Written on September 23rd, 2004 at 07:09 pm by Darren Rowse
Adsense Tips for Bloggers 2 - Is Your Blog Suitable for Adsense?
This is Part 2 in a series on using Adsense on your Blog - The full series is Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7 and Part 8.
Is your blog suitable for Adsense? - Before you rush into signing up for Adsense expecting it to earn you a million dollars it is worth asking the question of whether Adsense is the right revenue strategy for your blog. By no means is it the only option - you might like to check out this tip on other ways of making money from blogging.
Whilst there are some amazing success stories about earning big dollars with Adsense out there, it is worth taking a realistic look at some cold hard truths about the Adsense program.
Google does not accept every site that applies to the Adsense program.
- Google Adsense Program Policies indicate that the content of sites must not contain things like excessive profanity, pornography, illicit drugs etc. Basically your blog needs to have content that is reasonably ‘family friendly’.
- Also in their policy document is a reference to them not normally accepting pages of a personal nature. This is the topic of discussion in many Adsense forums and is obviously open to different interpretations. Many (if not most) blogs are personal in nature - however to maximize your chances of approval by Adsense a blog should be targeted on a particular topic/s. For example whilst this blog is often personal in nature - most of my individual posts (pages) focus on very specific themes which are repeated throughout the blog. update - this may have changed recently with Blogger now allowing blogger blogs to use Adsense.
- Sites accepted into the Adsense program are also required to be easily navigable, have an adequate quantity of text based content (don’t apply if you’ve been blogging a week) and be written in English, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Japanese, or Spanish. They may not to have excessive advertising or other contextual/competing advertising.
- Whilst not stated in the Adsense Policy document, many also believe that sites accepted into the program also need to have reasonable levels of traffic. If your blog is new, it may be worth waiting a few weeks or months before applying to build up traffic and content levels. Others speculate that a professionally designed, well-organized and privately hosted blog has a better chance of being accepted. The more professional and successful your blog appears the more likely it is to be accepted by Adsense.
If still in doubt after reading Google Adsense Program Policies you can email Google for clarification or just apply and see how you go.
Of course, acceptance by Google into the Adsense program does not guarantee your success. The fact remains that certain blogs will always be more successful than others at generating income.
Future posts in this series will focus upon strategies and tips for increasing your revenue but it should be stated here that the most successful sites are generally sites with very high traffic levels and/or content that is directly related to a particular product or service (the more targeted and niche-like the better).
It is also worth saying that Adsense works best on pages with lots of text content. It only reads text in determining ads, not images so make sure you have enough relevant content.
The next posts in this series will expand upon these aspects of successful blogging with Adsense with our Adsense Equation.
34 Responses to “Adsense Tips for Bloggers 2 - Is Your Blog Suitable for Adsense?”
LivingRoom >> A space for Life
January 1st, 2005 11:39 pm
Adsense Tips for Bloggers 2 - Is Your Blog Suitable for Adsense?
Is your blog suitable for Adsense? - Before you rush into signing up for Adsense expecting it to earn you a million dollars it is worth asking the question of whether Adsense is the right revenue strategy for your blog….
Brian
May 6th, 2005 4:38 pm
Nice info, but would appreciate more specific info-no need to tip your hat, just give us more icing, and less cake!
Brian
Paintless Dent Repair Training
kevin
June 16th, 2005 2:51 pm
more information on how to place a content-matching blog adsense please…I am a little bit confused.
Billy Dover
July 21st, 2005 3:24 pm
Thanks for the Info, maybe I too can join the UPS Club.
Matt
July 22nd, 2005 9:04 pm
I have been reading your site the looking for a way to supplement my income without working terribly hard at it. Since I’m already a nerd, something online seemed like the way to go. I didn’t want to expend the resources to design and host my own web site yet, so blogging seemed like an interesting thing to try.
Today is day 3 of my blogging experience. I put AdSense on my blog site (is that what they’re called?) in day 2, just to have some potential for maybe making 3 cents or so while I learn what makes a blog successful. So far, no pennies. But I noticed your comment up there that I shouldn’t even apply if I had only been blogging for a week. Which, is probably good advice, given that I have only very light traffic at this point and I suspect that it will be awhile before the aforementioned 3 cents comes rolling in. However, just thought I’d let everyone know that it is possible to be approved with only one post up. Which is great because it gives me the time to experiment with how the AdSense ads look on my site and where to best position them asthetically, before my site gets busy (which hopefully, it will… ). Now… where’s that section on increasing traffic? LOL
MacIke
July 25th, 2005 12:03 am
Well I applied and managed to get on AdSense quickly. I agree about the part not to personal… yet personal enough. http://www.planetisaac.com
Amir Meshkin
August 23rd, 2005 2:32 pm
I have that eBook and its really not that great. Anyone have any tips to generating traffic to your site?
