What The New MediaVine Requirements Mean For Content Creators

News has rocked the content creator industry today. On March 14th 2024, Mediavine announced shocking new Mediavine requirements for publishers that make it harder easier to get in!

For the longest time, the traffic requirement for a website to be eligible to apply to Mediavine was 50,000 monthly sessions. This was tough for many publishers to reach – even if their content was awesome. 50k sessions is a lot of traffic for many to even dream of.

But with this exciting new announcement, Mediavine has decided to open a sister platform called Journey by Mediavine, where websites can apply as soon as they reach just 10,000 monthly sessions!

This is incredible news that will surely shake the creator space, in a good way.

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In this article, I will explain what the new Journey by Mediavine requirements are, and provide some encouragement and recommendations for what you can do now. As well as offer up some MediaVine alternatives, and revenue alternatives!

What Are The New MediaVine Requirements?

Mediavine stated on its official website “We are thrilled to announce the launch of Journey by Mediavine, a new ad management solution for sites starting at around 10,000 monthly sessions. Journey is a separate ad offering to advertisers, allowing us to service more publishers while still maintaining high CPMs.”

Understanding The New Mediavine Requirements and What They Mean for Publishers

This is what the new Mediavine requirements are, effective March 14th, 2024:

• The minimum traffic requirement for publishers is still 50,000 sessions per month, to apply to the main Mediavine network.
• However, the minimum traffic requirement for publishers is 10,000 sessions per month, to apply to the new sister network called Journey by Mediavine.

In addition,

• Mediavine still does not allow current publishers to submit more sites to the main network, if those sites are below the minimum traffic requirements.
• Websites changing ownership still must re-apply. This also applies to current publishers.

How Do I Apply To Mediavine with Less Than 50,000 Sessions?

If your website gets at least 10,000 sessions in the past 30 days then it meets the traffic requirements to apply to the Journey network – but don’t run to the application page just yet!

Because there is a pre-requisite you must set up first. The first step is to install Grow on your website, and let Grow run for at least 30 days.

Grow (Grow.me) is Mediavine’s first-party data solution, which will track your traffic. Once you’ve had it installed for 30 days, then you can submit your site to Mediavine for approval to start running ads on the Journey side.

These new MediavVine changes make it much easier for publishers with sites of all sizes to get monetized.

If you are a current Mediavine publisher who remembers the old policy where we could add second or third sites under 50k to Medivine, this is sort of like that.

How Do I Apply To Mediavine With More Than 50,000 Sessions?

Or on the other hand, if your website gets 50,000 monthly sessions, you can skip Journey altogether and apply directly to the main Mediavine ad network.

I will share some Mediavine alternatives in a moment. But first, let’s understand these new Mediavine requirements mean when it comes to adding second sites.

Minimum Traffic Requirements For Adding Second Sites

Previously, there was some confusion with the wording around adding a second site if you are a current Mediavine publisher.

Before this 2024 update, Mediavine had previously stated:

The minimum traffic requirement for NEW publishers is now 50,000 sessions per month. We are ending our unofficial policy of accepting second sites, including from current publishers, if those sites are below the minimum traffic requirements.

Back in 2020 when that statement was released, I reached out to Mediavine for clarification. Here’s what they told me:

This part of the announcement means that applications will be evaluated based on the 50,000 sessions per month criteria, even for second and other subsequent sites. – Heather Tullos, Director of Publisher Support

That ^ response was disheartening for many creators. But now with this new update in 2024, it appears Mediavine has rectified this, by offering a solution for sites that meet 10k. I am so happy to hear this!

What The New Mediavine Requirements Mean For Content Creators

Mediavine is known to be a milestone for many new bloggers. It is one of the ‘holy grail’ ad networks.

Content creators who weren’t hitting the bigger traffic numbers can now enjoy Mediavine’s services.

What Content Creators Should Do Now

Want to get your website on the main Mediavine network? Then you need to get 50k sessions!

Here are some things you can do to reach 50,000 monthly sessions…

• Improve the SEO of your articles. Read this and take my free SEO course.
• Host a viral giveaway.
• Run promoted pin campaigns to your website.
• Run Facebook and Instagram PPC ads to your website.
• Run Google PPC ads to your website.
• Or just simply use a different ad network, like my favorite one, Raptive (formerly Adthrive) if your site gets 100k pageviews, or Monumetic if you get 10k page views.

But, know that MediaVine isn’t actually the holy grail when it comes to earning a living with your blog.

Ad revenue is not the best way to make money blogging. At all!

Growing your traffic is a worthy goal you should absolutely make a priority, but know that there are more ways to make a buck.

I would recommend that you focus on affiliate marketing and digital products as the rewards can be much bigger and faster. And they don’t rely on traffic.

Personally, I focus my efforts on four simple things:

1. Growing my list and having solid sales funnels for my subscribers.
2. Providing valuable free content that leads to valuable paid content
3. Promoting affiliate and my own products
4. Investing in paid advertising.

That’s it.  Easy-peasy.

I have focused on growing and nurturing my list, and it is through my newsletters that I make 90% of my sales.

Let’s dig into this more…

How To Earn More Money With Your Website, Without Ad Revenue

If you focus on these things that I do, I believe there is no need to rely on ad revenue.

Email Marketing & List Building

As mentioned, the most important thing to focus on if you want to make more money with your website is to grow your email list.

