If you are already an AdSense member, you may not know that Google recently tightened up their acceptance policies for their popular AdSense program.
Gone are the days where you can throw up a quick Blogger blog today and get accepted into the AdSense program by tomorrow.
According to their policies, you must adhere to the following guidelines…
1) Your website must sit on a top-level domain (yoursite.com not yoursite.host.com).
2) Your domain must be active for at least 6 months
3) Your AdSense application info must match your domain records
Due to the fact I am already a member, I was not aware of some of these policies until I began getting more emails from people who were getting rejected because their site didn’t adhere to one or more of the guidelines.
One blogger was quite upset, saying he believed his Blogger blog had very well written content that was unique. Another lady complained that the guidelines were just too strict and should be relaxed.
Take note that both of these blogs were created with the free Blogger service and neither had their own domain name to redirect to their blogs.
Here’s My Take…
If you want to make money online, understand that you are setting up a business. Businesses require investments and work. If you are not prepared to fork over $3-$10/month for hosting then maybe this is not for you right now.
I personally don’t think the criteria is overly strict, and it will eliminate many of the low-quality sites throughout the network. If you ask me, this is long overdue.
What people need to understand is that Google must protect their advertisers — the lifeblood of their business. And because Google started out with such a relaxed acceptance policy, things got out of hand.
Worthless blogs and websites with plagiarized content were going up left and right. Numerous people tried to cheat the system by inviting friends to click their ads or using other computers to click their own ads.
Instead of treating AdSense as a monetization model for their business, people behaved as if this was some way to get-rich quickly with Google ads.
What Publishers Should Know
If you’re an AdSense publisher, understand that being a member is a privilege, not a right. Some webmasters seem to feel they are entitled to get paid by Google because they have a website, but as I stated earlier, Google’s top priority is the AdWords advertisers.
We the publishers are helping Google advertise and Google is paying us a percentage of what they earn. If the advertisers complain about the quality of the sites or click fraud, then it’s in Google’s best interest to rectify the situation.
Now of course, the AdWords advertisers can choose NOT to display their ads on the publisher websites, but that’s not the point. Publishers need to respect and understand how the AdWords and AdSense relationship works.
I applaud Google for their policies. If you think about it, everyone wins in the end. If the overall quality of the publisher sites improve, more AdWords advertisers may opt in to display their ads on our sites, thus giving us publishers the opportunity to earn more.
In the last two months my AdSense earnings are up quite a bit. Some analysts speculate Google’s cleanup and stricter policies are causing more AdWords advertisers to opt into advertising on the publisher sites.
There’s no way I can know this for sure, but I wouldn’t doubt this has an impact.
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Note: After this post was published, I was informed that people are still able to get accepted prior to owning their domain for six months. So it appears that Google may take the quality of your content into consideration. Nevertheless, it can’t hurt to wait. You aren’t going to make much with AdSense unless you have the traffic anyway.
Hi Lisa,
I would love to create a website of my own to generate some extra income, but I’m still a novice and I’m a little fearful of doing so.
I want to use SBI and AdSense, but I’ve read in other forums that people are getting banned for “invalid clicks”…I understand why this happens, but the same people claim they don’t click their ads themselves and even when there’s that visitor who causes invalid clicks, I guess that’s unavoidable? I’m glad you’re not running into this problem.
Well I’d like to give this Adsense a try, but I hope I don’t get banned for invalid clicks, that I know I won’t cause my self. I know I will adhere to their policies, but if they ban me for whatever reason, is there a way back? Any thoughts would be helpful. Thanks!
Hiya great site Lisa
I have been right through it.
My intent was to pay writers to target long tail keywords that trigger google
I guess I will have to make a substandard website untill I am aproved (I dont want unique content sitting on the net for 6 months)
I can wait until aproval using diferent advertising mediums (the reason I wanted google-adsense is google obviously favours sites using adsense so rank them higher then their oposition)
What do you think please?
Andrew
Hi Albert
As long as you don’t click your own ads and your site is accessible to everyone like a normal website there shouldn’t be a problem with you using AdSense ads on your self hosted site. You can always email Google’s AdSense team to double check though.
