Short answer: it depends.

Long answer: .....

There are SO MANY factors when it comes to your earnings! Where your traffic comes from, where your user is located, what device they are using, what kind of content you provide (think financial magazine vs. 9gag).

For example: if you are a financial website focused on trading commodities with an US audience and you have mainly problem-solving content that generate organic traffic- your RPM might be in the range of $30-50 - these are real numbers. And if you are a meme website that gets traffic from facebook in India- you're lucky if your RPM is $0.02.

Saying "normal RPM" is like saying "normal price for a car". There are so many different cars in so many different conditions.

My recommendation, especially in the beginning, don't compete with others but compete with yourself. Try different ad networks. Try different ad formats. Try different placements. Try to be 1% better every day. Over time your tiny improvements will accumulate and pay off, but it takes time to get there.

With all that being said, disable your ad blocker and check out your competition. Copy their layouts if you want. Check out what ad networks they are using. Experiment.

Good luck!

Thanks Lucky. Yes you're right...my question was probably over simplified & too general. Didn't want to stick with AdSense too long if what AdSense is paying is too low. I guess the best experiement (to determine best company for my website RPM)...would be to keep everything the same...but change ad company...and see how things differ. Thanks again. : )

Excepting affiliate programs, I doubt you'll find something better than Adsense, and your RPM of .87 . If you do, do not hesitate to share your finds :).

Now, all depends of your niche, the profile of your visitors and how they find your site(s)

Thanks Dimitri. Just so happens I just answered these questions a short while ago in a different location...thus I have the numbers handy. : )

* 57% of visitors from North America (United States & Canada).
* 72% of visitors from United States, Canada, UK, and Australia.
* Website niche is electronics (computers, smartphones, tablets, etc.).

Yes...affiliate programs may be my next step. Have already had contacts from salespersons that want to advertise on my site...with revenue amounts a lot larger than what AdSense is paying. Trying to get my website in order/designed...to have all the advertising slots in place so the affiliate advertising will be "plug & play". : )

Thanks

with revenue amounts a lot larger than what AdSense is paying.

Sounds about right... Sales people always promise the sky but rarely deliver.
AdSense Average rpm is said to be 2$ (no source to support this claim), but the distribution is skewed with many people making less and few making a lot more. So exactly as LuckyD said.

In fact AdSense earnings vary even for a specific site. What you earned at some point in the past is not guaranteed in the future.

Yes...I realize sales folks will always present the absolute best numbers to get the business. Then when those numbers don't happen...then they say..."Well...because of this & this & this"...we didn't hit the predictions. lol

I checked my AdSense RPM a little while ago...and I think it's higher than $.87 now. Maybe the ads over time are being fed from AdSense differently...more website niche specific & only the more profitable one's (since AdSense wants to make more $$$ too). ; )

I have adsense on my main site and on a little hobby site that I hardly ever bother to maintain.

The hobby site gets 4 times the RPM of the main site.

Wow piatkow...that's quite a difference. Thanks for sharing that info. : )

for forum traffic, sounds about right.

If I'm reading the numbers correctly...I believe RPM has gone up. The RPM of $.87 I mentioned in the beginning of the thread I think was for U.S. only. Now U.S. only RPM is about $1.50...and global RPM is about $1.12. Might be because I only had 1 ad working earlier...now have two ads working on almost all pages.

@alfuzzy what RPM specifically are you referring to, Page RPM or Impression RPM?

Impression RPM.

@Alfuzzy, try adding AdSense Link Ads (or Link Units) to your website. They perform *surprisingly* well with electronics websites. Really. Try them. A friend of mine increased his revenue by 30% overnights just by adding one above the fold.