Media.Net review – How do you make money from your blog or website? While this question can have several answers, the most common and easiest I think is by putting up ads on your blog. There are several ad networks to choose from but most of the people would name Google AdSense as the best. They pretty much are considered the king when it comes to online advertising but getting an account approved with Google is not really that easy. So what do you do if you cannot get Google to accept your blog/website? You find another ad agency to work with and one of them is Media.net
Considered relatively new, Media.net is a contextual ad network that often gets tagged as an effective alternative to Google Adsense. A subsidiary of the Directi group, they tied up with Yahoo, Bing network and are now mostly known as a Yahoo ad network. The thing that sounds most lucrative about Media.net is the $2 RPM which is definitely way higher than what some other ad networks, including AdSense, will offer. We will come to how true this is later in the article but first a few basic things about Media.net. I do not intend to go in depth on how you can make it work for you, or how to set up or fine tune it because that is not the idea of this review. This is just a basic overview of what they offer.
Requirements:
In order to get your blog/website accepted by Media.net, it must meet the following requirements.
Terms: http://www.media.net/legal/tos
Minimum Traffic Requirement: None. It doesn’t not really matter how many visitors you are getting per day which is definitely a good thing for small blogs.
Language Requirement: Must be primarily English.
Prohibited Content: Adult, Tobacco, Alcohol, Ammunition, Hazardous Substances, Illegal Drugs, Gore, Violence, Gambling, Racism, Hate, Racial Intolerance, Prescription Drugs, Counterfeit Products, Stolen Items.
Display Ad Unit Sizes Available: 336×280, 300×250, 728×90, 600×250, 160×600, 728×20, 600×120, 468×60, 200×200, 250×250, 120×600, 120×300, 300×600, 160×90, 180×150.
Compatible with Google AdSense: Yes
Mobile Ad Units Available: Yes
WordPress Plugin Available: No
Publisher’s Revenue Share: Undisclosed
Payment Methods Available: Wire transfer or PayPal.
Payment Terms: Net-30.
Minimum Payout Threshold: $100.
Personal Account Manager: Yes.
Easy to Contact Support: Yes.
Now let us come to what the true picture is. I will list down what other people call as great features of Media.Net
RPM – While their RPM at $2 sounds lucrative enough, the biggest catch is your blog should have majority of traffic from countries like USA, Canada and UK. If you are a blogger from countries like India and that is where most of your visitors are from, your chances of success with Media.Net is almost next to none. For the first few days, your dashboard will definitely show an RPM of $2 for every 1000 impressions and then it will start to drop, down to the extent of even $0. I Googled a bit and the $2 fantasy lasts different for everyone. For some people, it lasted a week before they revenue started to dip, for some it lasted a couple of weeks, for me it happened for just one day.
Account Manager: Another so called big and premium feature of Media.Net and agreed that it does happen. After you apply for an account with these guys, you will receive an email from your account manager that he is there for you, will be happy to help you, will assist in setting up your ads, answer any queries, blah blah. Reality check? Their support and account manager sucks. The turnaround time to emails is ridiculous and the replies are either non-existent or standard. Do not expect any help of any kind from them. The only time you will probably contact them is when you start to see your RPM going down and you will receive a reply stating that the quality of your traffic is very low. That is it. No further details, no explanations on why the low quality. Your Google analytics dashboard will show valid traffic and Media.Net will say either Bots or “poor traffic”. There are a few standard replies as well like their system is running some tests, or they will ask you to send them your keywords etc but the bottom line is that chances of you getting paid will be thin. You will ask why the RPM is dropping and will receive an email saying that it is an automated thing and they have no control over it.
Account Freeze: Expect this to happen because it had with a lot of people. Your dashboard will show great earnings if you are one of those lucky people whose RPM did not drop to $0. Now when you are just about to expect payment, they will suspend your account and the excuse will again be that the quality of your traffic was poor.
In the end, I am not saying that people have not gotten paid with them. Google it and you will find several people claiming that they have received timely payments and Media.Net is solid but most of the bloggers outside, US, UK and Canada will tell you a different story. If your website too gets traffic from outside these countries, I suggest that you steer clear of Media.Net. You will just be wasting your time, space on your website and will be up for a patience check.
I hope this information was helpful. If you have used Media.Net as well, please do share your experience. If you are one of the lucky ones who got paid from Media.net, I would definitely love to hear from you.
4 comments
Yeah, this review is exactly right. They’re one of the shadiest companies I’ve dealt with for sure. Took me 6 months to make $100 and I now make that in a single day with Mediavine. It’s a night-and-day difference in everything basically. Not only do Media.net not give a crap about you or your blog, but they’ll freeze your account so you can’t even log in. They owe me around $70 and won’t pay it even after sending them dozens of emails. I sincerely hope they go under. Their support sucks, their dashboard sucks, their earnings suck, and everything about them SUCKS. I guess Dan just confirmed to me from his comment that I can kiss that $70 goodbye. Well, I’ll spam them with emails regardless. I can’t stand them. They messaged me back once saying “We’re looking into it. Don’t reply to this email.” HORRIBLE. Seriously, if you’re reading this, don’t just NOT apply. Don’t apply + Give them the middle finger in an email too.
Thank you Stu
DO NOT USE media.net We have used it and it reported way less impressions than DFP’s serving of ads. The ones that got served, the RPM is only $0.09 or less. It is a total scam.
In addition, if you have earned $99 and then cancel your account, you can say goodbye to your $99. They will keep your $99 because you didn’t meet their payment threshold of $100. This is the ONLY ad network that will NOT give YOUR money back when you cancel your account. Avoid at all cost.
Thanks for your feedback Dan. I appreciate it.