Linking AdSense to my forum

[Hassaan]

I'm aware I'd need to purchase a custom domain for this to be possible.

My forum is currently private and registration is disabled (we have just over 30 members). Can my forum still be linked? Or is this something I'd have to ask them?

[Derek‽]

Jul 27, 2019 13:49:50 GMT -8 Hassaan said:

I'm aware I'd need to purchase a custom domain for this to be possible.

My forum is currently private and registration is disabled (we have just over 30 members). Can my forum still be linked? Or is this something I'd have to ask them?

AdSense requires access to the pages the ads will be displayed on in order to periodically crawl those pages and select the most appropriate ads for the content. When you enable “Guests Must Login,” all guest traffic (including from bots) is redirected to the standard landing page. That page has no ad code and no content except for a short, optional message. As such, your forum would almost certainly be rejected for having no content.

Whether or not registration is enabled doesn’t matter. Google won’t register on your forum. While AdSense does allow login credentials to be supplied so that its crawler can access pages hidden behind a login process, ProBoards doesn’t provide any method for a forum with a custom domain to set this up (I don’t know if they even use this for their own AdSense account).

A word of caution: Given your setup, AdSense may not be profitable and I think you’ll be lucky to break even after the upfront costs, even if you open the forum to guests, that is. Most ads are CPC, meaning you only get paid when someone clicks on the ad. If you don’t expect the audience to grow much past 30 members, you probably won’t get enough legitimate clicks to come close to covering the $6/mo minimum ad-free cost. And I say “legitimate” because Google monitors who clicks on the ads. If they see a high clickthrough rate from the same IP addresses in a relatively short period of time, they’ll start demonetizing traffic from those addresses or even take action against your publisher account if it goes on for too long.

This last bit is just friendly advice. I’ve seen several people showing up, dismayed (or even belligerent, blaming PB) because they struggled to cover costs, let alone turn a profit. Trying to monetize a small forum isn’t profitable, and I’d suggest foregoing the expense of ad-free, eating the cost of the custom domain (if that’s something you still want) and waiting until such time as the numbers are more in your favor, if that ever turns out to be the case.

[Hassaan]

Jul 27, 2019 22:17:26 GMT -8 Derek‽ said:

Jul 27, 2019 13:49:50 GMT -8 Hassaan said:

I'm aware I'd need to purchase a custom domain for this to be possible.

My forum is currently private and registration is disabled (we have just over 30 members). Can my forum still be linked? Or is this something I'd have to ask them?

AdSense requires access to the pages the ads will be displayed on in order to periodically crawl those pages and select the most appropriate ads for the content. When you enable “Guests Must Login,” all guest traffic (including from bots) is redirected to the standard landing page. That page has no ad code and no content except for a short, optional message. As such, your forum would almost certainly be rejected for having no content.

Whether or not registration is enabled doesn’t matter. Google won’t register on your forum. While AdSense does allow login credentials to be supplied so that its crawler can access pages hidden behind a login process, ProBoards doesn’t provide any method for a forum with a custom domain to set this up (I don’t know if they even use this for their own AdSense account).

A word of caution: Given your setup, AdSense may not be profitable and I think you’ll be lucky to break even after the upfront costs, even if you open the forum to guests, that is. Most ads are CPC, meaning you only get paid when someone clicks on the ad. If you don’t expect the audience to grow much past 30 members, you probably won’t get enough legitimate clicks to come close to covering the $6/mo minimum ad-free cost. And I say “legitimate” because Google monitors who clicks on the ads. If they see a high clickthrough rate from the same IP addresses in a relatively short period of time, they’ll start demonetizing traffic from those addresses or even take action against your publisher account if it goes on for too long.

This last bit is just friendly advice. I’ve seen several people showing up, dismayed (or even belligerent, blaming PB) because they struggled to cover costs, let alone turn a profit. Trying to monetize a small forum isn’t profitable, and I’d suggest foregoing the expense of ad-free, eating the cost of the custom domain (if that’s something you still want) and waiting until such time as the numbers are more in your favor, if that ever turns out to be the case.

Interesting. Thanks for your reply.

My forum is currently doing ~1,000 pageviews a day, although we expect this to rise come the autumn/fall (given the nature of the forum and the talking points). 

[Hassaan]

I went through the necessary steps. This is what I see on the AdSense page:


Ads are present on my forum. I've added the relevant code to my global header and footer:



What am I missing?

[Craig]

Hi

Would you be able to PM me the url of your forum, so the staff can see which forum you are referring to.

[Hassaan]

Aug 5, 2019 5:08:29 GMT -8 Craig said:

Hi

Would you be able to PM me the url of your forum, so the staff can see which forum you are referring to.

Sure. Done.

[Kitty Katt]

Hassaan,

Looking at your images above, I see that AdSense says to place that code between the <head> and </head> tags. That would mean that you would need to go into your Forum Wrapper template (Admin -> Themes -> Layout Templates -> Forum Wrapper) to find those tags to place the code. Someone more knowledgeable may need to confirm, but it may not work being placed in your Global Header and Global Footer (and I do not think it should be in both places at any rate).

