mediavine review {a full review of mediavine ad network}

Sharing an honest, unpaid review of my ad network-Mediavine! If you are a blogger looking to monetize your blog, this post is a great place to start!

Check out my updated Mediavine review for 2021!

I get many questions from bloggers who are trying to grow their blogs, and, more than anything else, they want to know about how to make money blogging.

More specifically, they are curious about which ad network I use and why. Today’s post is going to veer slightly from it’s usual crafty course to answer this question more fully than I usually do, and share an honest review of my current network-Mediavine!

all images available as a free download–just scroll to the end of the post

Having worked with five different networks in my seven years of blogging, I never mind taking the time to share my experiences with others in hopes of helping other bloggers find the right fit for their own blogs.

Being a successful blogger truly does take a village, and there are many people behind-the-scenes who help make burlap+blue happen, from designers and developers to SEO gurus, to fellow bloggers who are always there to encourage and support.

A trustworthy and reliable ad management platform is an integral part of that team.

Mediavine is an example of an ad management platform, which works a bit differently than networks such as Adsense. Ad management platforms completely manages the ads, and are a great fit as your blog grows.

Most networks (such as Adsense and BlogHer) give you the ad code, which you then input into your blog yourself. Mediavine take care of all of the implementing and configuring of your ads (making it one less blogging-related task to take care of).

Mediavine Review

I switched to Mediavine about six months ago, and haven’t looked back since. What sets Mediavine apart from other ad networks?

Here are some things that pleasantly surprised me about Mediavine, that you may want to consider as you think about the best ad network for your site:

Mediavine is a community, not just an ad network. As I mentioned, I’ve been with five other ad networks in the past and I can’t for the life of me tell you the name of one single human associated with any of the networks.

I can’t think of a way to say this that doesn’t sound corny, but when I think of Mediavine I think of the actual people behind the company, and I could probably name most of them, as well.

When I think of any other network I’ve been with, I may think of their logo, maybe their site, or maybe how frustrating it was to get a hold of an actual person when I needed help with an ad.

Mediavine’s response time is lightening-fast. When I have a problem or a question, I don’t have to login, find an elusive contact form, and pray someone gets back to me within a week. With Mediavine, I have email addresses that are connected to actual human beings, and I’ve never waited more than a few hours for a response.

I tend to send out emails when I think of it, and I remember sending out an email on a weekend morning early on in my time with Mediavine. It was absolutely nothing critical, nothing that couldn’t wait until Monday, probably nothing that couldn’t wait until the next month, to be honest.

I had a detailed answer back, literally, within a couple hours (which, even now, I still feel a bit bad about-now I either wait until Monday to send emails or make it clear that I’m in no rush for a response).

They test all ads on their own sites first. One of the things I really love about Mediavine is they seem to really care about their publishers and want them to succeed.

When a new ad option comes out, they always test on their own blogs first (some of their sites include The Hollywood Gossip and Food Fanatic) and, after testing, come to their publishers with what they’ve learned about how the ad performs and what we can expect if we add the ad to our own sites.

As a publisher, the fact that they’ll take a possible hit to their own sites’ revenues to see how an ad performs before introducing it to the group is one of the things I am most grateful for about Mediavine.

They value transparency. When something works, they’ll tell us. When something doesn’t, they’ll let us know that, too.

They keep their publishers fully in the loop with why decisions were made and how it could possibly affect us. If they make a mistake, they’ll own up to it and fix it, not pass the blame like I’ve seen so many other networks do.

Because of this, I trust them and their decisions completely. Again, when I think of Mediavine I think of actual humans behind the company, and I know that they’ve got my back and are looking out for my blog’s best interests.

The dashboard, the Facebook group, the blog. Mediavine’s dashboard is second-to-none, giving you daily estimates, as well as (easy and doable) tips to improve your site’s health and functionality (meaning, increased ad revenue!).

They continue the community feel with a Facebook group for publishers that is supportive, encouraging and knowledgeable (they just this week added an SEO expert to help answer publisher questions). They further share their expansive knowledge with a blog that’s relevant and helpful.

How many pageviews do I need for Mediavine?

A few months ago, Mediavine’s co-founder, Eric, posted a blog post with their new requirements for potential publishers.

There are several changes, but the most notable is this: “Our minimum traffic requirement for NEW publishers is now 50,000 sessions per month.”

The reason why? “Raising our minimum traffic requirements is one of the easiest ways for us to get back to our previous, more sustainable growth levels.”

In short, changing their requirements will allow them to focus their resources on innovations for their current publishers, while still allowing in high-quality sites that meet their requirements.

If you have a smaller site, though, don’t fret. Per Eric, “We can also tell you that we’re working on new, scalable ad solutions for smaller publishers that we expect to launch alongside our core Mediavine Ad Management offering in 2021.”

Obviously, deciding which ad network to work with is a complex decision. I’ll try to answer any questions you may have-just leave a comment, or you can learn more about Mediavine here!

All three images are available as a free 8×10 printable. Just click the image you’d like, save to your computer, and send to your favorite photo printer!

coffee in one hand, confidence in the other printable

great things are done by a series of small things brought together

I think you should just go for it

Looking for more blogging tips and tricks?

This post has some best blogging tips and tricks from some of my favorite top bloggers!

Here, I share 16 tips that helped me grow my Pinterest traffic!

Thanks for reading my honest review of Mediavine Ad Network! Have a great day!