Announcing the new Inside AdSense Arabia blog

We’re very excited to announce the launch of our newest blog, the AdSense Arabia blog. Like our other Inside AdSense blogs, it will provide optimization tips, product announcements, and other program information to help our Arab publishers maximize their earnings and make the most out of their Google AdSense accounts.

With the rapidly developing online advertising market in the Middle East & North Africa region, and the growing interest in Google AdSense, we’re thrilled to be taking the next step by introducing this new information platform.

Joining English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Turkish, Portuguese, Polish, Japanese, Chinese - Traditional, Chinese - Simplified, and Korean, AdSense Arabia blog is our fifteenth Inside AdSense blog worldwide. Check out the navigation sidebar under the header “Related Google Blogs” for links to all of them! We hope to launch additional Inside AdSense blogs in the future so we can continue to reach even more of our global publishers.

Wherever in the world you are, we hope to see you on Inside AdSense!

Posted by Younis Maqousi - AdSense Arabia team

Join us for an AdSense Optimisation Session in London, UK

On Wednesday, February 16th, two of our optimizers will be in London, where they'll hold 20-minute optimization sessions at a local coffee shop in the afternoon. We’re aiming to keep this session casual, so we can provide one-on-one consultations to as many of you as possible.

We’d love to meet you, so please fill out this form if you’ll be in the London area on February 16th and would like to schedule an appointment with our team. Once we get your RSVP, we'll follow up by email with additional details if there's time available. Scheduling will be done on a first-come, first-served basis, but we’ll do our best to include as many of you as space will allow.

See you in London!

Posted by Nathaniel Kolenberg - Inside AdSense team

Western Union now in the Palestinian Territories

As part of our ongoing goal to provide more payment options around the world, we're very excited to announce the arrival of Western Union Quick Cash® payments for the Palestinian Territories (Gaza & the West Bank).

For those of you who aren't familiar with this form of payment, Western Union Quick Cash payments are free and will reach you faster than checks. Payments will continue to follow our normal payment schedule and will be available for pickup in your local currency at your local Western Union agent the day after they're issued.

A couple of things to note: We can send Western Union payments only to publishers that have an individual account at this time. Also, the payee name on your account must exactly match the government-issued ID card that you'll use when picking up your payments. For more information on how to sign up for and pick up Western Union payments, please visit our Help Center.

We're continually looking into the feasibility of introducing new forms of payment and new delivery options in different countries. Stay tuned to the blog as we work to improve the payments experience for publishers around the word!

Posted by Deborah Chang - AdSense Payments team

A success story made possible by AdSense

Today, we bring you a success story from India, CarDekho.com, an auto portal, who made it big in the Indian online space thanks to AdSense.

Cardekho.com is one of the top auto portals in India that assists new and used car buyers to make informed buying decisions by offering them a variety of research tools and reviews. Co-founders Amit and Anurag launched Cardekho in March 2008, like every new business venture, were struggling to monetize. Luckily, Anurag discovered AdSense and was delighted by the prospect of finding revenue without needing VC funding.

They experimented with various products and features, and found the most success using the features highlighted below:

• Filtering options help them eliminate irrelevant ads. They use this feature carefully and intelligently so they don’t unnecessarily block good revenue.
• Top banner above-the-fold (beside the logo) ad placement is the top earning slot for them.
• Placing ad units in the “F pattern” helps them optimize visibility of ads.
• Showing text ads when content on the page is mostly images and image ads when content on the page is text-heavy. This helps make the page look better and improves ad visibility.
• Channels tell them how their ads are doing and how well they can perform if placed somewhere else on the site.

Because of their AdSense revenue, the CarDekho team can focus their efforts on providing useful and quality information on their website to ensure a good user experience, rather than worrying about monetization.

Amit, co-founder, shares, “AdSense is a must-have for all sites looking forward to a sustainable and profitable business model. It may not be the primary source of income as you scale your business model to earn from other sources. AdSense does add to considerable amount of revenues generated without having to worry about hiring a sales team to sell inventory...Had it not been for AdSense, CarDekho would not have come this far without VC funding.”

Have a success story of your own? We’d love to here it. Fill out this form to let us know how AdSense has helped you and your business!

Posted by Sheeba Eustachius - AdSense India

Sensitive category blocking now available in three more languages

Since our announcement last August that sensitive category blocking had been expanded to more languages, we’re excited to say the language expansion has gone even further!

This week, publishers in Thai, Turkish, and Russian-speaking countries can now block ads in sensitive categories for all supported languages. The full list of supported languages spans English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch, Arabic, Japanese, Chinese, Polish, Portuguese, and now Thai, Turkish, and Russian.

