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A couple of months ago, I was watching an Income School video on Youtube where they announced that Ezoic was letting new bloggers join their platform via their Ezoic Access Now Program.
I have never signed up for something so fast!
I had been hearing about Ezoic for years and never thought anyone could get in without reaching the 10,000 views per month threshold.
So when I heard about the Access Now program, I bolted!
But I should have known that it wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought. There was A LOT that I had no idea I needed to do to be able to get to the goldmine that is Ezoic.
I searched the internet every step of the way but unfortunately, I couldn’t find the information I needed.
So in this article, I am going to tell you everything that I wish someone had told me about joining the Ezoic Access Now Program.
Signing Up For Ezoic Acces Now Program
First thing’s first, you are going to have to actually sign-up for the program. This part is by far the easiest part.
You will need nothing more than an email and a password.
I highly suggest you use an email that is a bit more professional and that you use all the time. This is the email that Ezoic is going to be sending you all of your information.
So you want to make sure it is active.
You may also need a phone number to be able to verify your information.
Once you are all signed in, you will get to the Dashboard of the Access Now Program.
Now keep in mind that simply signing up is not a guarantee that you will get approved for their ad platform to monetize your site.
There are several other steps along the way and I will get into them in the next section.
Why You Should Sign Up As Soon As You Can
Ezoic is not just an ad network.
Ezoic is a full-on automated website testing company that uses its AI technology to make your site better and make you earn more money.
This is really simplifying it for you because let me tell you: It took me a while to understand how Ezoic works.
Ezoic wants to make you money.
Their AI is constantly doing everything in its power to optimize your website speed, your ad placements, and your user experience.
But the AI needs time to learn your site and how your viewers interact with it.
Basically, with its AI technology, the longer it’s on your site the more it learns and the better it gets.
This means that the longer you have Ezoic, the more revenue you will get in the long run.
This is why it is better to start with Ezoic as soon as you can to allow it to learn and optimize your site quicker.
Income Schools Project 24
You may be wondering why I bring up Income School in an Ezoic article.
I found out about this program through Income School.
Now even though I am not currently a part of Project 24, I did sign up for the program via the link from that Income School provided.
I later came to find out that Income School is actually partnered with Ezoic.
So does it help to get accepted if you sign up via Income School?
I don’t know.
But I will say that it definitely doesn’t hurt to sign up via an accredited and trusted partner.
Get Ready to Be Tested
This is where things get interesting.
To make sure that you are truly invested in the process, Ezoic is going to test you by giving you full courses about the platform.
There are three courses in total and each course comes with exercises and a test that the end that you have to pass to be able to move on.
The courses are all in video format.
But don’t think that you can skim through these finish them in a day.
For one, Ezoic won’t let you skip through the videos. And some of the courses are almost 2-3 hours long.
The 3 Ezoic Access Now Courses
The program is separated into three different courses. Like I stated earlier, each course has its own set of videos, exercises, and tests.
Once you pass the tests, you will be given a badge for that course and then you will be able to move on to the next one.
One of the main requirements to get accepted for monetization via Ezoic (with less than 10k views) is that you must pass all of their courses.
Keep in mind that this is NOT a guarantee that you will get approved for their ad platform. However, you will also not be accepted without it.
Basic Course
This is the first course that you are going to go through where you will get to know everything about Ezoic.
Here is where you will get more of an understanding of what Ezoic is and how it is going to work with your site.
Personally, this was one of the most interesting courses for me because it made me realize that Ezoic does so much more than just handle your ads.
Did you know you can even host your site on Ezoic?
I know you didn’t!
See, this is why you need to do this course.
Monetization Course
Here is where your brain is going to have to do some work. If you didn’t have a notepad ready before, you are definitely going to need it now.
The monetization course is going to get you through all of the information about ad placeholders, how the mediation process works, and so much more.
It is literally full of technical digital marketing jargon that I have never heard before.
I have to say that it was one of the more complex of the three so you might want to have some extra focus.
Speed Course
The last course is the speed course. This is where you will get into one of the biggest and most robust Ezoic tools called Leap.
Leap is an SEO and website optimization tool that helps you optimize your site speed, cache, load times, and everything else that will help your site run smoother.
Although this part is not as difficult as the monetization sections, it is still full of a lot of information that you do not want to miss.
Pro Tips
Have a notebook and pen (or digital document) ready.
I’m not kidding.
There is going to be A LOT that you are going to need to write down or have saved somewhere. Both for the test and for future reference.
I was completely taken by surprise when I saw how much information was in these courses.
Also, take only one course per day. DO NOT try to cram everything in one sitting. It will literally go in one ear and out the other.
Integrating Your Site With Ezoic
One thing you may not know is that you will need to integrate a lot of different things with Ezoic to get monetized.
Not just your website.
You will be asked to switch your DNS over to Ezoics servers which I had no idea I could even do. But since I literally have the best host ever which is Bluehost, that process was super simple for me.
All I had to do was go into my cPanel and change the DNS there.
<<READ MORE ABOUT HOW TO GET STARTED WITH BLUEHOST>>
If you have Cloudflare, it is also going to be a very easy switch.
Ezoic has a lot of tutorials and walkthroughs on how to do this on different hosts so this won’t be a problem.
Google Ads Manager
In order to get monetized, you will have to signup and get approved for Google Ads Manager.
To be honest, I didn’t even know that this platform existed until I joined Ezoic.
