In this post, I talk about…
Problems with WordPress Blogs
From the time I began blogging, many people advised me,
“You should be monetizing it.”
I avoided the thought for long because I wanted to enjoy writing as a hobby, not as a job. Also, the Blogging 101 Camp at WordPress inspired me not to place ads on my site. But as I said previously, WordPress itself showed ads and didn’t give authors anything in return unless they upgraded.
“That’s hypocritical,” I thought,
So, I looked for ways to monetize my blog site. It led me to:
WordAds
WordAds is program within WordPress which pays owners for the advertisements their website displays. But here a catch: sites ending with the domain wordpress.com are excluded. As long as my web address was storiesofsandeept.wordpress.com, WordPress would not give me anything. And as I said, upgrading is neither easy nor cheap.
The knowledge that I could not run WordAds made me try:
AdSense
A program from Google, AdSense works for any website that conform to their terms and conditions. So, I added storiesofsandeept.wordpress.com on AdSense hoping it would be accepted. But it didn’t. Turns out, you don’t own domains under wordpress.com like mine—WordPress does. That’s why AdSense cannot authorize your ownership, and you can’t monetize.
This is also what led me to:
Buying a .com domain and hosting it elsewhere
Paying for a .com domain meant that I owned the site and could run it the way I liked. At least that’s what I initially thought.
Like I said before, I went back to WordPress for its familiar environment and ease of use. I also hoped I could use WordAds. I could but I needed Stripe. And Stripe didn’t work in Nepal!
Of course, there are workarounds, but if you legally want to use Stripe in Nepal, it’s not possible at all. Lack of Stripe means that Nepali content creators lose a lot of opportunities to earn not only from WordPress, but also from Medium or publishing on Vocal Media.
And yet, our leaders talk about earning lakhs online — ahem!
Turning back to AdSense
AdSense was the last resort for my hopes of monetizing. The best thing was it didn’t need Stripe. But it’s not easy to meet its terms and conditions.
Regular Publishing
One of the criteria AdSense has set is regular publishing. The more recent the better. But you must have:
Meaningful Content
It’s not enough to publish. It should be meaningful, and you can’t include sensitive content. I was confident I would be accepted for monetization, but came another hindrance.
Language
There is only a handful languages you can monetize with AdSense. And it does not include Nepali. Oblivious to this fact, I had been writing mostly in Nepali since last two years, and even before I bought the domain, I had published a 5500+ word short story in its entirety. Sidebars showing the most recent posts and comments also featured Nepali.
Changing the Page Layout
It was the only option left. I modified Homepage for one-click access to other pages, removed sidebars on pages other than the Blog page and posts. Then when I applied for AdSense:
I finally got approved!
But challenges still remain. I haven’t written in Nepali for some time, and I am feeling a bit restricted. Earning from AdSense is not easy. Too much ads, readers get distracted. Too little ads, lower clicks and thus, lower revenue. For now, I am looking to optimize ads such that I can earn something without spoiling reader experience.
Final Thoughts
Monetizing from Nepal takes extra steps, but it’s possible. If you’re starting out, I hope this post helps you avoid a few of the headaches I went through.