With sensitive category blocking, you can prevent ads from up to 11 specific categories from appearing on your pages. Ads in these categories will be blocked if they're in any of the supported languages, regardless of how they've been targeted to your pages.

If you’d like to set up sensitive category blocking, sign in to your AdSense account. We recommend using the new AdSense interface, which you can access by clicking the “Try the new AdSense interface” link that appears in the upper corner of your account. Once you're in the new interface, visit the Allow and block ads tab and choose the Settings page to edit the list of sensitive ad categories you wish you display. To help you understand the impact of applying these filters, this page also shows you the percentage of revenue and ad impressions you've been receiving from each category in the last 30 days.

If you prefer to use the previous version of the AdSense interface, visit the Ad Review Center, located under the 'AdSense Setup' tab. Once you click 'change', you'll be able to see the full list of categories you can block.

For more information about sensitive category blocking, we encourage you to visit our Help Center.

Posted by Dan Stokeley - AdSense Product Manager

Happy holidays from AdSense

Wishing you a very happy holidays from all of us in AdSense! Our team in Dublin is pictured below to send you extra season's greetings.

Posted by Katrina Kurnit - Inside AdSense team

Meet the international AdSense team

AdSense is an international product. We’re available in more than 200 countries and more than 36 different languages. Working with publishers and Googlers from around the globe is one or our favorite things about being on the AdSense team, and we’re proud to welcome readers from all over the world.

After we posted the Behind the Scenes videos in the U.S., many of our international publishers wrote to us saying they would also like to meet their local AdSense teams. So, after countless hours in the production studio, here they are!

Meet the people who help publishers earn more revenue in Australia, Poland, Netherlands, Brazil, Germany, Japan, China, France, South Africa, and the Spanish-speaking world here, or watch the videos below.

If you’re a publisher from any of these markets, feel free to comment and say hi. Your local AdSense team will be excited to hear from you!

Posted by Gus Smidt - Inside AdSense team

Announcing the new Inside AdSense Poland blog

We’re very excited to announce the launch of our newest Inside AdSense blog: Inside AdSense Polska! Like our other Inside AdSense blogs, it will provide readers with optimization tips, product announcements, and other program information to help our Polish publishers maximize their earnings and make the most out of their Google AdSense accounts.


There’s been an increase in Google AdSense interest within the rapidly developing Polish online advertising market. We’ve been supporting our Polish publishers through our Help Forum, where they can share experiences and help one another with their AdSense-related issues, and are thrilled to be taking the next step with this new information platform.

Joining English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Turkish, Portuguese, Japanese, Chinese - Traditional, Chinese - Simplified, and Korean, Inside AdSense Polska is our fourteenth Inside AdSense blog worldwide. Check out the right navigation bar under the header “Related Google Blogs” for links to all of them! We hope to launch additional Inside AdSense blogs in the future so we can continue to reach even more of our global publishers.

Wherever in the world you are, we hope to see you Inside AdSense!

Posted by Marcin Lipowiecki - Inside AdSense team

Western Union now in Thailand

After launching in four African countries earlier this month, we're excited to announce the arrival of Western Union Quick Cash® payments for Thailand!

For those of you who are not familiar with this form of payment, Western Union Quick Cash payments are free of charge and will reach you faster than checks. Payments will continue to follow our normal payment schedule and will be available for pickup in your local currency at your local Western Union agent the day after they're issued.

A couple of things to note: We can send Western Union payments only to publishers that have an individual account at this time. Also, the payee name on your account must exactly match the government-issued ID card that you'll use when picking up your payments. For more information on how to sign up for and pick up Western Union payments, please visit our Help Center.

Posted by Deborah Chang - AdSense Payments team

Western Union now launched in four African countries

We're excited to announce the launch of Western Union Quick Cash® payments in four countries in Africa! You can now select Western Union Quick Cash payments in:

• Algeria
• Ghana
• Kenya
• Uganda

Western Union Quick Cash payments will reach you faster than checks, and they're free of charge. Payments will continue to follow our normal payment schedule and will be available for pickup in your local currency at your local Western Union agent the day after they're issued.

A couple of things to note: We can send Western Union payments only to publishers that have an individual account at this time. Also, the payee name on your account must exactly match the government-issued ID card that you'll use when picking up your payments. For more information on how to sign up for and pick up Western Union payments, please visit our Help Center.

Posted by Deborah Chang - AdSense Payments team

A Global Greeting

Members of the AdSense team from all over the world say hello from Mountain View, CA!



Posted by Katrina Kurnit - Inside AdSense Team

EFT available in Greece

We're excited to announce that publishers based in Greece can now receive their AdSense payments via Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). You'll need to ensure that you're opted into local currency reporting in order to sign up for this payment method.