Google Ads Manager is the mac daddy of ads management and ad exchange platforms.
It used to be available only to major publishers but if you get accepted into Ezoic, you will also get access to it.
This means that you will be able to show high-quality and premium ads on your website from the very beginning.
This is one of the reasons that Ezoic is able to guarantee that you will get better compensation using their platform.
You will be able to apply for Google Ads Manager right from the Ezoic dashboard which makes it a lot easier.
Just make sure that you use the same email address you used to sign up. Or if you have Google Adsense, use the email that is connected to it.
It will make things a lot easier for you.
Going Through The Approval Process
The approval process normally takes 10 days.
I know, 10 whole days of waiting.
It can be a little stressful
During these 10 days, you should be working on your website and content to make sure that it is in tip-top shape when an Ezoic representative decides to take a gander.
You should also be taking a course every day and working on passing those before the approval process is over.
You will not be able to start monetizing your site without these badges.
There are also 7 other things you need to do to make sure you get accepted and I will get into those in a second.
Getting Delayed
If you have a smaller site as I did, be prepared to get your approval process extended.
If you are getting less than a thousand views per month, the Ezoic team may need a little more time to be able to analyze your traffic.
They need to make sure that it is all legit traffic and nothing scammy before they approve your website.
This is fair because we all know there are some bad eggs out their buying bot traffic.
I remember I got an email telling me they needed more time to review my site. Although a bit discouraging the review was actually only 2 days longer.
I can’t say that will be your experience but just know that it happens and is completely normal.
7 Things You Need If You Want To Get Approved For Ezoic
Besides going through the different integrations and doing all of the courses, there are 7 other things that you absolutely HAVE to do better your chances of getting approved.
I have seen too many people in the support chat and forums asking why they didn’t get approved and the reasons listed below are the most common ones that the representatives give them.
Original Content
I feel like I should state this first because it should be obvious but apparently it is not.
Ezoic is quick to decline your application if you do not have original content or if it is plagiarized from somewhere else.
That means that you can’t just simply take someone else’s property.
That also means that if you are an affiliate marketer and an affiliate product owner has those “ready to post” articles that are already done for you, you can’t use them.
There are hundreds of others who have used those exact articles as well and that will not look good for you.
Google Compliancy
If you have a site that has been denied for Adsense, then most likely it will be denied for Ezoic monetization as well.
Why?
Because Google and Ezoic are partners and Ezoic follows Google’s guidelines.
That means that if your site goes against Google’s terms, it automatically goes against Ezoics as well.
So things like adult sites, scammy sites, and sites with things that Google deems offensive are not going to get approved.
So make sure that you double-check Google’s standards to make sure you are not going against any of those.
Self-Hosted Website
This one should also be a given but you’d be surprised by the number of people who do not know this.
If you are not on a self-hosted website, then you’re not going to get approved.
A self-hosted website basically means that you are paying for the domain and hosting and have some form of ownership over the website itself.
There is no way that you are going to be able to do all of the integration necessary on a free hosting plan.
You can learn more about the difference between self-hosted and free sites as well as the best hosting providers that I recommend for beginners.
Correct Legal Pages
This is by far the most commonly overlooked aspect when it comes to having a website in general.
You need to have a privacy policy and terms and conditions page on your website.
Whether you put them into one or make them into separate pages is completely up to you. However, I personally recommend that you keep them separate because it makes things easier.
Without these pages, you most likely will have a harder time getting approved.
You can easily find places online where you can generate these pages for free that will be compliant with Google’s terms.
At Least Some Traffic
If you have no traffic at all, maybe you should wait a bit before thinking about joining.
If you read my section earlier about getting delayed, Ezoic did say that they need a certain amount of traffic to be able to at least analyze the website.
Exactly how much is going to be up to them to decide.
Personally, I got reviewed and approved with less than 200 views on my blog.
They need just enough to verify that the traffic is legit.
A Contact or About Me Page
It is very important that you have a Contact or About Me page on your blog. This is regardless of what ad network you chose to join.
This is what will help the search engine and the networks learn who you are. This is all about cracking down on spam websites and making sure that people will be able to find you if they need to.
You don’t need to write all of your personal information or your life story. But you should write enough for people to be able to establish who you are and what your platform is about.
In my case, I am a faceless Youtuber so I don’t even show my real name. But I use my brand name and give all of my social media so that I can be found if need be.
Content Worth Investing In
It is very important that you have content that is worthy of investing in. This means content that marketers and companies are going to want to pay for when it comes to advertising.
This is why having too narrow of a niche may bring you problems if you are wanting to scale or grow your business.
If your niche is too low-value then you may not have a lot of advertisers that will want to show their premium ads on your site.
You may also find that your traffic will be very limited which will not only make it harder to make more money from your blog but will also give you a lower EPMV (Earning Per Mille Viewer).
Conclusion
Having been through the process myself with a much smaller blog than average gave me a great perspective of how everything works.
Most of the people who have written about the Ezoic Access Now program joined when they had much more traffic than I did.
As a beginner, it can be very upsetting when you click on an article talking about getting money from a small blog. Only to find out that that “small blog” was getting around 5K views a month.
I have been there and I know how it feels.
This is why I am writing this article to show that I really did have a tiny blog and I really did get into Ezoic.
And if you put in enough effort and quality into your work from the very beginning, you will be able to start making an income from your new blog as well.
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