Beyond Raptive, Creators Thrive

I have to believe everything Raptive does is in the best interest of creators. Yet somehow, they consistently find a way to fail and frustrate everyone.

Raptive’s approach feels a lot like gentle parenting: they have the right idea, goal, and intent. Yet, in the long term, they consistently cause more harm than good.

Seven years later, having worked with more creators than I can count, I can’t think of a single Raptive initiative that has genuinely helped creators.

This is an approximate timeline:

Topic

CafeMedia (Adthrive), Acquisition Of Leading SEO Platform, Sept. 2021. Touted as “World-class SEO solutions, Topic and Content Ideas” for creators.

• purchased, forced on bloggers, disaster
• unfortunately far too many bloggers embraced this tool and tanked
  • used to write high-performing content in a fraction of the time (spam)
  • AI-powered technology takes you further, faster (spam)
  • Owners created some of the worst possible content at scale
• testimonial graveyard
  • offbeatwed – dead, 50k to 6k
    • Raptive’s claim, “Increased pageviews by 41%”
  • justonecookbook – down, 2.2m to 1.5m
    • Raptive’s claim, “Reclaimed a top-ranking position”
  • fitfoodiefinds – down, 1.1m to 192k
  • tipjunkie – dead, 83k to 3k
• I’ve met hundreds of owners impacted by this tool over the last 2+ years

Raptive, “Topic’s robust content optimization platform enabled publishers to improve their search performance on those posts by more than 30%, on average.”

Sure, short-term wins, followed by 80-90% declines in traffic. This tool, single-handedly, wiped out more bloggers than anything else combined.

Slickstream

CafeMedia (Adthrive) acquires market-leading audience engagement suite, Slickstream, in Aug. 2022.

• purchased, forced on bloggers, disaster
• testimonial graveyard
  • pinchofyum – down, 3.2m > 1.9m
  • twosleevers – down, 100k > 75k
  • savorynothings – down, 512k > 304k
  • healthyslowcooking – flat, low traffic (6k), the fact that Raptive Endorses/Uses display advertising above the fold, in the header, is a perfect example
  • pastrychefonline – down, 31k to 17k
  • theviewfromgreatisland – down 443k to 222k
  • alexandracooks – down 1.1m to 765k
  • piloncilloyvainilla.com – dead, 292k to 22k
• meaningless testimonials of sites losing traffic YoY

CafeMedia acquires two unknown companies, and they’re hailed as the market-leading engagement suite and Leading SEO platform. Sure, lie; it’s a best practice built into the DNA of display advertising companies.

Michael Sanchez, “Creators are the future of media, and Raptive provides access to the best.” The best wouldn’t even look at Raptive, you’re buying up unknown companies and talent for sale (no one’s ever heard of), and pretending.

More creators, outlined on Raptive’s site:

• biggerbolderbaking- down, 943k to 511k
• vanillaandbean – down, 107k to 58k
• goingawesomeplaces – dead, 68k to 2k

Adthrive rebrands to Raptive

When we talk about audience, knowing your customer, everyone, and I mean everyone, was shocked by the rebrand on April 19th, 2023, and the new direction.

Michael Sanchez, “Our new brand, Raptive, reflects that transformation. It positions us to best support our creators now and in the future.”

You pay creators, fundamentally, nothing has changed. And I’ve yet to speak with a single creator at any level who praises anything beyond this.

My luminary clients get back from a Raptive conference, and the only thing noteworthy is meeting and connecting with other creators.

Imagine attending events to learn new best practices, only to discover that you’re being presented with generic, cookie-cutter strategies from three years ago.

Which is obvious when you hire talent for sale, that serves your agenda, rather than partnering with the best.

• thewoksoflife – down, 2.5m to 1.5m (damn)
• djjazzyjeff – dead, 11k to 0 (not even sure why this is listed)
• macrumors – down, 9.8m to 1m (raptive loves noting this massive loss)

I have clients who are so sick of the nonsense that they won’t even talk to Raptive, and I’m their intermediary. This eliminates the cycle of “you don’t know what you don’t know” and helps insulate creators (sheep) from Raptive (wolves).

I also find it remarkable how a business and brand are so adamant about creator success. Yet, I cannot find a single reference to success anywhere on Raptive’s website.

Everything listed is either significantly down or, worse, completely dead. Yet, Raptive shares phrases like ‘the best of the best,’ ‘leading SEO platform,’ ‘top engagement suite,’ and hires that no one has ever heard of, but are suddenly top industry professionals.

