Steps to Successful AdSense Activation for HubPages

The purpose of this Hub is to show you clearly, with actual screen images, what Google wants from you to successfully activate your AdSense Account for Hubpages.

On Aug 31st, 2011, Google announced a revision to their AdSense application process, and this Hub includes the updated details.

The reason for the change is due to Google's continued focus on providing quality. Not only with search results, but also with AdSense advertising. This should drive more demand from advertisers and therefore increase your earning potential.

I'm going to show you every step I took to get my AdSense account activated. This will help you achieve success simply by following along. But I also updated this tutorial to match the new requirements announced in August 2011.

I'm also going to show you what stumbling block you may run into. Looking over the forum, I found that other Hubbers have run into the same problem I had. Getting past the hurdle just took an additional day until ultimate success. The entire process was completed in three days.

I did not have a Google AdSense account when I started writing on HubPages, so I chose the option to let Hubpages apply for the account.

You do that by going to your Affiliate Settings page. Click the "My Account" link at the top of any page and then click the "Earnings" tab.

You will need to apply for AdSense by clicking the button on the left of "Google AdSense" under "External Affiliate Settings".

Then select one of two options...

Either you already have an AdSense account and you want to use that one, or you want HubPages to get one for you. If you already have one, select that option and you can skip a lot of these following steps. If you don't have one, as I didn't, then select the option to have Hubpages apply for you.

What Happens Next

Hubpages immediately displays a Google Affiliate Code, but it is not active until Google approves you. You will get an email from Google similar to this one...

I clicked on the link in the email. (Note: For security I scratched out the link from the email above). It took me to the following page...

I made the appropriate selections as shown above. I already had a Google account. You have one too if you use Gmail or any other Google services. So just make the proper selection as it applied to you.

If you don't have a Google Account, you can chose to apply for AdSense without a Google Account. But I suggest you get it under a Google Account so you can use the other great services that Google offers, such as Google Analytics, which you can use to monitor your Hubpages' traffic in detail. But that is not the subject of this hub.

After making your selections, fill in the requested information.

1. If you indicated that you have a Google Account and that you want to use your existing account for AdSense, then you will see a box (see above) used to log into your existing Google Account. Enter your email and password for your Google Account and click "Continue."
2. If you chose to create a new Google Account, then you will see a different box at the bottom (not as shown in the above screen shot). Fill in your desired login info for that new account and click "Continue."

Possible Stumbling Block

Now, from this step our situations may be different. Since I had wanted to create my AdSense account under my existing Google Account, I ran into trouble, which I think is a bug in Google's programming.

Hopefully that may change by the time you follow along in this tutorial. But in reviewing the Hub Forums, I found at least one other Hubber who had the same problem I ran into, as shown in the next screen shot...

As you can see above, Google is complaining that a user with my email already exists. Of course, that's ME. But how can we get around that. I tried to do it again by selecting the correct option on that screen, as shown above. But I only got into a loop, repeating the same complaint.

Going Direct

So what to do? I decided to log into my Google Account directly, as I always do. Then I selected Google AdSense as shown below...

Once again I was taken to a signup form, where I entered all my pertinent information. If you do that, you are probably requesting a duplicate account, since Hubpages already started the account request. But I didn't know that at the time. I filled out a new application without knowing it, and I specified www.hubpages.com as my primary URL. But that was wrong, as you'll soon see. Read on and I'll save you lost time in the application process.

Proper Way To Confirm Ownership

Google needs to confirm your ownership of your website. Now we all know you and I don't own HubPages. But you need to show that you have control over your profile page. That will satisfy Google.

Less than 48 hours after submitting my application, I received the following email...

As you can see from that very last line in that email, I was rejected because Google could not confirm my ownership of hubpages.com. Now we all know we don't own hubpages.com, but this is what Google wants to see. That email continued with further detail as follows...

