The AdSense PIN Process

What is the AdSense PIN, and Why is it Needed?

The AdSense PIN is a unique identification number issued to every publisher in their advertising network. The PIN is issued on a folded postcard that is sealed along the bottom, and mailed to your home address (the address used when you signed up for Adsense).

The purpose of the PIN is to verify your address, or in other words, to prove to AdSense that you live where you say you live.  When you sign up, you have to give the address of your residence - your home, or apartment, and the address includes your street address (or PO Box) and your country and postal code. While you can change your street address if you move, you cannot change change your country so when you sign up, you must be sure to give your correct country.

We've seen several problems when people try to sign up using some fictitious address in a different country because they think it will be easier to get approved. This usually doesn't work. Most of the time the application is rejected for incorrect information, but in the few cases where it has worked (usually when they have someone located in that country do the signup), when it comes time to get paid, they cannot receive a payment. To get your payment, it must be issued to the same country location as your address. These people end up being stuck with no way to get their payments.

No, you can't just change the country and address to receive the payment. The country can't be changed.

This is one of the purposes of the PIN. Sure, the PIN might be issued to the fictitious address, but the publisher would never receive it. If they used a friend or family member's address in a different country, the friend/family member might be able to get the PIN and give the publisher the PIN number to enter into their account.

While that might work to verify the address, come payment time ... the publisher won't receive his or her payment. If you use EFT or Wire Transfer (the majority of accounts now use this option) the bank account you have your earnings issued to must be your own - using your own name. It must also be located in the country where your address is. If you live in India but have a UK address in your AdSense account, then you need a bank account in the UK.

Most countries won't allow you to open a bank account if you don't reside in that country, and you usually need some sort of photo-ID and/or government ID to open a bank account.

So, the result is that you will save yourself a lot of trouble if you just use your own address in the first place.

When is the PIN Issued

In most countries, the PIN threshold is around $10US or the equivalent in local currency.  What may be confusing for some is the fact that this threshold is the value of "verified" earnings, and not estimated earnings.

AdSense used to send the PIN once estimated earnings reached $10, but haven't been doing that for some time now. Once your Payments page has a total of verified earnings at or over the $10 required threshold, the PIN would usually be issued with a week or so of that amount showing up on your Payment page.

You'll know when they've issued your first PIN - there will be a red notice in your AdSense account telling you that your payments are on hold until you enter your PIN. The PIN is sent out in the regular mail services, so it's no different than if you bought a postcard, stuck a stamp on it and dropped it off at the post office to be sent out to someone else. Adsense does the same thing (not literally).

How Long Does it Take

Once they stick it in the mail, how long it takes to get to your home address depends entirely on the mail services. AdSense has no control over how long the postal service takes to deliver it, nor even whether it gets delivered at all. If the postal service loses it, or delivers it to the wrong address, the publisher might not get the first PIN at all.

You can request a second PIN about 4 weeks after the first one had been issued. If you don't get that, you get one more opportunity to request your PIN (again about 4 weeks after the second was issued). If you don't get your third PIN ... is it "3 strikes, you're OUT!!!" ?

No - don't get excited. There is still a way to verify your address. About 4 weeks after you request the third PIN if you haven't entered a PIN into your AdSense account, AdSense will ask you to submit documentation to prove your address. This option will appear in your Adsense account, with a link so you can upload documents. What you'll need is an official document or two that shows your name and address - a passport if it shows your address (not all passports show an address in text); a government issued identification card; a driver's license; sometimes they'll accept a utility or tax bill. If you aren't sure which is best, it wouldn't hurt to submit two documents.

What if My Payments are on Hold?

Once you enter your PIN, the payment hold would be lifted within a few days (if not immediately), but you may not receive your payment immediately. It will depend on the payment system you are on, and how long you've been at the payment threshold waiting for your PIN, and whether or not you have other payment holds (ie: entering your tax info, setting up a payment method).

In some cases, those at or past the threshold who have been waiting through several payment cycles may see their payments issued within a few days, and those who only got to the payment threshold will probably see their payment issued during the upcoming payment cycle.

If you aren't using EFT or Wire Transfer then you would not receive payment until the next payment cycle.

What if I enter my PIN wrong 3 Times?

I used find it hard to believe that any one could accidentally enter the number wrong 3 times in a row, but considering how many people use mobile devices to access their accounts, it is a lot easier to make that mistake than it used to be.

If you enter your PIN wrong 3 times, you are likely to find yourself locked out of your account. For this, you would need to use the PIN troubleshooter to contact AdSense for help.

