Morning, FBP community!

We have a Live Q&A coming up in January all about Qualifying for an Ad Network and it has me thinking…

When did you first apply for an ad network?

Did you wait until you qualified for Raptive or Mediavine or did you apply to a different ad network (like Monumetric or Google AdSense) first? If you’re still waiting to apply, what’s your plan?

Here we go!

I know everyone says to wait for Mediavine, but there is really no reason for that.

I met a wonderful woman at last year’s Tastemaker Conference in Chicago and she told me she applied at SheMedia. Their requirement is only 20,000 pageviews per month and they accepted her with slightly less than that.

Well, at that time, I was hovering around 20,000 per month. I ended up applying and got accepted. Ads started on my site on April 15, 2023.

I launched my blog on February 17, 2021 so I’m at almost three years now.

I kept hearing people say that ads would slow down your site, then I couldn’t get qualified for Mediavine as fast because my traffic would go down. So far – that is absolutely not true at all.

I will admit that it was a bit shocking going from my beautiful ad-free pages to a flurry of ads everywhere – constantly. But that’s the business. If you want to be a food blogger and you want to eventually support yourself doing it – you’re going to needs ads.

I have loved my SheMedia experience. There were a few bumps in the beginning, but that’s to be expected with anything. They are helpful and you can choose how many ads you want and if you don’t like an ad you see – they will remove it.

In the beginning, you probably won’t make that much (first few months). My site continues to grow and the past few months have been strong. More traffic = more ad money.

The RPM can fluctuate a lot, but I just did a YTD look and my averge RPM is $20.85 from April 15 to Dec 11. That is not bad.

I’m happy with SheMedia and I hope that I will eventually qualify for Mediavine in the next year. If you are thinking about ads – do.your.homework. Look at all the options and try to find reviews about the company you are considering. Or network here on FBP and ask people questions.

I ended up waiting until I applied for mediavine. My thoughts was that I wanted to not have something on my site I was unsure of and I knew mediavine was high quality. I didn’t want to do research on other ad companies and possibly be disappointed. If I had more time or “needed” that income I definitely would’ve done it. It was just a secondary thing for us at the time so I didn’t bother until I hit 50k sessions then immediately applied for mediavine.

SO interesting to read the different perspectives/experiences on this. Thank you for sharing!

I know that “qualifying for an ad network” is a big goal for lots of food creators and it’s a good reminder that that looks different for everybody!

Hi all!

Great question, Emily.

I’m waiting until I qualify for Raptive or Mediavine. I decided to take Feast’s advice on using ads, and for now just focus on creating high quality content. I’m up to like, only 25 posts (I started my blog this summer). So, I have no idea when I’ll meet the traffic requirements but my eyes are on the prize!

Hi Emily,

I applied for SheMedia, was accepted and have been happy thus far.  I should say that it’s only been two months, so I’m monitoring traffic etc. but their team has been really helpful. I hope to qualify for Mediavine in the next year, but I really am happy with this network as a start.

Beverly — love your choice to continue focusing on creating high-quality content. That is the most important thing you can do at this stage!

Claudia — I’ve heard lots of good things about SheMedia! Glad it has been a good experience so far. I’m sure you’ll meet your Mediavine goal in 2024. Good luck!