I recently setup a server on my own computer using WAMP so I could host my own websites, does google allow this, I placed google ads on the site I created on my computer and google was able to find my site to place the ads (I did remove them immediatley afterword, not enough content on my site.) Anyway I was woundering if google allows people to host there own sites. Your thoughts on this would be appreciated.
Yeah the minimum is 2 months but it breaks down to $3.99 per month. Keep in mind if you want to create blogs on different topics you want the domain name of your blogs to match your topic. So let’s say you want 5 different blogs on 5 different topics you should register a separate domain for each. Another suggestion. Why do you want to try to create 5 blogs all at once? If you are new to this I would HIGHLY suggest just starting with one blog and learn how to market it and once you get traffic start another. You can create 5 blogs on one domain but the address of your blogs would be yourdomain.com/blog1 yourdomain.com/blog2, etc. Not a good idea if all the blogs are on different topics. If you want to discuss this further why not email me on the contact form here since this discussion is getting rather lengthy.
Thank you for your response Lisa. However, I checked the prices on the websitepalace.com and I do not see anywhere $3.99 per month. All I can see are the yearly prices. However, the $ 13.99 per year for a .com domain name sounds a pretty good price. Or maybe I am not looking at the right prices? Do you think if I purchase the 1 year plan for $13.99 I can create 2 or 3 different domain names (blogs which cover different topics)??Or this price of $13.99 per year is only for one blog? I read all the info on their website and from what I understood with this $13.99 per year I would be able to have up to 5 different blogs, is this correct? And if I am able to do that will I be able to access, write and change then info for all of them just trough my account in websitepalace.com?
Thank you so much for helping me,
Geri
Hi Geri
If you want a self hosted wordpress blog like I recommend you need a domain name and a web host. So getting one of the regular hosting plans at Website Palace ($3.99/month) will allow you to install a wordpress blog on your domain. Get your domain and hosting first and then install WordPress on the domains after you’ve done that. The reason is you don’t need to download WordPress if you use WebsitePalace because they have an application that installs WordPress on your domain in a few seconds.
Hello Lisa,
I apologize for disturbing you but I am unclear about a few simple things and I would love it if you could help me. I was about to purchase today a name domain from the websitepalace.com since I saw in your video that you are using it for this blog. However, I got confused whether I need to purchase a domain name and a web host or this is the same thing? I would like to have 2 blogs running in word press and put them on the websitepalace domain name or web host since I will not be able to have google ads ever if they are not on a top domain host right?( I am a little bit confused). So what should I do first? Register for wordpress and start writing my content there and then purchase a domain name and a web host from the websitepalace or? I just really do not know whether I need to pay for the domain name as well as for the web host or they are the same thing? And also can I have 2 blogs running trough the same web host and domain? Please, I would really appreciate it if you could help me.
Thank you a lot,
Geri
Hi Lisa,
I, too, have learned a great deal from your site. Thank you.
I have a question in regards to Blogger. I have been trying to set up a blog there and am having trouble. My domain is registered through Go Daddy and I went into my account there and made the changes to my domain that Blogger requires. It is not working!!!
Anyway, I’m a little confused as to the difference in using a site like Blogger(free) vs a site like Go Daddy? They actually have a Blogcast program for $4.99 month that seems like it may be good??? I just don’t understand the benefits to using a paid host vs a non-paid host for blogging. Are these programs like Go Daddy’s good for this?
Thanks again,
Dean
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for the informative post and your terrific videos! I am learning a lot about the current “state of the net” after having our site down for a few years. I totally agree with your point about raising the overall quality for the benefit of all.
Thanks again!
Lisa
Hi Lisa,
i have a question whats happen if somebody copy my content on his website, and Google tell that his contents is original, and that my is a fake. What than can we do
Please Answer me i really need help with this.
Very nice post Lisa … I too appreciate google’s effort for raising the standards of adsense publishers … Even I am on a free blogger account and haven’t earned nething from adsense … but I believe that one day I will earn with my effort and quality content … I see people around me who are just plagiarizing or asking friends to click on ads … and earning lot more than me by fooling google … these people are taking over the rights of sincere bloggers .