Selecting EFT as your payment method will allow you to receive your payments more quickly. Rather than waiting for checks to arrive in the mail and clear in your bank account, your earnings will be deposited directly into your bank account. We're fans of EFT, and so our teammates Vijay and Elizabeth have created a video about it. Have a peek:



Finally, if you're located in a country where EFT isn't yet available, rest assured we're working hard to offer additional payment options. Stay tuned to Inside AdSense, where we'll be sure to announce any new payment methods.

Posted by Jagoda Sobolewska - AdSense Payments Team

Australian and New Zealand publishers: Register for an upcoming webinar

If you've ever argued over where the pavlova was first invented and are currently enjoying the first signs of spring, the Australia and New Zealand AdSense team is holding a webinar specifically for you! We'll be presenting our techniques for improving your AdSense for content performance, as well as handy tips on making your AdSense implementation more user-friendly.

We'll be running two free sessions that you can choose between; both are exactly the same and will run for approximately one hour. Register for the one you'd like to attend by visiting one of the links below -- even if you're not located in Australia or New Zealand, you're still welcome to register!

• Webinar Option 1: 12.00pm AEST Monday 21st of September 2009 (GMT +10:00)
  
• Webinar Option 2: 5.30pm AEST Tuesday 22nd of September 2009 (GMT +10:00)
  

Once you've registered, you'll receive an email from messenger@webex.com to confirm your time and give you instructions on how to attend the webinar. We recommend that you register in advance.

If you're new to webinars (or web seminars), they're online meetings that you can attend using any computer with an internet connection and speakers or a headset. This Help Center entry will provide further details about what you'll need to participate. You'll also have the chance to ask questions based on the presentation through the interactive chat panel. Here are a few more details about next week's webinars.

• Presenters:
  
• Victoria, Mel, and Disha from the Sydney-based AdSense Team
  
• Content:
  
• Introduction - The Google Australia & New Zealand AdSense Team
  
• Google AdSense – AdSense for content optimisation
  
• Ad Formats – Opting in to image and text
  
• Placement – Position and size
  
• Design – Colours and borders
  
• Google Custom Search Engine - Best practices
  
• Working with Google - AdSense account essentials
  
• We'll also be showcasing some real-life examples of how other publishers have optimised their AdSense implementation.
  

We hope you can make one of the sessions, and we look forward to sharing our best AdSense optimisation techniques with you.

Posted by Mel-Ann Chan - AdSense Optimisation Team, Australia & New Zealand

Western Union launched in South Korea

We're happy to announce that publishers located in South Korea can now receive payments via Western Union Quick Cash. You won't need to wait for your checks in the mail, and AdSense won't charge you any fees to use this payment method. Please note that payments can only be picked up at the International Bank of Korea (IBK) and are only available in South Korean Won (KRW) currency.

Sign up for payments by Western Union today by following these instructions. Two important things to remember: we can only send Western Union payments to individual publishers at this time, and the payee name on your account must exactly match the government issued ID card that you'll bring to pick up your payments. We also encourage you to review the information in our Help Center for more details about this payment method, including how you can pick up your payments and when you'll need to pick them up by.

Posted by Arlene Lee - Inside AdSense Team

Calling all Canadians

Are you a Canadian AdSense publisher? We'll be hosting a small AdSense event featuring optimization and product seminars in Toronto in early October, and we have a few additional spaces available. If you're located in the Toronto area and would like to attend, fill out our interest form, telling us a little about yourself, your site, and your history with AdSense. There are a limited number of spots left, so if you're interested, let us know as soon as possible. We'll let you know by email if you've been selected to take part in the event.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Posted by Matthew Carpenter-Arevalo - AdSense Optimization Team

Euro reporting for more European countries

If you're a publisher located in Cyprus, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, Slovenia, or Vatican City, you can now switch to local currency reports to view your earnings in Euros. Once you make this change, any earnings generated from advertisers paying on other currencies will be converted to Euros each day. This also means that if you're receiving payments in Euros, there won't be any additional conversions at the end of the month when payments are issued.

Before you switch to local currency reports, we suggest you download and save copies of your past reports in U.S. dollars for your records. Once you've done that, look for the green prompt in the upper right hand corner of your Reports Overview page. Click the link in the prompt, and you'll be asked to agree to a new set of Terms and Conditions. If you have questions or need legal advice on interpreting the new Terms, please don't hesitate to contact your attorney.

We encourage you to switch to local currency reports soon, since we'll be requiring this update in the future. You can learn more about these new reports in our Help Center, and we also recommend reviewing answers to a few FAQs we covered on the blog before.

