Think about adsense for a minute. What is really happening? You get paid when your "client" is leaving your website... in most cases, never to return.

In fact the way to make the most money from adsense is to have you clients leave (via your adsense ads) in greater and greater quantity. The way to maximize adsense revenue is to NOT satisfy your clients, so they are compelled to click your ads to attempt find what they are really looking for somewhere else.

To sum up, we do all the work to get someone, a client, to our site, then we frustrate them by not giving them what they really want, and get paid by offering them some slim hope that they might find what they want somewhere else (by clicking the adsense ad).

Doesn't sound like a great business premise

To improve it dramatically all you need to do is take out the two major flaws in the formula.

1.) Capture your visitors' email address so that now you can re-connect with them and 2.) Offer them (either directly or indirectly as an affiliate) what they are actually searching for.

Now you have a real business.

Here's a list of online business models that is worth checking out.