Monetization Archives - This Week in Blogging

Raptive Review – Increasing Programmatic Ad Earnings

December 23, 2025December 15, 2025

In late 2025, I decided to make a change on my websites- I moved from Mediavine to Raptive.

On one hand, I was curious to see how the networks compared. On the other hand, I had been hearing that Raptive was making moves to help bloggers earn more revenue.

Given that they accepted a second site of mine on at much lower traffic than I would've got in to Mediavine for (pre changes to traffic requirements which were announced a few weeks later), I figured if there was any good time to test a switch, it would be now.

So how are things going? We share some insights in this Raptive review!

Mediavine vs Raptive – Which Ad Network Makes More Money?

March 3, 2026November 17, 2025

After being on Mediavine for 8 1/2 years, I decided to make a big move. I switched my programmatic display ads to rival company Raptive.

I did not make this change lightly. As you'll read time and time again in articles I write about programmatic advertising, I love Mediavine (present tense- I still love them). But I was hearing better and better things about Raptive with each passing year, wanted to see what the ad network was all about, and, perhaps more importantly, how it compares to Mediavine.

So let's dive into the Mediavine vs Raptive debate more now that I have some initial data from two of my sites.

Note: I recently joined Raptive and the following analysis should be taken as initial observations from my first month or so only (October to early November 2025). I may update this article as time goes on if data or my opinions change.

Mediavine and Raptive Change Entry Requirements

November 1, 2025October 31, 2025

It is never a dull moment as a professional blogger, and in October 2025, the programmatic advertising world got flipped on its head.

Raptive (formerly AdThrive) made the announcement that they were lowering their traffic threshold from 100k monthly pageviews to 25k monthly pageviews, and effectively incorporated their smaller site product, Raptive Rise, into their main platform for one standalone product.

Mediavine, of course, responded in kind and a week or so later made moves by lowering Journey's traffic requirement and shifting to a more income-based generation model for higher tiers.

So in this one, we thought we'd break down the changes and provide some commentary with our thoughts on where the industry is going from here.

Note: The following analysis is based on our understanding of the new traffic requirements for both ad networks only. Please reconfirm all eligibility requirements directly with each respective network prior to joining. As these changes recently came out, things are liable to change, and further clarifications may come about as well. We have not received any direct clarification from either network at this time, and may update in the future if we hear any more details from our contacts.

The CopyMight Coalition is Fighting Against AI Copyright Infringement

November 12, 2025October 21, 2025

Ever since the first LLMs came onto the scene, bloggers have rightly been worried about how the new AI world uses our content.

Are they giving us a backlink, or are they just stealing our words and intellectual property to cut us out? There have been a million questions about where the industry is going, and even more about how we as creators can fight back.

We were recently put in touch with the team at The CopyMight Coalition via a few trusted blogging colleagues, and are happy to report that we finally have one such opportunity to put copyright infringers in their place.

The CopyMight Coalition is gearing up for a massive lawsuit against AI companies that are engaging in copyright infringement against web publishers, and we wanted to share more about how you can sign up to be a part of the process and possibly receive damages if a lawsuit moves forward.

Note: We have a referral relationship with The CopyMight Coalition. If you mention This Week in Blogging at onboarding or sign up via our links, we may receive commission at no cost to you.

How I Earned $30K with Stay22 – Affiliate Product Earnings Breakdown

July 22, 2025July 21, 2025

Since joining Stay22 approximately 2 1/2 years ago, they have quickly become my top affiliate partner and helped me earn over $30,000 in paid commissions and $37,000 in gross bookings overall.

This is impressive enough on its own, averaging out to just about $1,000/month in lifetime earnings. But one of my favorite things about Stay22 as an affiliate company is that they are constantly creating new and novel products to help travel bloggers earn money- like automatic link insertion, trigger offers, and so much more.

With the rollout of new products in recent months, my income has increased significantly. In May 2025, for example, I hit just over $1,750 in gross commission on about 120,000 page views on three sites (or about $14.50 RPM on a pageview basis).

Not bad at all!

So in this one, I thought I'd break down my earnings by product and share more about what you can expect from each when using Stay22!

