Earnings At Risk – You Need To Fix Some Ads.txt File Issues To Avoid Severe Impact To Your Revenue

by | Aug 19, 2019 | Web Development | 0 comments

I got this message from Google Adsense not too long ago and finally got around to addressing it. Don’t be intimidated by this task – it’s not as difficult to resolve. There’s a neat guide provided here: Google’s Ads.txt Guide. The guide is good BUT there was a lot of extra information I didn’t need. A couple of steps that helped me are listed below for quick reference. Take note that I only use WordPress self-hosted sites and a few Blogger-hosted sites.

  1. Go to your Google Adsense account and at the top, you will see a message saying “Earnings at risk – You need to fix some ads.txt file issues to avoid severe impact to your revenue.” To the right of this message will be two links: “Fix Now” and “Learn More”. Click on Fix Now. A download link button will be available for you not too far down the page with a list of sites you’ve associated with your Google Adsense account. Click the download link and take note of where your Ads.txt file is saved.
  2. For WordPress self-hosted sites, I use a cool plugin called File Manager. You could go to cPanel for this step but I opted to do it all from within my WordPress backend. With File Manager installed, I simply navigated to WP File Manager on the left-hand side of my WordPress backend and selected my “public_html” destination which is the root level of my website and simply drag-dropped the Ads.txt file in there.
  3. For Blogger hosted-sites, it’s a little different because they have a specific custom ads.txt “tool” which you can edit and save. So first you need to copy the contents of the previously downloaded Ads.txt file which will look something like this “google.com, pub-0000000000000000, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0”. Once this was copied into my clipboard, I logged into my Blogger account and navigated to Settings>Search Preferences and looked for Custom ads.text under Monetization. Enable Custom ads.txt and click edit, then paste in the contents of your Ads.txt file in here and click save. Your set!
  4. Test out by navigating to your sites ads.txt location. Sample www.abc.com/ads.txt, if all was done correctly you’ll see something like “google.com, pub-0000000000000000, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0”.

Sources:

  • https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/7532444?hl=en&ref_topic=7533328
  • https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-file-manager/
  • https://support.google.com/blogger/answer/1269077?hl=en

Access To A Better Way Of Life

There is so much information in books be it non-fiction or fiction.. what we do with that information is up to us.. regardless of the topic. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Reading is not just an escape. It is access to a better way of life. -Karin Slaughter, novelist (b. 6 Jan...

How Much Sleep Do We Need?

There is a cool infographic that shows how much sleep we need based on age provided by sleepfoundation.org. The data was provided by a published research paper published on sleephealthjournal.org. Link to graphic: Sleep Duration Recommendations I was always curious...

Distracted Driving, Don’t Do It

Many will argue that through practice and training, one can text and drive, or even master the art of taking a phone call on an earpiece or through the speakerphone when in reality, any distraction, hands-free or not, will increase your chances of being distracted.

Meet Tesla’s Roadster (2020)

“The quickest car in the world, with record-setting acceleration, range and performance.” – Tesla

Anger Is A Great Force..

So true. A THOUGHT FOR TODAY: Anger is a great force. If you control it, it can be transmuted into a power which can move the whole world. -William Shenstone, poet (18 Nov 1714-1763) Source: http://wordsmith.org/words/defenestration.html

HP Compaq SFF Desktop Beeps 4 Times?

This is what worked for me when I encountered the dreaded “4 Beeps” instead of a normal boot up!

My Dead Dad’s Porno Tapes

“A beautiful tribute to a complicated but devoted father-son relationship.” – Vimeo Curation

Wired Keyboard For iPhone

So there are 2 wired keyboards that I'm currently sold on with regards to doing some serious typing on an iPhone while traveling or on the go without carrying the laptop or tablet around. The Griffin Wired Keyboard https://youtu.be/VHRCG77RLcE   Devicewear...

How To Fit a Full Outfit Into Your Socks

Trying to pack a full outfit as compact as possible can be challenging but there is a way!

Eclipse 2017: One Nation Under The Sun

Moving video of the 2017’s Solar Eclipse experience.