How much is the average payout from Google's Adsense program?

The AdWords ads you are able to display on your content pages are cost-per-click (CPC) ads. This basically means that advertisers ONLY PAY when users click on ads. So you will not make any money for just showing the ads. They need to be clicked first!

Although Google Inc., does not specify the payout rates on the Adsense program, the average CPC rate for ads are different for the different service providers (Companies advertising on Google), and therefore, each company provides its own rates on how much it is willing to pay Google for each link that it, [Google] sends to their site. You should be looking at minimum 1cent per click. Now that might not mean much to you and me, but for sites which use Adsense, like About.com, that have MINIMUM 1 million hits a week, and that is the MINIMUM, you are talking 0.01x1000000 equaling $10,000 if every single visitor clicked the link. So say that 25% of those visitors click the link, that is still $2500 extra money for doing NOTHING! And ofcourse that figure was just for a million visitors for the week.

You decide where you take it from here. ;)

Best of Luck!

I imagine 85% of people will average zero money.
There is some money to be made but people don't see it like a real job and never put in the hours, then they give up.
The ones that treat it like a job, do make a living but it does take a few years "training" before you start seeing some results, exactly like any job that require some qualifications.

You are talking about average so I'll stick to average: about $1 every 2 years

The payment tends to be $0.10 to $0.30 per click, depending on the add. An honest click through rate might be 5%?

From there, it depends on the traffic your site gets.

For instance:

10,000 hits/month * 0.05 click through = 500 payments.

500 payments * $0.20 average payout = $100 per month.

I seem to remember something in the adsense contract that says you can't talk about how much you make... but these numbers are pretty non-specific.

You have to reach a minimum of $100 before Google sends you your Adsense earnings.
Here's a video if you want to know more about Adsense
http://www.powerlearning21.com/classes/view/383