Published by Jeremy. Last Updated on November 29, 2024.
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When it comes to display advertising on our blogs, we often highlight premium ad networks like Mediavine as the gold standard in programmatic advertising.
But, of course, these products also come with high barriers for entry that many bloggers simply do not qualify for until they grow to a sufficient size.
Mediavine Journey is one product designed with lower traffic requirements in mind, and while this one pays out a bit less than what we would expect from the classic product, we're ecstatic to have the option to earn a bit of income as our smaller sites grow.
Mediavine Journey Requirements
Mediavine Journey launched in early 2024 to effectively be a “small site” product that compliments the classic Mediavine. The company recognized that there were many bloggers who did not meet the 50,000 sessions-per-month threshold for their original product, and created a smaller site product accessible to those with just 10,000 monthly sessions.
For a while, my niche wine blog was not hitting this traffic threshold; however, after changes to the Google algorithm in a recent update, my traffic began to rise considerably such that my application to Journey was accepted rather quickly and, surprisingly enough, at a far lower traffic threshold than 10,000 sessions.
As such, it is likely that the traffic threshold for Journey should be taken as more of a guideline. We have read reports of other blogs getting in under this threshold as well, but it varies on a number of factors and is, of course, not guaranteed. That said, for those who do want to apply to Journey, you do need to run Mediavine's Grow feature for a minimum of 30 days as it collects the traffic data behind the scenes.
So add on Grow, submit your application to Journey, and wait- you may be pleasantly surprised by an acceptance email like I was.
How Does Mediavine Journey Work?
One of the reasons Mediavine was able to launch a small site product is that it is a bit scaled down from the main Mediavine product. There is less on-boarding work for staff, the dashboard is fairly toned down (much more than we'd prefer, if we're honest), and ad densities and displays may be a bit higher than others would possibly prefer.
Turning ads on, for example, was as simple as authenticating the ads script on the Grow for WP plugin and clearing my site caches (a manual process is also available, if you do not run the WordPress plugin). But, unlike Mediavine's main product, these steps were ones I had to do myself as opposed to letting an account rep access my site and do it behind the scenes.
Once that step was done, ads began to display on my site within a day or so and it was off to the races making money.
As mentioned above, however, your control over the kinds/types of ads you have displayed on Journey are limited. Video ads are turned on by default. You cannot limit specific ad categories. In fact, in the dashboard the only control you really have over the ads you display is a small scroll bar to change your ad density between low, medium, optimal, and high as shown above.
Going beyond this, the rest of the dashboard is basic reporting data like sessions, pageviews (this data point has always seemed to be incorrect for me for some reason- my page views are more like 1.1-per-session, not 3-per-session), earnings, and RPMs with a simple bar graph. Not a lot to write home about, but enough for those who want to watch their earnings over time all the same.
I did find one workaround to the density setting for ads; however, and that was by breaking up my content via div tags in between major sections. Much like Mediavine's classic product, div tags appear to be a way to exclude ads from appearing within bracketed content. Anything in between <div> and </div>, for example, will show no ads, and the first ad that appears will be after the closing div tag.
As I got into the habit of manually formatting all of my blog posts to be bracketed with div tags for Mediavine's classic ad product, I inadvertantly stumbled upon a manual placement scheme that also worked well enough for Journey! Still, as this one was manual and requires a lot of coding post-per-post, I am not sure I recommend it for most- especially if you're building articles via blocks (I still use Classic Editor).
I'm only throwing it out because it does seem to work for me and, coincidentally, may be impacting my earnings for reasons I'll get into now.
How Much Can You Earn on Mediavine Journey?
As with all ad networks, it takes a bit of time for your ad earnings to increase as the algorithms behind the scenes figure out what ads work best for your audience. On Journey, my ads took about two to three weeks to optimize around my content/readership before reaching a somewhat steady earnings RPM (revenue-per-1,000 sessions).
From September to October 2024, for example, my RPMs ranged from $8-$12. So for every 1,000 sessions I received, I made $8-$12, and at about 14,000 sessions for the month, I was averaging around $123 (or $9 RPM).
To compare, my two sites on Mediavine's classic project were making around $12 and $26 RPM over that same period, so there did appear to be a slight decrease in overall earnings on Journey when compared to Mediavine's original product.
That said, there are a few reasons why this may be the case that are also worth highlighting:
- My local blog, which was sitting at closer to $26 RPM, has much longer posts and a tighter USA-focused niche (Pittsburgh). More ads and a higher paying audience drives the RPM up here.
- My general travel blog, which was sitting at $11 RPM, had lost a fair bit of its traffic (less than my wine blog, if I am honest!), had only slightly longer posts, and a more global audience than my wine site. As such, I expect the RPMs to be lower here.
- Finally, I can reasonably estimate that my RPMs on Journey are lower than they could be primarily due to the manual ad placement commentary mentioned above. When I tested a post without div tags, the number of ads visible in each post went up by about 2-3. I suspect that would likely translate into a slightly higher RPM if I made that change site-wide, possibly on the order of $2-$4 RPM. (Note: I am not making that change.)
Still, there is something to be said about the ease at which Mediavine Journey allows for my site to receive advertising revenue at around $10 RPM. Within just a few moments, and perhaps a bit of luck with formatting, I had my ad settings virtually matching my other sites and bringing in an extra $120 or so per month, or, if held over the course of a year, $1,440/year in ad revenue.
Not a bad wine budget at all!
While I am still working towards growing this site to join Mediavine's classic service for more ad tools, likely better rates, and more, I am pleased they are working towards creating products for sites with lower traffic figures, like my wine blog, to help me monetize a bit- especially in these crazy times where our income is heavily variable.
So its full steam ahead for ads, and we hope to be bringing on other websites of ours to Mediavine Journey as soon as we hit the traffic threshold!
To join Mediavine's Journey, click here.
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