My Honest Review of Mediavine Journey
This post contains affiliate links and Lots of Lacquer will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on these links.
A website session is a series of contiguous actions by a single visitor on an individual website within a given time frame. For example, if a person visits your website and views a bunch of pages during their time there, this counts as 1 session.
Lots of Lacquer first joined Journey during its initial launch period.
We applied on opening day, March 14, 2024. It took a little over 2 months from the date of application to the date we were approved to launch, which was May 21, 2024.
Once we were approved, we ended our contract with our current advertising network and during our first 5.5 months with Mediavine Journey, we earned $1,707.00.
Previously, Lots of Lacquer was on Google AdSense, an entry level ad revenue platform for sites with less than 10,000 monthly sessions.
On Google Adsense, we earned an average RPM of $4.75 per 1,000 pageviews, which is better than $0, but not by a lot. We’d earn an average of $150.00 sporadically, 2-4 times a year.
Then, we joined Monumetric, before Mediavine Journey was available.
It’s similar to Mediavine Journey in that you need only 10,000 monthly sessions for approval, though the revenue per thousand pageviews (RPM) is lower.
On Monumetric, we earned an average of $13.50 per 1,000 pageviews - which was a nice jump from Google Adsense! This resulted in an average earnings of $185.00 monthly.
While our traffic is higher compared to when we were on Google AdSense, we’ve earned the highest RPM of all three entry level advertisers with Mediavine Journey. Our current average earnings are $257.00 monthly.
We are grateful for the revenue opportunity provided by all three advertisers, yet money still talks.
Just comparing the monthly earnings between Monumetric and Mediavine, we’re seeing 39% more money hit the bank account with Mediavine.
Besides RPMs and monthly earnings, one thing that is different with Mediavine Journey compared to Google Adsense and Monumetric is it works through Mediavine’s Grow, which is a whole suite of tools to grow your platform and connect with readers.
All three ad revenue providers will result in income. They also all offer Consent Management pop-up window solutions, which are the cookie approval windows required by law in some markets.
But other than that, Google Adsense is pretty much just ad revenue, with no support or other help available.
Monumetric does offer an email concierge service; you can reach out to their support team for help tweaking your ads for more revenue.
Neither Google Adsense nor Monumetric offer any type of website growth opportunity, audience engagement tools, or community connection features like Mediavine’s Journey does.
How does Mediavine Journey work?
Grow recommends new content to your readers, plus it allows your audience to bookmark their favorite content and subscribe to receive your blogs.
My favorite part of Mediavine’s Grow, in addition to Journey, is the Automailer feature which is a subscription pop-up on your site that sends an automated newsletter weekly to your subscribers.
Grow offers all the above features through a simple code snippet you add on your website’s backend.
Once you install Grow by placing your unique code snippet on your site, you’ll apply for Journey via your Grow Dashboard when you hit 10,000 monthly sessions, and it will start analyzing your site for ad approval.
You’ll get an email confirming your application has been submitted and an email letting you know when you’re approved.
You will be paid once your revenue reaches $100 USD. If you don’t meet the threshold, your pending payment will be rolled over to the next month until you reach the minimum.
What I like most about Mediavine Journey:
Their email newsletters are useful; they include actionable steps you can take to increase your earnings.
There’s also a Journey Community for connecting with other publishers and a Journey Help Center. Both of these platforms are essential for increasing your knowledge of everything Journey has to offer.
While the higher RPMS are extremely helpful - it’s more than just higher RPMs, since you get access to an engagement suite, Grow, which helps you build your audience through bookmarking, recommended content and subscription opt-ins.
Now let’s be honest - the higher RPMs were one of our biggest motivators to join and it has made a difference.
They have allowed us to invest back into our business. We use it to pay for additional services, product and content creation and to build our business’ working capital.
A unique money-making feature about Journey are the analytical features. You’ll have a real-time breakdown of your earnings per blog on your backend dashboard. Neither Google Adsense or Monumetric had an easy feature to let you sort your earnings per page like this.
Your Journey data allows you to see which blogs are making you the most money - a useful piece of insight to guide your future content creation for even more earnings.
Mediavine Journey is also an on-ramp to the full-service advertising platform that is Mediavine.
To be approved for the full Mediavine platform, you need 50,000 monthly sessions, but the RPMs are almost double what Journey offers, so it’s something to shoot for.
When your site has enough traffic for the full version of Mediavine, then you have access to their Webinars, beta testing of launches and the Facebook Community.
With Journey, there is a clear opportunity to grow and advance as a publisher.
So to recap, the key details of Mediavine Journey:
Install Mediavine Grow to begin
10,000 monthly website sessions are needed for Journey approval
Once you apply, it can take up to 2 months to be approved
Expect to earn the highest RPM of the entry level ad platforms
Pay out is 65 days from the month when the income was earned
The minimum payout is $100 USD
If you aren’t yet at 10,000 monthly sessions, Mediavine’s Journey is something to look forward to when you get there.
There’s no minimum session requirement to install Grow.
If you are at 10,000 monthly sessions, do not waste any more time, install Grow and apply for Journey, even if you’re already contracted with another advertiser.
When you’re approved to launch Journey, Mediavine will wait for your contract with your existing advertiser to end - your invite to join does not expire.
Just think of what you can do with the increased income! The faster you start earning it, the faster your business will have the increased capital it needs to succeed.
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