I’ve had great luck starting out with AdSense. I wasn’t even admitted to WidgetBucks and finally had to contact them 2 weeks after I applied to find out:

“Recently, Mpire Inc. and the Widgetbucks Network underwent an advanced analytical study on how to streamline our business. This study resulted in a strategic decision for the business that will ultimately limit the number of publishers we will be working with for the foreseeable future. Unfortunately, while we have appreciated working with you, we have made the decision to move forward without using your publication at this time.

We appreciate your understanding, and it has truly been a pleasure working with you. We wish you the best of luck in the future.”

CommissionJunction didn’t seem to do a whole lot for me. I tried it a while ago though because I wanted to recommend NewEgg as a related vendor. Eventually I called it quits because I never earned a dime from them.

Amazon has worked as a good supplementary revenue source. Whenever I do link to a product or do a review, I link through the Amazon Associate program for the chance to earn 4%. It’s not enough to rely on, but for a “might as well” chance it’s been pretty productive.

I’ve also tried AdBrite and Pubmatic. My results would be that too much management was required with same or worse results than just Google AdSense alone.