YouTube Payments with AdSense

For many new YouTube partners monetizing their channels with AdSense, the payment system can be a little confusing. Even if you've been earning with a website or blog, you may be confused by how the payments work from YouTube because to many's surprise, the way you track estimated earnings is markedly different than when using a website or blog. And the timing for finalized (or verified as payable) earnings is different too, making the process a little more difficult to understand.

Included in the confusion is the fact that YouTube will allow you to monetize your videos, even before you have an approved Adsense account (and before you apply!).  At least they used to and I'm not sure if it's still the same. For some unlucky publishers, this fact only becomes clear when they appear in the AdSense help forum wondering how to get their money from YouTube.

What isn't clear is that you need to link to an approved AdSense account in order to collect payments, but even worse ... AdSense will NOT pay you for any of the monetization that occurred before you linked your channel to an approved AdSense account. Once you do link your channel, AdSense only picks up the earnings from that point forward, and those would be the earnings that eventually get transferred to AdSense.

NOTE: At one time, the help center on YouTube used to offer this bonus information, but it no longer does, so I'll be honest and say that as of now, I don't know if they still do offer the bonus or not.

Help - I Can't Login to Adsense!

There seems to be a lot more issues lately with people who aren't able to login to their AdSense accounts, and for some the issue is confusing, and difficult to troubleshoot.

There can be a number of reasons why an individual "suddenly" might not be able to access their old, often-used AdSense account.

1. a change in the email address
2. forgot user (email) name or password
3. using and having an adblocker or security plugin/extension turned on
4. antivirus privacy/security browser helpers
5. account disabled (in which case you'd see a notice)
6. account hacked
7. using the wrong Google Account to login with (*see note below)

Quite possibly there are other reasons, but these are the ones we've run across pretty frequently. The first thing to check is your browser and computer settings.

Lower Revenues Plague Publishers

A lot of publishers have noticed some major changes in their Adsense earnings since the beginning of 2016. Some of you might be surprised to know that "dropping revenues" aren't new. Anyone that has been with AdSense for more than a couple of years will already know that revenues continue drop on a CPC basis.

Back when AdSense first became a popular product (AdSense's beginnings go back to 2003) it was easier to earn enough every month to not only make a living doing it, but to toss up a website in a day or two and build your site portfolio. Earnings topping thousands of dollars every month per website were not that tough to acquire if you had a computer and internet access. The number of websites were much smaller than the number today, but so were the number of people using the internet much lower.

Over the years, marketing changes have made it a lot harder. As publishers, we like to think that AdSense "has our back", but the fact is that a lot of changes made in AdSense's products are usually precipitated by advertiser satisfaction, rather than by publisher's demands. And because advertisers can now place ads for much less expense, and there are many more publishers and monetizable platforms, the earnings are driven downwards on a CPC basis.

In everyday terms, it's representative of the supply and demand theory. When you have a lot of something (in this case publishers), and less demand for that something (not as many advertisers), the cost (in this case CPC) should go down. But supply and demand is not quite as simple as that. Even if you have a lot of publishers/websites, if you also have a lot of advertisers, the cost should remain relatively stable.

How to Open a US AdSense Account?

This is a question that has the world's easiest answer. You DON'T (ie: CANNOT) open an Adsense account in the United States unless you LIVE in the United States.

Giving information in your AdSense application that IS NOT TRUE is considered fraud. Fraud can get you into more problems than you ever wanted to face. Tax problems, government problems ... even legal problems. US tax regulations are fairly complex, which means the chances of a non-US individual actually understanding them, or understanding the ramifications of lying on an application are fairly small.

When you sign up for Adsense, you must provide true and correct information, and by submitting the application and accepting the terms of use, you are certifying the information you provided is true. If you give a false name (ie: someone else's name), or a false address you are now committing fraud. So right away, from the moment you sign up and agree to the terms, you are setting yourself up for legal sanction.

US Terms of Service for Adsense

12. Representations; Warranties; Disclaimers

You represent and warrant that (i) you have full power and authority to enter into the Agreement; (ii) you are the owner of, or are legally authorized to act on behalf of the owner of, each Property; (iii) you are the technical and editorial decision maker in relation to each Property on which the Services are implemented and that you have control over the way in which the Services are implemented on each Property; (iv) Google has never previously terminated or otherwise disabled an AdSense account created by you due to your breach of the Agreement or due to invalid activity; (v) entering into or performing under the Agreement will not violate any agreement you have with a third party or any third-party rights; and (vi) all of the information provided by you to Google is correct and current.

I fail to see how providing a fake US address to Adsense is "correct". Obviously, it isn't.

Ad Blockers: Let's Talk!

There are many different adblockers available in the market for a variety of different browsers. But the one most people seem to complain about, is one that seems to be the most well-known. Adblock Plus is a much-used adblocker. Publishers hate it (well, some do - I do not) because so many people use it. According to ABP, 75% of their users don't mind some types of ads, while 25% of their users want to just block everything. Keep in mind that for those users who just want to block every type of ad and refuse to see any advertising at all, nothing you do will make them change their mind.

But AdBlock Plus isn't the villain here. At least, I don't see it that way. In some cases, the problem is the publisher themselves. They have too many ads on a page from too many different ad providers. Or, the ads they use are intrusive, cutting into a person's ability to read content without being interrupted by advertising. Intrusive and annoying ads will create a poor user experience, and may actually lose you visitors, especially if you are begging them to turn it off.

AdBlock Plus has a feature called "Acceptable Ads", and the criteria for acceptable ads isn't hard to understand, even for users who are less web-savvy. You can turn on, or turn off the Acceptable Ads feature. Some will just leave it off and see no ads, either because they just simply hate ads period, or because they aren't sure how to use it, or how to change it.