All over the internet there are these offers and amazing ways that we can all supposedly make money almost without effort. And they all seem like scams. Even the legitimate ones draw you in with similar ideas. I signed up for Google AdSense, just to see what would happen. After a year, I hadn't made enough to get even a single payment from them, and then they disabled my account. Recently they re-instated my account, after I explained that is was my girlfriend trying to help me out.
In between the the disabling, and the re-enabling, I tried Adbrite, an alternative ad service. It was up for about two months, and I made 37 cents (which I will never see).
What I am learning is that there is no real secret to making money from your websites. The only thing you really need is visitors. Then you can make money off ads, or even off of offerings you sell. Without the traffic, you can't make money. And getting traffic takes lots of steady work, like lots of endeavors do. You have to have good content, and continually promote yourself. Also, there is a huge luck factor.
Seems basic, but important for me to write this note about it.