Well, we can't modify the home page since we are not the webmaster of HubPages. But the second option in the above email is doable since we can indeed modify our own profile page on HubPages.

So I followed the instructions in step 2, placing the requested statement in my Hub Profile as follows. And I used bold font to make it stand out...

Then I logged back into my Google Account and when I clicked to AdSense, I saw the following screen...

I resubmitted my application with the change to the "Website URL" as shown in the next screen shot, as per Step 3 in the prior email.

Note that the example below was done before HubPages created the individual subdomains for all of us. Now you need to use your subdomain URL.

[UPDATE] Since the time I had done this for myself, HubPages had changed the way our URL's are written. We now have our own subdomain. The example of my profile URL in the above screenshot is the old way. Don't let that confuse you. The correct URL you should provide to Google is name.hubpages.com where "name" is whatever user name you have created for yourself.

After I resubmitted my application with the proper URL of my profile page, I was notified that my application will be reviewed again and I will be notified in 1 to 2 days.

Since Google was able to clearly see that my profile on Hubpages had that statement they requested, it was a no-brainer. They approved my application and in less than 24 hours I had received an approval email.

Don't forget to include that statement in your profile that confirms your ownership of your profile. If you missed it, go back and read "Proper Way To Confirm Ownership" again.

New Requirements As Of August 2011

One thing is different since I applied for my AdSense account. Now Google has a two-step process. They will assign you an AdSense code. But they will place blank ads in your Hubs that don't pay any revenue for clicks. Actually there is nothing to click on.

After a waiting period of a few days they will approve you if the quality of your Hubs is good. This new policy is to avoid placing ads on pages that have no value to the reader.

Advertisers who pay Google want their ads to be placed on quality pages here they will get the greatest bang for their buck.

But Another (Small) Problem

I quickly logged into my Google Account and clicked my way to my new AdSense account. I compared the assigned Google Affiliate Code to that which was automatically assigned from Hubpages. It did not match.

I can see that I had this discrepancy because I was not able to log in by following the link from the email that was sent when I first requested a new AdSense via HubPages.

Since I started a new application direct with Google, they issued me a new Affiliate Code. The one that HubPages assigned will forever be in limbo. But that no longer matters. All I needed to do is enter the correct Affiliate Code so I get credit for clicks.

Important Steps

I could not change the Affiliate Code since the field was not one that can be modified. But I found my way around the Hubpages site until I discovered a page where I can change the AdSense code. I'll save you the trouble. Here is the link to Edit AdSense Affiliate Code.

That link allowed me to enter the correct code into my HubPages Account that was assigned by Google. But the status was still pending. I had to go back to my Google AdSense account again and read and approve the following Terms and Conditions...

...Then I also had to grant access to Hubpages...

When I went back to my HubPages Affiliate Page, I saw that he status had changed to "active." How pleasing that was!!!

I then removed that extra statement from my profile. The blurb that Google needed to confirm that the profile belonged to me. There is no need for that after approval.

We're basically done at this point. Now the big job begins, bringing in those hits. There are a lot of well-written hubs by other Hubbers where you can learn more about that process. Use the search field in the top right corner of any page on Hubpages.

Extra Recommended Step

I logged into my active AdSense Account and clicked to the Earnings Page. Of course it was zero as I expected. Give it time. But I noticed an interesting link stating "Integrate your AdSense account with Google Analytics."

I recommend you do that. It will help track every little detail about the visitors who read your hubs. Click that link and then select one of the options as shown at the right.

Then select hubpages.com, as in the following screen shot, to link Google Analytics with AdSense.

Don't forget to go back to your Hubpages' Affiliate Page and enter your Google Analytics code. Hubpages will automatically insert the code in all your Hubs.

That's it !!!

Thanks for being so patient following along. I leave you with wishes that your Google AdSense Earnings will grow nicely to reward you for all your great efforts writing and publishing your Hubs on Hubpages.

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Copyright © 2009 Glenn Stok

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