for example CTR of 10% is good and still considered normal

In 11 years I've never had 10% over a month, last month's for me was 2.01% and I know for a fact a lot of people are very jealous about that since they tell me their CTR is well below 1%.

10% seems abnormally high, occasional days possibly and I have had them, 50% and flags would be waving like crazy at The Plex.

Since day one of AdSense, I've never personally seen anything exceeding 5%, and that was back in the olden days.

A rarity today would be 2%, and who knows what actually gets clawed back? For years the rough norm for me would be around 1% with daily gyrations above and below that.

My CTR is really consistent,at just 0.4 %

*0.04%

A rarity today would be 2%

Not necessarily.

Mine started out at a little over 2% and is now steadily below 1% across the month.

Not necessarily

I was speaking personally.

There is no doubt AdSense lends itself well to certain types of sites. The classic case I recollect is the one example AdSense used themselves a few years ago. Camera sites.

One person could have a real quality site discussing all aspects of cameras and photography. It would achieve a certain level of AdSense performance.

Another site would be devoted to the latest all singing, all dancing cameras. It is so respected, buyers flock there to find the ins and outs of the latest camera offerings. Visitors are so impressed, and are in the buying frame of mind, that it enjoys spectacular AdSense success.

Like all things in life, it's "horses for courses" and "your mileage might vary".

My sites were never buying sites - technical books excepted, and they were only added via Amazon back in 1998 to monetise the site to pay for ever escalating hosting costs. Had I not done that, I could not possibly have been able to continue affording the costs.

I took a three month gamble that Amazon would generate enough income to cover my costs. It did - had it not I was quite prepared to pull the site down. Back in those days there were nowhere near the number of sites around as we have today, certainly not many in my genre.

Something else to consider is that if the service or information you provide is too perfect, there's no need for your visitors to look anywhere else.
Obviously you want to tailor your content so that people find you first in a search, but don't forget to leave room for your advertisers to complete the circle.
Leave people curious, wanting just a little bit more, and they might be more inclined to take an interest in one of your ads.

Since Nov 2003 until today Avg. is 2.75.
Hard to believe is was that long ago.

[webmasterworld.com...] from 2003

Hard to believe is was that long ago.

[webmasterworld.com...] from 2003

Now that is a REAL blast from the past.

Thanks for the memories. Who back then knew what was about to unfold? In my case Pandora's box just opened up.