I am happy to say that making money with your site, no matter the topic, has become easier than it's ever been before - and it's 100% legitimate. If AdSense had been available in 2000, I would have NEVER shut down my soap opera fan site that received 200 hits per day. I would have been able to earn money from that traffic and probably turned a small profit. download: http://google-adsnses.blogspot.com/
Yes, I remember life before 2003 was hard At the time I was still doing freelancing jobs and the ads were paying very little. But I should at that time began to try affiliates programs. I only started AFTER registering to adsense, and by that time it was way easier to earn money with adsense by increasing my traffic rather than starting to learn the skills to perform in affiliates programs. Now I'm also making money in affiliates program, but that's because I have traffic, not because the content of my sites are targeted to affiliates programs. I'm sure I could have earned much more money if all those years were spent at increasing my skills in affiliates programs, but I'm not complaining nevertheless.