Note: Data presented in this analysis will be shared in two ways. First, I'll share my overall earnings since joining Stay22 in November 2022 to June 2025 to show lifetime bookings. I will also break out the data on an average monthly figure starting from when the product first became available.

What Blogging Income Streams Are Thriving in 2025?

October 16, 2025July 15, 2025

One thing I've focused on in my nearly 17-year blogging career is tracking data. All data. Traffic, clicks, conversion rates, and income- I track it all.

Over the years, this has let me get a great snapshot of how my blogs are doing at any given moment, but also track larger trends on the order of years (now moving into decades).

Tracking every income stream category individually over this time has given me a sense of what is working in blogging (for me at least) as time goes on. Some income avenues, like display advertising, are on their way down, while others, like affiliate marketing and sponsored content, are on their way up.

So in this one, I wanted to share what I'm seeing and try to draw some conclusions on why some income streams are rising and others are falling.

Note: This article is skewed a bit to my own business, but the trends are likely applicable to many, as some of these are larger market shifts we're seeing across all sites. Likewise, 2025 figures in each chart are estimates for the entire year based on where we stand in July 2025.

A New Way to Monetize – Join Stay22’s Retail Early Access

October 10, 2025June 17, 2025

This article is sponsored by Stay22. As always, all opinions are our own.

Stay22 has been a leading company in travel affiliate marketing for many years now, with its vast number of partnerships and unique technology to help website owners earn more money.

In 2025, Stay22 is expanding beyond the travel sphere and adding a new retail partner within the Nova product line. After a robust beta test, Stay22 will be rolling out the Retail program for all bloggers in the very near future- and they are accepting applicants for the waitlist before they launch!

So, what is the Retail affiliate program and how can you get in on it? We have all the details in this one!

The Hidden Costs of Free Products as a Content Creator

June 16, 2025June 16, 2025

“Hey Jeremy, we love your Insta. We're having an influencer night tomorrow and would love for you to come. We're giving attendees and a plus-one a free cocktail in exchange for a posted Reel and media we can use in our marketing. Will see you there?”

Absolutely not.

Oh, terrible brand comps. If I had $10 for every bad pitch I have received in my nearly 20 years of blogging, I would've retired a decade ago.

The truth of the matter is that a large arm of influencer marketing has become a race to see who can produce the most content in exchange for a nominal product and experience. While we certainly see instances where this model works, one point of discussion that is often overlooked is how that free product you're about to receive really isn't free. You have a great deal of costs that you'll incur no matter what that you may not be thinking about.

So let's talk about the hidden costs of taking a comp as a content creator!

5 New Tools on Stay22 for Travel Affiliates

April 28, 2025April 28, 2025

This article is sponsored by Stay22.

We've been fans of Stay22 for many years now, and take whatever opportunity we can to shout from the rooftops how much money they've made us in recent years (I just crossed over $27,000 in lifetime commissions with $700-$1,000+ per month- a massive increase from my previous earnings!).

We have seen a lot of new tools come out on Stay22 through early 2025, and if you have missed some of the announcements in our weekly newsletter, we thought we'd take a moment and share five of the newest products that we're digging on Stay22.

If you haven't signed up for Stay22 yet, get started today here, and read on to learn more about some new tools and products you may not have heard of!

Mediavine Journey vs Monumetric – Which is Better?

October 29, 2025November 17, 2024

As our new websites grow, we take the opportunity to try out different ad networks to see how they perform over time on the same sites.

In the past we've tested Adsense vs Monumetric and found that Monumetric was, to no one's surprise, a clear winner. Premium ad networks are just that much better than the basics, after all.

But after my wine blog qualified for Mediavine Journey, we thought we'd repeat the analysis comparing what is, in all honesty, two very similar companies- with rather similar earnings and some negatives of each worth keeping in mind.

Note: I tested Monumetric on my wine blog in 2022 and Mediavine Journey on my site in 2024. Due to the significant volatility in the market in recent years, it is hard to compare earnings/RPMs over time. While I can make the argument that RPMs tend to be down a fair bit now versus back then, it really is hard to make too strong of conclusions in this one.