Making Money With Ads...

I keep reading about those that claim the ads they maintain on their blogs provide enough income to offset the cost of web hosting.

I have ads on all three of my blogs [see Technorati profile] and belong to major affiliate programs which I regularly use for advertising. Thus far this year, I have made $13.88 from all of these ads including AdSense [actually, this income is totally from AdSense]. Ad placements are not limited to my blogs. I have ads on WiredPages, NS&J Forums, and my main business site.

I have a respectable amount of unique visitors [statistics provided by Blog Squad used as guideline] using this blog's stats and negating the other QiSoftware properties. Bottom line -- what I have earned for the entire year through advertising -- would not pay for one month of my web hosting.

How is this being done? Are these claims realistic? I read these claims often in forum posts and from bloggers using traffic exchange services. The more recent claim was found through a group [LinkedInBloggers] e-mail.

Is my inability to do the same because of Washington or am I simply an inept ad manager? What are your experiences [not with whether or not I am an inept ad manager... ahhh humor..] -- ad income? Similar article on Q's Wire...