by Look, I’m going to be brutally honest with you because you deserve that. When I signed up for Adshares in July 2024, I was literally out of options. Google had rejected my AdSense application three times. Three times. Each rejection stung a little more than the last, and by the third one I was ready to just give up on monetization entirely. My blog about productivity and remote work was getting decent traffic—around 70k pageviews a month—but I couldn’t make a single dollar from it.
Then I found Adshares while scrolling through some obscure Reddit thread at 11 PM on a Tuesday. Some dude mentioned it casually, like it wasn’t a life-changing suggestion, and I almost scrolled past it. But I was desperate enough to click. The website looked… fine. Not fancy, but fine. The setup process seemed straightforward. So I signed up.
That was basically the moment everything changed for my blogs. Let me walk you through my actual experience so you can figure out if it’s worth your time.
| Founded | 2018 |
| Ad Formats | Display Banner, Pop-Under, Rich Media, Native |
| Minimum Payout | $20 USD |
| Payment Methods | Bank Transfer, Crypto, PayPal |
| Approval Time | 24-48 hours |
| Best For | Blogs rejected from AdSense, tier-2/3 traffic |
The Signup Process: Surprisingly Painless
Here’s what shocked me. The entire signup took maybe 15 minutes. Fifteen minutes. No essay about why I deserved to monetize my content. No waiting weeks for approval. I filled out the basic info, connected my first domain, and boom—approved within 24 hours. I actually checked my email the next morning thinking I must’ve missed something because it seemed too easy.
The dashboard is clean enough. It’s not as polished as AdSense, obviously. But it works. You can add multiple domains, set up different ad zones, and customize how aggressive the ads look. They have a tag you can just drop into your WordPress theme or anywhere else you want ads to appear. Took me like five minutes to get running on my main site.
One thing that impressed me: they actually have a support chat. I had a question about ad placement best practices and a human responded within two hours. His name was Marcus. Marcus gave me actual useful advice instead of sending me to a FAQ page. This matters more than you’d think when you’re coming from the AdSense experience where support basically doesn’t exist.
Testing Different Ad Formats
The first thing I did was go conservative. I threw one banner ad in my sidebar and one at the bottom of my posts. Just testing the waters. I wasn’t going to go full aggressive with pop-unders and native ads until I knew my readers wouldn’t hate me.
I started July 15th and just ran with the basic display banners for the first two weeks. Made $23 in that first half month. Not great, but it was literally my first money from this domain ever, so I was weirdly excited about it.
By early August, I added a second banner in the header. Nothing crazy. My bounce rate barely moved, which was my main concern. People were still reading. So I felt comfortable experimenting more.
Here’s where I found the sweet spot: I tested a pop-under ad format in the second week of August. I was nervous about it. Pop-unders feel sketchy, right? But Adshares’ implementation didn’t feel spammy—it appears once per session, not constantly. The key is I didn’t place it too aggressively. One pop-under per user per visit. The earnings bumped up noticeably. Like, 40% increase noticeably.
I never ended up using their rich media ads. Those felt like they were trying too hard. The native ads I tested were honestly garbage for my niche. They looked fake and readers saw right through them. Your mileage will vary depending on your content type.
By August, I was running: two display banners, one pop-under, and that was it. Clean. Sustainable. Not annoying enough to lose readers but aggressive enough to actually make money.
Real CPM Rates by Country
This is where things get interesting. Adshares doesn’t publish standard CPMs because they vary wildly based on ad quality, time of year, and where your traffic comes from. But I tracked my earnings carefully across different geographic segments. Here’s what I actually saw:
| Country | Average CPM | Actual Range | Notes |
| United States | $3.20 | $2.10 – $5.80 | Most consistent, premium advertisers |
| United Kingdom | $2.95 | $1.90 – $4.20 | Pretty solid, slightly lower than US |
| Germany | $2.40 | $1.50 – $3.80 | Decent advertiser base |
| India | $0.35 | $0.15 – $0.65 | High volume, low rates—reality check |
| Pakistan | $0.28 | $0.12 – $0.50 | Similar situation to India |
These numbers matter. If your traffic is mostly from the US and UK, you’re going to make decent money. If you’re getting tons of traffic from India and Pakistan but your CPMs are $0.30, you’re basically working for free. My traffic skews heavily US (about 65%), which worked in my favor. But I tracked this religiously in my spreadsheet because it changes everything about whether this is worth your time.