If you are don't receive any response at all from the troubleshooter, as a last resort, you can ask for help in the AdSense help forum.

posted by J. Gracey Stinson

When Do I Get Paid? - Adsense Payment Timelines

UPDATING THE PAYMENT TIMELINE
May 31, 2015

Over the last few years, there have been several changes to the AdSense Payment systems. Many more countries have the ability to receive payments by EFT (electronic funds tranfer) or by Wire Transfer and SEPA. For the most part, this is more secure than receiving payments by cheque or Western Union Quick Cash. Usually, it's also quicker than cheque  payments (though it appears sometimes Wire Transfer can be a little slow depending on the bank), and for publishers in some countries, means there is less chance of someone other than the publisher stealing the payment.

Along with changes to payment methods available, there have been changes within the Adsense account too, and publishers who have been transferred in the last year or so will see that their payments page is different.

Payments still work in the same way as previously: payments are verified after the end of the month that you earn the money in, then they're posted to the Payments page. But the payment timeline has changed a little. 

Payment in Progress may now (in some areas) start late in the evening on the 21st of the month, or the 22nd of the month. In some cases, payments may actually be issued within a day of "Payment in Progress" being shown on the payments page. Once the payment has been issued to the bank, you may see "Payment Issued" on the payments page.

The payment times are not uniform across all accounts and all countries, so the "PIP" (payment in progress) can show up around the 21st/22nd of a month, and be paid out ANYTIME after that, up to the end of the month.

Because the payment system has also changed for how the transfer between YouTube Analytics and the AdSense Payment system works, you'll find that your verified earnings from a YouTube channel may not show up in your YouTube account until somewhere between the 13th and 15th of a month.

As an example, if you monetize a YouTube Channel, and also monetize a blog/website, somewhere between the 1st and 7th of a month, your verified earnings from your website/blog will show up on your payments page as being verified or "payable earnings", but you won't see your YouTube earnings on the Payments page.

This tends to confuse newer publishers. YouTube earnings will be added to the Payments page in AdSense later in the month (by the 15th), which is still in time for you to receive them with the issued payment that month. They'll show up on a separate line, so you'd see one entry for your website/blog earnings, and one entry for your YouTube earnings, and the "Total Payable" earnings will be compiled of both amounts added together.

NOTE: when you own more than one blog/website, earnings show as only one lump sum on the Payments page. The same is true for YouTube - if you monetize multiple channels, your Adsense account will only show one entry for YouTube earnings, and this is the total of all verified earnings from all your channels.

Payment thresholds have mostly remained the same ($100 or equivalent in local funds), but there is a new clause in the thresholds which is causing some confusion for both publishers, and those who help out in the forum.

According to our Terms and Conditions, active accounts need to reach the payment threshold in order to qualify for a payment. Since we don't ever issue payments for less than this threshold, we don't allow publishers to select a form of payment until their earnings have reached this amount.

For whatever reason, they appear to have an option where a publisher may not be able to select their payment method until they actually have reached the payment threshold, yet the chart at the top of the page shows the threshold differently.

If you are unable to choose your payment method after reaching what appears to be the threshold for doing so, you may fall into the group of countries where you must actually reach the payment threshold in order to set up your payment method.
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"When do I get my payments?  This is one of the frequent questions we see in the forum. I suppose it's partly because people just don't read the information available and assume that it's like a lot of other advertising companies, but Adsense timelines are fairly different from a lot of other payment timelines. AdSense payments are set on a regular monthly schedule, and you won't receive your payment the moment you cross the payment threshold.

There are also other requirements that must be fulfilled before payments are released: payment holds need to be removed - your address must be verified, you must choose a method of payment (and verify your bank if EFT is chosen), you must enter a PIN (personal identification number) that AdSense sends by regular mail to your home address, and finally, in some cases, you must also complete a telephone verification.   These "holds" in your AdSense account appear usually shortly after your cross the "verification threshold" which is $10 (or equivalent) and might take up to a couple of weeks to become active after you reach that threshold.  Because the PIN can take up to 4 weeks to arrive (and sometimes it takes a couple of tries to receive the PIN) the verification process can take a little while, but no payments will be released until all these steps are completed, and you have reached $100 or more in verified earnings.

Most of this information is included in the Payment sections of the AdSense Help Center - the Payment FAQ and Introduction to Payments, and Payment Troubleshooting.

Once you have met the Payment Threshold and lifted Payment Holds, you are ready to receive your AdSense payments, which are based on a regular monthly schedule.  Earnings from the previous month are "verified" during the first week of the following month, and once verified they will be posted on your Payments page in your AdSense account.  If you need to make any changes in your AdSense account that affect your payments (address, payment methods, tax info, etc.) this must be completed prior to the 15th of the month - if you don't make those changes before the 15th, your payments will not be made at the end of the month, but will be pushed out to the next scheduled payment date at the end of the following month.