The fact that I have a list of happy, engaged email subscribers is the direct reason for how I am able to earn a living as a content crteator.

If you haven’t made your email list a priority – start NOW!

I have a free guide to help you as well as a full-on email marketing course.

Value

The next thing you should be focusing on in your business is providing major value to your audience at every angle.

Be there offering helpful advice, answering questions, and offering detailed blog content that solves your reader’s pain points.

Create free training to help your readers get to the next step in their journey. give them quick wins left and right.

Be the most helpful and genuine resource you can be to your audience.

When they are ready to take things to the next level, provide them with valuable paid courses and services.

For more tips on this, read: How to provide value that equals profit in your business.

Affiliate Marketing & My Own Digital Products

I can’t stress the importance of this enough. You should learn affiliate marketing as spend time promoting high-paying affiliate products.

Here is a big list of high-paying affiliate programs you can join.

And, always offer your own digital products and have a proper sales funnel set up, to sell them auto-pilot.

I teach a course about the many ways you can monetize a blog and earn a living.

Paid Advertising

And lastly, paid advertising is the fastest way to drive traffic to your website.

Pinterest marketing is great, but if you want to get to the top of search results in a flash, you need to pay to play.

I am not recommending that you run paid ads just for the purpose of generating ad revenue from the traffic.

As that will never payout in your favor.

But I am recommending that you run ads to generate traffic to your sales pages, and any blog post that has a stellar opt-in freebie to your list.

The goal is to convert the paid traffic to become your subscribers and customers.

What The New MediaVine Requirements Mean For Website Investors And Sellers

In addition to helping content creators start and grow websites here at HerPaperRoute.com, I also am a business broker who helps people buy and sell websites.

Over at my business-for-sale marketplace Niche Investor, we often deal in selling Mediavine websites.

When a site is sold, the new owner will need to re-apply the website to Mediavine for approval.

And the site needs to be getting 50,000 monthly sessions to get back in (on the main network) which made it difficult before. But now, sites can reapply on the Journey network if it gets at least 10,000 sessions. So this is wonderful news for website buyers and sellers!

Basically, the hand-off still requires re-approval but at least now the stakes are lowered. I reached out to a representative to get more explanation about how the transfer of ownership for Mediavine ad accounts work.

Here’s what I was told:

Mediavine is always at its best when we are able to work with each customer to optimize their sites, grow their traffic, and their business, and having new site owners reapply lets us build relationships with each new customer independently without juggling all the details of a “hand-off.”

Our mission here is to help our customers build sustainable businesses, and in order to do that effectively, the relationship needs to work for the publisher, the advertisers, the readers, and Mediavine. – Heather Tullos, Director of Publisher Support

The best thing you can do right now, if you are a seller of a MediaVine website is to maintain your traffic.

Do your very best to keep traffic up so that when the new owner takes it over, they have an easier time getting the site back into Mediavine.

If you can’t get the traffic up yourself, offer your buyer resources for how they themselves can do it.

Such as taking a traffic building course (consider buying a course for them as part of the deal).

If you are a website investor who is used to buying MediaVine sites, continue doing your due diligence as you did before, by verifying the Google Analytics.

• Make sure that whatever site you are buying is either above or close to 10,000 sessions in the past 30 days
• Or, if the site is below, make sure you have the time and resources to grow the traffic yourself
• Or, once you get the site, know that there are many MediaVine alternatives (see below) that you can get the site into

Best MediaVine Alternatives

There are other ad networks with less traffic requirements than MediaVine!

One of the best MediaVine alternatives I believe is Raptive (AdThrive) however, its not for small sites.

To get approved on Raptive you’ll need your first site to be getting 100,000 monthly pageviews but once approved, you can move additional sites o your Raptive account so long as they meet 30,000 monthly pageviews.

Don’t have those kind of numbers? Then your next best bet is Monumetric.

Monumetric’s traffic requirements are as follows:

Monumetric offers different tiers of enrollment, depending on your site’s traffic levels.

• Propel Program: 10k – 80k pageviews/month
• Ascend Program: 80k – 500k pageviews/month
• Stratos Program: 500k – 10mm pageviews/month
• Apollo Program: 10mm+ pageviews/month

• Adhere to Google’s Ad Policy
• Content should be original
• Track record of identifiable traffic
• If you possess an existing Google AdSense or Ad Manager account, it must be in good standing with Google

If your site gets under 80,000 pageviews a month, you would apply to the Propel program, which requires a $99 deposit.

Consider this a small entry fee, which you will earn back once you are in the program.

Other MediaVine alternatives: 

• Raptive (AdThrive)
• Google Adsense
• Media.net
• AdRoll

New MediaVine Requirements – Conclusion

These new Mediavine requirements should make you smile today as it means your money-making plans are closer than ever.

Overall, don’t put all your eggs in one monetization basket.

Invest your time and effort into learning affiliate marketing as well as creating digital products like courses, printables, and ebooks.

If you haven’t already, enroll in my Blog Monetization course. This covers gives you everything you need, including my exact strategy that has helped me earn 6 figures a year with a site with little traffic.

And no, my strategy is not “sell my courses about making money to people who want to learn how to make money.” Because that is lame and not very helpful to you.

My strategy in the course is along the lines of “Show you exactly how to discover what your audience actually wants to buy, and then figure out a solid plan to create incredible, unique content that your audience actually will buy.”

You got this!