The mistake that cost me 40% of my traffic...

Hi Reader,

A few weeks ago, I shared an update on the major changes happening at Mediavine and Raptive.

(Missed that email? You can catch up here: What is going on with Mediavine and Raptive at the moment?)

Shortly after, I received a message from a blogger with a story I felt was too important not to pass on.

I promised to keep her identity private, so let’s call her ‘Lily’.

Here’s what she told me:

“I am one of those people who changed to Raptive in late 2024 and my traffic TANKED over the next 6 months. By April 2025, my traffic was down 40%! I moved back to Mediavine and I'm slowly working my way back to what I had before the switch.

The biggest thing that I learned moving back (from the Mediavine people) was that Raptive is founded and run by MARKETING people. Mediavine was founded and run by COMPUTER people. This means they have a better feel for how to give users a better experience and how to program the ads to not do stupid things like Raptive does. (I actually had an awful error with Raptive where new ads would load and it would jump the reader back to the beginning of the article. It was terrible.)

Raptive tried really hard to convince me to stay by focusing heavily on their ‘great RPMs!’ I told them higher RPMs are totally useless if I have 40% lower blog traffic as a result of their methods.”

Now let me be very clear: I am not trying to ‘do down’ Raptive. And I’m certainly not saying this will happen to everyone. Plenty of bloggers do well at Raptive.

But I do feel Lily’s experience highlights a few important lessons that are really worth sharing…

1) RPM does not equal revenue

This is one of the biggest misconceptions in the blogging world.

Many bloggers chase higher RPMs and assume it means more money.

But RPMs are only one half of the revenue equation…

Revenue = RPM x traffic

Of course, you can very easily inflate your RPM by plastering your site with more ads.

But what happens then?

The user experience tanks
Visitors leave your site faster
They stop visiting altogether
Your pageviews plummet

And ultimately?

Your income goes down, not up.

The trouble is, changes to ad density have a near instant effect on RPMs... but the knock on effect on traffic takes much longer to percolate through, meaning you might not realise until much later... or you might not even make the connection at all.

2) UX matters more than most bloggers realise

Your user experience is EVERYTHING.

I often get emails from bloggers saying, “My traffic has fallen off a cliff – why?”

And honestly… it takes about 2 seconds on their site to see the problem:

Their website is drowning in ads.
Banners, ads and popups zoom in from from all directions.
With food blogs, you click 'jump to recipe' and it moves at a snail’s pace… only to land on yet another advert!
And the actual content – the thing visitors actually came for – is nearly impossible to read.

Yes, all of that might give you an impressive RPM.

But a terrible UX drives visitors away – and Google absolutely notices.

If your site frustrates your readers, they won’t stick around… and Google won’t send more people your way.

And it’s not just ads that cause the problem… all sorts of things can negatively affect your UX and, in turn, negatively affect your pageviews.

3) Don’t fall for clever marketing

Until very recently, Raptive did something very smart from a marketing perspective…

They positioned themselves as the 'step up' after Mediavine.

How?

Because Mediavine required 50,000 sessions and Raptive required 100,000 pageviews, many bloggers assumed Raptive was 'the next level'.

As Lily put it:

“A lot of people – myself included – thought that Raptive was the ‘next step’ after Mediavine and that it was just ‘the way you do things.’ It’s been a hard lesson to learn. ‘If it ain't broke, don't fix it!’ If you're happy with your ad network, why leave?”

And really, this is where the clever marketing comes in...

By setting their threshold higher, Raptive created the impression that they were the more premium option – something to aspire to and celebrate once you finally reached the magical 100k mark.

But in reality?

There isn’t much difference in the actual service between the two networks.

And some bloggers have told me that they felt Raptive’s higher RPMs came simply from adding more ads to the page – not from some dramatically more efficient system. Or else they found that, once Raptive's RPM guarantee period was over, their RPMs plummeted to much lower than Mediavine's.

Plus, the % revenue share Raptive offers bloggers is often much lower than the % share Mediavine offers… something many bloggers don’t realise when they make the switch.

All of this is a good reminder to always do your due diligence and to take care not to fall for clever marketing – not just with ad companies, but with all aspects of blogging.

4) Don’t put all your eggs in one basket – especially not Google’s

Lily’s situation is also a reminder of why relying solely on ads is so risky.

Ad income is tied directly to pageviews.

If your traffic falls – for ANY reason – your income drops instantly.

Compare that to digital products where your traffic could dip dramatically and your revenue might barely budge.

That’s why I’m so passionate about helping bloggers diversify.

Digital products give you control, stability and income that isn’t held hostage by Google, algorithms or ad networks.

READ MORE >>> Why you should start selling digital products in 2026
(And why waiting is the riskiest option.)

SEO & Blogging News

Google December 2025 core update rolling out now

Ah… the Christmas present nobody wanted! Many people in the SEO world thought there was absolutely no way Google would roll out another core algorithm update in 2025… and especially right over the Christmas / end of Q4 season…

Well they were wrong!

That’s exactly what Google has just done. The December 2025 core update core update started rolling out on Thursday 11th December and will apparently take 3 weeks to roll out.

As ever, remember not to do anything drastic until it's finished rolling out - sometimes traffic goes down before bouncing back up again. But it's also worth remembering that it's often during core update that changes you made months earlier take effect.

And that includes changes to RPM and UX...

If you made a change a few months ago to improve your RPM, but that had a negative affect on your UX... it might be during this core update that you see the negative effect of that on your traffic.

(I'm not saying this is always the case, but it's a great illustration of my point above... It's the kind of thing that happens during core updates - people blame the core update, but in fact, it's the changes they made months ago to their UX that are the root cause...)

Over to you!

I’d love to hear your thoughts on all of this…

Have you ever switched ad networks? How did it go?
Do you prioritize RPM or UX?
And are you currently diversifying your income – or planning to in 2026?

Hit reply – I always love hearing from you.

Happy blogging!

Eb 😊
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Eb Gargano
eb@productiveblogging.com
www.productiveblogging.com

P.S. If Lily’s story reminded you how fragile ad income can be, you need to read this >>> Why you should start selling digital products ASAP (And why it might be the smartest move you make in 2026.)

Productive Blogging