Journey by Mediavine’s top priority is to monetize sites of all sizes while maintaining successful relationships with our advertising partners. In order to provide a positive advertising experience for users and our buying partners, certain types of content and activities are not permitted when utilizing our services. The following explanations are designed to assist you in understanding what activities and content to avoid while working with Journey by Mediavine. For more information, please refer to the Journey by Mediavine Terms of Service or this FAQ.
Mediavine requires that all publishers comply with advertiser policies and applicable laws and regulations. If your website contains content that violates any of these requirements, Mediavine reserves the right to remove ads from content violating these policies or suspend or terminate our services without notice.
Mediavine retains sole discretion in determining whether a site violates our policies or the Terms of Service.
The following are common reasons why we may have recently suspended or terminated services.
Copyright infringement
All content appearing on your website must be owned or properly licensed. A website cannot directly facilitate or be used to facilitate the hosting of unlicensed copyright-protected content.
Examples:
- A website is used to view a TV show, movie, image, or text that the site owner does not have a license to rebroadcast.
- The website contains links to another site where users can view a TV show, movie, or print media that the site owner does not have a license to rebroadcast.
- The website contains direct links or links to another site that contains links to install a “cracked” version of software that normally requires payment.
Invalid or Non-Human Traffic
A website’s traffic must result from human user interest. Invalid traffic includes impressions or clicks that artificially inflate a website’s traffic numbers and, in turn, a publisher’s earnings. Invalid traffic can include:
- Traffic generated by a non-human source (bot).
- Traffic is generated by paying for a service for website visits or clicks.
- Clicks are identified as repeated by one or more users.
- Clicks and impressions result from a publisher clicking on their own ads without intending to interact with the ad’s landing page.
For more information in what is considered Invalid Traffic, please visit this help article.
For best practices for a monetized website, please see this help desk article.
Excessive use of Artificial Intelligence
Mediavine is committed to a creator-first future. Please review our commitment to a creator-first future for more information.
Templated, Made For Advertising, or Low-Value Content
Advertisers value original and informative content that cannot be easily found by searching other areas of the web. Websites with low advertiser value repurpose other content that can be easily found on other sites and are solely made to generate advertising revenue.
Examples can include:
- A website where most of the content is dedicated to linking to other sites with little original content provided.
- A website where most of the content is structured as a list, even if extra text is added relating to each item (Listicle).
Click here for a help article containing more information about best practices for monetized websites.
Sexually Explicit Content
Journey does not allow content such as text, images, videos, or audio—that depicts or refers to sexual activity, sexual behavior, or sexually suggestive themes.
Examples can include, and is inclusive of both human and cartoon/anime/manga content:
- Excessive skin exposure, sex club membership, pornography, sexually suggestive poses, mail order brides, and/or sexual abuse or endangerment.
- The distribution or promotion of content that has been created to be sexually explicit or contain nudity.
Malware Distribution
Journey does not allow content that:
- Engages in deceptive practices to illicitly acquire personal information or manipulate users into voluntarily disclosing it.
- Allows a user, or promotes products and services that allow a user, to track or monitor another person or their activities without that person’s consent.
- Content that provides misleading or fake claims of truth.
Examples can include:
- Promoting or distributing any software that is intentionally designed to cause damage to a computer, server, client, or computer network. It can disrupt operations, steal sensitive information, gain unauthorized access, or otherwise cause harm to systems and users.
- Using the website to convince users to give up personal information or data (Phishing).
Spoofed Content & Redirects
Journey does not allow content where:
- Tags are loaded that declare the publisher URL as somewhere other than where the user actually is.
- A website is designed to look like a legitimate website in order to deceive users.
- A site is used to expose visitors to significant risk by means of forced pop-unders and redirects
Examples can include:
- URL mimicking: The web address (URL) looks similar to the real one but may include subtle misspellings.
- Copied design: The layout, logos, fonts, and colors mimic a real website.
- Urgent messages that pressure users into quick actions, such as "Your account has been compromised!"