Year or two ago there were 2 months I did over $200. Apart from that, usually under a $100. I don't have sites that get huge traffic. Remains doing blackhat or launching a whole bunch of niche sites.
1. the first many years i never even thought about earning, i was busy creating content for almost 6 full years before I added adsense. 2. i do NO affiliate for a very simple reason I only recommend what I personally know and have tested to market aff would require me to test the products i recommend - i have no time for such, i prefer to create my own content instead. 3. i started smaller-$ of course - but a few hundred$/m because that time my adsense was fully DE-optimized - just like the adsense of most. but the first and only part i ever worried is to create more content to get more traffic, everything else is taken care by G brining more traffic resulting in more $ for content adsense. my current adsense result is the product of some 5+ million uv/yr almost doubling each year ...
there is ONE option - the most powerful one - you totally forgot in your list: take ONE site, become a TRUE expert in the topic of that ONE site then publish real value content - hundreds of pages each year that will increase your traffic by thousand or more additional uv/day year after year until you get a 4 digit increasing adsense$/m. $ is a result of traffic traffic is the result of quality unique content value content is the product of your own expertise in a field of general public usefulness and interest that attracts an ever increasing share of the global Google search traffic ... i use zero cent for ads or link exchange or any kind of paid site promotion, but i invest several thousand $ in equipment or travel needed to PRODUCE/create new content per year roughly 10-20% of my gross revenue goes into creation of new content. to have more than one site / one server - i would have to split myself into several persons - ( multiple personalities ) as one site keeps me fully busy day and night all life long - but with greatest satisfaction.
I will be in the 50-100 bracket where I am sharing 50:50 ad revenue. It's for a general blog though where the click value is not much. It's important to choose a competitive niche such as mortgage/refinance/health(specifically weight loss) and then optimize the blog for the niche keywords because the click values of these niche ads will be really very high and the adsense income will be in '000s definitely.
I agree that the poll is irrelevant for professional publishers. But for those of us still trying to become professional publishers, it is relevant. New people are coming into the adsense realm every day. Professional publishers have some sort of system all figured it out and this poll does not necessarily apply to them. As of right now, 48 people have voted and only 17% make over $500/mo. That means that as of right now, 83% of people in this forum are looking for ways to make more money with adsense. And, if you know anything about statistics, a pool of 30 votes is enough to give us an accurate look at the whole. So, I agree with you, this poll is irrelevant to professional publishers but absolutely relevant to new and struggling publishers.
I just wonder is it worth to have adsense on your sites if it earns $10-$50 / month, it seems many people doing it for 2+ years without any rise in income.