Guides/Monetize your site/Earn money from ads

Earn money from ads

Last reviewed on November 30, 2025

If you want to make money with advertisements on your WordPress.com site, WordAds is our official advertising program for site owners. This guide will show you how to start earning an income from ads with WordAds.

About WordAds

Enable WordAds on your site to start showing ads throughout your content. We do all the hard work for you — including placing the ads, negotiating with advertisers, tracking views, and issuing your earnings — all you need to do is activate WordAds on your site.

WordAds displays ads on tens of millions of websites, reaching over one billion people a month. Over 50 internet advertisers — including Google AdSense & Adx, AppNexus, Amazon A9, AOL Marketplace, Yahoo, Criteo, and more — bid to display their clients’ ads in WordAds spots.

While you can run WordAds and other ad programs (such as Google AdSense) at the same time, we recommend that you run only one ad program at a time. Running multiple ad sources will not necessarily result in more earnings. You are likely to make more money if you choose one preferred ad program.

Requirements

To enable WordAds on your site, you will need the following:

WordAds will not be available if your site is marked mature.

Join the WordAds program

To opt into WordAds, take the following steps:

  1. Visit your site’s dashboard.
  2. Navigate to Jetpack → Monetize.
  3. Click the “Earn ad revenue” button.
  4. Click the “Join WordAds” button on the Settings tab:
The Join WordAds button is marked with an arrow.

Ad appearance

WordAds includes a variety of ad types, including display, video, native, and sticky. We occasionally test other types of ads for brief periods. Here are a few examples of what ads look like on different websites:

Ads will match your visitor’s location and language. While the ad placements and layouts are the same globally, most countries have their own advertisers. This means that only the advertisers and their creatives themselves differ.

Ad position

Ads will appear in different places on your site depending on the visibility options you choose in your ad settings. Please note that ad placement is determined by each theme, and not every theme may have the same ad spaces.

You can insert an Ad block into any spot you wish to place an additional ad. Please note that inserting too many ads on your site can negatively impact your earning. More ad blocks do not equal more earnings.

We continuously optimize ads for performance, and placements are subject to change. 

Ad content

Ads are served from our ad network and based on the browser history of that particular visitor. The ads you see may differ from those another visitor to your site will see.

It is not possible to choose the advertisers or types of ads displayed on your site.

We do our best to maintain the highest standards for ads we display through WordAds. We have the ability to block specific ads network-wide, so if you see an ad featuring inappropriate content (like sex, drugs, or violence), report the ad.

Learn more about ads

Collect ad earnings

This guide will show you how to see and receive your earnings from ads on your website.

Track your ads

This guide will show you how to monitor the performance of your WordAds ads on your site.

Troubleshooting WordAds

Troubleshoot common issues with WordAds, including ads not showing, earnings delays, and low revenue.

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