In the early days like 2007, 208 a blogger named Grizz who lived in Alaska, apparently, constantly wrote about making money with Adsense. Toss up a blog, plaster it with content, place Adsense ads strategically and the $$$ rolled in for him. Changes came in 2009 and I think 2012 eliminated that approach. You're right. Experts talk about Google secrets when you go to Google webmaster and see for yourself.