Scam Warning - or Is AdSense a Scam?

Of course AdSense isn't a scam. But this is something we see asked in the forum on a pretty regular basis. If it was a scam, you don't think they'd still be in business do you? AdSense have been one of the most recognized, most trusted (and sometimes most maligned) ad services for over 10 years. You don't have a long-running business like that if you really do perpetrate scams on people.

Having said that, I'm sure a lot of people are thinking "oh sure, you'd say that because you help them" ... well, I don't actually help them. The purpose of the forum isn't to help AdSense, it's to help publishers.

Many of the people who come to the forum yelling "AdSense is a SCAM" have already been paid, multiple times. So the question I ask is ... how is this a scam? Scams don't pay you at all, in fact, scams don't pay anyone. With over 2 million publishers, the majority receiving regular payments, how is it a scam?

It really isn't. A percentage of those yelling "scammer" are the people who are violating policies (some of them on purpose, some of them by accident, or simply because they lack knowledge).  Lots of publishers out there simply don't understand that to get paid, you have to follow the rules. Others don't even realize what the requirements are for AdSense, and fall afoul of the policies by accident, or by signing up with some promotional site that tells them it's safe for AdSense (most aren't, just so you know).

AdSense Payment Finalizing and YouTube Earnings

Boy, do I hate payment finalizations and payment issue times in the AdSense forum.  Before I get started ... I do want to apologize for stepping outside of my usual decorum when writing for publishers. This post is "as I feel" ... which means a little frustrated (cause, you know, I am human too, just like every other publisher).

 Every month it's the same thing, and every month it isn't just new publishers that freak out if their earnings aren't finalized one minute after midnight on the day  the finalizations begin (the first of the month for websites/blogs, and the 11th of the month for YouTube).

One minute after midnight ... really people? Have a little patience. Please!

I get it - new publishers who just started might not understand how this works, but a lot of people in the forum who squawk about it happening late are not new publishers. Just because last month or the month before you got finalized earnings on a certain day doesn't mean it's going to happen EVERY month on the same day. Finalizing earnings happens during a time period - "from" and "to" means anytime in between those days.

Approved but can't access the "MyAds" Tab in AdSense?

We've seen a lot of issues in the AdSense help forum lately with respect to the current approval process. (I say current, because it seems to be constantly changing over this last year.)  While it can be a little confusing, if you received this email (see below), then you should read the email very carefully. Nowhere in it does it say your account has been approved yet to show ads on your blog or website. It basically says you've passed the first stage of the approval process.

Your application has been successfully reviewed. Now you need to create your first ad unit and place the ad code on "yourwebsite.url" to fully activate your account.

Note that before your account is fully activated only blank ads will appear on your pages. Once your account is fully activated you'll receive a confirmation email and begin to see live ads. Please don't click on your live ads even to test them - doing so isn't permitted by the AdSense program policies.

Sign in to Google AdSense to create your first ad unit and get fully approved.

AdSense Per Page Ad Limits

Recent changes to the AdSense ad placement and ad limits policy have the web (and publishers) all abuzz with excitement. Some people appear to be excited for the wrong reasons though. Since the changes, I've come to realize that many publishers don't really understand what AdSense calls "the spirit of AdSense" and seem to read what they want to read into the policies ... and a lot of them are wrong. In a few web articles I've read statements like "AdSense has abolished the 3 ads per page limit", while in fact most experienced publishers have realized that what AdSense has actually done is tightened up the policy, to the point where many pages won't even qualify for 3 ads on a page. And yes, you read that right - some pages will not even have enough text to show 2 ads. A couple of days after publishers discovered the policy changes, I began seeing pages with 8, 10, 16 ads on a page, with more AdSense ads in hovering boxes and popups.  That makes it quite obvious that publishers don't understand the policy. They appear to be reading with $$ signs in their eyes, instead of with understanding in their brains.

The policy now relies on the amount of content on each page that shows AdSense ads. Just because a page exists doesn't mean it's suitable for a big pile of ads ... or any ads for that matter. What the policy actually says is that you now require enough textual content on every page where you place AdSense ads, so a page with just an image means a page with no textual content ... and perhaps that page won't show any AdSense ads on it. Certain types of pages also will not be able to show ads - such as pages that don't follow webmaster quality guidelines (meaning you must actually READ and UNDERSTAND those guidelines), or pages with mostly copied content.

What The Policy Says

Securing an AdSense Account

During the last couple of months we've seen a lot of confused people in the AdSense forum; people that can't login to their AdSense account, or their email address has been removed as a login, or they no longer appear to be an admin on their own account.  Some know their accounts have already been compromised or hacked by someone else, or an invited email address has removed them from their own accounts.

Most of this can be avoided by securing your account. C'mon people, we've talked about this before (more than once in fact), but it's still happening way too often. If you aren't vigilant, you can be locked out of your own AdSense account.

The truth is, this could happen to almost anyone, but using common sense and being aware of what the consequences are of the choices you make can help mitigate these issues.

Inviting Users to Your AdSense Account