When is the right time to apply for a Google AdSense account?

Google AdSense is, without a doubt, the easiest way to earn money online. Most of the time, new bloggers/website owners are not sure when is the right time to apply for an AdSense account. What is the minimum traffic requirement? How many items should there be? Is there a six month ownership criteria for the website? Does PageRank play any role? Unfortunately, there are more myths than facts circulating in the public domain about Google AdSense account approval. I would like to share my experience for the benefit of website and blog owners who want to apply for an AdSense account. I am a tech blogger from India and got my AdSense approval in less than 3 months of having my blog. There is no need to wait 6 months unnecessarily if you have a good quality blog.

Why am I interested in sharing my AdSense account application approval experience? Because, it may not be unique, but it is different and it will motivate many of you to play fair. Plus, it will help you decide one of the most important factors, which is when is the right time to apply for AdSense. The following statements are widely circulated on forums and blogs:

• Google doesn’t easily approve publishers from India, China, and some other countries.
• Your website/blog must be six months old to get approved for your AdSense account.

First things first, you can’t fool the most innovative web company (read Google). So, forget about getting your AdSense account approved using hundreds of paid or unpaid guaranteed black magic methods mentioned in various forums and blogs. Even if you are successful in doing so, your account is at risk of being disabled. Bottom line: No shortcuts, never pay anyone, never use someone else’s credentials or not-so-fair means to get your AdSense approved. I am not an authority on Google AdSense but based on my experience I can say with confidence that the above mentioned statements may not be entirely correct. Although Google AdSense support clearly mentions:

In some places, including China and India, we also require publishers to have owned their sites for 6 months.

I think it’s a guide to filtering out scam sites and not necessarily a policy. I own a custom domain. The following is a sequence of events related to my AdSense approval:

1. Registered my domain name (mentioned in the resource box) on September 21, 2009.
2. I published my first article on October 1, 2009.
3. I applied for AdSense after about 2 and a half months of activity.
4. Received the approval email on December 23, 2009, after 3 business days from the date of the request.

When is the right time to apply for a Google AdSense account? The following were my blog stats when I applied for Google AdSense:

• Number of items: 14.
• Google PageRank: 0. (Now has a PR of 2 after the PR update of December 31, 2009)
• Total number of visits from October to December 20: approximately 2,200.
• Page Views: Approximately 3,850. Search Engine Traffic Source: Approximately 45%.
• Visitors came from 75 countries.
• The majority of visitors come from India, followed by the US and the UK.

From above, I can safely conclude that regardless of location and country of origin, anyone who meets the above criteria can apply for an AdSense account and get approved. Before you apply to AdSense, make sure you have the following on your blog:

• A good theme/design.
• Completed About Me, Contact, Disclaimer, etc.
• Individual items.
• Good quality items.
• Good publication frequency (at least 1 article per week)
• Good search engine traffic (on average at least 30 unique visitors per day)

After my experience, I firmly believe that Google does not discriminate as long as you have a good quality blog. So, there is no need to wait 6 months for a blog that deserves it.