Tudor Hulubei
September 8th, 2005 12:11 am
I disagree with the statement about AdSense not being able to generate contextual ads on pages containing images. I run a personal website at http://hulubei.net/tudor that has a few hundred photographs and AdSense works quite fine on it, provided you annotate your images with the proper tags/titles/etc. I wrote an article about running ads on photo albums, and it is available at http://hulubei.net/tudor/articles/Ads-And-Photographs.html
Tudor
Tom
October 9th, 2005 1:19 am
adsense is very easy to apply for. Based on my experience. You only need apply for one account for all your webs, blogs.
Gary
October 20th, 2005 4:10 pm
My AdSense application was accepted while my site still had zero traffic. I threw up some articles, submitted the application, and was approved quickly. I don’t think they’re terribly picky, except as you mention about illegal and objectionable content.
Work From Home
Andy
October 28th, 2005 7:19 pm
Interesting stuff. Will follow this one! Looking for alternative ways of boosting revenues, and Adsense seems like the way.
Jaime Gehly
November 1st, 2005 1:32 am
I have used adsense for a number of months now and I am making between $100 to $200 a month right now on average. While it may not pay the mortgage, it’s fairly easy to maintain and I could see how one could provide a reasonable income off the program with enough organization and effort.
The key to making decent money lies in your ability to target worthwhile keywords with the content of your blog or website. Find out what keywords are bid the highest by starting your own Google Adwords account. There is a tool in there that will let you search for relative keywords and it will tell you:
1. How many competitors are listed under that keyword.
2. How many monthly searches are done for that keyword on average.
3. What position on the search results your proposed bid will get you. ….this is where you find out how much the keywords are worth.
This comment ended up getting a little longer than expected so I posted the full length version on my own blog. It also contains tips for gaining traffic to your blog once optimized.
I wanted to state that this blog contains some great points and I look forward to reading the remaining entries.
…read the rest at: http://promotips101.blogspot.com/
Maki
December 17th, 2005 11:39 pm
I’m planning to start a blog on the AskMaki.com site since a lot of my clients ask me similar questions.
It will combine a knowledgebase and a blog format supported by Google ads.
Maki - http://www.askmaki.com
Andry Salim
January 23rd, surf zone.5:54 am
I got my adsense approved when it’s still zero traffic. I only put one articles in my blogs and instantly approved. I think the main consideration by Google is that your website is not violating their policy.
khairul
February 14th, surf zone.3:33 pm
I’d partly agree with Gary on Google approving your application while your site is new and have very little traffic. My site (http://momstips.blogspot.com) has very little traffic, and barely a week old when Google approved my adsense account.
But enternetusers is a good site though, there’s lots of tips in here, and us posters could also help in giving useful tips
Samue Colon
May 15th, surf zone.10:47 pm
Google Adsense is very easy to apply, although Google Adsense has a policy which you have to respect, if not they will shot you down.
Carl Johnson
May 29th, surf zone.7:28 pm
Google doesn’t just shut you down. They give warnings to light offenses. What everyone shouldn’t do is click their own ads because they could shut you down within days.
Amber
June 21st, surf zone.12:46 am
I have been using adsense for 6 months and havent earned enough money yet. I am getting better at receiving more traffic by writing on more specific and unusual topics. Still have a lot to learn though.
I learned the hard way not to click on your own ads! I got a warning, but I clicked on the ad because I wanted to order something from the website advertised. I think adsense quickly approves blogs from blogger because google owns the blog website.
By the way, I learned that it is difficult to make money off of a political blog. When I read about politics, I rarely care about the ads.
Matt
June 27th, surf zone.2:53 pm
My blog also got approved in the first week it was set up. It didn’t have much traffic but took Google about a day to approve.
I’m not finding the sign up easy but rather the making money part hard, it is easy to set up but hard to get any returns.