You are very good,and very smart, sometimes I want you to go a little more in detail,. I came here to try and figure out how to get a blog on my page, yes! you helped me as far as finding way to do so, but my concern is getting a blog directly onto my website, with user interface and such, as far as login and register, and coincide with my blog as they login. I wouldnt mind using the templates my hosting server gives (yahoo!) but i would actually just like to have it directly on one of my pages. My plans is to give my users ability to login create a 50px x 50px image and access the blog, and maybe my chat.I haven’t set that in stone just yet, they’ve already gotten used to this one. but if you could help, that would be great.
So true Lisa adsense was so easy to join before Im glad google step up their its why to many spamers out here its makes it hard for the hard workers or (onliners lol) out here. while on WB I was seeing so many post about google rejecting site for adsense I could understand because google adsense has always been so easy its a new game now. That get rich game is over LOL thank god
Correct. You can use Blogger but you would need to also buy your own domain and host your blog’s content on your domain. Blogger gives instructions on this.
Hi Lisa, Does that mean that if you even create a blogger blog “owned by google” they would not approve?
Jim, that was September. It’s December now and I believe the guidelines have changed.
“Gone are the days where you can throw up a quick Blogger blog today and get accepted into the AdSense program by tomorrow.”
In September I opened an account on Blogger, put up a single post, applied for Adsense and was approved less than 12 hours later…
Hi Lisa,
your blog posts are so inspiring and original.
It’s always fun to read what you have to say 🙂
Yes that is correct. I thought you were talking about creating a NEW blog with Blogger. Yes if you already have an adsense acct. you are OK.
Thanks, Liza. However, someone replied at DP saying that this rule is only for those who don’t have Adsense account yet, or who is just applying for one.
Does this mean old Adsense users like me is exempted from the rule? I did not see any information about this on your post.
Regards.
Hi Angel
Yes it does apply to Blogger (Blogspot). In fact, how I learned about the rule was someone from someone with a Blogger blog who just got rejected from AdSense emailed me. That’s when I went to Google’s site to verify the new rules. When you have a blog on Blogger you do not own the domain. You are renting a subdomain from Blogger so you need to get your own domain (yoursite.com).
A kind-hearted blogger from DP forum brought me here to your blog. With regards to the new rules of Adsense especially about the 6-month blog existence, so when did it start?
I started my blog with my own domain about 5 months ago, and did not have problems with Adsense approval.
About top domains, does this mean the new rule also applies to blogspot blogs.
I went to their blog and site, but did not find any related posts.
I ask this because I am planning to launch another blog maybe next week. So, I will be glad if you can get me more aware about these new rules.
Thanks and more power!
Bruno,
If you are already accepted into the program with a free domain I doubt they’ll disable your account. It’s just for people who are applying since they’ve established new guidelines.
Hey Lisa,
Do you know what will happen with people who still use
http://name.host.com or http://www.host.com/name as a domain?
I suppose that in time Google will only want purchased domains to advertise on, so do you think that they will prohibit adsense on those kind of sites which already exist also?
i mean that i cant afford to view them myself, it is a personal matter, not about other people 🙁
i just want to view the ads that someone in argentina for example sees
Nick,
Sorry about your troubles. But keep in mind just because you are seeing certain ads on your site, that doesn’t mean other people are seeing the same ads. Maybe I’m not understanding your issue. What do you mean when you say “you can’t view these ads”?
hi lisa 🙁
oh my god i am too sad, and it is all google’s fault.
but dont worry ! i agree with you !
my problem has to do with google ads but it doesnt have to do with these strict rules.
google and the sites that host google ads undestand your ip address and can show ads concerning the location they find due to your ip address.
if someone is from china and goes to a site with google ads it is highly possible to have china related google ads showing in web sites he visits even if the sites have nothing to do with china. he gets chinese ads just because he is from china.
so my thing is, i hate the country i am located, it is causing me huge phycological problems and it is killing me to go to myspace.com and many many other sites and see ads from the location i am. it is too bad for me and i feel so frustrated with these.
in fact i was dealing with this problem too much right before i saw your blog post about google ads so it is a good coincidense for me to rant about this.
do you know what i can do lisa ? maybe use some of these anonymous browsing sites ? i have used some of these but they dont seem to work.
i go to these sites and the damned ads appear again.
i am too sad 🙁 🙁 i am about to cry because this is blocking my web experience since i cant view these ads and i feel so bad with all.
is there any solution to me ? 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁 🙁
Hi Lisa,
I found your blog by accident today. You certainly do have a lot of good tips! I read your page about “if you had a website in 1998 and it made me laugh” 🙂 I too remember the $30 domains! I am SO glad they are not still that price, cause I maintain about 8 of them!
