The Learning Curve -- AdSense and SSL Part VII
This evening I sat down to do some more work on the Starship Cat Press website. My primary focus was on getting the mobile-devices CSS fixed so that the site would be usable on smartphones. However, I also wanted to get it set up so that it would automatically serve as https, even if the original request was http, and to deal with some issues with AdSense across all my sites.
That was where things got Interesting. Finding the necessary code to paste in was relatively easy. However, I then had to figure out where to put the code. First, I had to get hidden files to show up for me. Then I discovered the hard way that each add-on domain has its own .htaccess file in its root directory, and each one needed to be individually modified. At that point, I discovered that the /starshipcatpress directory was missing its .htaccess file. Since I wasn't sure what was going on, I decided it would be best to get some help so I didn't make a worse mess.
So I went on my webhosting company's live chat and talked with a tech who looked over my cPanel and finally suggested several fixes. I ended up going with just creating an .htaccess file and pasting the proper code into it. So it too now automatically loads as https, even if the request is http.
Then I went over to the AdSense website to sort things out. In an earlier visit I'd received a notification that my earnings (such as they are) were endangered because my websites lacked a file known as ads.txt, which would identify them as accepting ads from Google AdSense. However, when I'd tried to follow the directions, it failed to download.
This time I decided to try to go in a different browser, since Firefox for the Mac does have some peculiarities as a result of having been a port of the Linux version, rather than being coded specifically for the Mac OS. Once I got on Safari, I was able to download the file without any problem. From there it was just a matter of going back to my cPanel and getting it uploaded on each of my websites that have AdSense ads on them.
Eventually I'm going to have to shift all of my AdSense sites over to the new auto-ads system, starting with the business website. However, right now I have the critical things taken care of, and over the next three days I really need to focus on getting everything ready for Tampa Bay Comic Con. So when I return, hopefully with the photos I need to properly show off our current setup and line of products, I want to dig in on the business website and get it up to snuff.
And in September and October, when we're going to be in a relatively slow period for the retail business, I want to dig in on fixing Grandma's Depression Memories, The Economicon, and I'm Out of Work, I Need a Job.
And to think that all of this started this time last year, when I was poking around some of my websites and discovered the ads weren't displaying on some pages.
That was where things got Interesting. Finding the necessary code to paste in was relatively easy. However, I then had to figure out where to put the code. First, I had to get hidden files to show up for me. Then I discovered the hard way that each add-on domain has its own .htaccess file in its root directory, and each one needed to be individually modified. At that point, I discovered that the /starshipcatpress directory was missing its .htaccess file. Since I wasn't sure what was going on, I decided it would be best to get some help so I didn't make a worse mess.
So I went on my webhosting company's live chat and talked with a tech who looked over my cPanel and finally suggested several fixes. I ended up going with just creating an .htaccess file and pasting the proper code into it. So it too now automatically loads as https, even if the request is http.
Then I went over to the AdSense website to sort things out. In an earlier visit I'd received a notification that my earnings (such as they are) were endangered because my websites lacked a file known as ads.txt, which would identify them as accepting ads from Google AdSense. However, when I'd tried to follow the directions, it failed to download.
This time I decided to try to go in a different browser, since Firefox for the Mac does have some peculiarities as a result of having been a port of the Linux version, rather than being coded specifically for the Mac OS. Once I got on Safari, I was able to download the file without any problem. From there it was just a matter of going back to my cPanel and getting it uploaded on each of my websites that have AdSense ads on them.
Eventually I'm going to have to shift all of my AdSense sites over to the new auto-ads system, starting with the business website. However, right now I have the critical things taken care of, and over the next three days I really need to focus on getting everything ready for Tampa Bay Comic Con. So when I return, hopefully with the photos I need to properly show off our current setup and line of products, I want to dig in on the business website and get it up to snuff.
And in September and October, when we're going to be in a relatively slow period for the retail business, I want to dig in on fixing Grandma's Depression Memories, The Economicon, and I'm Out of Work, I Need a Job.
And to think that all of this started this time last year, when I was poking around some of my websites and discovered the ads weren't displaying on some pages.