Somewhere around the end of the month (usually between the 21st and 25th) you'll notice a line on your Payments Page that says "payment issued" - this indicates that your payment is calculated and in the process of being sent to you, by whatever method you've chosen in your account.  The dates aren't always the same when this occurs, and they do have up until the last day of the month to actually issue the payments, but most often the payments are issued just before the end of the month.

You'll also see a notation next to the Payment showing "details" - if you click that link it will show you the details of your payment, including earnings (and some adjustments may also show here), and the payment date.

For those who receive payments by methods that require tracking numbers (this does not include standard check payments which are sent by regular postal service), tracking numbers may not appear in your account immediately but should show up anytime within 10 days of the payment being shown on your payment page.

YouTube Payments

As of April 1, 2013 Adsense no longer shows estimated earnings for publishers earning money on YouTube.

At the end of the month, Adsense finalizes YouTube earnings and then transfers them in a lump sum to the Payments page in your Adsense account. This generally occurs around the 15th of the month. So if you had YouTube earnings in January, then those earnings (once finalized) will show up in your Adsense account by the 15th of February, in time to be paid out during the payment cycle.

During the month, you won't see earnings accumulating in your Adsense account.

Blog Comments and AdSense

Today's post isn't one I planned to write, in fact, I had planned to update some older posts to reflect some of the recent changes in AdSense, but after finding this comment (you'll see it later in the post) waiting to be published, I realized that it might be wise to remind publishers that the comments they allow to be posted on their blogs matter.

You see, with AdSense, everything on your site matters. Whether it's your written contents, or images and videos, or even the comments your visitors leave. Visitor comments are considered "user generated content" and as publishers, we are responsible for contents generated by users of our sites.

What that means is that as a publisher, if you are using AdSense on your site, then you need to monitor and review all comments that are posted on your articles. Because even those comments can get ad serving disabled on your site.

Comments that contain a lot of profanity, or provide links to prohibited or illegal contents are just as much a policy violation on your site, as that content would be if you posted it yourself. You need to set your comment system up so that you can review and approve comments before they appear on your blog or site, no matter what type of comment system you are using. For Adsense publishers, there isn't really an option - if you allow comments to be posted directly to your site without your review, you are opening yourself up to several kinds of abuse (spam comments is only one issue), and you are placing undue risk on your AdSense account.

The type of comments I refuse to publish on my articles are:

• obvious spam
• comments containing links to spammy websites
• comments with profanity
• comments where it's clear the person hasn't read the article
• bot comments (also considered spam)
• comments containing affiliate links
• comments containing hate speech
• comments containing potentially libelous statements

And it's that last bullet point that I consider to be one of the more difficult ones to decide on. At least, it probably is for a lot of ordinary publishers.

You see, a libelous statement can be one where false allegations are made, and if you don't know whether an accusation is false or not, you may not even know if the statement is libelous or not. I refuse to publish comments that might contain libel, such as the one I deleted:

Firstly, because the grammar is so bad, I can't really be sure what this person is trying to say exactly. I've blurred some of it out since it actually doesn't make much sense. Secondly, several references are made to AdSense and Google with respect to them not paying "billions of publishers" (adsense only has just over 2 million publishers, so that statement is a bold lie, since there aren't "billions" of publishers in the first place) and to "sending" fake traffic (Google do not "send" anyone, they provide search results, and AdSense doesn't bring traffic to your site at all).

Because these statements might be considered libel (and possibly defamation) I refuse to have them published on my blogs. Some people might consider that going a little overboard in terms of safety, but when it comes to AdSense, there it's always better to err on the side of caution (and you'll note, that I don't even have AdSense on this blog).  Today I published part of a screenshot, although I am hesitant to do even that, but publishing this sort of thing as standard textual content in the comments sections meas it is searchable by crawlers, and indexed as well. Not only do I not want to be responsible for publishing libel on my site, I don't think it's fair to publish unfounded statements that come with no proof attached.

def·a·ma·tion

ˌdefəˈmāSHən/

noun

1. the action of damaging the good reputation of someone; slander or libel.

   "she sued him for defamation"

   synonyms:

   libel, slander, calumny, character assassination, vilification; More

AdWords ads may send traffic if an advertiser has purchased ads, and if that's what this person was referring to, then AdWords actually has recourse for the Advertiser to have their funds return to them. I don't deal with AdWords in this blog, so I won't address that except to say that advertisers can request investigations directly from an AdWords rep - they have direct contact with AdWords staff.

So for those of you who do not moderate your comments, you just might want to begin doing so, and go back and review some of the previously published comments on your site.

Who wants to lose their account for comments someone else has made? I dunno about you folks, but I sure don't.

posted by J. Gracey Stinson

I Can't Login to Adsense!