I have subscribed and will be keeping up.
Take care!
Kris
Well ya live and learn right? 🙂 I had to learn that way too when I started out on the freebie hosting. If you plan to switch I would do it now while your blog is new and not getting a lot of traffic (I’m only assuming this is where you are right now). It’s much easier to do it now than later.
Honestly, when I got started I didn’t realize it made that much of a difference. You know what they say about hindsight…anyway did you say that it wouldn’t be a big deal to switch it over?
Terry
Hi Liza,
You are right, it is a privlage to be an adsense publisher, and I think that this new policy is in our “as webmasters” best intrest because in that way google says that it will only credit those who have good and original content which is google’s policy all the way not just in adsense.
Hi Geri
You should only post photos/images that you have created and/or have permission to post. It’s never good to post copyrighted images whether you plan to join AdSense or not. Of course a lot of people do it and get away with it but it’s still technically illegal.
There is no limit to how many blogs you can have with AdSense. Watch my video by clicking on the link at the top of this blog that says “Get Your Own Blog” I have a video explaining how to setup a WordPress blog.
Hi Lisa,
I have been following all your videos and information you post on your websites and blogs. I am really interested in the Ad Sense Business, but more importantly I want my blog to have very rich and knowledgeable content so that it can help any people who visit it. However, I would like to ask you what are the policies that Google has regarding posting photos on your blogs?I read all the policies but I did not really understand how I can post photos legally on my blog? Because if i take random photos from the web and post them on my blog, technically they are not my own photos so it would be illegal, or???Please, if you could help me I would really appreciate it, I just do not want to do anything illegal that is all.
Also, is there a limit of how many blogs with Ad Sense ads a person can have??? And If I am about to create a blog today, what do you think is the best web host for blog, since it cant be any free host anymore, but a paid one, which one do you think I should use?
I apologize for the long message but if you get a chance to answer me I would really appreciate it.
Thank you in advance
Right. If you are just signing up for AdSense you can no longer apply with freewebhost.com/yoursite or yoursite.freehost.com It has to sit on a domain name that you purchased.
1) Your website must sit on a top-level domain (yoursite.com not yoursite.host.com).
–> does this mean that you can’t have an url for free anymore that will fit the guidelines of google? (because for a website it’s sometimes
name.host.com or http://www.host.com/name –> in this second case, does it fit the guidelines of google?)
Hey Google is the boss and they make their own rules. I have been seeing a lot of SPAM on-off blogs lately – so this may not be a bad idea.
Blogevolution,
Any reason you did not choose to go with a self-hosted wordpress blog? If funds are tight then I understand, but in my opinion it’s best to start off with a paid blog for credibility. I’d hate for you to build up a lot of traffic to your free blog and start making good money and then have to transfer everything over to another host. It’s not a huge deal but can be a hassle. I think it’s best to always start with a self hosted blog.
Just when I was thinking about slapping up a Blogger blog to use for adsense:-(
I’m currently using a domain redirect to my wordpress hosted blog which does not allow adsense anyway. Since I started out with the free stuff I’ll keep working on my content until I figure out how to transfer the entire sight my host. Any suggestions?
Chris,
As long as you got approved then you don’t need to worry about it. This is for those who have applied since the new rules/guidelines took effect.
Hi Lisa,
Thanks for the info, but I do have a question. I’ve been using Adsense on my sites for some time now and I have quite a few sites. Some of them are less than 6 months old, but I have adsense on them.
Does this mean I need to remove the adsense from any site that isn’t yet 6 months old? Or does this apply only to new accounts and/or blogs?
