matter.
How will Mediavine benefit you if you form a partnership with them?
Here are some things I like about the platform.
Lightning Fast Load Times
One of the most annoying things about having multiple ads on one page is how long it takes to load.
Ads containing certain types of graphics or videos can slow down your website, giving your visitors a lackluster experience.
In this case, Mediavine ads load independently from the rest of your website because they each have their own scripts to execute.
Also, unlike before, ads now load incrementally instead of simultaneously.
The one thing you need to know about Mediavine is that they are speed-obsessed.
Mediavine claims to be 200% faster than its rivals because it places a premium on speed!
Proprietary Ad Technology
Mediavine’s advertising platform puts user satisfaction first by prioritizing SEO.
Plus, they put all ads through rigorous testing before distributing them to blogs.
Mediavine can then guarantee that its ads are suitable and effective for your type of site.
Excellent User Experience
I’ll be the first to acknowledge that the phrase “good ad user experience” is a paradox because advertising on websites almost always detracts from the UX.
But unless you’re operating a non-profit, you need to monetize your sites in some way.
As far as ad positioning and ad tech go, Mediavine is top-notch.
Their advertising options are cutting-edge.
Adjustments are a breeze thanks to its intuitive Dashboard.
Mediavine succeeds where User Experience is concerned.
Almost every facet of the user’s interaction with ads is customizable.
Optimized for Google’s Ad Ranking Algorithm
Site factors known as “core web vitals” are used in Google’s ad ranking algorithm.
Among these are a response rate of fewer than 2.5 seconds, dynamic content, and a constant stream of updates.
Mediavine has been fine-tuned to fulfill each of these requirements.
Developed by Publishers
The founders of Mediavine all got their start in the online publishing industry.
Because of their history, they can draw on their personal expertise in marketing to enhance their clients’ experience.
This means your ads will never be in the hands of someone without the necessary expertise.
Premium Customer Support
Mediavine has UNRIVALED customer service representatives.
They’re quick, helpful, and incredibly nice.
Evidently, Mediavine invests heavily in its customer service department.
So, should you run into some issues, you’re covered.
Grow.me
Mediavine’s ‘Grow’ is fantastic and is a great service for an ad service network to provide.
Among Grow’s features are widgets for displaying linked content sharing this content on social media platforms, and collecting email addresses.
Since it is native to the Mediavine framework, these additions do not impact page load times.
For these functions, you would typically need to install several third-party apps.
If you use the Trellis theme, everything works together perfectly.
There will NEVER be any hiccups or delays on your sites.
Things That Could Be Improved
Mediavine Facebook Group
Once you get accepted into the program, you’ll have access to Mediavine’s VERY ACTIVE Facebook community.
This is optional, though.
There are several thousand very active members of the group right now.
Every Mediavine publisher will have access to a very active Facebook community.
However, participation is optional.
This group has become a victim of its own success, which is a bit of an issue.
There are a number of irrelevant posts that have nothing to do with Mediavine or advertising.
If you’re having trouble with your blog or just have a general query about SEO, you might want to join this group and ask the members for advice.
More often than not, this sparks insightful dialogue.
That’s fantastic, but if you’re hoping to learn more about Mediavine and/or ads, you might be disappointed.
The facts are all there; it’s just buried under a mountain of other, often irrelevant, posts.
Sometimes it’s best to just tune out the chatter and avoid getting drawn into pointless debates.
Net65 Payment Model
Mediavine operates on a Net65 payment model.
This implies that you will receive payment for advertising 65 days after earning said revenue.
Net65 is not really the industry standard.
If you need to get paid quickly, you might want to consider other options.
Why Mediavine takes so long to pay out publishers on their net term is beyond me.
This is definitely something to think about before applying or making the switch.
Commissions
While Mediavine doesn’t charge you a monthly fee to use their service, they will take a cut of any advertising income your site generates.
Although this is typical for ad networks, you should compare Mediavine to other ad networks to determine which will best suit your advertising budget.
How Much Can You Make With Mediavine?
The most important thing to keep in mind about Mediavine is that there is never any assurance that your ad revenue will skyrocket.
This is because the frequency with which ads show on your site is directly proportional to the amount of traffic your site receives.
All Mediavine publishers earn a cut of the network’s ad income.
You’d essentially be getting paid for ad space.
So, as your site’s popularity grows, so does your cut of the earnings.
While all publishers begin at 75%, those who generate a particularly high volume of sessions are awarded a larger cut of the revenue.
This is all just a matter of growing your audience.
Your Mediavine revenue will rise along with it.
Final Thoughts: Is Mediavine Worth It?
Yes, it is.
For as long as there have been blogs, running display ads has been an integral part of any successful monetization plan.
Ads are now an accepted component of the internet and its culture, for better or worse.
When managed correctly, they can HELP businesses reach the right people without ruining their user experience.
Mediavine understands this, and that’s why it’s the BEST ad network for my current needs.
To those who are working to bring about Mediavine, keep at it.
I can tell you that laying the groundwork is worth it.
Hopefully, after reading this Mediavine review, you have a better understanding of what makes this service great, how to apply, and what to expect once you are accepted.
