[AlexTheFounder]

Seems like A/B testing for the new sites is a chicken/egg problem of its own - you first have to have users to test how to get users.

For me too, Adsense was either too expensive or gave too little traffic, both without any real learning opportunities.

[teej]

I don't see the chicken & egg problem. This article pretty clearly showed that he was able to learn about user's needs with only time, persistence, and money