Create is releasing its new version today and with it comes a few new features that we can’t wait for you to see.

With version 1.8.0, we’ve got Hands Free Mode and Review Call to Actions (CTAs) ready for you!

And don’t worry, we know how much you want new features! More are coming, we swear.

What is Hands Free Mode?

Hands Free Mode is a setting you can opt-in to that allows your readers to keep their screen awake, if enabled.

This means your users can work on their recipe or craft without having to continually turn on their device again!

What Devices Does Hands Free Mode Work With?

We know this setting is pretty exciting, but there is a catch.

It doesn’t work with every device — sorry, iPhone users! — but we’ve listed below who this will be available for.

The toggle is automatically suppressed on devices that aren’t supported, so you don’t have to worry about it not working for those users.

Review CTAs

Something else we’ve heard is that you’d like leaving reviews to be easier for readers, and we definitely agree.

Enabling the new Review CTA setting will add an additional review box for readers both in the Create card itself and above the comments, if they haven’t already left a review.

When Do the Review CTAs Appear?

The Review CTAs will appear for a reader if they haven’t already left a review on a specific card from that device before.

The CTA in the Create card itself should always appear if that setting is enabled.

The CTA box above the comments section will appear if you have the Enable Public Reviews setting turned on and have your selector set correctly.

Both of the CTAs will also follow your Always Enable Review Popup setting.

Just as an example, if you have that disabled, your readers should still be able to leave a 4 or 5 star rating without leaving a review.

Other New Additions

We also have a few new settings that should hopefully add some ease of use for you, too!

• Inheriting your Theme Font Size – Looking to have your Create card font match that of your theme? Just enable this new setting! No more CSS needed 🎉.
• Faster List Saving – If you’ve noticed your longer lists taking longer to save since the 1.7.0 release, we’ve got a fix that should get it back to a speedy save.

What’s That Notice About?

Something else you might notice when you update to Create 1.8.0 is a deprecation message about the Ad Density setting. We put that there to let you know that in the next major version of Create, 1.9.0, we’ll be moving the Ad Density setting.

No fears, though! We’re just moving it over to the Mediavine Dashboard so you’ll still have full control over your Create card ad settings.

If you want to make any changes before 1.9.0 is released, head over to the Dashboard now to make those changes so it’ll take affect once you download that version. You’ll find it under Settings > In-Content Settings > Recipe Ads (and yes, it will still work with How-to cards 🎉!).

Another thing to note is that we’re leaving the List ads setting where it is in Create so no changes on that front!

What’s Next?

The team has been hard at work on the next few releases so we’re really excited about what’s to come with Create.

We’ve collected all of your feedback and are working on our roadmap to get those requests into Create as fast as we can. Be sure to keep an eye out!

The post Create 1.8.0 is Here! appeared first on Mediavine.

We’ve added what we’re calling Skip to Recipe and Skip to Instructions support for screen readers.

In terms more commonly used in the accessibility world, we added an additional skip link, or bypass block, to take readers straight to the recipe.

In all likelihood, only visually impaired readers will enable the screen reader, but making sites accessible to all readers is increasingly important on today’s web.

Why is Accessibility so Important?

Despite the recent Gil. v. Winn Dixie ruling, accessibility for visually impaired readers is still extremely important. 

Over 250 million people are visually impaired worldwide, or 3-4 percent of the planet. If you don’t make your website accessible to those individuals, it becomes virtually unusable to a larger segment of the population than you might think.

We always recommend publishers try enabling the screen reader that’s built in to your operating system. (They’re generally under system settings). 

Try browsing your own site and getting to your recipe / how-to card. Then imagine having to experience the entire web that way. 

Chances are without features like we’ve just described — and launched across the Mediavine community — it’s an absolutely terrible experience.

The screen reader literally reads the screen — as in every link and piece of content on it — in order to help readers find the section of content they want. 

What you may think of as quick scrolling becomes a nearly impossible journey for the visually impaired.

Enter our version of the bypass block, or skip links.

What is a Bypass Block? Do I Need One?

