We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post, and as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. Please see my full disclosure for more information.
This Mediavine review is not sponsored in any way – all opinions are 100% my own.
When people ask me what I do for a living, my answer has become increasingly longer and more complex: I’m a freelance copywriter (cue me explaining what exactly that is for a few minutes), I also do some social media management on the side, I make money from affiliate marketing, I sell a few of my own products on a niche website, oh, and I make money from adverts on my own websites.
Long gone are the days where I receive a set monthly salary at a specific time each month – now, my income comes from a variety of different avenues and the responsibility to find out what I’m earning and from who falls entirely to me.
And I love it.
Diversifying my income has been one of the best decisions I ever made, and today I want to give you all an insight into one of the best ways I make a passive income from blogging: Mediavine.
What is Mediavine?
If you don’t know, Mediavineis an exclusive ad manager, and to quote their website:
“Mediavine takes on the role of your exclusive ad manager, and lets you focus on what you do best; create amazing content.
We’ve built our ad technology free of the burden of legacy ad networks. It’s future proof and ready to grow with your site. You install a single script and we will optimize all placements on your site.”
They’re the ones responsible for the ads you see across my site. I know, it’s not the prettiest set up in the world (although Mediavine does a much better job of optimizing my ads than I ever did with AdSense!), but it has become one of the best ways for me to earn money every month simply because people (that’s you – thank you!) are visiting my site.
I constantly receive emails from people looking to get started as a blogger, or from new bloggers just starting out, asking me how I make money blogging and how they can too.
My response? Buckle in, because it’s going to be a long drive.
…OK, I’ve never actually saidthat to someone, but the message is always the same. I’ve been blogging for about 18 months now, and I’m only just at the point where my blog income just about matches my income from my previous full-time job. If it wasn’t for the freelance business that I run alongside my blog, I would have been in BIG trouble a long time ago.
That being said, joining Mediavine in February this year was amajor gamechanger for me.
Not only is the money I make from their ads essentially passive income (provided my page views stay consistent), but I can see three months ahead what I will earn each month – giving me a level of financial security that freelancing doesn’t always provide.
So, Mediavine sounds pretty sweet, right? Well, before you go flocking to them trying to sign up, let me address a few things you should know.
How Do You Join Mediavine?
Mediavine is an exclusive ad manager, made for publishers, by publishers, and that means they’re not just going to let anyone sign up.
You need at least 25,000 sessions per month (this is different to pageviews – check your Google Analytics if you don’t know what I’m talking about) in order to apply to join Mediavine.
Even with this many sessions, you are not guaranteed to be accepted into the network. As an example, my Dad has a website that gets close to1 million page views each month. However, when he applied for Mediavine, he was rejected and that’s probably because his isn’t a blog (although I’m not 100% sure on this).
Once you’ve hit 25,000 sessions, there are a few common-sense things you can do to boost your chances of being accepted, such as:
- Making sure your content is appropriate (if you frequently blog about offensive things, some brands may not want their ads displayed on your site)
- Optimize your site for SEO
- Publish new content on a regular basis
Note – these are my own suggestions based on blogs I’ve seen that are part of the Mediavine network, so take these as recommendations only not as guaranteed facts.
Making a Passive Income with Mediavine
Once you’re signed up with Mediavine, you can start making a passive income on your blog.
Essentially, the more sessions you get each month = the more money you make with your ads.
I made more in a day with Mediavine than I ever made in an entire month with Google Adsense. In the 8 months I’ve been working with them I have never regretted it.
If you have a blog and your page views are growing month on month, I would definitely make reaching 25,000 sessions a month a goal in order to join this amazing ad manager.
How to Increase Your Sessions to Apply for Mediavine
I know for a lot of newer bloggers, reaching 25,000 sessions in a month seems impossible. When I first started out and was thrilled to get 1,000 page views a month, reaching this milestone seemed like a long way away.
Check out my blog post on how I reached over 100,000 page views in one month using my secret weapon.
I also have a free blog course that not only covers setting up your blog but also how to optimise it to grow your traffic each month. Whether you’re completely new to blogging or have been blogging for a while now, I recommend signing up below.
The form you have selected does not exist.
Mediavine Alternatives
If you are still a way off reaching the point where you can apply to join the Mediavine network, don’t worry. There are alternative ad networks you can join in the meantime – although keep in mind, I made less with Adsense in a month than I did with Mediavine in a day.
One option is to keep ads off your site until your blog has grown, and focus on other ways of making money blogging such as affiliate marketing.
Alternatively, you could join a network such as Google Adsense or Media.net.
