Mediavine vs. Raptive: A Review of Both Display Ad Networks as a Blogger

[@user-jt1qy9ix6l]

Casey, In running mulitple websites, do use your own persona for all these sites? How would you advise where author personas are concerned across multiple sites in different niches? Should I use the same picture and author bio and add links to different sites, or add different pictures and author bios, or totally create a different persona for additional sites?

[@CaseyBotticello]

I use multiple personas across my sites. As you suggested, if the sites are in the same niche I may reuse that author on multiple sites. If the sites are totally unrelated, I try to build a new persona. You could switch up the bio and picture across multiple sites using one persona but this might confuse Google and make it harder to build social media links, niche specific brand mentions, fill out your knowledge graph for your persona. It takes some effort for sure, but in the long run having the multiple personas is probably the way to go. Also, you can usually find other uses for these personas beyond the blog itself (having multiple emails, social media profiles, sharing other articles anonymously, etc.).

[@user-jt1qy9ix6l]

@@CaseyBotticello Thanks Casey! The Obvious Questions to that is how do you create the Personas especially where Images are concerned? Also, is it possible for you to do a case study on building a micro niche site where you show how we can narrow down, find topics and then grow it? Might be interesting to see how someone with 40+ sites does it. How do you manage all 40 anyways? One site alone is driving me crazy. That is why if someone can show how they do this (especially the time they devote to each phase of the growth), it will help a lot! But then again, even if such a series is not possible, a video on scaling and then building each new site would help alot.

[@CaseyBotticello]

@@user-jt1qy9ix6l I can definitely do a video on creating personas...it is mostly tedious work (setting up social media profiles) or outsourcing this to someone else. You can use a brand image (site logo) for these or you can create images using AI. The latter can be effective but I'm reluctant to show/advise as it's sort of a grey area. I didn't start with 40 sites btw 😄 You really need to perfect the site building/content creation process on 1 or maybe 2 sites before trying to scale. Otherwise you risk amplifying errors across many sites. I'll try to think of a way to either show a new site from start to finish or break down the journey into many steps. It takes me about 1 full month to launch a new site. If it were quicker, I'd gladly crank out a few examples for you guys. Hopefully I can fill in the pieces of my process over the next 20+ videos! But I appreciate the comments as it gives me a better idea of what people would like to see or are struggling with!

[@melissagreye8445]

Thank you for making this video.

[@CaseyBotticello]

You’re welcome 🙂

[@aj75852]

Hello! I've been exploring your blog and I'm glad to have found you on KZbin as well! If a site qualifies for both Mediavine and Raptive, which would you recommend? Since you've worked with both ad management platforms, I value your insight. I know the competition is tight, but is there one that stands out even if only slightly?

[@CaseyBotticello]

If you currently qualify for both, and this is your first site with either, I’d generally recommend Mediavine. Mainly because of the rev share as discussed in video. Raptive is awesome too, but if you do well with MV, you’ll probably get a revenue guarantee if you switch somewhere down the line, which would be a great way to try Raptive if you’re still unsure. Mediavine really has great support and has built a good FB group of publishers. I also like how easy it is to customize your ad settings (potentially very important with updates that may indirectly hit sites with too many or certain types of ads). Great for testing different ways to increase RPM: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mKarkoiXZZqHmdksi=BvZ7YoGbR4MCtw88

[@ashishgorasiya5618]

What about Domain age Requirments. ? Raptive requires 6 months old websites and Mediavine ?

[@CaseyBotticello]

I haven’t tested Raptive specifically with a site that is less than 6 months old but in order for the site to benefit from Google exchange (used by both MV and Raptive for a large portion of ads) I’d say it’s safe to say your site will need to be at least 4 months old. Ideally longer as some ad networks on MV/Raptive have higher thresholds which may limit your earnings and lead to a rejection. Generally, 6 months avoids most of these issues. You can also try applying to both! They might take a few weeks for final decision anyway.

[@financehelp1819]

Can we use social traffic?

[@CaseyBotticello]

Yes, you can definitely apply and get accepted using traffic from social media! Lots of sites on both networks use this strategy.

[@bigdogkropp]

I'm getting 150,000 pageviews a month and most is from Facebook ads. You need a high enough RPM to cover your ad CPC. I'm paying about $0.035 - $0.04 per click on FB ads and getting $55-$60 RPM on Mediavine. Find a site that appeals to an older demographic and the RPM will be higher.

[@TikTokTrends-dc5sb]

Bs google is killing every single website lol

[@CaseyBotticello]

It’s definitely getting harder, but if you are going to monetize with display ads, both Mediavine and Raptive are great options!