A bypass block is a pattern used to solve for large blocks of text or navigation that readers will want to bypass or skip past. It’s part of what’s known as WCAG Level 2 A, or what the W3C considers the minimum for making your site more accessible.

One of the most notable proposed solutions by the W3C is to insert a link at the top of the page that links directly to your content.

If you’re running Trellis, well, we’ve got you covered.

Trellis adds this link to your main content automatically for you. Trellis is built with page speed, SEO, advertising best practices and accessibility in mind.

What About Skip-to-Recipe Accessibility?

Readers who want to skip directly to the recipe, or how-to instructions, are something we’re all familiar with. Visual impairment or not, this is a popular feature.

Now, beginning with Create 1.6.7, Mediavine automatically adds this link directly to the recipe or instructions card alongside the link to the content.

The W3C also encourages publishers to link to multiple sections and not just the main content. For example, it suggests providing a jump directly to the navigation, content, footer, etc. 

When you have a website such as a food blog, an arts and crafts guide, etc, you can naturally see where these links could be just as important.

What is the User Experience Like?

The nice thing is, if you don’t have a screen reader enabled, this button will be hidden and the user experience will remain unchanged.

As we mentioned earlier, you can “see” what this looks like if you enable the screen reader function of your operating system. 

With a screen reader enabled, it adds a “Skip to Recipe” or “Skip to Instructions” button to the top left corner of the page that the screen reader will read to the user immediately.

This makes for strong accessibility and makes it very easy for users with visual impairments to bypass all your navigation and any content they want to.

Bottom line: Readers who need this feature can be cooking or crafting within seconds rather than minutes — or growing impatient and giving up altogether. 

It’s a much, much better experience.

Is this Feature SEO Friendly?

We would never lead you astray in this regard. 

Google hasn’t directly discussed accessibility and its impact on SEO, but we’re confident that when following best practices, an accessible site is also an SEO-friendly one.

In fact, most of the accepted best practices when it comes to accessibility are also listed or recommended as SEO best practices by Google itself.

Much of our SEO guidance — like using alt text for images or increasing font size — helps you attain accessibility goals as well, according to Google’s direct advice.

It’s a safe bet that making your site more accessible will help with SEO as well. If you need more evidence, Google uses this bypass block / skip links in Google Search itself.

Again, while the impact of a bypass block is never directly stated by Google, it is embraced by the W3C and Google itself. You can be confident that it adheres to SEO best practices.

Should I Still use a Jump to Recipe / How-To button?

A quick reminder of what we’re talking about here: The Skip to Recipe and Skip to Instructions links only appear for users with a screen reader enabled. 

If you want to offer the traditional Jump to Recipe or Instructions experience to the rest of your readers, you will still need to add the button.

Jump to Recipe can provide a terrific (and popular) user experience for readers who want to skip past your content, as we said earlier.

Just remember that this feature, should you choose to provide it, must be handled separately for the visually impaired vs. the majority of your readers.

With Create, Mediavine proudly offers the first recipe card to solve for both. 

Now, publishers can be accessibility compliant, provide a better experience for all readers, and maximize their ad earnings thanks to technology like our arrival unit.

The post Create: Skip to Recipe Accessibility For Screen Readers is Live! appeared first on Mediavine.

Despite the challenging circumstances, Mediavine persevered in what ended up being a productive and exciting 2020.

Having reflected upon the past 12 months in Mediavine’s 2020 year in review, we now turn our attention to the year ahead.

Believe it or not, 2021 is shaping up to be even more noteworthy — in a positive way of course — and for a number of different reasons.

Without further delay, let’s dig in and break down some of the things publishers can expect in our roadmap for the year ahead.

Mediavine Ad Management

To mitigate some of the declines in advertiser spend due to Covid-19, Mediavine invested heavily in its ad technology last year.

While these efforts paid off for publishers in the near term, their most significant impacts will truly be evident in 2021.

Part of that is macroeconomic: As vaccinations begin and global markets recover, advertising spend should continue to increase.

Beyond that, and more importantly for content creators, a number of projects we began in 2020 will soon be firing on all cylinders.

