Adsense is a gold mine, you just have to know how to manipulate it. And you dont have to violate the TOS to do so. First of all if your only getting 5 or 10 cents per click, your in the wrong niche pick something else. Mortgage seems to always have a pretty descent click rate, nothing under .50/click. Placement is key. If you place your ads right above your opening paragraph your gonna get WAY more clicks than you did before. This is what I do, and I have been doing it for years now and google has never said a word to me because its not against their TOS. Place your title, adsense then body just like this. (Title)Want a new car or truck? Look below for some hot info and great deals. Place one or 2 blocks of adsense here the large rectangle of 336X280 is your best bet. MAKE SURE YOU BLEND IT IN WITH YOUR BACKGROUND. If your background is black so should your ads. Make the whole ad black except for your title, web address and wording. This will make it look more like a site index or part of your website. If your ad blends in and it is the first thing that people see when they go to your site your gonna get clicks. If you are in a high paying niche, BANK! I make about 2k a month from adsense. You can use Search Engine Optimization, social bookmarking, or even posting to forums such as this and classified sites! Its actually pretty easy. Here is an example of what I am talking about.
Promoting clicks is TOS and can get banned. As far as i know, you are not suppose to write, "Hot deals" or any thing which brought up attention for user to click below. Make sure you are doing it right before getting in to any sort of trouble Good luck Joey
Well, first off. I want to thank you for the time you spend on typing all that. 1)Your first point in finding a high paying niche and working on it, personally- BS. Find something you love and work on that. You will find success. (PS: making sites on mortage and leaving it for the clicks?- Made for Adsense - Ban) 2)Then your text "Want a new car or truck? Look below for some hot info and great deals." I don't think thats allowed. - Ban. You should read this - http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2005/05/15-common-mistakes-by-google-adsense-publishers/
I have not read the TOS but i think google might not ban just for placing adds at a wrong place in your page.