[jmatthew3]

I run a similar site on a different niche, which I have monetized to good effect.

1) get a few links. google will likely send you more traffic if they see others linking to you.

2) ask people to link to you on the site.

3) add some social buttons ("share this on facebook" and "+1 this"). Also, try to get it on pinterest. You might create a "5 car tips" image that could get shared as an image on pinterest, generating traffic and likely getting some blog links.

4) split test your adsense. use all three units, plus link units. then split test which ads work better when placed where. Think long term. 10% better RPM will add up. You probably want to add a skyscraper.

5) add links to amazon (through their affiliate program) where useful. need a tool for that? buy one here. I like to link to searches for products, rather than actual products. That way, the user sees all the available products rather than just the one you selected, and if that particular product goes away (which it might, because in a niche, you are probably linking to products sold through amazon by others - and they can change often - or be out of stock).

6) add content occasionally. google likes "fresh" content. changing things around, adding new articles, etc. will help you over the long term.

7) tailor your html titles to describe the content, and don't have "how a car works" in every page. It makes sense, but you really want to tell google what's there, and adding the site-wide keywords might dilute the message.

[jmatthew3]

Just to add - split testing your adsense can really be a big deal. For something this small, you probably don't need to split test the colors. But, the ad placement (and which ad units to use) can make a HUGE difference. I like to select a few different formats, make adsense "channels" and then weighted-randomly select one of my splits. In other words, keep testing, but display the combination of ad units that works the best, more often. Start off at even, then revisit things 6 months from now, tweak, revisit in another 6 months.

[wtracy]

This is the first time I've seen someone suggest split testing the ads that run on their own site. Are there any particular resources that you would recommend for this?

[bemmu]

It's not too difficult. Suppose you have a 728x90 and 300x250 and want to see if a 160x600 would be better than the 300x250 unit. Create four new ads. 728x90 channel a1, 728x90 channel b1, 300x250 channel a2 and 160x600 channel b2. On your website half the time show a1, a2. Half b1, b2. Later go to AdSense and view stats by channel and see which made more.