Mediavine Exchange: Server to Server

Let’s start with the biggest one.

As we told you recently, we spent 2019 and 2020 building our in-house custom OpenRTB Server-to-Server solution, the Mediavine Exchange.

The above link will direct you to a 1,500-word essay on the topic, if you care for a deep, technical dive, but the key takeaway is this:

The competition is reliant on third-party, off-the-shelf S2S fixes. In building our own solution, Mediavine is once again ahead of the curve.

In the first half of 2021, we expect the Mediavine Exchange to fully replace client-side header bidding for our publishers. If those words mean nothing to you, think about it this way instead:

By going fully server-to-server via the Mediavine Exchange, publishers will be years ahead of the industry when it comes to the fastest-loading ads, the highest viewability and the most revenue per ad spot in the industry.

Beyond that, S2S is paving the way for additional new and exciting aspects of our advertising offerings in the coming months.

Outstream

Another 2020 venture that’s been in the works for awhile, but which we only started talking publicly about recently, is the in-house Mediavine Outstream Player. This should realize its full potential in 2021 and here’s why:

Outstream ads (you can think of them almost as animated display ads) are high-paying video ad units that run in the same slots as traditional display ads without the cost and effort of publisher-produced video.

Thanks to the Mediavine Exchange, we have more exchanges integrated —and greater outstream inventory available — than any other solution, and our ad performance should demonstrate this over time.

Expect outstream to make waves in 2021, especially as our brilliant ad tech team continues integrating it in ways that I can’t even begin to tease yet (although I suppose that itself is one heck of a tease).

Bottom line: We’re now entering the second Decade of Video, and it’s going to be even more innovative than the last.

Native

Native ads, which extend beyond traditional display banner sizes as well as integrate the look and feel of individual websites, are not a new concept. They’ve been the talk of the digital advertising world for years.

However, the Mediavine Exchange (are you sensing a pattern yet?) is about to take this offering to another level.

Due to the complexity of designing, building and integrating these ad units across demand platforms, native ads have traditionally been the realm of just a handful of exchanges — Triplelift, Sharethrough and Google AdX.

Well, that’s about to see a big change with the Mediavine Exchange, with integration from all major partners.

We’re already testing with some big industry players, again, years ahead of the trend. While everyone else will be dreaming of a productive future in native, Mediavine publishers will be living that dream in 2021.

New Publisher Offering and Application Process

To focus on our core publishers, we made a significant change to our ad management service and products in 2020 by raising the Mediavine traffic requirement to 50,000 sessions a month (update concerning GA4).

This enabled us not only to improve the quality of our offerings going forward but also to drive the highest CPMs in the industry.

As with any shift of this nature, it was not without drawbacks. It created a void for publishers on the cusp of our previous, lower-traffic threshold, along with those launching new websites.

One of our top priorities of 2021 is to fill this void.

October 2021 Update

We remain committed to providing a monetization option for publishers who’ve not yet reached the 50,000 sessions a month threshold.

The creation of a new product — one geared towards meeting content creators earlier on in their journey, while balancing the needs of existing publishers — is on our roadmap for 2022.

We believe that everyone, from new clients to those who have been with our company for years, will be happy with the results.

Core Web Vitals: Pagespeed and CLS

Google is upping the ante and changing the pagespeed game once again, throwing down the gauntlet with a new Page Experience algorithm and a new set of metrics — Core Web Vitals — effective May 2021.

While hitting Core Web Vitals will mean a collaborative effort from all of your publishing tools, ads are often one of the biggest culprits in slowing down websites and causing Cumulative Layout Shift (CLS).

On the ad front, Mediavine is already alpha testing some significant shifts in the way we render ads to help publishers solve for both CLS and LCP (Largest Contentful Paint), the two most challenging Web Vitals to hit.

Currently, only 12% of websites are hitting Web Vitals as-is. Imagine how few of them will be able to pull this off while optimizing ads.

Like everything else, Mediavine has been preparing for this for a year, and our publishers will reap the benefits by standing out from the competition and dominating those Google Search results.

