One thing that you'll probably want to do, and it works well when working with channels, is to test out different things to see what works best for your site. What works good on many might not perform so well on your site, but by trying different colours and placements, you can have start to earn more.
I looked up about which keywords cost more using the Google Adwords tool, and from there added some of those keywords to my site instead of the similar ones that I'd already been using and right away noticed an increase in my earnings. That's why I like to compare things and try different things out to try and maximize the potential earnings.
But yea, like it's been said, it's really hard to make much money unless you get lots of hits. I get around 900 hits a day or so total to the different sites that I've created, and that still only gets me a small amount each day from Google Adsense. Obviously some days are more and some are less, but still, the amounts I'm earning isn't very high. But at least it's going up, because it used to take me a year to get enough for a check, but now it takes much less time than that. As the site grows, the hits grow and so do to the pennies that show up in my account.