...or, as people often say "why can't I login to adsense!!!!!!!!!!!!" (note: nobody needs that many exclamation points, and yes, I know you are probably frustrated, but exclamation points aren't going to help. Staying calm and taking action will.)

Today I'm just going to address one of the most common reasons we see for this problem. And it's simple, although it isn't always simple to solve. In fact, often, it might not even get resolved.

I didn't bother counting because these types of posts in the AdSense forum are very prolific:

And yes, deleting the email account you used to sign up for AdSense with will cause you not to be able to login to Adsense.  It's the way you get into your account.

This is a pretty simple concept, so it's something I have a hard time understanding. Why do people think if they delete this email address, they'll still be able to login?  It doesn't matter where you sign up - whether it's AdSense or some other type of site. If your email address is your login credential, you need it. You don't delete your email account or change your email account without FIRST dealing with every single other account you might have signed up for using that email address.

To try and recover or change your login for AdSense AFTER you've already deleted your email address, you'll need to use the login troubleshooter:

Go here:  Login Issues and Recovery Troubleshooter

The deleted email address is only one of the reasons a person might not be able to login to Adsense, but since the reasons vary from publisher to publisher, and the situations may be different, the troubleshooter might not resolve those issues.

I referenced this (above) link for one reason: the deleted email account.

At various times in the past, I've written about login issues, but the other big one is related to deleting, or having a disabled Google Account. See this related post: Disabled or Deleted Google Accounts

posted by J. Gracey Stinson

Easy Adsense Approval Through YouTube!

Aha ... gotcha!

So, is it true? Actually, it is true. Getting your AdSense account approved for your YouTube channel is not a difficult process, and applying through your Channel's monetization tab will most likely result in your account being approved within hours, or a day.

Obviously you need to meet the minimum requirements:

• must be 18 years of age or older to apply for Adsense
• should have some monetizable content on your channel (even one video)
• cannot have had a previously disabled Adsense account
• your monetization tab must be enabled by YouTube

If you meet those requirements, the chances are that your AdSense application for monetizing your channel will be approved.

Yay, right? Well, maybe not.

If you are applying with your YouTube channel so you can use Adsense in other places, like your blog or your website, then you will be disappointed.

If you apply through your Channel and are approved, the only place you can use your AdSense is ON YOUR YOUTUBE CHANNEL.

And yes, that's the truth. You cannot run around willy-nilly slapping ads on your blogs or websites.

YouTube approved AdSense account are for YouTube only.

So, for any of you hoping to get Adsense for your blog or website simply by applying through YouTube ... well you can forget that.

In the AdSense forum, we see hundreds of questions (almost every day) asking why ads won't show on their blog or website, when their AdSense account is fully approved. And the reason is exactly what I noted above - they got "fully" approved for a HOST AdSense account for use on YouTube. NOT for use anywhere else.

Can I still Use that AdSense Account for a Blog or Website?

The answer to that is yes, but only under certain circumstances. If you own a website (or a blog with a custom domain), then you can apply through your approved Host AdSense account to upgrade from a Host AdSense account to a Standard Adsense account (one that allows you to use Adsense pretty much anywhere it's allowed).

The catch is that in order to submit a request to upgrade your Host account, you need a Top Level Domain. Like a .com or .net or .something. You cannot apply for the upgrade using a blogspot URL; you cannot apply using a wordpress.com URL; you cannot apply using any subdomain URL. You need your own domain to apply for the upgrade request. IF your upgrade request is approved with your own domain, then you can ALSO use ads on your other blogspot URLs.  Once you've upgraded to a standard AdSense account, you can use your ad code anywhere (note: anywhere that complies with policy. Non-complying sites showing your ads can get your account disabled)

Applying for a Host AdSense Account Upgrade

Got it? Good. That means anyone who actually is wanting ads on their site or blog needs to get it approved - applying for a YouTube Host AdSense account isn't going to make that any easier, or any faster than if you applied straight away just using your blog or website, regardless of what those hundreds and hundreds of "other" blogs out there tell you.

Unsuitable blogs will stay unsuitable blogs, even if you get approved for YouTube. Websites incompatible with Adsense will stay incompatible. Adsense will not approve a Host account upgrade for sites that simply aren't suitable just because you already have a monetized channel.

On top of that, going through your Host AdSense account to apply for an upgrade can actually take longer than if you'd applied for AdSense with your blog or website in the first place (it can take as long as a month for the upgrade review to be completed).