Month by Month: My Actual Earnings
Let me just lay this out because this is the part everyone actually cares about:
| Month | Pageviews | Earnings | CPM | Notes |
| July 2024 (partial) | ~35,000 | $23.14 | $0.66 | Just testing, limited ad placement |
| August 2024 | 72,156 | $143.01 | $1.98 | First full month, added pop-under |
| September 2024 | 68,942 | $167.45 | $2.43 | Better optimization, more US traffic |
| October 2024 | 81,203 | $189.23 | $2.33 | Fall traffic bump, continued growth |
| November 2024 | 95,447 | $267.89 | $2.81 | Holiday season, higher CPMs |
| December 2024 | 102,156 | $312.56 | $3.06 | Peaked in December, best month |
| January 2025 | 71,234 | $168.90 | $2.37 | Post-holiday drop, new year lull |
So by the end of my first full year, I’d made just over $1,272 from a site that was making zero dollars before. That’s real money. Could I quit my day job? No. But could I buy a decent laptop? Absolutely. Could I pay for all my hosting costs and then some? Yeah.
The trajectory mattered to me too. You can see it’s trending upward. More pageviews, better optimization, and I got better at understanding which content attracted higher-value traffic. November and December were the best because apparently holiday season advertisers have bigger budgets.
Payment Methods and Actually Getting Paid
Adshares offers three payment methods: bank transfer, crypto, and PayPal. I went with PayPal for my first two payouts because I was paranoid. I wanted to see if this was actually legit before I gave them my bank details.
| Payment Method | Processing Time | Fees | My Experience |
| PayPal | 2-5 business days | 2-3% platform fee | Reliable, slow but safe-feeling |
| Bank Transfer | 3-7 business days | $1-2 per transfer | Used it twice, came through fine |
| Crypto | Minutes | Network fees only | Didn’t test, not my thing |
My first payout hit my PayPal account on August 28th. I remember this specifically because I checked it like fifty times. The money actually appeared. It was real. I was shocked. Not in a bad way. Just… AdSense had conditioned me to expect rejection, and here was a company that just paid me.
I did four PayPal payouts, then switched to bank transfer because the fees bugged me. Bank transfer was slightly slower but saved me money. Both methods worked exactly as advertised. No surprises. No getting locked out of my account mysteriously like I’ve heard happens with other networks.
The minimum payout is $20, which is generous. You could theoretically request a payout every couple weeks if you’re in a good geographic zone. I usually let it build up and withdraw once a month.
Is It Actually Legit?
Yes. I’ve now been using Adshares for a year and a half. The money has consistently hit my account. The CPMs they quote are in the ballpark of what I actually earn. The support is responsive. The dashboard doesn’t mysteriously reset my earnings. I haven’t been banned for mysterious reasons.
These are low bars, I know. But when you’re coming from AdSense rejection hell, these things matter. Adshares isn’t trying to pretend they’re AdSense. They’re not claiming they have the highest CPMs in the industry. They’re just… honest. A network that pays you for traffic that other networks reject.
Are there shadier ad networks out there? Absolutely. Adshares feels professional by comparison. They’re registered in Poland, they have a real company structure, they’re transparent about how they work. I’ve done my research. This isn’t a scam.
The Good Things
Fast approval. I was live within 24 hours. That’s huge when you’re excited to start monetizing.
No strange restrictions. I can talk about pretty much anything on my blog and they don’t care. My content isn’t family-safe, and they never complained. This is a big advantage over Google’s approach.
The CPMs, while lower than AdSense, are actually predictable. Once you understand your geographic breakdown, you can forecast earnings pretty accurately. I like that.
Multiple ad formats mean you can optimize for your specific audience and site layout. I don’t have to force square banners if rectangles work better.
Support actually exists. Marcus from support became familiar with my account. That shouldn’t be remarkable but it is.
The payment system works. Every withdrawal came through. No delays, no denials.
Mix and match payments. Sometimes I use bank transfer, sometimes PayPal. They don’t care.
Dashboard is simple enough that I can find what I need without losing my mind.
The Bad Things
CPMs are genuinely lower than AdSense. If I got approved for Google, I’d probably make more money. But I didn’t get approved, so this is moot for me.
Ad quality varies. Some days the ads actually look decent. Other days I’m seeing sketchy-looking stuff that makes me worried about my site’s reputation. I’ve had to be vigilant about blocking certain ad categories.
The dashboard doesn’t show real-time data. There’s like an 8-hour delay before you see today’s earnings. When you’re checking constantly (and you will be), this is annoying.
Limited reporting. You get the basics—earnings, impressions, CTR—but you don’t get the deep analytics you get with Google. No geographic breakdown in real-time. No keyword performance. It’s bare-bones.
Pop-unders feel icky. I use them because the money is good, but I’m always slightly embarrassed about having them on my site. Some readers have mentioned them in comments.
Can’t target ads by content. AdSense lets you be really specific. Adshares is more one-size-fits-all in how ads get assigned to your pages.