Cem Gencer
August 13th, surf zone.3:22 am
Seems to be a good tutorial on the subject. I will definitely start an english blog besides my turkish one. thanks for the info…
peter elliott
October 15th, surf zone.7:21 pm
Just found your blog. i am looking for information [thats unusual for someone on the web ;o) ] that will help me use adsense and get traffic to my site(s). your blog is giving me info which i was just about to buy !!!. well done and i will continue to use this blog as avaluable resource
thanks
www.pje-itc.co.uk
Art Lader
December 21st, surf zone.4:33 am
Thanks for this series, Darren.
Just as you wrote, I am hoping to earn enough to cover expenses. I am looking forward to applying your techniques to do so.
And I want to have a little fun, too, sharing with my fellow German teachers. :-)
Best regards,
Art Lader
http://4germanteachers.com
Gillian
February 8th, 2007 8:14 pm
This is so deeply padded with fluff and simple copying from the Google site, that it is worthless. Why would I step down this garden path simply to look at all your beckoning ads? There’s nothing else to see here.
I doubt whether you earn what you say you do. It’s just sugar water. Don’t feed it to the lorikeets, they will starve.
Signing out… don’t think I’ll bother.
Gillian
February 8th, 2007 8:15 pm
What techniques?
So far we’ve been told to read the Google website. And we’re already into Part 2. Sheesh…. Can’t you tell when you’re being strung along?
Darren Rowse
February 8th, 2007 9:58 pm
Hi Gillian - I’m sorry that you feel this way. This particular post is from a larger 8 part series and in isolation from the rest I can sort of see your point. This is probably the post that is least full of ‘tips’ or ‘techniques’ - yet I think it’s an important part of the series as many bloggers just rush in and assume that every blog can and will make loads of money with AdSense without asking some of these questions.
You’d also be surprised how many questions I get on these very topics from people who have not read any of it on the official pages. I’d also ask you to keep in mind that this post was written over 2 years ago (September 2004) and while I’ve updated it a few times it’s not really cutting edge with all the latest information relevant to the topic - I’ve written a lot more since and have learned a lot more since too.
I hope that you read on through the series and found something of use in the following 6 parts although it seems you left.
I never quite know what to say to people who accuse me of stringing people along and who question what I earn. On one hand I understand that people are skeptical and actually encourage my readers to be that way as there are a lot of people who make unsubstantiated claims online.
On another hand I don’t really know how one would prove their earnings. If you’re ever in Melbourne you’re free to stop by for a coffee and I guess I could show you some bank details or my AdSense account.
On a third hand (I do wish I had three some days) I guess I’d just say that actions speak louder than words and I’d ask you to give me a chance and read more of my content. I’ve been blogging here for years now and have helped a lot of people with their blogs, with optimizing their AdSense etc. I don’t claim to be the greatest expert with any of what I write - I just share what I learn when I learn it and hope that it helps people.
In the end it’s up to people to take or leave what I write (as they do with every content they might read on or off line). I’m open to critique and use it to improve what I write - but just ask that people give me a chance and if they have concerns to shoot me an email which I’ll attempt to respond to and sort out any problem.
I find it hard to know how to respond when strangers publicly write me off without first attempting to ask questions, engage or hear a little more of who I am.
Anyway - it’s late here, not sure I’ve answered any of your issues with this post - but I hope it gives a little insight into what I’m attempting to do with it. I hope I don’t come off as arrogant or not hearing what you’re saying - I do appreciate the feedback and am happy for your comments to go up - but I guess I just wanted the opportunity to reply. Happy to keep chatting here in comments or via email.
Gillian
February 9th, 2007 4:21 am
Darren,
Thanks for your response. It helps.
I guess that I like more information-rich material, and the problem with this series is that I won’t read parts 3-6 because parts 1-2 had little content. I’m also the type who choses the ’single’ page option on newspaper sites that break stories into multiple parts.
Also, I didn’t realise these posts were 2 years old. Can’t remember where I surfed in from.
I am just at the beginning of toying with the idea of using my blog – http://www.schoolofstjude.blogspot.com – to raise some funds for the school. Now that I’ve got the thing going, I figure it can do more than spread the word. Being philanthropy, I’m pretty cautious about ads. So affiliate may be the way to go.
Have you seen the neato fundraising tool, ChipIn? http://www.chipin.com. Could be just the thing for my site. If I got one, would you be interested in putting it on your site too? Funds would go directly to the School.
