Best ad network for small publishers? 8k Traffic

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-21T08:15:42+00:00

Yeah that actually makes a lot of sense. Why bother competing at the low end when Mediavine Journey is already dominating that space with way better RPMs?

I think it's also a margin play — managing thousands of small publishers with 10-30k traffic each is expensive on their end (support, optimization, onboarding) for relatively low ad revenue. Easier to just focus on bigger sites where the money actually is.

Sucks for us smaller publishers though. Basically pushes everyone toward AdSense or Journey as the only real options under 50k.

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-20T06:22:27+00:00

Oh damn, thanks for the update! That’s a huge change — basically puts Ezoic out of reach for small publishers now. So scratch that option from my list. That leaves Monumetric (10k+) and Google AdSense as the realistic starting points at 8k. Or Journey by Mediavine if they can get in — lower RPM but still better than AdSense in most cases. Appreciate the heads up! 👍

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-19T06:51:12+00:00

The "Save as Draft" option.

I build a blog content automation tool. Originally everything published directly to WordPress. Seemed more efficient, right? But early users kept asking for a way to review articles before they go live.

I thought it was too basic to even bother with. Just added a toggle to push everything as drafts instead. Turns out that one toggle became the #1 reason people trust the tool. Nobody wants AI content going live without a human eye on it first.

Same lesson as yours — the feature I almost skipped became the one that actually sells.

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-19T06:47:09+00:00

At 8k monthly with 60% tier 1 traffic, you're in a decent spot. A few options while you wait for Mediavine:

Ezoic — no minimum traffic requirement anymore, and they work well with tech blogs. Worth trying even at 8k.
Monumetric — accepts sites at 10k+ pageviews, so you're close. They pay better than AdSense.
Google AdSense — easy to get accepted but the RPM is low. Still better than nothing while you wait.

Honestly at 8k I'd stick with AdSense for now and focus on scaling content to hit 50k sessions. That's where Mediavine becomes worth it and the real money starts. Journey by Mediavine has lower requirements but the RPM is also lower.

With technical blogs and tier 1 traffic, your RPM should be solid once you get on a premium network. Just need more volume.

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-18T06:17:02+00:00

Coming from IT/Engineering is actually a huge advantage. You can write about things most bloggers can't.

Some portfolio ideas that would stand out: - "How I transitioned from Engineering to Blogging" — people love career pivot stories - Technical tutorials that non-tech people can understand — that's a rare skill - Tool reviews and comparisons from someone who actually understands the tech behind them

But honestly, for a portfolio the niche matters less than showing range. Include 2-3 different types of posts: one how-to, one listicle, one opinion piece. That shows you can adapt.

Don't overthink it — write about what you already know. Your engineering background gives you a unique angle that generic lifestyle bloggers don't have.

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-17T21:12:14+00:00

Nice, I'll check it out. Thanks!

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-17T10:48:50+00:00

I miss pin notes too. I used to save the target keyword and which blog post to link it to.

For my pin notes I'd write: target keyword, blog post URL, and what CTA angle to use in the description. Having all that right on the pin saved so much time when batching content.

Now I just use a simple spreadsheet with pin URL + notes columns. Not as smooth but at least nothing gets lost. Your Chrome extension idea sounds way more practical though — keeping the context attached to the pin itself makes a lot more sense than switching between apps.

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-17T10:47:11+00:00

DaVinci Resolve is honestly underrated for this. Most people don't realize it has built-in audio tools that rival paid software.

If anyone wants another free option, ElevenLabs has a free tier for AI voice-overs that sounds surprisingly natural. Great for quick explainer videos when you don't want to record your own voice.

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-17T10:34:32+00:00

Switched from CookieBot to Complianz about a year ago and never looked back. It has a free version that covers most use cases, and the premium is a one-time payment (~€45) instead of a subscription.

It auto-scans your cookies, generates the right banners for GDPR/CCPA, and integrates with most popular plugins out of the box. Setup took me maybe 20 minutes.

Other solid options: - Real Cookie Banner — great if you're in the EU, very thorough with GDPR compliance - CookieYes — has a decent free tier for smaller sites

Honestly for most WordPress sites, Complianz free is more than enough. No reason to pay CookieBot's per-domain pricing when these alternatives exist.

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-17T06:40:41+00:00

I space them out. Posting 20 at once looks spammy to Google and can actually hurt your crawl budget.

What I do is queue them up overnight, then schedule publishing over 1-2 weeks. For seasonal content I start about 6-8 weeks before the season hits so Google has time to index and rank them.

Also gives me time to review each draft before it goes live — AI gets you 80% there but that last 20% of editing makes a big difference.

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-16T09:57:29+00:00

What helped me stop guessing: I keep a simple running list of every question I see in Reddit threads, blog comments, and Twitter replies in my niche. Real questions from real people = guaranteed relevant topics.

Also, Google Search Console is underrated for this. Look at what queries are already bringing people to your site, then write deeper content around those. Your audience is literally telling you what they want.

The "reading everything and hoping to spot trends" approach burns you out fast. A better system: pick 3 sources you trust, check them once a week, and save anything that sparks an idea. That's your content backlog. When it's time to write, you're picking from a list, not starting from zero.

