As a blogger, you are probably always on the lookout for ways to monetize your blog. After all, you work hard on your blog so why wouldn’t you want to make some money with it? You may have run across Mediavine reviews in the past. But in this Mediavine review, we’ll tease out the good and the bad, so you can decide if it’s right for you. You’ll be surprised by what we found out.
What is Mediavine?
Mediavine.com was started by co-founders Eric Hochberger, Stephen Marsi, Amber Bracegirdle And Matt Richenthal around 2013. The company is privately owned with no outside investors and are founded and owned by publishers.
The owners have been involved in the internet publishing business since 2004. Although they don’t view themselves as such, Mediavine is sort of an ad network created by publishers for publishers. It’s because of this philosophy they don’t like referring to themselves as an an ad network.
In either case they are a Google Certified Publishing Partner. They own and operate TV Fanatic, Food Fanatic and The Hollywood Gossip.
How Does Mediavine Work?
Because Mediavine is run by blogging publishers, they are in a unique position to know what publishers want. Mediavine connect advertisers with their member publishers to maximize both the published content and the ads placement. The ad placement is done through a script that is installed on your website as a WordPress plugin. There are also options for installing ad scripts for Blogger and Squarespace. Standard placement ads include both desktop and mobile.
Mediavine Features
Mediavine has over 4,100 publishers with over 2 billion ad impressions and claims a 100% satisfaction rate. Other features include:
Increased Site Speed
Mediavine claims that when you join them, your site will see an increase in speed by 200%
White Glove Customer Support
Unlike sites like Adsense where you can’t actually speak to a real person, Mediavine has a team of customer support people. They will do things like help you set up the Mediavine script on your site. Furthermore, they tend to respond to messages within a few hours.
Facebook Page
They have an active Facebook page which is used for announcements, troubleshooting and networking with other publishers.
Conde’ Nast Connection
Conde Nast is a mass media company that works with big names in the publishing world such as Vogue, The New Yorker and Vanity Fair. Mediavine works directly with Conde Nast representatives on premium advertising deals for their publishers.
Other features include:
- Free to join
- Available most everywhere
These are certainly great features. But you may be interested in looking at other networks that can help your blog make some money, such as Maxbounty.com, Traffic Jam Media & iGain.com.
How Much Can You Make with Mediavine?
Interestingly, Mediavine pays publishers 75% of their revenue share. 25% goes to Mediavine. As a publisher, you will receive 75% of gross proceeds from advertisers. No other fees such as admin fees.
Higher Percentage for More Impressions
Should your site have 5 million ad impressions for a 30-day period your revenue share increases to 80%. For 15 million ad impressions over a 30-day period your revenue share is 85%.
Loyalty Bonus
Mediavine has long-term benefits for publishers who stick around. For every year that a publisher stays with Mediavine, you’ll get a loyalty bonus in the form of additional revenue shares. A great way to thank it’s publishers.
Like most ad networks, the money you make will depend on how much traffic your site gets. The more traffic your site gets, the better chance you have that your visitors will click or see the ads that pay you. If your site needs more traffic, you might want to join Wealthy Affiliate. They will teach you how to get FREE traffic with their step-by-step training.
When Do Mediavine Publishers Get Paid?
Mediavine recently partnered with Tipalti and all payments are now paid through them. Tipalti has many different payment methods such as PayPal, eCheck, International wire transfer, ACH for U.S. Residents, International ACH, and paper check. Payments are made on the 5th of each month and are net 65 days. So for example money that you earned in December will be paid by February 5. Once you get passed the first payment, then payments are pretty much monthly.
Mediavine Requirements
The bar to join Mediavine is set a little high for the average blogger looking to make some extra cash with their blog. Listed below are some of the requirements:
- You have to apply multiple times for multiple sites, but later sites only need 10,000 sessions.
- Minimum 25,000 sessions per month that must be verified and confirmed by providing access to your Google Analytics account.
- Minimum 90 day contract
- Your website design must accommodate Mediavine ad placement, but they will help tweak your site if it doesn’t.
- You need to provide exclusive access to your mobile and desktop ad inventory.
- All content must be original and in categories such as DIY, health, fitness, education, finance, parenting, food, fashion, crafts, travel. Any sites outside of these niche categories can still apply.
- If you are a U.S. person living outside the U.S. you must submit a W9 form in order to be paid.
If the minimum visits per month puts this offer out of reach for you, there are other networks you can join such as Maxbounty.com, Traffic Jam Media & iGain.com. And if you find yourself in need of more traffic to your site, consider joining Wealthy Affiliate. They will teach you how to get tons of FREE traffic with their step-by-step training.
How To Login To Mediavine
To log into Mediavine click the link here.
Mediavine Support
Mediavine publishers can contact support by emailing them at publishers@mediavine.com. Their phone number is: 888-705-1246 and their address is: 160 W. Camino Real, #504, Boca Raton, FL 33432.
