I was thinking about joining Grow by Mediavine.
It’s been around for a while and has grown in popularity – must be a good sign. Beside this, I’m also researching ethical ‘content’ companies to align with as a writer, blogger, and creator. So, naturally, I wondered about Mediavine as a whole. Are they still a viable potential partner?
So, what’s the deal, should I join Grow by Mediavine?
Here’s What I’m Learning About Ethical Monetization
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about ethical business partnerships — especially in the context of running a blog. With so many tools out there promising growth, income, and traffic, I keep coming back to one simple question:
Does this align with how I want to communicate as a creator and more importantly as a human?
We’re in a different era now, the next stage – more human-centric, more human-designed.
That’s where ‘Grow’ comes in.
What is Grow by Mediavine exactly?
I’ve been curiously watching it gain traction in the blogging community. Here’s a quick run-down of what it is:
It’s a free tool from Mediavine — a popular (and lucrative) ad management company known for placing ads on content sites (it’s especially sought-after by lifestyle and food bloggers for their high payouts, granted you’ve achieved the outrageously high requisite page sessions).
If you don’t know it, Grow looks like a handy, free way to get people to stick around your site, engage, and build an email list. It is mainly that.
But Grow, unlike its parent brand Mediavine, isn’t about ads when you join it.
As a member, you could, further down the line, qualify for that flagship ad programme. But, Grow in and of itself though, is a suite of audience engagement tools designed to help with:
- Collecting email addresses
- Getting return visitors or readers
- Allowing people to bookmark or “favorite” your content
- Recommending your related posts
- Building up first-party data (i.e. Data that is consent-based) – all adding to potential monetization down the line
But after digging a little deeper — especially as it pertains to privacy and monetization — I started wondering if all this fits with how I want to grow this blog. Which by the way, I’ve turned into a more personable, journal-style, old-school blog instead of a content site. Guess I’m just missing the old days of real engagement that wasn’t underpinned by instant fame and money.
Grow is Privacy-First, But Still Data-Driven
Mediavine is transparent about being GDPR and CCPA compliant, to their credit, with Grow branded as a “privacy-first” tool. So, instead of relying on third-party cookies (which are being phased out), it encourages users to log in and interact — helping you collect first-party data. Users have to sign up in order to participate and interact with a community. As a blogger who’s observed what cold and transient engagement from random, voyeuristic, and often spammy users, feels like, I love that.
Technically speaking, it’s more ethical than old-school data harvesting. But ‘light’ data collection is still data collection, right?
Is it wrong? No.
But is it right for the kind of relationship I want with my readers? That’s the deeper question.
As an old-school blogger since 2009, and evolving as one does to align with the changing communications (let’s leave marketing for another post) and engagement landscape, I’m learning to pay attention to those nuances.
The unfolding geopolitical events, as they pertain to companies benefiting from categorically unlawful (never mind unethical) human rights practices, are influencing that alignment as well.
What About Ads and monetization through it?
At the moment, Grow is only an engagement tool — but, like I mentioned before, it’s designed to set you up for Mediavine ads later. And that’s where things get complicated for me.
I’m not sure I want to fill my site with auto-generated ads for things I can’t control, especially when I’m talking about things like creativity, well-being, and intentional living. Who knows what they might populate it with? These ad networks are needless to say strategic with the placement of content, but it’s their interpretation of your content that’s risky. Even if I could make money through ads one day (Mediavine’s minimum is 50,000 sessions/month), I’m not sure that’s the direction I want to go.
The truth is, I want people to feel calm and focused when they read my blog posts. I don’t want ‘you’ to be distracted by ad clutter or carpet-bombed with pop-ups.
So… what does ethical monetization look like for me?
That’s the season I’m in.
I’m letting it unfold alongside earnest research and analysis. How it unfolds is how it unfolds.
What it eventually becomes will be influenced by what aligns with my ethical values, which I’m hoping will naturally attract an audience aligned with the same thing.
What I’m Leaning Toward right now
I want to keep pursuing using tools that feel more aligned with reader-first engagement such as:
- Email or newsletter marketing (for me, using Kit, still, the most user-friendly and value-for-money)
- Simple, relatable monetization (like Buy Me a Coffee integration or writing and selling a digital product)
- Personal engagement over passive ad revenue – this one I can see will be the most important and why I think Grow’s community engagement will be beneficial
- Lastly, but most importantly, I don’t want to align with big tech companies involved with human rights abuses – a difficult one as our online lives are so tangled up in it, but I can at least try
Following trends was never for me, though I like to stay ahead of the curve. So, I don’t want to rush into using anything just because it’s popular. I want to build something slow, intentional, and sustainable.
In conclusion
If you’re wondering the Same for your personal brand or niche blog…
Here are some tips to contemplate if you’re debating whether to join Grow by Mediavine:
- Yes, it’s a legitimate tool. It’s not risky, and you don’t have to run ads to use it.
- It might not be 100% aligned with everyone’s values. Especially if you want to build a quiet, ethical, reader-listener-focused space.
- Trust your gut. Growth isn’t always about scale and numbers. Sometimes it’s about direction, focus, and the quality of your engagement. That ‘quality’ thing is usually the vehicle for that sought-after traction
My strategy for this blog (of course it may change) is to use Grow for exactly what it is, ie. To grow (no pun intended) an audience and community.
I’ll see where that leads, if anywhere. But, I think that’s where I might stop….short of full-on flashing ad-clutter, no matter how lucrative.
What if they decide to ‘boot’ me one day for some inexplicable reason? Will I at least have a high-quality audience left to carry on with? Something to consider. Excuse the cliche, but it’s not always about quantity.
I’m still figuring this out, but I thought I’d share my thinking process here — because maybe you’re wondering about the same thing too.