Posted by Arlene Lee - Inside AdSense Team

AdSense launched in Lithuanian, Ukrainian, and Latvian

Do you manage a site in Lithuanian, Ukrainian, or Latvian? If so, we're happy to announce that AdSense for content and AdSense for search are now available for each of these languages.

Visit the AdSense Setup tab in your account to begin generating ad and search code - our system will automatically take care of targeting ads to the content of your pages and user search queries in these three languages. If you're not yet an AdSense publisher but want to start monetizing your pages in one of these languages, we invite you to review our program policies and submit an application.

To celebrate this launch, here are a few fun facts about some of the countries where these languages are spoken:

• This year, Lithuania celebrates the millennium of the country's name (it was first recorded in 1009);
  
• Ukraine is known as one of the world's main producers of sugar;
  
• The widest rapid in Europe, Ventas Rapid, is located in Kuldiga, Latvia.
  

Welcome to all of our new Lithuanian, Ukrainian, and Latvian publishers!

Posted by Tim Evans - AdSense Product Manager

Expanding availability of local currency reports

We've been working to enable local currency reporting in more countries, and are happy to announce that this feature is now available for publishers located in Denmark and Norway. As a reminder, switching to these new reports means that all earnings generated from advertisers paying in other currencies will be converted to your local currency each day. If you receive payments in your local currency, there won't be any additional conversions at the end of the month, but you can still update your payment method and currency at any time.

If you're located in one of these countries, we recommend that you first download and save copies of your past reports in U.S. dollars for your records. Once you're ready to switch to local currency reports, sign in to your account and look for the green prompt in the upper right hand corner of your Reports Overview page. Click on the link, and you'll then be asked to agree to a new set of Terms and Conditions. If you have questions or need legal advice on interpreting the new Terms, please don't hesitate to contact your attorney.

We encourage you to switch to local currency reports soon, as we'll be requiring this change in the future. To learn more about these new reports, visit our Help Center or review common FAQs in a recent Inside AdSense blog post -- all references to 'Euros' in the post now also apply to your local currency.

Updated for accuracy

Posted by Arlene Lee - Inside AdSense Team

Local currency reports for nine more countries

Following our launch of Euro reporting for publishers in five European countries, we're happy to announce that local currency reports are now also available in Australia, Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Portugal, South Africa, Switzerland, and the UK.

If you're located in one of these countries, you can now update your account to display earnings in your local currency. After you've updated your account, any earnings generated from advertisers paying in currencies other than your local currency will be converted daily. If you receive payments in your local currency, this means that there also won't be any additional conversions at the end of the month. However, you can still choose to receive payments in U.S. Dollars or change your payment method at any time.

Before enabling local currency reports in your account, we recommend downloading and saving copies of your past reports in U.S. Dollars for your records. You can then update your account by signing in to AdSense and clicking the link in the green prompt on your Reports Overview page. You'll be asked to review and agree to a new set of Terms and Conditions. Unfortunately, we're not able to interpret the meaning of changes in our legal documents for publishers -- if you have questions or need legal advice on interpreting the new Terms, please don't hesitate to contact your attorney.

We'll be requiring this change in the future, so we recommend updating your account to report earnings in your local currency soon. You can find answers to common FAQs associated with these new local currency reports in a recent Inside AdSense blog post -- all references to 'Euros' in the post now also apply to your local currency. In addition, detailed information about these new reports can be found in our Help Center.

Posted by Arlene Lee - Inside AdSense Team

More countries go Western Union

Good news! We’ve expanded Western Union Quick Cash as a payment method to 7 new countries: Barbados, Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Nepal, Uruguay, and Vietnam. If you live in any of these locations, you can now sign up to receive your AdSense payments from your local Western Union agent. With Western Union, you’ll receive your earnings sooner, since you won't have to wait for checks to arrive in the mail or clear at the bank. Plus, AdSense won't charge you a fee to use this payment method.

Please keep in mind these important points:

• Payments will continue to follow our normal payment schedule and will be available for pickup at your local Western Union agent the day after they're issued.
  
• You'll need to present a government-issued ID that matches your AdSense payee name when picking up your payment. If you need to update or correct the payee name listed in your account, please follow the instructions in our Help Center.
  
• Right now, only individual payee names can receive payments by Western Union, not businesses.
  
• Payments must be picked up within 60 days of issue or they'll expire and be credited back to your account.
  
• Payments will be made in US dollars, but depending on your local Western Union agent, they may be picked up in your local currency.
  

These instructions will help you to sign up, and our Help Center has more info about picking up your payments and other countries where Western Union payments are currently available. We're working towards making this payment option available to publishers in additional countries, and we'll be sure to announce any updates here on the blog.

Posted by Deborah Chang - AdSense Payments Team