Most of you probably know what adsense is, how it works etc.. for those that don’t, take a quick look here.
Since August 2006, up until December 2006 (a period of 5 months roughly), i’ve earned over $60 on one website. An average of about $2 a week. It’s a nice bit of income which helps pay the server costs & domain name. If i REALLY wanted to, i could submit to thousands of directories, use aggressive advertising techniques, revamp the site layout etc… to get more income…
But to be honest, i couldn’t be bothered. That site (theleavingcert.com) was setup to help people, not to make money. I want to keep it that way. I don’t want to turn it into a page full of popup ads and junk links. Adsense allows me to earn money, whilst providing relevant links to my viewers.
So it’s a win-win situation. I get paid whilst users get to browse other similar sites. Once i make $100, adsense send me out a check for that amount. Once i get that check, i’ll be sure to blog about it 
Many ‘experts’ believe that you need to customize ad location/colour and blend them in so that they fool users into thinking the ads are content. I’m not a fan of that method myself. I believe – yes – for everyone’s sanity, ads shouldn’t be gaudy, neon colours that stand out a mile, but i believe they shouldn’t be blended in to the point where users think they’re clicking on content.
As you can see on theleavingcert.com, i’ve blended ads in, but not too much. Basically, they look like ads but don’t catch your eye or fool you. That’s how it should be imo.