Thanks
Your take is right on Lisa! I’m not sure that my AdSense earnings have been positively affected, but I agree with the new policy and your assessment.
Bruno, I created a subdomain at my host called “blog” and I installed WordPress inside the “blog” folder. You can do the same thing with your web host.
Hi Lisa,
I’m not totally new to website building, but still I don’t know much about it (I have made some pages of my own with dreamweaver before but it never looks that good. I also created a webpage in html and notepad (oldschool 😉 ) for my dad. And now I have to explain him about html tags, joy 🙂 )
I have read your untoldadsensefacts pdf file, but I do have a question about this: you said you made your own blog on worldpress and you have now the url http://blog.2CreateAWebSite.com .
But when you signed up at worldpress did you choose this url, because in my case they want to give an url like http://nameofwebsite.worldpress.com
Sorry if this is a stupid question, but everyone has to learn. And along the way you make faults and sometimes stupid mistakes. 😉
And also English is not my native language, so it could be that I didn’t understand it well. 🙂
My adsense earnings quadrupled this month. I wonder if that had anything to do with it.
Hi Sue,
If you make creating quality content your #1 priority and learn how to blend the ads so they don’t look so “adsy” then you should be fine. Of course many people know about AdSense now so a lot more people ignore them but you can still make a good income with these ads if you have a lot of targeted traffic. I like to make my ad’s background the same as my site and make the URL a different color so the ads pop a bit but doesn’t look too obvious. Experimentation is the best way to find out what works best for you.
Rob,
Couldn’t agree more.
in the long run, every legit blogger benefits from the requirements. the advertisers need to know that their ads run as promised, and this means that bloggers need to be verified. no one should worry, it’s for everyone’s benefit.
Hi Lisa
‘Found’ your page (I know it wasn’t lost!) a week or so ago.. can’t remember where?
Anyway, I am relatively new to website building etc.. but I have to say your information and videos are so informative and a breath of fresh air! I have been trying to find legitimate mentors to read and learn from and it hasn’t been easy! There are a LOT of sharks out there who just buy the ‘rich bloke’ thing or similar and regurgitate it.. without much depth of knowledge.. Anyway.. just interested in your point of view and as I have obviously been looking into Adsense recently I was interested in your views.. From what you are saying my site would not qualify as yet any way… I have to say I am not sure how to implement the use of Adsense without it looking cheap.. or that I have just thrown it up there in the hope that a certain percentage of visitors will randomly click on it.. (I guess that is the point though.. but I want to have good content.. rather than just a dumping ground)
Like I said.. virgin territory for me.. this is a long post! Sorry.. Thanks for all the info anyway x
Jen,
I applaud YOU for being a responsible publisher and understanding that quality is most important. People can learn a lot from what you just wrote. Now THAT is the right way and attitude for starting a business. Good luck to you!
I totally agree with both of you guys, Jen and Lisa. I was baffled at first when my website had been around for a month and my AdSense ads were generating no money. I began clicking on my own ads and actually didn’t get kicked out. I stopped this practice about 2 days later as when i saw your video about the AdWords-AdSense
relationship. I use a traffic tracking system called Clustr to find out my traffic and i realized why i wasn’t earning any money. One month later i earned my first honest income from AdSense – 2 cents. I felt like something was missing…. I could’nt earn any money! And then i remembered: why do i have this website in the first place? And i answered myself: To deliver my message to the people because making weather forecasts is what i love doing!…. My main intention was not to earn money! Ever since then i’ve been trying to make my site better and not checking my AdSense earnings every 5 minutes.
That’s my AdSense story.
.-= Nick´s last blog … Rain to ward off today leaving us with a very consistant chilly pattern. =-.
Lisa-
I absolutely agree with you about you applauding Google for what they are doing.
As a blogger whose blog has only been in existence for four or five months I didn’t know about these rules- because I didn’t feel that I was ready for adsense on my site yet.
I was looking to build a blog full of quality information and content people can use before I added too many ads- Google or otherwise.
I have a few banners and some posts about different programs but you have to build a following first before you can build an income- at least a lasting one.
I am happy to know that when I am ready to move forward with Adsense I will be ahead of the game for waiting.
As always, thanks for the great information.
Jen