So in the end, yes it's quick to get approved on YouTube, which is really only going to be any good if what you really want to monetize is your videos. If what you actually want to monetize is a blog or website, then apply with one that is something AdSense will actually want to monetize. Trying to skip that step and go straight for an account through YouTube will only end up causing you more time and just as much work to get your site or blog approved.

posted by J. Gracey Stinson

Buy An AdSense Website

Actually, you shouldn't buy a website for AdSense. At least, you shouldn't be buying one that was made for the sole purpose of putting ads on. Those types of sites are created by sellers just for placing ads on them, and they're considered by AdSense to be "MFA" sites. That means "Made for Advertising" and AdSense has no interest in monetizing sites like that.

There was a time that sites of that nature prospered with AdSense and other online advertising, but AdWords advertisers are no longer interested in paying to have their ads displayed on sites whose contents just don't provide any value to visitors. No value for visitors, usually results in providing no value to the advertiser as well. So more than a few years back, AdSense stopped accepting MFA sites, and started disabling ad serving to MFA sites.

Most likely, you'll still find some of them around, but many of them (particularly newer ones) don't last very long with AdSense. Publishers who work hard at creating original, and useful content really don't want to compete with MFA sites either, so good publishers will report them when they find them, and on their own, AdSense continues to review every publisher's websites that carry AdSense ads, so if you end up buying an MFA site and add it to your AdSense account, you may find that ads won't stay on the site for very long.

The entire reason for this article is the increasing numbers of rejected publishers that we've been seeing in the AdSense help forum. Many of them whose stories start with "I bought this website on flippa/fiverr/anyothermarketplace and I can't get my ads to show up" or "AdSense rejected my application, but the seller had his own ads running on it". When we look at the site, it becomes painfully obvious to us that the seller created the site in order to sell it and make money for himself, and that the site wasn't a long-standing, successful site for AdSense.

That's not to say that every website listed for sale anywhere is going to be an MFA site. But even some that aren't MFA sites may not be accepted by AdSense in today's market, or they may already have been disabled from serving AdSense ads. Always, the safest bet for applying to AdSense is to use a site you created yourself, or at least one that you create all your own content for.

If you have to buy a site or simply want to buy a site to increase your holdings, then you need to understand that as the buyer, it's your responsibility to do your homework, before buying and before even placing an offer.

So how do you do that? Today, we'll walk through some of the simplest checks and balances that anyone can do before purchasing a website. I went to flippa and looked through some of the sites being offered for sale, and randomly chose a subject for my "fictitious" site (meaning, I made up the site name - it doesn't exist). Let's say I decided that since insurance is a popular keyword and pays well in search results (not as much for website ads), I'm going to buy an insurance related site. The one I pick is called "somerandominsurancesite.whatever" from the listings of sites for sale. I read the information the seller has listed, along with whatever stats the seller has given. Then, I'm going to go look at the site.

Hmmm, it looks kinda "generic" - and pretty basic. If a seller is offering a site that's using the phrase "turn-key website", it's supposed to be "ready to rock" more or less. That doesn't, however, necessarily mean the site is going to be ready for AdSense. It's up to you to check that out pretty carefully.

So, although the site looks "okay", looks aren't everything. Now I'm going to do a little research on the site itself and see what I can learn about it.

1. Check internet archives for the site's history.

The seller says the site has existed since 2012. Although the domain might have existed since 2012, this particular website doesn't appear to have existed prior to the beginning of July 2013, at least, not under that name. If it did, the internet archives (or "The Way Back Machine") don't have any screengrabs of it from before 2013. Maybe the site wasn't very active, or maybe it didn't exist, or maybe it had a different name back then.

I look at the archived snapshots - the first snapshot in the archive shows no adsense on it (July 2 2013), nor does the second (July 15 2013), so the site didn't have AdSense ads on it at that point in time, and it doesn't appear to have much history. The internet archives aren't infallible, but my own site has more snapshot history than this one.

This would be the first caution flag for me if I were purchasing a site. I wouldn't make my entire decision based on this, but it's going to go on the "con" side of my "pro and cons" list for this site.

2. Go to any "whois" site and check the domain ownership and registration date.

The registration for this site appears to have a registrant's name, and the date the domain was registered (2012 and expires 2015). Not every site will have a public domain registration. Some will have a private registration, and you won't be able to see who owns the registration for the sites, but dates are usually still visible.

Just because a domain name was registered at certain point in time, does not mean the website actually existed at that point in time. At least not under it's current name. That's something else you'll have to check out.

I did a double-check on the whois information using a second whois source, which turned up considerably more information than the first check. A number of different domains registered in the sellers name. One, a rather similar insurance site, though an older design and with much more in-depth information, as well as the ability for visitors to be able to request quotes. This second site owned by the seller does provide a lot more information and value to visitors than the one he's selling.

Having the seller's name and address (part of the whois data), now I can search for just his name and location, and that turns up quite a few other sites that are related to the seller. Or were. On further checking, although the seller did own the sites at one time, they were recently sold too. Two of them appear to be ... reasonable sites with okay content, and it appears the seller owned them for a few years before selling.

