Journey by Mediavine Review & How to Join (Mediavine for Smaller Blogs)

For a while now, Mediavine has launched Journey by Mediavine, a new ad management solution for smaller, yet high-quality websites that don’t qualify for Mediavine yet.

To qualify for Journey by Mediavine, you need around 10,000 monthly sessions AND the Grow plugin installed. Today, I will tell you my impressions after (finally) being invited to become a Journey by Mediavine publishers (talk RPMs and such), but also step-by-step instructions so you can join too.

Journey by Mediavine in a Nutshell

This new ad management solution is provided by one of the best-known and most appreciated companies in the world of blogging – Mediavine. I’ve been a Mediavine publisher since 2008, with my larger websites, and I am delighted with their service.

Journey, on the other hand, will allow you to monetize your website using Mediavine’s technology, but it will be aimed at smaller websites and offer fewer options than Mediavine, including less support (it’s mostly done via their forums), potentially lower revenue and less control over the entire ad setup. In other words, it’s more “self service” than premium ad networks (think AdSense).

Still, Journey should result in higher earnings compared to AdSense (and potentially other ad networks like Ezoic or SheMedia).

Note: I am actually very happy with SheMedia too, as I have one of my websites enrolled there. You can read my SheMedia review here.

How does Journey by Mediavine work? Well, like any other ad management network, it will pair your website with others on the network and sell your ad space to publishers who will pay more for the views.

Recommended: Before applying to join Journey by Mediavine, I recommend switching to the blazing-fast WordPress theme that I am also using: check it out here.

Here’s how to apply for Journey by Mediavine

The first step is to visit Mediavine’s Grow Page and install the plugin on your website. This is a mandatory step for those who want to apply!

Grow is an amazing tool that allows you to increase user engagement, collect emails (and send emails to your list), plus a lot more. I have been using it on all of my websites and you can see it at work on Nomad Not Mad too: the recommended articles in the sidebar, at the top, at the bottom, as well as the subscribe box and social sharing buttons.

After creating your account on Grow and installing it on your website, things will be pretty straightforward. Just log in to Grow again and click the big banner that invites you to apply, as seen in the screenshot below:

After clicking that button, you will be taken to a new page where you will have to select your country (where you/your business is located) and then hit the “Apply To Journey” button:

After I submitted by application, I received the confirmation message that they’re monitoring the website and they’ll let me know if I get accepted (you must run the Grow plugin for at least 30 days before you can be accepted).

Since the blogs I have applied to Journey with were devastated by the latest Google Core/HCU updates, it took me way longer than the anticipated 30 days before being invited to join… but I received the invitation eventually.

Yay! As a result, you can see Journey by Mediavine ads on Nomad Not Mad right now. And you will probably have to wait a lot less if you already meet the traffic requirements.

Journey by Mediavine Review: RPMs, Earnings and My Impressions

Now that you know how to join Journey by Mediavine, let’s see whether or not you should do it. Let’s talk earnings (since these are the most important) and other aspects of running ads from this new ad network.

First of all, let me tell you that I was a bit disappointed in the first few days after joining Journey. The RPM was lower than what I was getting from AdSense and there were also a few technical problems that were eventually sorted out.

Revenue (RPMs)

At the moment of writing, I’ve been running Journey ads on Nomad Not Mad for 12 days. Fortunately – and as expected – the RPMs are growing steadily, although just yesterday they managed to get above what I was getting on AdSense.

Still, there’s a long way to go: my Sessions RPM (so revenue per 1,000 sessions, not page views) hovers at around $8.00. While this is better than AdSense, it’s still a lot less than what I was hoping to get from the start:

According to various reports I read on Facebook and Twitter, RPMs were up to $20 for other publishers.

BUT there are two things that I believe negatively affect my RPMs:

1. Little traffic. The AI running the ads and optimizing them needs traffic to test various formats/placements and such. Since my traffic is very low, it needs more time to draw conclusions.
2. Visitors from non-premium countries. Just around 50% of my total visitors are from the US, UK, Canada or Australia (which usually get better RPMs). The other half is from lower-paying countries like Indonesia, India, China etc.

Overall, it’s still early in my Journey and I am excited about what the future holds. The RPMs are growing steadily and I am sure they will stabilize at numbers that will be at least 2x vs what I was getting on AdSense (maybe even more).

Was I expecting this to move faster? I sure did! But even so, waiting for 14 days or more to get everything fully optimized is something I am ready to do.

Ad optimizations and reports

Speaking of optimization… you don’t have plenty of options (compared to Mediavine, for example), and none during your first 30 days of running ads:

As you can see, you can only control the Ad Density by using one of the few pre-defined options (Low, Medium, Optimal and High). So not a lot, but still not something to complain about imho. I have tons of options in Mediavine, but I rarely touch anything.

NOTE: I will update the RPMs/revenue numbers after a few more weeks/months, to see how things grow.

As for the reports, you get an overall overview of your earnings, various settings for comparisons (like PageView RPM, Session RPM, Total impressions and such) and something I really appreciate – the list of your top performing 20 pages (with the ability to download the top 50 performers):

Mediavine lets you see the top 100 performing pages, but She Media only shows you the top 10 – so 50 is AWESOME.

Some cons about Journey by Mediavine

I mentioned that I ran into some technical problems early on, after installing the Journey ad script on my website. The problem was that my website’s session did not show in the reports.

This did not influence earnings in any way, it was just a reporting thing. Eventually it started working, after I moved my Grow script from the footer to the header.

Also, with Journey being a more self-service type of ad network, you don’t have the direct ad support that you get from other premium networks. So instead of sending an email or going into live chat with somebody, you will have to visit the Journey community and search for a solution in their forums – or start a new discussion thread if you want to.

This is substantially slower than directly chatting with a human, but for the one time I had to post on the forums, I got a reply/solution quickly (I think it was under 24 hours). So still not bad – especially since most people will probably never run into problems anyway.

Another annoying thing is the constant need to update the Ads.txt file (I had to do it several times already). There is the Grow WordPress plugin you can install and it should do it with a press of a button, but it’s still not seamlessly integrated, as in the case of Mediavine which updates this file automatically if needed.

These are all minor annoyances though and I can live with them without a problem.

Journey by Mediavine: My overall impression

For smaller publishers who can’t quality to premium networks like Mediavine (50,000 monthly sessions), Raptive (100,000 monthly pageviews) or even She Media (25,000 page views per month), Journey by Mediavine is perfect.

Even though the revenue boost was not as quick as I initially hoped it would be – nor that substantial – I am still making more money at the end of the day, I get premium ads and I am happy. That’s all that matters to me, in the end.

You might make even more if your share of premium traffic is higher than mine. But no matter what, if you’re only running AdSense, I don’t think there’s any way to make less. So switching over to Journey should be a no-brainer.

Let me know what you think about Journey by Mediavine and whether or not you’re planning to apply. Also, if you have any questions, ask them below and I will answer the best I can.