Third-Party Cookie Solutions

If you thought Google was moving the goal posts with that new Page Experience algorithm we just talked about, they’re about to relocate the entire field when it comes to cookies, data and privacy.

We’ve talked about this at length, and it’s no longer just a distant early warning. Sometime near the end of 2021, or early 2022, is Google’s timetable for Chrome ending support for third-party cookies.

No one knows exactly how the cookie is going to crumble (sorry), but analysts believe an ad revenue drop of up to 60% is not unrealistic.

Given the impressive market share of Android browsers and Chrome on desktop devices, Mediavine takes this very seriously.

After all, third-party cookies vanishing means the entire programmatic advertising ecosystem — and the personalized, targeted ads it relies on — must reinvent itself or go extinct.

Not to be overdramatic, but it is that big of a deal.

Fortunately, there are several paths forward and Mediavine is exploring each of them, in some cases incredibly ambitiously.

The two main paths through the post-cookie wilderness are the Privacy Sandbox and First-Party Data, which we’ll touch on below.

The Privacy Sandbox is the Google-led initiative by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium). It’s meant to establish new, privacy-centric standards through which users control their data instead of advertisers.

While it won’t match third-party cookies in terms of ad performance, we see this as important part of a broader solution.

As Google’s most award-winning partner, we will be on the front lines in terms of implementation as the spec becomes more defined.

With First-Party Data, gathered when users consent to personalized ads by authenticating (read: logging into your site), publishers could actually see higher CPMs than we expect with third-party cookies.

Yes, making more money while respecting user privacy is an attainable goal; but how? The linchpin of that strategy is creating a value exchange with readers, providing incentive for them to log in.

On that note, allow me to reintroduce…

Grow

Mediavine launched Grow in 2020, but this will be the year it emerges as the foremost first-party solution for publishers.

Grow is a series of tools to help publishers forge a better relationship with existing and new audiences.

By providing increased value to readers through these tools, Grow enables publishers to encourage users to log in, thereby consenting to personalized content and ads alike.

The idea is that enhanced user experiences will leave readers excited to come back over and over again and encourage other readers to do the same, using the exclusive social functions of Grow.

To deliver this kind of value, we’re thinking big in terms of the features Grow already includes and its long-term potential.

We’re enhancing social features, creating ways for publishers to encourage readers to opt-in to newsletters AND personalize ads and much more that we’re excited to reveal in the coming months and years.

It won’t happen overnight, but Grow will soon become an instrumental engagement framework, providing the tools you need to emerge stronger when third-party cookies are but a memory.

Trellis

Trellis, our much-discussed WordPress theme framework years in the making, is finally ready to break through in 2021.

Trellis has been slowly expanding its beta phase, and you can expect it to be fully open to the public in the next few months.

Beyond simply being available and looking cool, Trellis is fully aligned with Mediavine’s goals of helping publishers hit Core Web Vitals, grow their traffic and, most importantly, maximize their revenue.

Trellis is built to work in concert with everything we’ve described so far, from exclusive native templates to slick Grow integrations.

As we roll out Trellis plugins, such as Trellis Images, you’ll see that this is much more than a theme framework.

It’s a one-stop shop for speed and user experience.

That isn’t to say there won’t be a pretty design. We have big things coming re: our existing child themes, as well as new ones in the making.

Even more exciting than the official Mediavine child themes will be the ones that the community itself begins to build this year.

With independent publishers poised to hit Core Web Vitals easily, while earning more money than even the largest legacy publishers, 2021 will truly be the Year of Trellis.

Grow Social

After acquiring Social Pug and rebranding the popular sharing plugin into Grow Social, we spent much of last year improving the product’s pagespeed, code base and existing features to our exacting standards.

In 2021, publishers can expect even more development from Grow Social, including tighter integrations with Grow.

As the fastest and one of the most popular social sharing plugins, Grow Social has great things in store (especially if you also use Grow) that we’re excited to announce over the course of the year.

Create

Last but not least, our OG WordPress plugin: Create.

While we’re still waiting on our friends at Google to develop more Schema types that fit in well with the Create brand, we’re returning our focus to its core offerings: Recipes, How-Tos and Lists.