Blocking AI

I suspect this launched early-mid 2024. I posted on July 8th, 2024, allowing or blocking AI, advising owners not to block AI, and already had qualifying data rolling in to justify this.

Raptive isn’t doing this for you; they’re doing it for themselves. This hurts your business in the long term, and although everyone is aware of this, Raptive did it anyway. They gained a lot of attention (goal), while your business tanked.

I invested approximately $500 in Ahrefs API credits to run a case study on 41,000 blogs across 9 display networks.

And yes, once again, Raptive helped tank creators! The fact that only one-third of owners blocked AI is a signal that more and more creators are becoming aware.

You fundamentally want to do the exact opposite of what Raptive recommends, which sounds a lot like doing the exact opposite of what Raptive recommends for best advertising practices.

We’re all abundantly aware they’ll highjack every pixel for display ads if you let them, with zero remorse. And they’ll use Google as a scapegoat for their behavior, completely ignoring the fact that they should be focused on users.

Check your robots.txt, and if you’re blocking AI, you’re suffering as a result of Raptive’s nonsense.

/robots.txt

Junk like this
User-agent: anthropic-ai
Disallow: /
User-agent: Claude-Web
Disallow: /
User-agent: CCbot
Disallow: /
User-agent: FacebookBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: Google-Extended
Disallow: /
User-agent: GPTBot
Disallow: /
User-agent: PiplBot
Disallow: /

New studies indicate LLMs largely correlate ranking in search (Google/Bing) with mentions in LLMs and AI overviews. For instance, ranking in the top 3, you have a 25% chance of being mentioned in AI overviews.

Raptive Affiliate

Complete trash, hard delete. Load your Raptive Dashboard, click Earnings, Then Click Earnings Sources. If it looks like this, delete it.

In fact, consider affiliate best practices I consistently use:

• retain affiliate ONLY on your top 10-20% of content
• remove affiliate and affiliate disclosure from your bottom 80-90% of content

On any given site, 20% of your content drives 80% of your traffic and revenue. This means that the other 80% of your content only generates 20% of your revenue.

No traffic = No Revenue

It’s completely and utterly useless to include an affiliate link in content with no traffic, outside of proving that you’re entire site, and you prioritize revenue over people.

Similarly, this applies to Raptive video embeds on content with little to no traffic. Swap these with YouTube embeds and grow your business and brand.

SEO Workbook

More of the same, pushed on bloggers, and disaster in the making. While a relatively new endeavor for 2025, I’ve already helped 5 bloggers avoid sabotaging their business by executing complete and utter nonsense.

Unfortunately, I’m also abundantly aware that Raptive pushed this out at scale, and the five I’ve helped is trivial in comparison.

Like Topic, 99% of owners will ultimately lose traffic.

Generic Cookie-Cutter SEO

When you think it can’t get any worse, they find a way to take things to a whole new level and set the bar higher.

Imagine a company deciding in 2025 that it was a good idea to share generic, cookie-cutter SEO with everyone. Worse yet, sharing information that’s at least 3+ years old, as relevant today.

Day by day, week by week, Raptive is turning authentic businesses and brands into generic clones, and the exact opposite of what works today.

Hell, we already know from experience. I’ve never met a single creator who has found success copying or replicating another blogger. What works for Susan won’t work for Maria. What works for Mark won’t work for Steve. Etc.

Yet somehow, Raptive believes that Susan, Maria, Mark, and Steven should all be the same; hence, the term “cookie-cutter.”

Success doesn’t come from copying anyone. It comes from AUTHENTICITY!

I consider myself authentic, and all of my businesses are bound by one simple rule: if you win, I win. And this is what it means to put your audience first.

Raptive WINS, when Creators WIN. And I’ve never personally experienced a creator winning, because of Raptive. But hey, at least they pay their creators!

If your business, brand, and website are built with the principle of ‘user first,’ you’ve already won. Every month you operate, you’ll grow your audience, and people will advocate for and refer you. Month over month, year over year, your business will continue to grow.

And no, this does not mean or imply everyone will like you, which is fine. Being your authentic self and focusing on your defined audience means you’re bound to have a few critics. But as they say, “If you don’t ask for their advice, don’t accept their criticism!”

And while all the sites referenced on Raptive’s site are either down or dead, this is a client that values authenticity and prioritizes its audience. And let’s be honest, many owners adopt this mindset and consistently grow their businesses.

Unfortunately, bloggers and businesses that copy others (thanks, Raptive) or reverse-engineer their peers (looking at you, Topic) are, by definition, inauthentic and more aligned with spam.