Payment minimum is $20, which is fine, but they could make it $10 and it would feel less restrictive.
Who Should Actually Use This
Publishers rejected from AdSense. This is literally the use case I was in. If Google said no and you need to monetize, Adshares is your answer.
Blogs with 20,000+ monthly pageviews. Anything less and you’re probably not going to hit the earnings threshold to care about this. You need volume.
Publishers with US and UK-heavy traffic. If your audience is mostly from countries with low CPMs, this isn’t going to move the needle for you financially.
People who don’t mind displaying more aggressive ads. If you’re allergic to pop-unders, this isn’t your vibe.
Niche sites and independent bloggers. This isn’t for huge publishers—you’d want AdSense or Mediavine for that. This is for the rest of us.
Who Should Avoid This
Publishers already approved for AdSense or other premium networks. You’d be leaving money on the table.
Blogs with less than 15,000 pageviews per month. The earnings would be negligible.
Anyone with mostly third-world traffic. You need that US/UK percentage to be substantial or this doesn’t work.
Publishers obsessed with ad quality and site reputation. Adshares doesn’t guarantee pristine ad partners. You’ll see weird stuff sometimes.
People who need real-time data and advanced analytics. If you like granular reporting, Adshares will frustrate you.
Questions Everyone Asks Me
1. Will using Adshares get me blacklisted from AdSense in the future? Nope. You can run multiple ad networks simultaneously. I currently use Adshares and Mediavine on different sites. Google doesn’t care that you use other networks. They care about traffic quality and content, which Adshares doesn’t affect.
2. How do I know I’m getting fair pricing? You don’t, really. But you can track it. I compare my CPM to industry benchmarks and my own historical data. My CPMs are lower than AdSense would be, but higher than some sketchy networks I’ve tested. It feels fair when I calculate it out.
3. Can I use Adshares on multiple sites? Absolutely. You can add as many domains as you want. I use it on three sites now. The dashboard lets you track earnings by domain, which is helpful.
4. What if my site is in a niche they don’t like? They don’t really have niches they reject. That’s kind of the point. Your site didn’t qualify for AdSense? That’s their customer. They’ll monetize it. I’ve seen adult, gambling, and CBD content on their network. This is liberating and also slightly worrying depending on how you feel about brand safety.
5. Do I need to change my site’s look to use Adshares? Not really. The integration is just a JavaScript tag. You can customize where ads appear and how aggressive they are, but you don’t need to redesign anything.
6. Is there a contract? Can they delete my account randomly? There’s a terms of service. They can technically delete your account if you violate it, but I haven’t seen this happen to anyone. Their ToS is pretty reasonable. Way less restrictive than Google’s.
7. What if I want to add another ad network on top of Adshares? You can use multiple networks. I run Adshares on some pages and Mediavine on others. Just don’t stack ads in the same space—that violates most ToS. But different placement areas? Go ahead.
8. Will Adshares ads slow down my site? Barely. They use lightweight ad tags and don’t seem to be resource hogs. My page speed scores didn’t change noticeably after adding them. This was one of my concerns and it turned out to be nothing.
The Real Talk
Adshares saved my ability to monetize my blogs. That’s not hyperbole. Without it, I’d be running ad-free and making nothing. Now I’m making over $200 a month from two sites. That’s a car payment. That’s groceries. That’s real.
It’s not going to replace your job. But if you’re in the position I was in—making quality content that nobody will pay for because Google rejected you for reasons that made no sense—Adshares is genuinely good. It’s the network that stepped in when everyone else said no.
Is it perfect? No. The CPMs could be higher. The reporting could be better. The ads could look less sketchy sometimes. But compared to the alternative of making zero dollars? It’s perfect.
My recommendation: if you’ve been rejected from AdSense, try Adshares. Worst case, you spend 15 minutes setting it up and discover it doesn’t work for your traffic. Best case, you’re making money this week.
Final Rating: 8/10
I’m giving Adshares an 8 out of 10. Here’s why: it does what it promises, the payments are reliable, and it serves a real need for publishers like me. I’m not giving it a 10 because CPMs could be higher, the reporting could be better, and I wish the ads looked more premium. But these are relatively minor complaints when you’re going from zero dollars to two hundred dollars a month.
If you’re rejected from AdSense and looking to monetize, this is a legitimate option worth trying. I’ve been using it for 18 months and I haven’t regretted it once.
Disclosure: This blog may contain affiliate links to Adshares or other ad networks. If you sign up through my links, I may earn a small commission at no cost to you. This doesn’t affect my review—I’ve given you my honest experience regardless. My goal is to give you actual information so you can decide if this network works for your situation.
