Navigating the AdSense approval process nowadays is no walk in the park. While there are well-known principles and guidelines that websites should adhere to for approval, it often feels like the final decision boils down to the individual reviewing your site.
Case in point: I have a site that's been accepted on 11 different AdSense accounts. And here's the kicker - it faced rejections several times across these accounts before getting approved, without me making any changes to the site. It's puzzling, to say the least.
Moreover, I've built other sites meticulously following all AdSense guidelines: proper navigation, the inclusion of legal pages, ensuring a minimum content threshold, having human-written content, maintaining a minimum number of articles per category, ensuring traffic, and even taking into account the age of the site. Yet, the approval process has been a rollercoaster. Some accounts got rejected, then approved, then rejected again, and after a few more rejections, approved once more. It's quite inconsistent and, frankly, a bit frustrating.
It's evident that while guidelines provide a roadmap, the AdSense approval isn't always black and white. There's a gray area, and it seems to be expanding. It's a bit of a gamble if you ask me.
It depends more on country, Google prediction of your traffic value and revenue potential.
I thing that era of small blogs is over.