The seller has profiles on some pretty popular sites, and doesn't really appear to be trying to hide anything about himself, or his other sites ... either that or he doesn't know just how much information is available. But the background information on the seller can be helpful - you can see whether the seller has sold lots of new sites, or actually was selling sites owned and used regularly by the seller.

3. Do a web search (Google, Bing, Yahoo) for the name of the website. Check search results for the website along with the dates (if any) that appear in those search listings.

For this fictitious website, of the five pages of search results I looked through (there were more search results than 5 pages, but I typically only look through the first 5), the search returned only 3 links to the site - two were for articles posted/upated 2 days prior to my search, the third was the listing site where the website was listed for sale. This doesn't look encouraging.

If the website has been in existence since 2012 as the sale listing says, then there should be more results leading to that site in five pages of search results. Maybe there are, further back in the search results but if there isn't more than 2 articles indexed in the first 5 pages of search results, I'm going to be a little concerned. I wasn't searching for a keyword or phrase, I was searching directly for the site name.

So the next thing I'm going to check is the website's pages and hopefully some dates, by using Google's "site search" operator. I'm going to type the following into my search bar:

site:somerandominsurancesite.whatever

That will return page results for pages on the website. There's 3 pages worth of results, so there's lots of content. A few pages have dates as far back as October 2012. What's more interesting is that only a few pages show with dates, while the balance of the articles don't seem to show posting dates at all.

That doesn't necessarily mean the dates are wrong, but anyone can put any publishing date they want on an article they publish, so it isn't really absolute proof, but if a site publishes regularly for a couple of years, there would be a steady stream of articles with subsequent dates showing in the search results - regularly monthly dates moving steadily forwards from the original date of the site registration up to the current date. This doesn't seem to be the case with this site I'm researching.

That warrants a "caution" flag in my mind.

When I look at the pages from the search results, I look at them using the cached page and note the dates on the cache (they show at the top).

Now, going directly to website URL, I can see that the current version of the site looks considerably different than the site did in the cached pages I looked at. The site's design has been updated and changed. There's nothing wrong with that of course - site owners need to keep up to date with modern trends. It's just that it appears to have been changed quite recently so it may have been done in order to bring it up to today's standards - and that's not a bad thing.

Other things I note about the site: there are multiple writers contributing articles. Are these experienced insurance agents? If so, why isn't there any contact information for these writers? Maybe the contributors are just copy writers (people who write for a living).

My next question to myself is ... are these articles original? So I begin my search. I randomly select half a dozen articles and search for duplicate contents. There doesn't really appear to be any - oh, a few words here and there but these are just individual words, not the same sentences or paragraphs, so the articles appear to be "original".

So next, I start reading the articles. They seem pretty generic to me. I'm not "into" insurance - like most average folks, I know a little about insurance since we have lots of our own. But, with a little reading on the web, I'm pretty sure I could compile these articles myself because they aren't in-depth at all. They skim the surface of the insurance  industry with very little depth of knowledge. There's nothing here to really, truly help someone decide anything about insurance. There's no way for visitors to ask questions; no way to know if the articles are written by people who actually work in the industry, no way to actually get any quotes or anything that helps or provides value to the visitor.

So, okay, I'm no expert at insurance but I can certainly get more information from a phone call to my insurance broker than I can get off that website.  My question to the site seller would be "how does the information on this site provide any useful help, or any real value to the visitors?".

More Steps to Take - Research Statistics and Traffic

- look for traffic sources to the site
- check for inbound, organic links

So I go directly to Alexa and check their information. Alexa is not God, and doesn't know everything, but for a site that's 18 months old, there is likely to be some information.

There is, but not much ... it ranks below 19million, which puts it pretty low on the totem pole, but a site's Alexa standing (or rank) isn't really important for AdSence - it just gives you an idea of how popular the site may be. It also only shows that there is 1 site which links into this site, and doesn't show traffic for it, and as it turns out, that site that links to it is from the marketplace where the site is being sold. There doesn't appear to be any other organic links to this site. That's not really good.

And for my own decision-making, I'll have a look at the site's WOT rating (web of trust). This site isn't really an "authority" site - the ratings are given by users, so you must keep in mind that some people will rate a site poorly if they just don't like it, and some people will rate their competitor's sites as unsafe simply because they are a competitor. You can't just look at the rating, but you need to read any reviews or comments that exist and look at individual reviews.

Decision Making

So now that you've done some research, and considered your options you need to have a conversation with the seller. You're already armed with some information and background for the site that's being offered. You need to decide on a list of questions you'll want the seller to answer.