[Hassaan]

Aug 5, 2019 8:57:41 GMT -8 Kitty Katt said:

Hassaan ,

Looking at your images above, I see that AdSense says to place that code between the <head> and </head> tags. That would mean that you would need to go into your Forum Wrapper template (Admin -> Themes -> Layout Templates -> Forum Wrapper) to find those tags to place the code. Someone more knowledgeable may need to confirm, but it may not work being placed in your Global Header and Global Footer (and I do not think it should be in both places at any rate).

I see. I've done that and I'll keep you updated as to whether that has worked.

[Derek‽]

The problem is exactly as I previously predicted. You still require guests to login. Google can’t get past that page and thus it can’t see the ad code you’ve added. Likewise, there’s no content on that screen.

[Hassaan]

Aug 5, 2019 11:12:56 GMT -8 Derek‽ said:

The problem is exactly as I previously predicted. You still require guests to login. Google can’t get past that page and thus it can’t see the ad code you’ve added. Likewise, there’s no content on that screen.

What if I take the forum off private until AdSense accepts it, and then place it back on private? 

The forum is private by choice, because it features commercially sensitive data and it's intended to be a small community.

[Michael]

Aug 5, 2019 12:28:08 GMT -8 Hassaan said:

Aug 5, 2019 11:12:56 GMT -8 Derek‽ said:

The problem is exactly as I previously predicted. You still require guests to login. Google can’t get past that page and thus it can’t see the ad code you’ve added. Likewise, there’s no content on that screen.

What if I take the forum off private until AdSense accepts it, and then place it back on private? 

The forum is private by choice, because it features commercially sensitive data and it's intended to be a small community.

You could but it's likely that could greatly affect your earnings and may cause google to demonetize your page in the future. 

[Derek‽]

Aug 5, 2019 12:28:08 GMT -8 Hassaan said:

Aug 5, 2019 11:12:56 GMT -8 Derek‽ said:

The problem is exactly as I previously predicted. You still require guests to login. Google can’t get past that page and thus it can’t see the ad code you’ve added. Likewise, there’s no content on that screen.

What if I take the forum off private until AdSense accepts it, and then place it back on private? 

The forum is private by choice, because it features commercially sensitive data and it's intended to be a small community.

You can try it, but AdSense’s bots will return to crawl the pages periodically. That’s how they figure out the most relevant ads to display and maximize revenue. If they can’t get through they’ll eventually stop displaying ads and will flag your site for a policy violation again.

Google needs access to pages to display ads. It’s as simple as that. As mentioned previously, Google has a feature for a site to allow Google to access hidden pages, but ProBoards is not compatible with this feature. If you want to run ads you’ll need at least certain sections with ample content to be available to guests.

[Hassaan]

Aug 5, 2019 13:17:38 GMT -8 Derek‽ said:

Aug 5, 2019 12:28:08 GMT -8 Hassaan said:

What if I take the forum off private until AdSense accepts it, and then place it back on private? 

The forum is private by choice, because it features commercially sensitive data and it's intended to be a small community.

You can try it, but AdSense’s bots will return to crawl the pages periodically. That’s how they figure out the most relevant ads to display and maximize revenue. If they can’t get through they’ll eventually stop displaying ads and will flag your site for a policy violation again.

Google needs access to pages to display ads. It’s as simple as that. As mentioned previously, Google has a feature for a site to allow Google to access hidden pages, but ProBoards is not compatible with this feature. If you want to run ads you’ll need at least certain sections with ample content to be available to guests.

This is difficult, as essentially the forum needs to be private for various reasons. Is there any way I can only make one board private, with the rest open to guests?

[Lynx]

Aug 5, 2019 12:28:08 GMT -8 Hassaan said:

Aug 5, 2019 11:12:56 GMT -8 Derek‽ said:

The problem is exactly as I previously predicted. You still require guests to login. Google can’t get past that page and thus it can’t see the ad code you’ve added. Likewise, there’s no content on that screen.

What if I take the forum off private until AdSense accepts it, and then place it back on private? 

The forum is private by choice, because it features commercially sensitive data and it's intended to be a small community.

I'd suggest modifying your categories and boards - set their permissions so only members can access. That way, you don't need the Guest Must Login, AdSense can crawl to make sure your still within policy and none of your data (threads) will be accessible to non-members/guests. Add that to having Restricted Registration set to Yes, and you can choose who can fully register and who gets denied registration - since this will place potential registrants as Pending (and unable to view anything guests cannot view) until you approve or reject the registration request.

You can edit Category and Board permissions in: Admin > Structure > Categories & Boards > (edit category or board)

EDIT: The first 2 permissions for boards:

- Who can view = who can see that the board exists, but this alone does not let them access (read) any threads in that board
- Who can access = who can access (read) the threads in the board

[Hassaan]

I've made the forum not private, just one board private. I'm hoping this will be fine.