Thanks again for responding - despite the mountain of email in your inbox! You stay up late, I get up early, but we’re in the same Timezone!
Gillian
Darren Rowse
February 9th, 2007 11:18 am
Hi Gillian. Thanks for your response to my response. I hear where you’re coming from.
I understand the desire to have things all on the one page - although on something as long as this find that my readership likes things broken down into bite sized pieces that they can digest each day (remember this is a blog - overwhelm readers with too much in a single hit and they rarely read the whole thing). People read very differently online and you sound like you might be a bit different to the ‘typical’ web reader who likes short pieces.
With your blog - it’ll be interesting to see how you go. The problem that you might run into with affiliate programs is that they work best when what you’re writing about relates very very closely to the products that you’re linking to.
The problem with ads will be similar - very difficult to find ads that relate.
In both cases this will mean few people will click on them and they have a small chance of converting.
My feeling with a blog like yours is that you’d have more chance by asking for donations directly - but even that will take time while you build up your readership - ie people rarely donate to things they don’t know about or people they don’t know very well.
I’ve seen chipin and it is pretty cool. It will work best on a blog with a loyal and big readership though.
I personally wouldn’t put it on my blog - while I’m interested in what you’re doing I have my own charities and communities that I spend a lot of time and energy supporting. Interested to see how you go with it though.
Gillian
February 10th, 2007 6:05 am
Hi Darren,
Good morning!
Well I tried the Chipin donation tool, only to discover that it has a pretty face but the back room functionality is limited - making it pretty useless for non-USA users. As someone who, like you, lives on the perimeter rather than in the centre of world power, I REALLY notice when websites and tools are US-centric. And Chipin is just that.
Their form allows only US addresses. Yep, I tried fudging it cos why does it matter anyway, they’re not going to mail me anything, but their software knew enough to recognise a non-valid Alaskan zip code.
Then I tried the Paypal option (hope this isn’t too much detail for you), but it didn’t accept my credit card. It’s a standard Visa that I’ve used worldwide.
Two strikes and Chipin’s out! You can’t expect people who are trying to give you money on the spur of the moment to work at it!
So now I’m looking for alternate online donation tools. Have you heard of anything? I’m sure that I’ll find what’s out there in time, but if you know of anything, I’d appreciate it.
BTW, as an Aussie, you may have heard of Gemma Sisia, who started the School of St Jude in Tanzania. She was featured on the ABC ‘Australian Story’ and has a book coming out in April. She’s a genuine force of nature! http://www.schoolstjude.blogspot.com.
Cheers
Gillian
motivation4employees.com
April 16th, 2007 2:16 am
Thanks for the useful information on adsense. I’ve found that promoting your website/blog offline can greatly increase your earning potential. Assuming people like what they’re reading. Any thoughts?
blackyard.net
June 5th, 2007 7:41 pm
Asense is really taking ordinary blogging into a fully fledged income generating activity. It is no surprise that last year alone approximatelty $800m was paid out in Adsense EFTs and cheques. We should all try to improve our blogs and adhere to the set regulations in order to take a big bite of this delicious pie !!!
Impossible is nothing…
www.blackyard.net
Haxan
June 30th, 2007 4:04 pm
Hi,
Im trying to make money online and as you have recomended im doing my home work first. I am a 2nd yr college student from Maldives studying in Malaysia. I am tryin to find ways to generate money so that i can pay for my tution fees… i have a blog and i have already posted adsence (yes I know its too early for that) I would like to know how to set up the blog so that ppl can doante money.. I havnt got a clue on it yet…..
Cheers
Henk ter Heide
July 11th, 2007 4:09 pm
Hi Darren,
The “this tip on other ways of making money from blogging.” link doesn’t work. On Livingroom there’s a link pointing back to enternetusers. But on “https://enternetusers.net/archives/2004/09/23/blogging-for-dollars/” there’s no article.
regards Henk
Sebastien Gomez
August 6th, 2007 4:28 am
Hi Haxan, a way for you have a button for people to clikc on and donate money to you would be to create one using Paypal tools. It’s very easy to do so and paypal is safe and recognized arond the world. You can determine the amount or let the user choose. Good luck.
www.macgomez.com
Skot Noctis
September 11th, 2007 8:04 am
Nice tips. I use AdSense on my blog “Another Tech Dad Blog” at http://techdad.northernwolf.biz — hopefully I can start bringing in some supplemental income, as I am a SAHD.
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