Look for our long-promised improved nutrition calculation and imperial-to-metric conversion functionalities to arrive in 2021.

Create will always be the fastest, most user-friendly option for bloggers building structured content around reader-friendly experiences.

Education and Events

I wish I could confirm the return of “real world” events in 2021.

We’re eternally confident in our ability to revamp the programmatic advertising ecosystem and lead an entire industry to a safer, more prosperous future but certain things are beyond anyone’s control.

What I can promise is that when it comes to our extensive educational resources, Mediavine will not miss a beat in 2021.

From Teal Talks to blog posts, community groups and social channels, Mediavine is committed to helping content creators of all sizes build sustainable businesses.

Rising to the Occasion in 2021 and Beyond

To all four of you who made it to the end of this novel: I’m impressed!

To everyone else, I still love you — and I’m excited for the year ahead.

I know I’m supposed to say that, but if the past year taught me anything, it’s that even the greatest challenges provide opportunity.

This industry evolves so rapidly that providing a concise roadmap for a full calendar year ahead is a daunting exercise — and looking back, some of this might feel incomplete, even anachronistic.

But that’s also a big part of what inspires us year after year. Adapting to sweeping change can be scary but nothing is more rewarding.

Whatever obstacles the industry throws at us, we will face them head on, proactively and with a more secure, open and thriving web in mind.

Finally, I just want to thank you. The support of the publishing community — not just by trusting us with your business, but legitimately helping us build these products — is our biggest asset.

We will not let you down.

The post 2021 Mediavine Roadmap appeared first on Mediavine.

The results for this feature are so great, we couldn’t wait until Q1 to launch it: How does 3x the favorites sound?

What Is Create’s Recipe Card Save Button?

The Create save button is an additional way to favorite a page using Grow. The button will appear next to the print button within the Create recipe and how-to cards. (Right now, it doesn’t work within Lists.)

Once a reader uses this button they will find the post in their bookmarks section when they’re logged into Grow.

This save button has the most interaction we’ve seen so far with Grow bookmarks.

How Can I Customize It?

Currently, there are save button options for all five of Create’s card styles:

• Simple Square or Dark Simple Square
• Classy Circle or Dark Classy Circle
• Hero Image

If you’re already running Create and using one of our standard card styles, all you need to do is toggle the setting on in your Mediavine Dashboard!

What Happens When a Reader Clicks?

If the user is not logged in — and it’s their first anonymous bookmark for the site — when “save” is clicked, a tooltip will appear to encourage users to log in.

This tooltip appears above or below the save button depending on their scroll position, or it will appear attached to the widget on mobile.

Create Card Save Button by the Numbers

Are you ready for some math? You know that we couldn’t post a blog post about the new Grow save button within Create cards without telling you the results.

ICYMI: Mediavine publishers who have enabled Grow are already authenticating users and building the first-party data that will be oh-so-important when the third-party cookie crumbles in late 2021.

But how does this Create/Grow crossover save button help?

The favorites feature is currently the main way to encourage readers to sign up for Grow, so boosting your favorites is incredibly important in generating first-party data.

The good news? With this feature, the save recipe button does exactly this!

On our small sample size, we saw the save button increase favorites by 200%. Yes, two hundred percent. As in you will have THREE times the amount of favorites after enabling this.

Other Recipe Cards

The save button for Grow is currently only available for Create cards. We are preparing developer documentation for other recipe card plugins to integrate with the save button.

If you’re interested please let those developers know! We’d love to see the save recipe function for Grow in all recipe cards.

Enable Today

Alright, you’ve convinced me. How do I enable the save button in my Create card?

We’re so glad you asked! If you’re already running Grow and Create, you can enable it today in your Mediavine Dashboard.

Go ahead and log in, navigate to Settings > Grow (Beta) and scroll down to the bottom. Here you’ll see a toggle to enable the button.

Grow has recently added some other exciting features, most notably the new customization settings (found in your Dashboard!) and recommended content widgets.