Make your list, then contact the seller before you place any bids.

What you do with the information you have learned is up to you. As the buyer, the responsibility falls on you to look out for yourself. Buying a website isn't much different than buying a used car. If you don't ask the right questions, you might not get all the answers. Knowing as much as you can about what you are buying can help you decide what questions you need to ask in order to get answers to your concerns.

Tools

There are a lot of tools available on the web to find out some things about a website's past, and although all of them are not going to be accurate, you should be able to get a reasonably good picture of whether or not the site's seller is giving you accurate (or fairly accurate) information.

You can ask for screenshots from Google Analytics, Webmaster Tools, or even an Adsense account but ... even they can be "fudged".  Anybody with a little bit of editing skill can take a screenshot, open it in Photoshop or any similar editing program and produce exactly the figures they want you to see, so from my own personal point of view, these are "iffy" in terms of "proof", unless at least some of the data can be backed up by the research you already did.

AdSense Sandbox

The Internet Archive/WayBack Machine

WhoIs Domain Tools

Alexa

Google Search

Bing Search

Feed The Bot Tools

Pingdom Tools

WOT Ratings

GoingUp Website Analyzer

Link Strategy Checker - Bad Neighbourhood (please read their blog entry)

There are hundreds of tools available on the web; some may not be accurate; some may not be trustworthy; some will show different results than other tools. Using online tools really doesn't guarantee 100% of what you learn will be 100% accurate, so keep that in mind. One particular type of tool I have never found to be accurate anywhere are tools that give the dollar value of a website. I tend to ignore those, unless I'm looking for a domain name only to purchase. Domain names can have different values because people will buy used domain names to re-sell, and in reselling these names hope to make a profit on the name. The information you're looking for when buying a website might include the value of the domain name, but unless all you want is the name this website is using, then you also want to research the data contained in the website.

Outcome

So, was my fictitious site safe to buy?  It's not a horrible site, the seller answered my questions too, so it might be an okay "starter" site - it has a decent design and it's already set up. It probably won't however, stand up to an AdSense review. The site will need a considerable amount of work, incuding new authoritative articles with some "meat" in them. The ones provided on the site really have no meat - they aren't going to be considered "rich content".  That means unless I have enough knowledge to write my own articles, or unless I have enough money to hire an insurance agent to help me, the site may not be suitable for AdSense, but it might be okay for displaying ads from other companies.

It also doesn't seem to have much traffic, and no organic links. It's about the same as starting out with a new website you set up yourself.

If I have to write my own articles, I might not want to spend the money on this site. I have enough skill to set up a website myself. On the other hand, if I don't know how to set up a website, then depending on the cost to purchase this site, it might be worth it just to get a ready-made site design and then take the time to provide my own contents.

For me the decision was simple. I didn't bother to place a bid.

by J. Gracey Stinson

Adsense, Copyright, and Fair Use

Are Google Images Free to Use?

Google Images are not images owned by Google, so they give no permission for the use of images shown on Google Images.  Google images is nothing more than a search engine that indexes images that can be found on the web.

That does not mean you have permission to use them. Every image is protected by copyright unless it's listed in the Public Domain (must say so); or unless it's licensed as Creative Commons (in which case you must follow the licensing terms) or, unless the copyright holder (ie: the owner of the image - the artist, the photographer, the creator) has listed it as free to use.  The same would hold true for any image search engine (like yahoo or bing) - since they do not own the images, they cannot grant you usage rights for the images. The only one who can give you authorization to use the images is the owner/creator of the image.

And there are, in fact, quite number of websites that offer free images for bloggers and website owners, incuding some of the more popular micro-stock sites (Shutterstock to name at least one). They require you to sign up and you are restricted to certain uses and to the images they offer weekly/daily for free, but they are images produced by professional photographers. There really is no excuse for using images without permission when many sites offer them for free. Even Flickr has a multitude of images licensed for use under Creative Commons. You just have to read the appropriate licenses and follow them.

Lots of people don't really understand copyright law very well, which isn't surprising because it's pretty complicated. Further reading (below) includes answers from a lawyer; bloggers who have been sued for using other's images without permission; and famous people or companies sued for not acquiring permission.

http://www.legalcentral.com/blog/can-i-be-sued-for-using-other-peoples-pictures-on-my-website/
http://www.roniloren.com/blog/2012/7/20/bloggers-beware-you-can-get-sued-for-using-pics-on-your-blog.html
http://www.prdaily.com/Main/Articles/How_using_Google_Images_can_cost_you_8000_14912.aspx
http://tamaratattles.com/2013/01/11/housewives-blogger-sued-by-new-jersey-media-group-for-copyright-violation/
http://www.alaskadispatch.com/article/20130913/sarah-palin-and-sarahpac-sued-over-use-copyrighted-911-photo
http://fstoppers.com/photographer-sues-celebrity-blogger-perez-hilton-for-copyright-infringement
http://blog.seattlepi.com/timothymccormack/2012/01/26/copyright-infringement-letter-for-images-on-your-website/
http://womeninbusiness.about.com/od/copyrightlaws/a/Can-I-Ignore-A-Getty-Settlement-Demand-Letter.htm

