On Google AdSense

So, recently I was reading some articles in regards to Google AdSense and figured...what the hell? I might as well give it a try. But, as you get deeper and deeper into the AdSense world and start learning about writing for SEO, it seems (as cliche as it is) that you can quickly move away from whatever the main topic of your blog may be and create a shell of a website designed to maximize the amount of clicks on a certain advertisement.

This morning, I was doing some research on how to optimize the money you might receive on Google AdSense and, to me, it did not necessarily seem worth it. The advice basically said to create a blog/site geared towards people who are not "internet savvy". Through this, you can make your articles sound like you know what you are talking about so that the naive (and, I'm assuming, elderly) people surfing the web can stumble across your website on a Google Search. Once your "Google Page Rank" is high enough, your website will actually show up on Google searches of a certain topic, thus increasing your revenue.

(By the way, this is insanely off topic, but why were there three Jurassic Park movies made? I'm watching third one now...awful.)

I feel like there has to be an acceptable medium between the two extremes -- namely, creating a site that is designed only to maximize clicks on ads or creating a site that expresses the ideas and emotions that you want. The latter obviously is not in the top of 5 of maximizing revenue, but I feel like you can do both by creating a site that people want to read. Yes, you have to leave your link all over the place on other blogs and be an active member in the online society to grow your readership, but the success that I have (or don't have, realisitically) with Google AdSense will strictly be derived from whether or not I create a product that someone wants to read.

My readership is small or non-existent at the moment, which is something I'm working on. However, I would love some comments from people who have used Google AdSense in the past with a similar tactic as the one I lined out above. Have you had success with it? What did you find helped you the most? Overall, was the "product" you were creating (blog, site, etc.) something that you were ultimately proud of as an author/creator?

Have a good day!