AdSense Sign-Up is Easy and Free? Really?

You may be aware that I began this blog as a test to figure out all of the features in Blogger; however, you may not be aware of why I wanted to test the features. My original intent was to begin posting regularly to my two existing blogs (Balanced in His Grace and Home Improvement?) so that I can earn a living from my writing. At this point in my life, after a year of sacrificing, my family needs a second income, even if only part-time, and if I take on a job outside the home, it will limit my ability to write. Considering I am in the process of finishing a novel, this could be detrimental to my career of choice.

As I researched how to earn money off my blog, I came across the article How to Make Money With a Blog on ChristianPF.com, and one of the author's suggestions was to use AdSense or another advertising service. I looked into AdSense and realized it is fully integrated with Blogger, but I spent an entire week trying to sign up for the service only to struggle to make it happen. I don't know if I was clicking on the wrong links or if I had to be signed up for Google+ first, but I finally managed to sign up for the service today.

I wish that was the end of the story but before you sign up, please be advised that there is no guarantee that they will accept you into the AdSense program. After signing up, you will receive an email asking you to allow Blogger access to the ad code and reports in your AdSense account. You will need to click the link to link Blogger to AdSense.

After that step is completed you will have a waiting period of up to 48 hours, although I have heard that people have waited months (notice I do not know this for a fact, this is heresay but definitely something to be concerned about). After your waiting period, you will be notified by email as to whether you have been accepted into the AdSense program. I am a little peeved at this point because after following the steps to sign up, I received and email that my application does not meet their program criteria; however, there is no list of program criteria to ensure that I can comply. So much for AdSense being an easy way to make money with a blog.

If you still want to take your chances, following is a list of the steps to sign up for AdSense:

• Pull up the dashboard for the blog you want to earn money on. The dashboard for a particular blog is the page that states, "My blogs" at the top and has a list down the left side of the page. The options in the list include: Overview, Posts, Pages, Comments, Google+, Stats, Earnings, Layout, Template and Settings. If you want to sign up for Google+, you will click on Google+.
• Click on Earnings. This will bring up a page that states, "Monetize your blog using one or both of our free advertising programs". There is a button to click under Google AdSense that says, "Get Started", while the Google Affiliate Ads has a link to Learn More.
• Click the button that says "Get Started" under Google AdSense. This will bring up a box that asks you to either Create a new AdSense account or to use an existing account. If you already have an account, you can link to that account; however, I am only covering how to create an account.
• Click the "Create account" button. This will bring up a box that asks for your information.
• Select "Individual" or "Business" account
• Select your Country
• Enter your contact information. Please note that your name needs to be listed exactly as it is listed on your bank account so that you will be able to cash your checks. To see how often you will be paid, click here.
• Enter your telephone number
• Click every check box under the Policies, and ensure that you can adhere to these. This may take some research to ensure that you are in compliance, including having a Privacy Policy in place.
• Click "Submit information". This will bring up a review box. Make sure to review all of the information listed. If there are any mistakes, make necessary changes by clicking on the "Edit account information" button. Otherwise, click "Continue".
• This will bring up the Google AdSense Online Standard Terms and Conditions. Please read these to ensure that you can adhere to them as this is a contract between you and Google. If you can accept these Terms and Conditions, click the check box and click "I Accept".
• This should generate an AdSense account that you will need to link to your blogs. They even make this easy for you with a "Link AdSense account" button.

There will immediately be a link to "View dashboard" under AdSense in your Earnings tab on your blogs; however, you will not be able to access your dashboard until you receive confirmation via email that your account has been approved and made active, something I was not privileged to have been given. To be prepared for my account activation, I wasted my time adding the code to my blogs to ensure proper ad placement. Now, it appears, I have to waste more time removing that code.

If you follow these steps and actually get approved for an account, I would greatly appreciate any advice. Thanks for reading.

Happy Blogging!