The addition of the save button within the recipe card will increase authentications and continue to encourage users to sign up (so they can benefit from saving recipes into their bookmarks list) while also considering privacy and allowing users to consent to receive personalized advertisements.

We’re excited for this new save button and hope you’ll consider enabling it in your Dashboard today!

The more publishers who enable, the more feedback we can gather so that we can continue to build Grow together!

Please send your questions and feedback to grow.me@mediavine.com.

The post Introducing the Recipe Card Save Button: A Grow & Create Crossover appeared first on Mediavine.

Dec. 6, 2023: This blog post has been updated to reflect the sale of Grow Social and Grow Social Pro to NerdPress. The plugin is now called Hubbub; more information about the sale can be found on our Hubbub landing page.

Over the last couple of years we’ve been busier than ever here at Mediavine. Between practically doubling the number of employees, our constantly growing list of publishers, a new website, as well as expanding our products, even a global pandemic hasn’t been able to slow us down.

Speaking of products, we have some exciting news to share about our flagship plugin Create, and also our social sharing plugin Grow Social.

With both of these amazing tools for content creators always evolving, we wanted to create (pun intended) a team dedicated to them. Of course, we also had to have managers to run those teams, which is why we’re happy to share this tale of two Sams (kidding, but not really).

Welcome Sam Ellis and Sam Seeley to the blog. Please also congratulate these two wonderful women, while learning all about their new roles as Product Managers for Create and Grow Social.

Thanks so much, Sam and Sam, for joining us. We’re so excited to see where you take Create and Grow Social in your new roles!

Meet Sam Ellis, Product Manager for Create

1. Create is Mediavine’s flagship WordPress plugin and you are the new Product Manager. Give us a short history of Create and your work on it.

Create is a lightweight, WordPress plugin that allows users to add recipe cards, how-to cards and lists to their posts all with just a few clicks. It was built with SEO, user experience and monetization in mind, which makes it a perfect pairing for those running ads with Mediavine. 

Create won’t weigh your site down and is built to provide structured data to search engines, making it a powerful tool. Our goal is to help build sustainable businesses for content creators, and Create is just another way we are helping to do that.

I’ve been working on Create since its initial development. I was able to have my voice heard throughout the whole process which was a really neat experience! Since I was on the support team when Create launched, I helped answer publisher questions and troubleshoot tickets that came in.

Seeing it from development to launch, with recipe cards and the addition of How-To Cards and lists plus all of the fun things coming, has been so rewarding.

2. Tell us about your new role.

I started with Mediavine in October of 2017 which feels like ages ago already! I was working on the Support team, most recently as an Assistant Manager. In that role I helped answer questions, traveled to conferences and Lunch & Learns — when we were able to — and helped publishers make more money.

In August I transitioned over to being a Product Manager for Create.

I am beyond excited to help build out new features and make Create even better than it already is. This is especially exciting for someone with a background in blogging and who has also helped publishers for so long!

3. Why should every content creator be using Create? How is it better than anything else on the market?

Create doesn’t only have recipe cards, so it can be used by publishers in all niches. The How-To cards are perfect for those in DIY, but can be used by others outside of that as well.

Of course, there is also Lists, which is one of my favorite aspects of Create. Lists makes round ups of all kinds so easy to put together and they look gorgeous! We’ve seen so many publishers use Create in creative ways.

I think what sets Create apart is the team behind it. All the decisions about it are made thoughtfully and with the publisher in mind. I hope to give publishers even more of a voice as we build new features!

4. Will there be new features or updates to the plugins in the near future that you can talk about?

Indexes! The team has been working so hard on developing Indexes to help with everything from Recipe Indexes to building out a homepage that fits your style.

There are still a few things left on the list to finish up, so there’s no hard release date yet but we’re so excited to put that into your hands!

5. What is your favorite thing about each plugin?

Create – As someone who is terrible about affiliate links, the Recommended Products feature in Create is one of my favorite things. It’s really easy to use and I’ve actually seen commissions for the first time since implementing it.

Grow Social – The hidden pin option for Grow Social is something I’ve been utilizing more and more! It’s very straightforward and allows me to pin fresh content more often than I had previously done.

