Blogging is gaining huge popularity now than ever before. In today’s internet age, it can be a viable source of income for anyone with a laptop, an internet connection and interest in a particular niche or a range of topics.  A lot of “hobby” bloggers begin their writing journey without any intention of making money. They just want to share their knowledge or opinion to the outside world or simply want to document their interests in writing. As time goes by, most blogs will start getting steady number of visitors, which will rise as more original contents are posted on a regular basis. With a reasonable amount of daily visitors, blogs can actually make good money from Google Adsense ads alone.

Adsense is perhaps the easiest way to get paid for newbie bloggers because once you get approved for it, you can start monetizing your blog right away by simply placing a small line of code on your blog posts, sidebars and home pages. Adsense pays you on the basis of CPC (Cost per Click). So you will get paid some money every time your someone clicks on a Google Ad on your blog.  The CPC varies according to advertisers, so you will get paid different amount for different ad clicks. That is why, if your sole motive is to get high payment in short time, then you will have to write a blog on a niche that has high CPC potential. But I recommend going a different route i.e. to write on topics that you love and are passionate about. Many hobby blogs have grown from zero to hero in a couple of years because such websites have potential to grab loyal and ever-growing fan followings. Read: Essential tips for amateur/first-time bloggers

Before you learn how to get your Google Adsense account approved on the first try, you must learn the basics of Google Analytics. Some bloggers may not even me aware of Google Analytics that lets you monitor your website traffic and other data that let’s you analyze your website visitors on a deeper level. So, if you haven;t yet setup Analytics for your blog or website, do it before applying for Adsense. Read everything you need to know about it here: Absolute beginner’s guide to Google Analytics

Is your blog more over 5 months old? Does it have decent amount of content?  Is it getting good amount of traffic? For websites that are less than 6 months old, I would consider anything above 100 as good website traffic. If the answer is yes, you are ready to apply for Google Adsense. Traffic and content are the key to getting your website approved for Adsense. For reference, Freelancequest was just three months old and averaging slightly over 100 daily visitors, when it got its Adsense account approved. As you can see, Freelancequest is just a simple blog with a simple WordPress theme and only 15-20 posts, but it had no problem getting Adsense approval. So what did I do to make sure my Adsense account is approved on the first try? Read below:

1. Write lots of original content: As a blogger, your primary focus should be writing original content. Make sure you’ve written at least 15 original posts that are at least 500 words long. By original content, I don’t mean it has to be a completely new concept or idea, you can research your topics from various blogs and then come up with a more comprehensive content that your readers will appreciate.
2. Apply a simple theme: You don’t need a fancy looking website to get Adsense approval. However, your website or blog should look organized and clean. Simple install a clean looking responsive theme from WordPress. You can download many awesome WordPress themes for free. After applying the theme, the next step is to organize the website content which is done through categories. Simple assign categories or tags for your blog posts. Example categories of a tech website- News, Reviews, How To Guides, Downloads etc.
3. Complete your blog or website’s  profile: A website’s “profile”, is basically a detail introduction of your website. You can simply make an About Us page where you write in detail about your website’s objective and what kind of content your readers can expect on a regular basis. Another important part of your blog’s profile, is the tag line and logo.
4. Make a Privacy Statement page: Simple make a privacy policy page like this one: Freelancequest Privacy Policy
5. Monitor traffic: Use Google Analytics to monitor your website’s progress but start doing this only after completing step 1 because you may lose focus writing. Many new bloggers install Google Analytics immediately after posting their first post and then they start watching their website traffic from day one. So when they see that their blog is barely getting 15 visitors in the first month, they start getting impatient and soon get so much demotivated that they stop writing. When you stop writing, your website’s progress will decline. So monitor traffic, only after you have written a lot of content. Experienced bloggers know that patience is key to success. So you must keep writing even if you see disappointing traffic in the first couple of month or even a year. Eventually, your blog will get see a gradual increase in traffic – if you get lucky it may even boom after just 6 months- raking in thousands of visitors per day. If you are sure that you’ve written enough content, you can also start marketing your content to bring visitors. Content marketing can be done via social media marketing and link building by posting contents on other prominent blogs of your niche.
6. Apply for Adsense: If you’ve completed all of the above steps, its time to send your Adsense application. You can do it here:  Sign up for Adsense . You can use your current Gmail account or make a new one for Adsense. Carefully fill out all the details correctly.

How long for Adsense application review? How long does it take to get Adsense approval ? 

Your application will be reviewed and temporarily approved within 48 hours. Sometimes, it may take slightly longer. You will get an email from Google Adsense, notifying you about your approval and the next steps for verification. Now you can start placing Adsense codes on your blog and monitor the clicks/revenue from your Adsense account. You can also place the same Adsense Ads (codes) on your other blogs or websites.

You can place a maximum of three ads per page/post. A word of warning- do not click your your ads and make sure you follow the Adsense program policies to avoid getting banned.

Getting Paid: Before you get paid Adsense will need to verify your address, bank account, tax information and phone number. Since most of us have already tied our phone numbers with our Gmail accounts, we won’t need to compelte this step. As for the bank account and tax information, it is very easy to fill out and will get verified instantly- provided you have given correct information. If you are non-US citizen then you can receive money from an alternative method- Western Union money transfers. For using Western Union, you will need to get your address verified. Google will mail you a pincode to your address and you will have to use enter the code in your Adsense account for verification. Make sure you provide correct mailing address (In Asian countries, it is safer if you get a private post box and write the po box number on the mailing address). The pin will take 2-4 weeks to get to you, so you will have be really patient.