Why Do Joining the Amazon & Ebay Programs Require An AdSense Account?

1. 82

   MacPharlainposted 10 years ago

   I'm trying to sign up for the earnings programs and can't because I don't have a Google AdSense account.  I applied for one a few days ago but was rejected due to "insufficient content".  (My account has 106 hubs, some of which do look sparse after the import.)
   
   While I'm confident that I'll eventually get approved for AdSense after updating my hubs, I expect to at least be able to get my share of the Amazon & Ebay sales commissions that these pages generate now.  But HubPages won't let me enroll in the Amazon or Ebay program without having the AdSense account.
   
   Amazon and Ebay are separate companies from Google and have nothing to do with the AdSense program, why are we required to have an AdSense account before getting our Amazon and Ebay commissions?
   
   Also, who is getting my share of the commission earnings from my transferred lenses in the mean time and will I ever see any of that money?  I have an Amazon Associates ID but can't enter that into the earnings program without having an AdSense account first.
   
   Or, am I missing something on the earnings programs registration process and is there a way to sign up for Amazon & Ebay without an AdSense account?
   
   Below is what it shows me when trying to sign up for the Ebay program.  The Amazon sign up page is similar.
   
   1.    Publish at least one Hub                                    Complete
   2.    Sign up for the HubPages Earnings Program    Complete
   3.    Associate a Google AdSense Account             Incomplete

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      WryLiltposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      The eBay program is not the EPN that normal affiliates get. eBay refused to let hubbers have EPN accounts a few years ago, but Hubpages struck a special deal with them which allows a different internal earning program.
      
      You can still use Amazon external affiliate IDs, if I'm not mistaken. Do you have an Amazon affiliate account?
      
      The reason that the internal programs are tied to Adsense is because of something to do with not having a "competing program" with Adsense or something like that. Or so I remember a staff member saying. It's both or none.

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      1. 82

         MacPharlainposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Thanks for the info.
         
         Yes, I have an Amazon affiliate ID.  But I don't see anywhere on the Earnings Settings page to enter that for use in the Amazon capsules.  Only the link to sign up for the Amazon program.
         
         Some of my hubs have more than 2 Amazon products so switching capsules to links won't work so well either.

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         1. 81

            Marina Lazarevicposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            The link to associate an external Amazon ID is a little inconspicuous (we plan to change that!), but it's at the bottom of this page: https://hubpages.com/my/earnings/affiliate/amazon
            
            If you still can't find it, read this post of mine from a few weeks ago.

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   2. 86

      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      "Sparseness" of content has nothing to do with the rejection.   Adsense doesn't say so, but experience shows that Adsense has two requirements:  quantity and maturity.   For some reason, Adsense doesn't like brand new domains.  Your oldest Hub needs to be at least a month old before they're likely to approve you. 
      
      HubPages' own ads program requires Adsense because it includes the display of Adsense ads.  I have no idea why they made it a requirement to join their eBay program, unless it's just as a kind of pre-qualification.

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         Paula Atwellposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         Good advice here Marisa. I will pass this on to newbies. When I joined here I already had an Adsense account.

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         1. 86

            Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

            It would be great if you could publicise it wherever Squids are congregating!  I'm seeing threads all over the place where people are getting upset about their Adsense application being rejected.  It would be good if the message could get through that you need to WAIT!

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            1. 82

               MacPharlainposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               Thanks for the info, Marisa!  Much appreciated.
               
               I'm not happy about unexpectedly losing 1-2 months of ad share revenue in this deal but at least I have info to develop a strategy now.

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            2. 83

               geekMachineposted 10 years agoin reply to this

               What would be even greater, and the most fair, would be if folks coming from squid land like me could be given a grace period of 3 or 4 months in which we could qualify for the Amazon Program without having an Adsense account.
               
               Look at how the frustration has built up in my situation:
               1. I live in Colorado.  Great place but Amazon does not let us be affiliates.
               2. I started with Squidoo because of their Amazon program that allows me to get a share of the Amazon sales _without_ having an Adsense account.
               3. I'm notified that I must recover from the Squidoo to Hubpages transition and that I can still receive a portion of the Amazon sales after the transition.
               4. I go through significant effort to make sure my 1 really good lens is now a really good hub (I know 1 isn't much, but the content is really good and I've put a lot into it).
               5. I slowly discover that I must sign up for the Amazon Progrom after becoming a hubber.  Nothing is automatic.
               6. I then discover I must have an Adsense account.  Huh?  What does Amazon have to do with Adsense?
               7. Whatever, so I apply for an Adsense account and the rejection feedback is that I do not have enough content.  Huh?  If anything my hub is too long!
               8. The only other Adsense rejection "feedback" that I could think of that really applied to my hub was that I was missing a Table of contents (page navigation), which was lost during the Squidoo to Hubpages transition. 
               9. So I added a table of contents, manually, since Hubpages does not have a way to do this easily.
               10. I re-applied for the Adsense account, and got the exact same reasons for rejection.  But nothing said that my rejection was due to my hub being so new.
               11. Now I'm learning that my hub is too new to get an Adsense account, and so I will lose that income for who knows how long until I luck out and get one?  And nothing about this was said during the squid to hub transition.
               12. Since I cannot be a direct Amazon affiliate in Colorado, I can't use my own Amazon code/account to enter into Hubpages.
               
               The fair thing to do here is to just let me be in the Amazon Program for a grace period of 3 or 4 months until I can get an Adsense account, especially since I didn't need to have an Adsense account with squidoo.

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                  Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

                  I understand your frustration but bear in mind, the alternative was for Squidoo just to close down. Then you would have had to manually republish your lens somewhere else, and go through whatever qualification process the new site required.  Not a big deal for you with one lens, but that would be a huge job for those with big accounts. Losing a month's income is hardly a big deal considering the alternative.