Also note that although Fair Use does exist in the Copyright Law (US), there is no guarantee that your use of the image would be considered Fair Use, and AdSense may not consider Fair Use at all if you must file an appeal because your account was disabled. Adsense's copyright policies don't really mention Fair Use, and saying that Fair Use gives you authorization to use images/text/video clips is more likely to fail with Adsense.

One other thing to note: using a screenshot of someone's image is not really an option unless you have permission from the image owner, so it's really not that much different than having to acquire permission for the image itself. Screenshot use may be dependent on the actual use of the image, but if you simply open someone else's image to full size, and take a screenshot, then try to use that as a free wallpaper or to sell it, or use it as your own ... the answer to that is that this would just as likely get you sued as using the actual image.

If you were using a screenshot of a page that contained an image, but the primary focus isn't the image, you may possibly get away with fair use, if your use of the screenshot falls under fair use, but it isn't something I would rely on.

Fair Use

http://www.copyright.gov/laws/
http://www.copyright.gov/fls/fl102.html

"Section 107 contains a list of the various purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered fair, such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Section 107 also sets out four factors to be considered in determining whether or not a particular use is fair.

• The purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes
• The nature of the copyrighted work
• The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole
• The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work

The distinction between what is fair use and what is infringement in a particular case will not always be clear or easily defined. There is no specific number of words, lines, or notes that may safely be taken without permission. Acknowledging the source of the copyrighted material does not substitute for obtaining permission."

So even if you think your use falls under the "Fair Use" part of the Copyright law, if the image owner doesn't think so, you may find yourself in court facing a lawsuit, or settling the claim by paying the required fees. If you want to fight the claim, then you'd be required to face the court. Because that's how it works. The cost of a court case and a lawyer is probably far more than the value provided by using the image, or paying to license an image from a stock site. Today, micro stock sites license images at an affordable rate, sometimes only $1 an image. If you can't afford that, you can't afford to go to court over a Fair Use case.

Celebrity & Famous People

For "famous persons", there's a clause that says celebrities have the right to earn from promotional images of themselves ... well, something to that effect (it's called the Right of Publicity). Images of most celebrities are licensed by someone, so whether it's their agent, or the studio, or themselves, they shouldn't be reproduced without permission.

In cases like magazines where celebrity images appear, it can be handled in a lot of ways. The magazine pays for the photoshoot and copyright ownership, and famous person signs a release so the magazine can use it. But what happens after the magazine uses it depends on what the release said that was signed by the celebrity. Some are exclusive use only, some may not be, but only the entity that holds the right to the model release and copyrights has the right to provide the authorization for use of the image. And not all magazines may arrange their own photoshoots, some may license some of the images in their magazines from stock sites, like Getty, in which case even the magazine must comply with the license terms they paid Getty for.

If an image is issued by the copyright holder or representative (authorized) as a press package, it would likely contain licensing that allows the image to be used in only certain ways, so if you rely on press releases and publishing packages for celebrity images, you must be sure your use of the image (ie: the way you intend to use it) would fit within their guidelines of use or licensing.

It's pretty complicated.

http://www.ehow.com/about_6461739_celebrity-copyright-law.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Personality_rights

Celebrity Rights: http://nopr.niscair.res.in/bitstream/123456789/11021/1/JIPR%2016(1)%207-16.pdf

Fan Fiction: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legal_issues_with_fan_fiction

Adsense's Thoughts on Copyright

Equally important for Adsense publishers (or perhaps more so) is AdSense's own policy on copyright, which essentially says if you don't own it, and don't have permission to use it ... just don't use it. The bigger issue is sites which are composed solely of someone else's text, or someone else's images/videos. As well as violating Adsense's own copyright policy, these sites would also violate Webmaster Guidelines which can be a reason for seeing ad serving disabled to your site, or might result in your entire account being disabled if you have multiple sites that all use contents from someone else.




Both Adsense and Webmaster Guidelines expect you to use an image appropriately. When you use an image belonging to someone else, you either acquire permission or make sure of it's free use licensing. You also use it to illustrate your own original contents, you don't use them as the sole purpose for the existence of your website. In other words, your use of images needs to be accompanied by your own useful and original contents. Your site shouldn't consist entirely of images/text/videos you don't own, or didn't create.

by J.Gracey Stinson