Mediavine Complaints
We’ve talked a lot about the Mediavine benefits so now let’s talk about a few things that you should be aware of:
90 Days Contract Minimum
When you join Mediavine, you will be on a minimum 90-day contract in which you cannot leave.This may be a bit constrictive for some. But 90 days is about the amount of time they need for the advertisers to understand your site and pay you the best rate.
Possible Negative User experience
Some publishers have complained that there are too many ads on their site which could create a poor user experience for your visitors who may turn away and leave. But you can control how many ads are shown and on what page. Furthermore, most people are accustomed to dealing with ads on news sites and other popular sites.
That First Paycheck Will Take A While
The terms of payment are net 65 which means you won’t see your first paycheck for 65 days after your first month of commissions. But after waiting for the first check you’re pretty much getting paid monthly.
High Transaction Fees For Certain Types of Payments
Depending on which option you choose for getting paid, you may be hit with big transaction fees. For instance, wire transfers can start at $15 per transaction.
Some of the minor complaints listed above might put you off joining Mediavine. But there are not the only game in town and there are other networks that can help you make money from your blog such as Maxbounty.com, Traffic Jam Media & iGain.com that have similar and/or better features.
Should You Join Mediavine?
I would personally recommend joining Mediavine if you’re looking for an easy and guaranteed way to monetize every visitor on your site. Most methods used to make money on your site can’t do this. But that said the net 65 day payout is a bit of pain in the ass especially for the first payment. But it’s basically monthly after that. So the delayed gratification is worth it. But if for some reason this or the other complaints are deal breakers, you can join other networks like iGain.com, Traffic Jam Media and Maxbounty.com to name just a few.
Traffic will always be a huge part of your ability to make money online with any program. If you want to learn how to get tons of FREE traffic from Google, join Wealthy Affiliate. They will teach you step-by-step how to increase traffic and grow your business.
I guess that’s all for now, folks. If you are interested in learning more about Mediavine click here for their Publisher faq page. And if you are a member of Mediavine or have any questions, leave a comment below.
Until next time,
Eddy with a y
This seems like an excellent avenue for those with blogs that are mature and are seeing a good deal of traffic. I’m still a while from the 10,000 to 25,000 session minimum, but when I do get there this will definitely be something to look into. The commission structure appears to be excellent and the complaints about MediaVine don’t seem to be too alarming.
I was super excited to see this review on Mediavine! Then I noticed the 25,000 sessions per month. I am actually not sure what my sessions are per month. But I will be checking. This looks super great, like something I want to get started with as soon as I can. Do you know where I check my sessions per month? I don’t recall seeing that in Google Analytics.
Sessions are definitely in your analytics. Try googling how to check your sessions in Google analytics. And you should be checking your traffic regularly anyway just to see how you’re doing. WA has training on this.
Hey Eddy, I really like your post. I will have to consider joining when I get my traffic up on my blog a little bit more. I’m already looking into MaxBounty as I heard this was about the best way to go. Great post, thanks for the info. It’s definitely worth keeping in mind.
You’re welcome. You definitely want to join mediavine when you traffic has increased. It’s a great passive way to increase your blog income.
Mediavine seems legit and the up to 85% that it could pay is pretty decent as well.
However, I don’t get the required traffic to join the program, unfortunately 🙁
I will definitely take a look at Wealthy Affiliate and I have a question for you as well.
I am not living in the US and I have never been a US citizen. Can I still join Mediavine or should I start looking somewhere else?
Xaric
I don’t think being a US citizen is a requirement. The traffic requirement is more important. But you can contact them to verify.
I don’t usually see reviews for legitimate programs. This was interesting. As I was reading it, it sounded like it was for big blogs with huge followings. Hopefully, someday I’ll get there.
For those who have a blog big enough, it sounds like it would be worth it if they already have ads. I’m curious as to how they can promise increased speed. Do you know?
No you don’t have to be a big blog. You just need a fair amount of traffic. I consider big blogs are sites with millions of visitors. Mediavine doesn’t have that type of requirement. And no you don’t need to already have ads on your site to qualify. I’m not sure where you got that from based on my review. You can always check you page speed before and after using google page insight tool.
Hi Eddy,
Thank you for this review. It gave me a lot to think about and consider.
I appreciate the fact that you have suggested and mentioned other platform for a specific needs which gives us readers the ability to weigh our options based on the information you have laid out.
Good job Eddy!
Nida
You’re very welcome.
Your article was very interesting until I came to the traffic requirements. I am a light year away from 10000 sessions. I wonder if the real speed of the site increases by 200% and how can this be confirmed.
What the situation is with Google Adsense? Can I use Adsense and Mediavine at the same time? I suppose not because the site would probably be ruled out by advertisements.
Mediavine uses some of the same advertisers as adsense. So it wouldn’t make sense to use both especially since mediavine tends to pay more.