Mediavine’s Requirement Change: What You Can Do Now to Monetize Your Blog
Don’t give up your blog just because an ad network changes their requirements
Earlier this week, Mediavine, one of the most desirable ad networks, announced a shocking change in their requirements: Publishers now need minimum traffic of 50,000 sessions per month on their sites (previously 25,000 sessions) to be accepted to Mediavine. This is considered very bad news for bloggers who want to make money from ads.
It can take many months or even years to make a brand new blog hit 25,000 sessions per month consistently. It is a big milestone for any blogger. Now, with 50,000 sessions, this requirement change can cost SEVERAL YEARS worth of work for many bloggers to get into Mediavine. Of course, bloggers can apply to other ad networks with lower requirements, including Google AdSense, but they don’t pay nearly as much as Mediavine.
In many blog forums and Facebook groups, people are clearly discouraged and even ready to quit blogging altogether because of this change.
If you are these people, let me tell you: Don’t give up!
The idea of tossing your hopes and dreams just because of an ad network—a small dot in a big blogging picture—changes their requirements is just absurd. This may sound rough, but it comes from a place of tough love.
I’ve run several successful blogs WITHOUT ads and I know for a fact that you don’t need ads to make money off blogging. Sure, it is nice to have ads to draw some passive income. But it not the only way and certainly not the best way to make money blogging.
So, don’t waste your time being heartbroken with the Mediavine news. Instead, try the following strategies to monetize your blog:
Diversify Your Blogging Income
Income diversification is more important now than ever. Remember, there are many other ways to make money off blogging, many of which are more profitable and frankly, less lame than ads.
For example, you can focus on affiliate marketing, which gives you a small commission whenever a reader buys a product from a link embedded in your website. You can also earn money from sponsored posts written for companies or products you genuinely like. Additionally, many bloggers make most of their incomes from paid products or services, such as ebooks, online courses, and consultation.
If you already have a large and devoted followers/readers, you can set up a Patreon page to offer exclusive content to your monthly paid members. You can also open a fundraising channel through which your audiences donate a small amount of money to support your work, such as Buy Me A Coffee and Ko-fi. I just earned $2,200 from one of my ad-free blogs last month via Buy Me A Coffee.
Recently, I see more and more Wordpress bloggers venture to other creative platforms, such as Medium and Youtube. This is such a great way to diversify your income. Especially with Medium, you can easily import your published blog posts to new stories, creating another venue to make money. I just did this earlier this week with one of my popular Wordpress posts: How We Paid Off $40,000 of Debt in 18 Months with Low Income.
Continue to Increase Your Blog Traffic
Even without ads, this not a time to slow down on your goals to increase blog traffic. More traffic equals to greater revenues and earning opportunities all way around. Here are some proven tips to boost your traffic:
- Create more content. Content is king! The more content you create, the more you can promote and use the above diversification techniques to earn money.
- Promote your content. Scream and shout to people that you have great content! Pin your content on Pinterest, share it on Facebook and Instagram, talk about it on Twitter, discuss it in Facebook groups or Reddit, mention it in your newsletters. Do whatever you can to help your content reach your targeted audiences.
- Encourage recurring visitors. If someone really likes your blog, they will spend more time reading on your site and return for more. You can encourage this pattern by creating a well-designed, high speech website that provides your readers with good user experience. You should always have internal links throughout your blog posts to help readers find new content on your site and want to come back for more.
- Improve your SEO. Make sure that your site is fully optimized for Google search engine. Pay great attention to your keywords. Traffic from organic searches is often high quality and most sustainable.
Venture to New Opportunities
Even if you are a fulltime blogger, don’t think of blogging as your one and only career. Rather, think of blogging as a stepping stone for you to get more career opportunities. That way, if something changes in the blogging world, like this Mediavine incident, YOUR world won’t be much shaken by it.
Personally, I’ve struck several book deals out of my non-English blog. One of them became a national best-seller in my home country, opening the door for me to get even more book deals and other business opportunities. Now, I was known as a best-selling author rather than a no-name blogger. If for any reason, my website crashes and erases all of my writing, I will be able to survive and continue making money from my other businesses.
Many successful bloggers I know have “retired” from blogging (meaning they don’t write nearly as much anymore) and shifted their focus to other business models that they have built from their blogging careers. Once you have a loyal fan base, it is easy to bring them with you wherever you go. They will keep supporting your new adventures.
Therefore, it’s very important to have a long-term business plan in mind while blogging and mention that to your readers from the very beginning. That way, they feel like being part of your journey and more willing to follow you as you jump to your next career move.
That’s how you make money beyond blogging.
I hope by reading this article, you will soon get over the Mediavine upsetting news. If not, trust me, it doesn't worth your time. Don’t give up on your dream, just keep writing!
