Just Got Paid - After a Long Haul

Background

Two years ago, I wrote this blog post which highlighted my first-ever income made online. The income was from Google AdSense.

Those who monetize with AdSense will tell you that reaching the payment threshold is not always easy, especially if the site has low traffic. It could take your income months or even years of 'crawling' before you receive it.

The website concerned is however safe from that reality. There are times in the year like recently when traffic to it explodes. And one could reach the threshold in under a month.

However, it encountered a problem caused by inexperience and a certain level of neglect on my part which led to the 'long haul' included in the title.

What Really Happened

Upon joining WA, I created a new email address without taking the time to complete my personal profile. It was this address I used to sign up with AdSense.
At the time I made that first-ever income online which I blogged about, I should have reached the payment threshold a few days later (that was more than 2 years ago). It was during my niche peak season. However, that progress was short-lived when AdSense realized that the account concerned was one without an existing profile.

I guess they concluded it was an underdealing considering the rate at which visitors were flocking to the site. (more than 2.5 K in two days). But that was only as a result of being in the niche peak season.

I had nearly reached half the payment threshold in the first couple of two days and should have been ready to get paid after a few more days when all that abruptly came to an end.

Problem Set In

AdSense immediately 'suspended' posting ads to my website on grounds that they needed to verify my identity; and a long verification process began. I was sent a verification code by mail a couple of times with the goal of having me enter it in my account to get the issue resolved. I'm yet to receive it.

We finally settled for sending a copy of my passport and a tax document bearing my name to get things back on course. But the process took several months, and I missed possible earnings from the rest of the peak season and the many months that followed.

Another Setback

When the issue finally got resolved, then came COVID-19 which had an adverse impact on my niche. So for about two years, my AdSense earnings of about half the payment threshold, obtained from only the first two days of my 2019 early peak season (plus the little that was added later), remained in my account.

Thankfully, the COVID situation has improved, allowing things to return to normal for my niche and my website.

The 2021 early peak season came and with the identity issued since resolved, AdSense allowed things to work normally. I finally achieved within the first couple of days what I had missed achieving two years earlier, and even nearly doubled it during the rest of the peak season.

Paid at Last

With that, my earnings, which seemed to be stagnant for up to two years, plus what I recently accumulated, have been wired to my account. Just awaiting a notification from my bank to celebrate what has long been overdue and the fact that I and AdSense have finally settled our differences.

P.S.: The bank notification just came in (I had saved this post for review when I received the alert).

Hooray! Let the festivities begin!