Blogger is a free blogging platform that has immense potential to be monetized. You may connect your Blogger website to AdSense if it meets certain requirements. You will not be required to spend any money in order to monetize Blogger.
Once you've made your Blogger account, you can create a website with a free subdomain of blogspot.com, just like this blog. Even though you don't have access to the root domain, it is actually possible to monetize your free Blogspot subdomain via AdSense.
Google bought Blogger in 2003. This acquisition made AdSense becomes available for Blogger, just like on YouTube. Creating account for Blogger and AdSense is free, so potentially, you may be able to generate income with zero spending.
AdSense is known to slow down the website loading speed. It put extra strain to load the advertisements so you will need a powerful hosting provider. However, since Blogger is hosted by Google, you will have no reason to doubt your blog's ability to serve content. It doesn't need much maintenance so it is actually very reliable. Blogger is free and fast.
How to Monetize Blogspot Domain Using AdSense
If you are a long-time Blogger user who uses the free Blogspot subdomain, you can check your setting to see whether your blog is eligible for AdSense or not. Please note that this is the only way to monetize the Blogspot subdomain.
You will not be able to add your blog with the Blogspot subdomain directly to AdSense. Instead, you need to follow the instructions to request for AdSense approval:
- Open your Blogger account.
- Go to the Earnings tab, it is under Comments and above Pages tabs.
- If your website is eligible, you will be able to find a button that says "Sign Up for AdSense".
- Click the sign-up button.
- Click the Association button.
- If you haven't had an AdSense account, you'll be required to create one.
- Follow the registration procedure, make sure to provide correct information, and read the Term and Conditions.
- Insert the code provided by AdSense within your theme's <head>.
- Wait for AdSense to review your website, can take up to two weeks.
- If you get rejected, fix the problem, then reapply.
- Blogger AdSense Eligible
- Eligible Blogger website.
How to Qualify for AdSense
Your Blogger website may not always be eligible. Check your blog thoroughly to see if it meets AdSense's eligibility requirements. If your content is not original or if it violates AdSense policy, it is very likely that your website won't be able to qualify. You will also have to follow Blogger's content policy and make sure that your site's pages are ready for AdSense (make sure you read this page, very important!).
For a new user, you need to fill your website with quality writings first before you can become eligible. Your website with a free Blogspot subdomain may not be able to qualify for AdSense if your articles are already widely available on the internet. You need to have originality and fresh ideas! You can use Google Question Hub to increase your blog content quality.
You may also need to index your Blogger website. It is important to make sure that your blog can be found in Google search page results.
There are cases in which your website has fulfilled the above requirements but still remains ineligible. Most likely this is caused by the website's age. In 2017, AdSense stated that your website needs to be active for at least six months to become eligible. However, it may not take that long depending on your blog quality. One of my blogs was qualified in one month.
Unfortunately, Google does not provide us with clear and detailed information on our websites' eligibility. All we can do is writing enough valuable content and hope that it will become eligible eventually. There is no exact amount of posts or views which are needed to become eligible.
For example, one of my blogs was qualified for AdSense even though it only had 4 posts. I also own a test blog which I created one year ago. It contained 3 posts but it is now qualified for AdSense.
I notice a common case in which a blog has more than 20 posts but it is still not qualified due to quality reasons. While quantity is still an important part of eligibility, AdSense seems to prioritize quality.
It's hard to say exactly when your Blogger website will become eligible. However, it is safe to say that as long as we follow the guidelines and make sure that our websites are complete, we can eventually become eligible for AdSense.
Eligibility Does Not Mean Approval
Once your blog with a free Blogspot domain becomes eligible, you will be allowed to ask for AdSense approval. It will be able to serve ads once it is approved. AdSense team will review your Blogger website to see whether it is ready to show ads yet. It may take up to 2 weeks to get a verdict from AdSense.
Acquiring AdSense approval may not be easy. AdSense may reject your Blogger website because of various reasons. You will be able to resubmit your website for review once you've fixed the problem. You may get rejected several times. Fortunately, you can always reapply, there is no limit. So basically once your website is eligible, it is only a matter of time until your website is approved.
Your Blogger blog may be rejected by AdSense because of policy violations. There are many types of policy violations. One of them is "Valuable Content: Inventory Under Construction". You may read the article which explains how I fix this type of problem. You will also need to put attention to your content's language. AdSense only support website which serves content in certain languages.
After your blog has been approved and reviewed, you may begin to place AdSense code all over your pages. You can do it via the AdSense widget or auto ads. You will also be able to put ads manually in your articles by using HTML mode.
How to Monetize Blogger Using Premium Domain
Please note that you can not submit a website with .blogspot.com directly to AdSense. If you are using a free Blogspot domain, you can only ask for AdSense approval only through the Earnings section. It means that you have to wait until it becomes eligible.
However, it is possible to change your free Blogspot domain into a premium custom top-level domain. Changing into a premium domain will allow you to submit your blog directly to AdSense. That way you don't have to wait for Blogger to become eligible to use AdSense.
So if you are impatient to monetize your Blogger website, buy a custom domain!
A top-level domain such as .com is very affordable nowadays. Usually, it's only $10 a year and it is not that difficult to set up in a Blogger account. Combining premium domain with reliable Blogger hosting may result in a powerful website.
Custom Blogger themes nowadays are also getting more advanced. You will be able to create a proper premium-looking website using Blogger just by buying a custom premium theme and a top-level domain.
Follow the instruction to get AdSense approval for Blogger with custom domain:
- Buy a custom domain.
- Change your Blogger blogspot.com domain into the newly purchased domain.
- Create an AdSense account if it is your first time, follow the procedure.
- If you already have an approved account, do not create a new one.
- Instead, go to the AdSense control panel, go to "Sites" then "Add Site".
- Submit your root domain "http://yourwebsitename.com" to your AdSense account.
- Place verification code under <head> tag within your Blogger template.
- Wait for the approval, the review process can take up to two weeks.
So basically, if you are using this method, you will be able to monetize your Blogger faster since you don't have to wait for the uncertain eligibility waiting period.
Conclusion
Blogger is an interesting free platform that can assist you to serve content reliably. The features may not be as advanced as WordPress but Blogger is 100% free to use. Blogger can be used as a tool in order to generate additional income via AdSense.
In reality, however, the income which you receive may not be as much as websites with custom premium domains. Blogger's free domain has been associated with spam content. It is unfortunate but free service does attract lower-quality content creators. Many people would rather visit websites with top-level domains because they are seen as more trustworthy, even though that is not always the case.
In summary, it is possible to monetize a free blogspot.com domain from Blogger through AdSense. You don't need to buy expensive hosting and domain in order to use AdSense!