Meet Sam Seeley, Product Manager for Grow Social

1. Grow Social is the only WordPress social sharing plugin you need and you’re the new Product Manager. Will you start out by giving us an overview and short history of Grow Social?

Grow Social is a social sharing plugin available for WordPress sites that gives users robust tools that allows their readers to share their content across the web. It’s a game changer for content creators because it’s more than just providing those social share buttons you see on websites. 

Grow Social Pro has some amazing Pinterest capabilities that allow users to set their custom and hidden Pinterest content, as well as pin descriptions.

2. Tell us about your new role (how long have you been with Mediavine, what role were you in prior, what your new role is, what it entails and why you are excited about it)?

I started out on the Support team, on the product side of things and I was answering all the Create questions, as that was one of our only products at the time.

When we acquired Social Pug, and it became Grow Social Pro, I was one of the first Support Specialists to jump into the Grow Social support queue. I completely engrossed myself in learning the product so I could better assist and understand our users’ needs. 

When things came up in terms of feature requests, I would log those requests into our feedback gathering tool so the Product team could get a better understanding of what the users wanted.

Now, as Product Manager, I’m seeing those feature requests as they come in. They can absolutely help in the overall planning, which is now a huge part of my new role.

3. Why should every content creator be using Grow Social? How is it better than anything else on the market?

I think that Grow Social has unique capabilities in terms of providing users with Pinterest features that are so important. It also provides those helpful social share buttons that are super common on most websites.

4. Will there be new features or updates to the plugins in the near future that you can talk about?

Like a lot of Mediavine employees, I’m a blogger myself, which puts us in the unique position in terms of understanding blogger needs. At this point, things are still a bit new to me but I definitely have some ideas in the works.

5. What is your favorite thing about each plugin?

Grow Social – I love the Pinterest integration. It makes it so much easier to add hidden pins to your content and set up your pin descriptions! 

Create – I’ve been a huge fan of Create since before I worked at Mediavine. For me I love how user friendly it is, especially in terms of setting up your recipes. 

The post Create and Grow Social: Past, Present & FUTURE appeared first on Mediavine.

In addition to building a fast, beautiful and easy-to-use recipe card, we’ve spent three years making it the most ad-optimized card on Earth.

(more…)

The post Create Recipe Card Ad Optimizations Coming to Other Plugins appeared first on Mediavine.

With that news comes the long-awaited retirement of the company’s old structured data testing tool, which will soon be out of commission.

The structured data testing tool is still available for now, but we recommend using the Rich Results Test instead — immediately if not sooner.

(more…)

The post Google Rich Results Test Moves Out of Beta; Structured Data Testing Tool to Be Retired appeared first on Mediavine.

A few weeks ago we began to get more support tickets about our recommended products feature. We were using a now unsupported method not returning useful information from Amazon URLs.

We know that affiliate link support has become an important part of both Recommended Products and Lists for many of our users. Providing reliable data on Amazon products was our focus and we went to the source, the Amazon Products API.

Starting with the 1.5.4 release Create fetches product data from Amazon’s API and takes care of refreshing images on a daily basis in full compliance with Amazon Products API Terms of Service.

What does this mean for you?

Well, in order for you to take advantage of these features, you will need to get Amazon Products API tokens. We have a detailed help document to help you find your Amazon Products API tokens, but here is the gist below:

In order to qualify for Amazon Products API Tokens, there are some specific requirements, and you can learn about those and obtain your tokens here: https://affiliate-program.amazon.com/assoc_credentials/home

Once you have your tokens you will have to add them to your Create Settings.

First, if you haven’t already, take a moment to register Create so you can get access to Affiliate Support.

Then visit the Affiliates Tab in Create Settings. Here is where you will be able to enable Amazon Affiliates.

Once you’ve enabled Amazon Affiliates, you’ll have access to the API Token Fields.

Add your Access Key, your Secret Access Key and your Associate Tag.

Be aware that Amazon takes its time to provision API access, typically between 24 and 48 hours. Create will lock you out of using the Amazon Affiliates keys for 48 hours by default.

