I have around eight months until I turn 18 and can legally register with Adsense. I would set up a site now to build up the number of people visiting it but it's a rather scary idea paying for a domain name and hosting when there is literally no chance of a return for the next eight months. I don't have pretty much any spare money, as you might have guessed. I am confident in web/graphic design. My plans so far are to work out the basic structure of the site set up as well as the design/graphics then get all of the pages written and as many articles as I can written for the blog that will be linked to the site. Is there anything else I should be doing? Is there anything else that could increase my chances of earning more with Adsense and sooner? I would like to try to be consistently breaking even with Adsense within a couple of months (Adsense paying domain name/hosting) but I'm not expecting huge results for a long while. Thank you everyone for your help. I'm really happy to have found the forums.
Before wanting to earn with Adsense, you need to get accepted, and planning ahead is the only way to do it. Get a blog, have 10 posts on it with each one being at least 500 words. Have your blog on your own domain and hosting package, not a subdomain on blogger. Do not use wordpress.com, use wordpress.org. $30 is a domain name and year of hosting on sale, this is sort of an inescapable barrier of entry if you want to do things by the books. Add posts either weekly to spread out slow growth so it doesn't look like you just copy pasted a bunch of articles right away and aren't adding anything new. Scheduled addition of material to your site makes it seem like you're interested and believe in the work you're putting in. Once your site's like a month old, start adding backlinks. talk to people who have their own blogs on related topics to yours and offer to write articles for them with a link to your site in the article. Ask other blog owners to post your link on their homepage, and you'll do the same for their link Do this and in 6 months your site will be ranked and indexed and be getting some visitors who will read your content and aren't just visiting for a second and bouncing off. Apply to Adsense, get accepted, post ads. Remember to do SEO and research on what you want your site to be about first...I believe so many people end up buying domains or sites but have no idea deep down how to develop them, and they end up not making any progress. Have a focus before starting
I would worry about waiting until you can be approved for adsense before you have a site. 1. In the 1st three months its very hard to rank a site and get a lot of traffic. 2. Hosting and a domain really doesn't cost much more than going to Dairy Queen and buying a meal or two. 3. If you have a good site then adsense will approve you faster. It can be tough for some people to get approved. I'd just go for it.
There's something I don't quite understand... 1. Why do you want to pay for hosting when you're new in making websites and you don't require a strong server to support huge traffic. Never heard of free web hosts which work fine when you're a beginner? That would resume your costs to $10 which is the domain name. 2. Why are you waiting to turn 18 to register with Adsense lol? 'cause that's what it says in the T.O.S. That's ridiculous.
free hosts are horrid. They steal your info, and have a bad upload limit. Free hosts are for facebook users. It does say that in the ToS. It says you must be of legal age unless you have parental permission.
Thanks to all three of you for your replies! I really appreciate your help and suggestions! @the-sand-man That is actually a very good point about the hosting! I was actually following a guide and in it basically made paid hosting sound like a requirement but I can see now that it's not. I feel a little bit silly now. Especially as I'm already familiar with a free hosting service which will mean I won't have to go through the couple of weeks of confusion when I figure out a new site. I am waiting until I'm 18 because of the T.O.S., yes. I don't want to risk getting my account closed down. I don't know why that's so ridiculous? ;D
@Laceygirl Do you think Webs.com falls into the catagory of stealing data? I'm wondering whether it will work fine temporarily (until close to my 18th) if I sign up for a paid domain but use free hosting? Before anyone asks, I do have parental permission but I don't have someone willing to sign up using their account so I will have to wait until I'm 18.
You buy your own hosting so you have your own IP so the visitors to your site are yours. If you're on a shared package, get a dedicated IP for more distinction. If you plan on having a store that deals with payment transactions, you need an SSL, which can only be attached to a dedicated static IP. You follow Google's TOS to a letter, or they destroy your income. It's pretty simple You invest in your enterprise because if it isn't worth it to put $ into...Is it really of value to you? If you're afraid to invest because of inexperience, should you even be attempting anything right now besides free blogging?
lol. this is hilarious really. @Laceygirl Thirst thing, I never heard of free shared hosting companies stealing content, and having a variety to choose from helps you in finding a good one, not saying this to you but by my opinion, if you aren't able to choose the right host, you shouldn't be starting a website at all. And about the T.O.S, no shit? And who's going to check you out from 100 million people to see if you really are 18 or not? @lisasimpson Do you have tons of unique visitors just waiting to surf your website when you'll launch it? I don't think so, how many do you expect will visit it in the upcoming months? I say they won't be more than a shared free host can't handle. And about Adsense, if you're not going to get payed via check and have your money delivered via mail to your home address and stating that it's on your name. I don't think they will ever notice you're not 18. Use paypal my friend. Cheers!
You must be thirsty, want some water? And are you suggesting to ask Google to pay her through paypal? Really? And it cost less than $5 a month to host a site these days.