About the same, with AdSense displayed less prominently than a year ago. (CTR is down somewhat, but EPC is up quite a bit.)

Much, much less this year.

2004 was my peak.

Much, much less this year. 2006 was my peak.

Now, definitely. Last year I quit my day job and I've put a lot of time into my sites. My second largest site has been growing constantly this year and seeing record traffic levels.

Less.
I have been searching for alternatives though and my total income is more than last year.

Much less right now. My million dollar question is to know if I have reached the bottom.

AdSense In the adjustment

I thought I was doing better for a time but apparently I'm right back at square zero and doing exactly the same as last year, after substantial traffic growth, additional content creation and countless hours of work on many sites, mind you. Unless it's just a freakishly lousy month (and with what's happening in the "real" world, it wouldn't surprising). You have to be patient with adsense though and look at a long term chart if you don't want to go crazy. But even that one is starting to become flat.

L E $ $

About the same.

Considerably more, and not in my case due to added pages or traffic.... The increase is entirely due to EPC increase.

when everybody is getting less, what is the current way to go

Who said everybody's getting less? You're looking at a very small sampling of forum posters who indicate their earnings are less now than they were. What percentage they comprise of the whole is unknown. For every 20 who report their earnings being down, there may very well be 20 others who are seeing significant increases, yet for reasons of their own don't feel inclined to share this information.

The current way to go? The best advice I've ever heard on this forum was to ignore the stats and create good, original content and lots of it. There is no "one size fits all" but that one's pretty close. Work your SEO. Build quality link relationships with other sites in your niche, pray to the white hat gods every night before you go to sleep. Make sites that people want to visit and will tell their friends about. Update often to keep them coming back. Above all, play it clean. Do all of that and you'll make money with this program. May not be enough to retire on but it'll come.

Heck, all I wanted to do was cover hosting costs and renew a few domains when I started out. I've done that plus some.

more. probably only because I have not had it on my site year ago =))

Mine are up on last year, but have been static this year. Groth in traffic was higher last year, and so far this year CTR fall has balanced traffic groth.

I'm starting to diversify a bit - I've had requests for direct advertising, but most seem to be after PR passing links. Planning to put a page up that shows advertising rates and arrangements and see what happens.

September is my highest earnings month ever since joining the program four years ago. Go figure. Earnings in the dumps for over a year and then this month it nearly doubles?!?

Like many here, I've had very frustrating days trying to reverse the downward AdSense earnings spiral. On several occasions I had really all but given up that there was anything I could do and figured the golden days of AdSense were through. Looks like I was wrong! :-)

Considerably more; I hit my 2007 number at the end of July. I have a different mix of sites now though - more in some areas, and I retired a couple others (or just took AdSense off them) My core site is running about 160% of last year's earnings as of the beginning of September.

For the year to Aug 31 my total earnings are down almost 10% over last year but EPC is up about 20%.
The number of page impressions is about the same.

Up strongly, but my site is still comparatively new and growing.

Well I have been adding some numbers since I have this local Earned Income Tax that I have to pay quarterly and seeing your post made me also add up the numbers for my 2007 earnings and I can definitely say that I am earning more this year (so far :) - than I did last year.

So far I'm earning 50% more of what I earned last year!
Goody!

Even with a lower ctr and cpm numbers this year my earnings have definitely increased!

More.

But if CPC doesn't pick up soon it will be noticeably (but not crushingly) lower this year.

Mine earnings are up. I've been optimizing pages and adding content, plus I write on various topics daily. (my archives are getting huge!).

Advice to those making less: Don't worry about it, build and grow your site(s). The ads, G's algo and money are in a constant state of flux. One also should consider their niche or market area as the economic landscape is also changing.

Much more this year, due to much higher CPM.

2006 was our peak, inventory is being spread out now amongst many networks and I sleep much better at night.

2008 v 2007 Just over 11% less
2007 v 2006 Just over 17% less
2008 v 2006 Nearly 27% less

2006 best year however EPC 2008 +12.5% v 2007 & 2006

Unfortunately it's the only game in town for many of us, we have to take what we are offered or can use.

Much more and much less!

- More overall compared to last year.
- Much Less given the %'age of traffic and inventory now allocated to Google compared to last year.

More than last year, but dropping steadily since January. Last October my Adsense seemed to have kicked into high gear.
All the steam I had built up early in the year is gone, and I'm back down to about where I was last year now.
This is leading me to DIVERSIFY more. I had taken everyone's advice here and didn't put all my eggs in one basket. But now I'm getting more baskets.
And thanks again to everyone out there...without your varied input, I would have been sunk.

I am about the same. I think I've been overestimating the number of people using AdBlock. I thought awhile back that apps like that would really catch on and hurt us all, glad I was wrong on that count.

Good Money this year :-)