With my blog, “New Business Ideas”, back online and translated into English, it was time to monetize. My first choice was Google AdSense, a platform I had used in the early days of the blog. However, things had changed since then, and getting approved wasn’t as straightforward as I remembered.
The Challenges of Approval
When I submitted my site for approval, Google rejected it, citing vague reasons like “insufficient quality content.” I knew my content was unique, especially since it had been translated using ChatGPT. That left one likely culprit: the images.
Back in the day, I often sourced images directly from the web, which wasn’t an issue then. But now, Google’s algorithms are stricter, and those old images posed a significant problem. With 1,200 articles, each containing at least three images, identifying and replacing problematic ones was an overwhelming task.
The Solution: Streamlining the Process
Instead of manually dealing with the images, I quickly wrote an application to automate the task. This app allowed me to efficiently remove internal images from the 200 most recent articles. Thanks to this tool, what could have been a time-consuming process was completed in a matter of hours.
After removing the images, I resubmitted my site for AdSense approval, and to my relief, it worked! The next day, I received an approval email from Google. I immediately implemented ads on the site and began generating my first revenue.
Although the earnings were modest, the important thing was that the first step had been taken.
Adapting to Modern Realities
The world of online advertising has evolved, and ad blockers are now a common obstacle. To address this, I enabled Google’s tag-based solution, which displays a message asking users to disable their ad blockers. This helped reduce the impact of ad-blocking software on my revenue.
Another requirement was to comply with cookie policies. Using Google’s tag manager, I implemented a cookie consent banner on the site, ensuring compliance with current regulations.
This phase of my experiment underscored the importance of adapting to new realities in online monetization. Automation, once again, proved to be a powerful tool in streamlining otherwise daunting tasks. While the initial revenue was small, it marked a significant milestone in turning my blog into a sustainable income source.