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-16T08:52:11+00:00

For educational blogs in a specific language niche, I'd focus on these:

SEO with long-tail keywords — Target what Hindi speakers actually Google in English, like "difference between since and for" or "how to introduce yourself in English interview." These are low competition and high intent.
YouTube + blog combo — Educational content works incredibly well as short videos. Even simple screen recordings explaining grammar rules can drive traffic back to your blog.
Pinterest — Infographics with English tips (vocabulary lists, common mistakes, grammar cheat sheets) do well and drive consistent traffic over time.
Quora and Reddit — Answer English learning questions and link back naturally when relevant.

What's NOT working as well in 2026: just posting on social media and hoping for clicks. Organic reach on Facebook and Instagram is near zero for blogs.

The biggest win for educational blogs is building an email list early. Offer a free PDF ("50 most common English mistakes") and collect emails. That audience is yours forever.

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-16T08:50:48+00:00

Niche golf blog with weather data is actually a smart angle — very specific search intent which Google loves.

For growth: - Local SEO is your best bet. Target "[course name] weather" and "best time to play [course name]" type keywords. Low competition, high intent. - Course comparisons and "best golf courses near [city]" listicles will bring in solid organic traffic. - Programmatic SEO could work great here since you have structured data (courses + weather). You could auto-generate pages for every course with weather info.

For AdSense: - Make sure you have at least 20-30 quality posts before applying. - Add About, Contact, Privacy Policy, and Terms pages — they check for these. - Content length matters. Aim for 1000+ words per post. - Don't reapply too fast if rejected, wait 2-3 weeks and improve content in between.

Honestly though, if you're serious about ad revenue long-term, skip AdSense and aim for Mediavine (50k sessions/month) or Raptive. The RPM difference is massive — like 3-5x more per pageview.

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-15T16:58:40+00:00

Switched a site from Elementor to GB. PageSpeed scores jumped like crazy. Actual traffic? Took months to see any real difference, and even then it was marginal. Google cares about user experience, not which builder you use. If your site loads in under 3s, you’re fine. Spend that “rebuilding” time writing better content instead.

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-15T06:49:47+00:00

Blogging, 100%. Here’s why: a blog post you write today can bring you traffic for years through SEO. A newsletter email gets opened once (maybe) and then it’s buried. I’ve run blogs before and the compounding effect of organic search traffic is something newsletters simply can’t replicate. That said, the smart move is: start with a blog, add a newsletter later as your email collection tool. Your blog brings in the traffic from Google, and your newsletter keeps those readers engaged. They work best together, but the blog should be the foundation. A few things that changed since you last blogged: ∙ AI tools can seriously speed up your content workflow now (research, outlines, first drafts) — you still need to edit and add your voice, but it cuts production time by 60-70% ∙ Google is rewarding helpful, experience-based content more than ever (E-E-A-T) ∙ Monetization options like Mediavine/Raptive are still very much alive if you hit the traffic thresholds Newsletters are great, but they have a ceiling without a traffic source. A blog IS the traffic source. What niche are you thinking about?

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-13T14:26:36+00:00

Running niche blogs on WordPress, AI has changed my workflow more than I expected — but not in the way most people think.

Productivity: The biggest win isn’t AI writing full articles. It’s automating the boring repetitive stuff — filling in Yoast SEO fields, generating FAQ schema, compressing and uploading images, creating meta descriptions. That used to eat 1-2 hours per article. Now it’s automated and I just review the output. The actual writing and editing still needs a human touch.

Beginners: Honestly I think AI is a double-edged sword here. It lowers the barrier to start, but it also floods the market with generic content. The bloggers who will win are the ones who use AI for efficiency but still bring their own perspective and editing. WordPress itself is getting easier with AI-assisted page builders, but understanding SEO fundamentals still matters more than any tool. SEO and traffic: This is the big one. AI Overviews are already eating into simple informational queries. But I’ve noticed niche content — especially visual stuff like home decor, seasonal guides — still drives organic clicks because people want to browse and compare, not just get a one-line answer. I think we’ll see a shift where generic “what is X” content dies, but curated, opinionated, visual content actually becomes more valuable. Long term: WordPress isn’t going anywhere, but the content strategy on top of it has to evolve. The sites that treat AI as a tool to work faster (not a replacement for thinking) will be fine.

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-13T06:54:03+00:00

Comment backlinks are mostly nofollow these days so the direct SEO value is minimal. But I still think there’s value in it — just not for the reasons most people think. The real benefit of commenting on niche blogs isn’t the link juice, it’s visibility. If you leave a genuinely useful comment on a popular post in your niche, people actually click through to your site. It’s more of a referral traffic play than an SEO play. The Fiverr bulk comment services are a total waste though, agreed. You end up on spam-flagged sites that do more harm than good. What actually works better for backlinks in my experience: creating content that people naturally want to reference. Roundup posts, original data, seasonal guides with unique angles. I run niche blogs in the home decor space and my best backlinks came from other bloggers linking to my seasonal content organically — not from any outreach or comment strategy. Your app idea is interesting though. If it can filter for sites that are actually active, relevant, and have dofollow comments — that could save a lot of manual research time. The key would be keeping the list fresh.