If you’ve used your tokens before, and are sure they are ready to go, you can opt to clear our Provision lock using the button in the bottom of the settings.

Now that your tokens are added and you’ve waited the required 2 days, it’s time to start populating your recommended products.

The next time you add an Amazon Affiliate link to a Create card in the “Recommended Products” section or a List, paste your affiliate URL and the product image and title will populate.

As always, our support team is here to help if you have any questions. Please reach out to create@mediavine.com. 

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Create now features a Jump to Recipe button.

We know we’ve encouraged you not to use a jump button to skip your content in the past for ad performance reasons. However, we’re aware that there’s a growing movement to adopt this feature for a better user experience.

So what made Mediavine finally roll out a Jump to Recipe button — or “Jump to Card” button, as we’re calling it, since its function is the same for bloggers in any space — after years of opposition?

We don’t add features for the sake of adding features, but to fully solve a problem. The problem with this case is that many users really want a way to jump directly to your most valuable content.

That content would likely be your recipe, if you’re a food blogger, or your How-To card if you’re a craft, DIY or similar website taking advantage of Google’s new How-To Schema.

It makes sense. The printable, easy, step-by-step instructions for making your food or project is what readers come for and some will want to skip the introductory content no matter how compelling that content is.

However, publishers still need revenue to keep producing those recipes, etc., and allowing users to skip all content, and therefore a majority of your ads, can have a serious impact on a site’s viewability.

For this reason, we’ve enabled our script wrapper to detect this jump, negate any ads being skipped, and avoid any viewability hit. You’ll simply serve fewer impressions and make less money by choice.

This is fair to both advertisers and publishers, and will add value to websites over the long run. However, the trade-off is clear: Those bypassed impressions would have generated revenue in the short-term.

We’ve always discouraged this, especially on mobile devices where nearly all revenue is made via in-content ads, for that reason. But in true Mediavine fashion, we’ve found a solution that serves all purposes.

With Create’s Jump to Card (JTC), everything has changed

Given that we control both Create and the Mediavine Script Wrapper, we figured out how to optimize ads for JTC users.

Now, when a user follows the JTC link, they’ll still skip over the in content ads, but they will arrive at an optimized card.

Using our exclusive technology, we’re able to optimize the number of ad units appearing inside the card, including a new “arrival” unit when the publisher first lays eyes on the card.

Will this generate as much revenue per session as a reader who scrolls through the full content? Probably not.

The good news, however, is that by definition, the ads inside recipe and How-To cards appear alongside the website’s most valuable content, and typically prove the most valuable themselves.

These ads score highly on key performance indicators (KPIs) like viewability and click-through rates (CTR) that drive advertisers to buy and pay more for these spots, and that makes an enormous difference.

So while you’ll be serving fewer in-content ads to some users, they’ll land on more optimized cards. Initial testing shows a smaller revenue decline from the Create JTC with Mediavine ads than any other alternative!

Long story short: You can continue to give your loyal readers the long-form content they want, while allowing your Pinterest users who just want your most valuable content a way to get there fast, yet still monetizing it effectively.

How do I enable Jump to Card (JTC)?

In your WordPress dashboard, go to the settings area of Create. Under the Pro tab at the top, you can enable the Jump to Recipe button. (You will need to register your plugin first.)

Once you have enabled it, you can adjust settings like the button text, style and colors:

Best Practices for Jump to Recipe Buttons

• Enable the Jump to Recipe Arrival Unit. This arrival unit is the reason we were able to bring the Jump to Recipe feature to Create without a huge loss in ad revenue and viewability. The Arrival Unit is also available for those using WP Recipe Maker and Tasty Recipes. 
• For the Jump to Recipe Arrival Unit, select the default settings for Recipe Instruction Density as well as Default Recipe Ads. 
• Minimize the appearance of the button to make it less conspicuous, such as with a smaller size, a text link and/or more muted color. 

As always, if you have any questions, please email us at create@mediavine.com. We’d love your feedback on the new feature in the Create Facebook group as well!

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