None of this is authentic:

• It’s not Topic.
• It’s not blocking AI.
• It’s not SEO workbooks.
• It’s not cookie-cutter SEO.
• It’s not copying or reverse-engineering fellow bloggers.
• It’s not leaning on generic templates (like Feast) or recycled strategies.

And when you meet these owners, it’s often hilarious. They’ll spend 99% of their time talking about everyone else. The owner who is winning spends 99% of their time talking about their business and couldn’t care less about anyone else.

And while many of you are abundantly aware, many are not. Your display network is the least honest business you’ve ever worked with in your life. And this isn’t specific to Raptive, display networks are all the same!

Vanessa Barokas, “When you’re doing competitive research, don’t just read top-ranking posts—reverse engineer them. Look closely at why they’re ranking.”

It’s never about WHY someone else is ranking, because why they rank has absolutely nothing to do with why you rank. The idea that you can reverse engineer why an external site ranks is fundamentally flawed; this is a copy-culture and a perfect example of cookie-cutter SEO, according to Raptive’s director, and this never works.

Raptive’s Homepage

To drive this point home, here are some exceptionally disturbing homepage testimonials.

• twopeasandtheirpod – dying, 2.6m to 459k
• macrumors – dying, 9.8m to 1m
• sportsfeelgoodstories – erased, 144k to 0

Raptive “Keep it Real”

By keeping it real, they mean blocking AI. And while some of these sites are not blocking AI today, I highly suspect that they were, given that they are referenced.

• clevergirlfinance – blocking AI, down 145k to 13k
• getbusygardening – listed but not blocking AI, down 277k to 1k
• chewoutloud.com – listed by not blocking AI, down 545k to 138k
• mychicobsession.com – blocking AI, down 51k to 13k
• littlespoonfarm.com – blocking AI, down 1.1m to 700k

WINNING

Audience WINS > Creator WINS > Raptive WINS

Yet, to this day, Raptive is hell bent on trying to make this work in reverse, and it never works.

You see a similar relationship to Creators, chasing Rankings, rather than chasing their audience. In many cases, these creators are more like Raptive, trying to force the impossible.

Success comes downstream, and I’ve said this before; I’ll repeat it. The first display network to truly embrace creators and creator success will erase the competition. And by success, I mean long-term results!

Unfortunately, this will never happen through no-name acquisitions or hiring random, unknown talent for sale. It requires partnering with the best and embracing long-term success with Creators.

RESULTS

Coming full circle, it’s no surprise I’ve worked with more creators than I can count, and it’s worth showcasing the difference between what you see above and what’s possible in 2025.

And yes, even with everything going on in the world, there’s always something. If you operate a real business, none of this is going to STOP you.

The difference between an owner who creates to rank and one who creates for their audience is stark.

The screenshots above showcase recoveries, growth, new sites, small sites, large sites, and everything in between, all thriving in 2025. Some are complete HCU recoveries, while others have either set or are on track to set new all-time highs this year.

Like Raptive, the internet and social media are flooded with quick tweaks, wins, hacks, and tricks. However, if you look closely, it’s clear they’re chasing attention and don’t care about your success or results. When attention wanes, they pivot to something shiny and new, spinning it until it fizzles out.

In many ways, it seems like help, maybe even genuine at first. But eventually, you realize it’s all about attention and has nothing to do with you.

If you want your business and brand to grow and succeed, you’ll have to partner and collaborate with the best.

Overall

It would be a dream come true for everyone if companies like Raptive didn’t pretend to be anything but a display network. Because let’s face it, they suck at everything else.

Unfortunately, that will never happen; they need the attention, and their success isn’t based on outcomes. Nothing they’ve done or are doing is based on long-term success.

Despite its flaws, Raptive excels in ad management, direct ad sales, demand partnerships, and ad testing. These strengths are the primary reasons creators join Raptive.

Every creator I’ve met, when picking an advertising company, bases their decision solely on which one will generate the most revenue. Raptive knows this and even offers a 15% guaranteed rate boost to attract new creators.

Raptive emphasizes that bloggers and site owners should prioritize creating exceptional, high-quality content for their audience.

Yet, Raptive is doing the exact opposite at scale. They’re not focused on anything, haven’t won an ad-tech-related award in years, and everything under their “Audience” and “Business” umbrellas is, at best, of low quality, unsatisfying, and often harmful in the long term.

And it’s no surprise this article comes from endless days of creators reaching out, fed up with Raptive’s nonsense, ready to turn a new leaf.