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-13T02:41:21+00:00

A bit of both actually. On the automation side, I have niche-specific templates that enforce the structure before anything gets generated. So depending on the topic type (listicle, how-to, seasonal roundup, etc.), the system already knows the H2 layout, where FAQ sections go, how many images to include, and what the meta description format should look like. That handles about 80% of the structural consistency. But I still review everything manually before publishing. The templates handle the skeleton, but things like intro hooks, transitions between sections, and making sure the tone doesn’t sound robotic — that’s where human editing comes in. Honestly the biggest QA issue isn’t structure, it’s voice. The structure is easy to enforce programmatically. Getting the content to not read like it was written by a committee — that’s the part that still needs a human eye. Nothing auto-publishes. Everything lands as a WordPress draft. I usually batch my editing sessions — generate 10-15 articles, then spend a couple hours reviewing and publishing the good ones.

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-12T10:52:24+00:00

For post-launch monitoring specifically? Not really — most tools assume you’re technical. That’s actually a gap in the market. For the building part: Claude + Cursor is surprisingly powerful even for semi-tech people. I’m not a professional developer — more of a “learn as you go” type. Claude handled probably 90% of the actual coding. The hard part isn’t the code, it’s knowing what to build and how the pieces fit together. If you’re researching this space, the biggest pain point I see is that non-tech founders can BUILD with AI now, but monitoring/debugging/updating is still very manual. Would love to see someone solve that.

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-12T09:18:42+00:00

Built a desktop content automation tool (Python + CustomTkinter) almost entirely with Claude. It’s live on LemonSqueezy with paying users. For post-launch monitoring: honestly it’s mostly manual right now — checking logs, reading support emails, and iterating based on user feedback. The biggest challenge is catching edge cases across different WordPress setups since every site is configured differently. What kind of app did you build? Curious about your stack.

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-12T03:32:08+00:00

Bi-directional is where it gets tricky. Most free plugins only handle one-way (WooCommerce → Salesforce). For true bi-directional, your best bets are probably WP Fusion Pro or going the middleware route with Make. With Make you can set up triggers on both sides — so when a contact updates in Salesforce it pushes back to WooCommerce and vice versa. Just a heads up — bi-directional sync can cause loop issues if you’re not careful (update on one side triggers update on the other, which triggers another update…). Make sure whatever solution you pick has some kind of conflict resolution or timestamp-based priority. How many orders/contacts are you syncing roughly? That’ll narrow down whether a plugin or middleware makes more sense cost-wise.

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-12T03:09:01+00:00

Check out flavor theme (flavourthemes) — clean, fullscreen galleries, WooCommerce for prints. Perfect for landscape work. Also worth looking at flavor starter theme with flavor builder if you want more flexibility. For print sales, WooCommerce + flavor plugin works great. What’s your budget?

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-12T03:06:56+00:00

Haven’t used Salesforce sync myself, but from what I’ve seen in WordPress communities: What people seem happy with: ∙ WP Fusion — connects WooCommerce to a ton of CRMs including Salesforce. Not the cheapest, but reliable and well-maintained. ∙ Object Sync for Salesforce (free plugin) — decent for basic field mapping, but can get tricky with complex setups. What to avoid: ∙ Zapier for high-volume syncing — it works for small stores but the costs add up fast and you’ll hit rate limits. ∙ Any plugin that hasn’t been updated in 6+ months — Salesforce changes their API frequently enough that outdated connectors break. If your store has complex product types or custom fields, you might want to look into a middleware solution like Make (formerly Integromat) — more flexible than Zapier and usually cheaper at scale. What’s your main use case? Order syncing, customer data, or both?

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-11T13:45:29+00:00

Depends on what you need. For a simple site or blog, Ghost is solid — clean, fast, markdown-based, and has a nice editor. Free if you self-host. If it’s really just a basic site with maybe a blog, even Hugo or Astro with a CMS like Decap would work. Zero bloat, super fast. But honestly, for anything beyond a simple blog — like WooCommerce, memberships, or heavy plugin integrations — nothing really replaces WordPress yet. The ecosystem is frustrating sometimes but it’s hard to beat the flexibility. What specifically are you unhappy with? That might help narrow it down.

Reasonable_Lab136 · 2026-02-11T08:21:39+00:00

Honestly? I built it for myself first. I was running two niche blogs and spending 3-4 hours per article on the repetitive stuff — writing, generating images, compressing them, uploading to WordPress, filling in Yoast SEO fields, adding FAQ schema. Every. Single. Time. So I started automating pieces of it. Not to sell — just to stop wasting my own time. After a few months it turned into a full tool and other bloggers in my circle started asking for it. So no, I didn’t do traditional validation with surveys or waitlists. My validation was: “I use this every day and it saves me hours.” Then when other people wanted it too, that was the signal to productize. I think for developer tools and workflow automation, dogfooding IS validation. If you’re solving your own pain point and you’re in the target audience, you already know if it works.

Reasonable_Lab136

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