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2. 82

   MacPharlainposted 10 years ago

   Ok, I found how to enter my Amazon ID.  Here are the steps...
   
   1. Go to Earnings -> Settings
   2. Click "Get Started" next to the Amazon Program
   3. At the bottom of the Amazon Program page, there's a sentence with an embedded link to "configure an external Amazon Associates ID".  Click that link and enter your ID.
   
   Someone did a good job of hiding that option.  I'd expect it to be in the "External Affiliate Settings" section on the Earnings -> Settings page.  It shows up there after your ID is entered but not before.

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      Fiorenzaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      MacPharlain, thanks for starting this thread.  I only just realised myself last night that there was a clickable link below those buttons so I agree it's not very clear.  I've created a tracking ID for HP and put that in but the one HP suggest (hubpages-20) is already taken so I had to do my own variation. Checked an Amazon link on one of my hubs afterwards and it is still using the generic hubpages-20 one.  Do you know if there's anything else we have to do to get the AZ module to use our own tracking ID?  I'm in the same boat, don't have an Adsense account and don't want to apply yet as I haven't got enough hubs and it's going to take time to get enough into shape for HP before applying.

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   2. 81

      Marina Lazarevicposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Oops! I replied above before I saw this. Glad you found it.

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3. 71

   Fiorenzaposted 10 years ago

   It's OK, I checked it again and it is coming up with the right one now, I was just being impatient ;-)

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      Titiaposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      It's a 60-40% share with HP. 40% you'll see HP's tracking ID and 60% will be our own.

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4. 71

   Fiorenzaposted 10 years ago

   Is that even with our own links, rather than the HP program?  I don't have AdSense so can't join that yet.

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      Writer Foxposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      If you use your own Amazon account (limited to two products per Hub), you get 100%.
      
      One of your problems with getting AdSense approval may have to do with the country you live in.  People in some countries (China, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippians, and others) have to wait until that have published at least 20 - 30 Hubs and until those Hubs have been online on HubPages for at least six months.
      
      Only HP will earn for AdSense ads on your Hubs until you have an account of your own.  If you don't like that, you may turn off advertising on your Hubs by editing your Profile, and turn them back on when you get your account.  Turning off ads will NOT affect your ability to use your own Amazon account or other approved affiliate links.

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         Gigglishposted 10 years agoin reply to this

         "If you use your own Amazon account (limited to two products per Hub), you get 100%."
         
         If you have entered your Affilate ID on this page https://hubpages.com/my/earnings/affiliate/amazon so "your external code is active" then you can have more than two products per hub if you are using the Amazon capsules. The same rules apply as you would if you were using the Hubpages Earning Program's Amazon thing.
         
         It is only if you are using html links that are not part of the Amazon capsule that you are limited to two Amazon links.
         
         Hope that makes sense. (I have another Hubpages account that I've had for years and I do it that way, so I know it is correct.)

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            Prosperity66posted 10 years agoin reply to this

            I think that Writer Fox was talking about photos + affiliate links or affiliate links in text. It is clear that the limit doesn't involve CAPSULES.
            
            For new Hubbers the difference is important as some are not used to difference with the use of capsules and in-text or picture source affiliate links.
            
            

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5. 91

   Titiaposted 10 years ago

   Just now I got rejected for the Google Adsense too due to lack of content (?). Most of my 100+ hubs have well over 2000 words. 
   
   It's clearly they reject most of the new Hubbers (ex Squids).
   
   They gave me a list of suggestions, these are some of them:
   1. You have to have sufficient content, they don't like pages with lots of  photos and videos or flash animations.
   2. Your content must consists of whole sentences and not only headlines.
   3. Make sure your website is completed (!) and not in a beta stage.
   4. Offer your visitors a navigation system so they and easily find all pages of your website.
   
   So I think I'm gonna wait till I've edited all my new hubs and then apply again, because in this stage, most of my hubs are still looking awful.

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6. 71

   Fiorenzaposted 10 years ago

   Titia, Marisa also said higher up this thread that they look for maturity - the problem is that our subdomains on HP are very new though our lenses were published years ago in a lot of cases.  But it's the HP date that AdSense goes by so we need to wait till they are a month or two old at least.
   
   It is certainly a good idea to clean them up in the meantime and that's what I'm working on as I want to wait before applying. In the meantime, I've added Amazon account for personal use, as I can't yet join the HP program for that.

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   SusannaDuffyposted 10 years ago

   I've found that many people become confused with adsense, thinking that it's like any other affiliate program. It's not.
   
   You can't just join up, rather you have to show that you regularly contribute quality content online.
   
   I mean, look at it from the view of someone paying Google for their ads, where would THEY want their ads to be placed? On a domain that sprang up last night?

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   Shades-of-truthposted 10 years ago

   Still, it would have been nice if the "Squidooers" had some advance notice about it. I feel for those who have lots and lots of articles (ex-Lenses, now Hubs), as it is going to hurt their income.

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9. 0

   Donna Cookposted 10 years ago

   Marisa, I must respectfully take issue with the comment "Losing a month's income is hardly a big deal in the scheme of things." Many Squidoo refugess rely on that income to make ends meet. We have been hit with the closure of one source of income, no income from the new site and the new version of Panda destroying views.
   
   We all appreciate the hard work performed by you and the HubPages staff during the transition, Although I didn't depend on Squidoo yet for income,  I for one cannot afford to lose "one month's income" from other sources

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      Marisa Wrightposted 10 years agoin reply to this

      Donna, the point I'm making is that there were two options:  lose ALL your Squidoo lenses and have to start somewhere else from scratch - meaning it would take months for you to start earning again - or lose one month's income.  Which is the bigger deal?

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