From my experience AdSense alone is not worth it. Your account can get banned/disabled and you can have problems with traffic when Google changes algorithms, so it's risky just with AdSense.
I use multiple income streams, here's a good article.
And I follow Nerdy Nomad's income reports for inspiration.
I don't like to depend on something/someone when it comes to money, e.g. :
1. Search Engines (for traffic).
I like to benefit from search engines and build a newsletter, a community, fans, a little "brand" (multiple ways to get traffic). All these come in handy when search engines let me down.
2. A single ad network or a single imcome stream.
I use multiple income streams to minimize risk because I'm not employed and I depend on online income. Multiple income streams are for me like hooks. If one hook falls off, I have 11 hooks left, and they give my time to repair the 12th hook.
