The AdSense Conundrum

Here the world is, six or seven months into various forms of lockdown or virus outbreaks, and still we're wondering how long this will continue.
From an AdSense perspective, and from my own point of view (this is not official from AdSense staff in any way, just my own thoughts), I would say we have seen many more forum posts asking for approval from AdSense.
The problems I (and probably other Product Experts) are more aware of than ever are blogs and websites thrown together hastily, just to be able to earn a little money from AdSense. This is probably due to the fact that all over the globe, people have lost their jobs; businesses and companies have folded or closed, losing their revenue; costs to purchase products (even groceries and medicine) have increased exponentially; and many people have been too ill to go out and work.
The pandemic has created a monster in the world ... it's called "need".  Now, more than ever people are looking for ways to earn money without leaving their homes, in order to stay safe and healthy.

The problem is, there are only so many people able to write well enough to earn a sufficient amount to support themselves and their families.  That and, as most long time publishers already know, there is absolutely no guarantee that you will even earn enough with AdSense to supply you with groceries, never mind other needs.

Many sites, currently, are being rejected for lack of quality content ... that's what happens when you think you can create a website in a hurry and make a living from it. Writing a blog, even if it's all your own content, doesn't make you a writer, nor does it make you a businessman (or woman). It simply makes you one of the billions of people out there who have blogs.

My feelings currently on the approvals system are ... well, I guess I'd say a little frustrated.  It's taking a lot of time (which is understandable when staff may be restricted due to the virus) to get through the approvals system. And in some areas, reviews don't appear to be taking place at all. Some of the people applying aren't even getting to the review stage, with messages indicating they can't review the application right now. 
The more frustrating thing is seeing sites submitted and apparently approved (showing "ready" on the sites list), but that don't show any ads. When the forum members check the site it's pretty obvious that it's totally unsuitable for AdSense ... so either it hasn't been reviewed and shows "ready" anyways, or the site showing as "ready" simply means it's reviewed, but not necessarily approved.  I honestly don't know.
If you are one of those folks who has a site that shows as ready on your sites list but isn't showing ads and you have no notifications in your account ... there is not much we can do in the forum to help you. There are several troubleshooters you can go through that might help discover why they don't show, but beyond that, we can't offer much help.  Note that some sites may not show ads on certain types of content that may be restricted; or on content that violates policy, like copied articles/contents, and that is the expected result. Ads aren't supposed to show on contents of that nature.

There is a lot in the last six to nine months that has changed in AdSense, some of it policies (so be sure to check policy before you change things on your site, or decide to do something differently) and some of related to verification procedures and approvals. 
Many of us in the forum are still trying to catch up with all those changes, so if you have
questions about the changes, all you can do is ask, and we'll try to find an answer (but no guarantees).
Hang in there folks. We're all experiencing trials and frustration right now, but eventually, we'll get through it.

posted by J.Gracey Stinson