Its good to be back! I miss talking to people on the forums... is never the same through emails or comments. I actually set a date of 1st July to request my forum privelidges back... mainly because of my new found productivity!
Earnings.... well, nowhere near the 'heavyweights' of which I assume you can still firmly be considered amongst... But I am currently writing a hub which charts my progress on hubpages on a month by month basis for my first 12 months on the site (which would be published on 1st july,
)
One of the indicators that I have used is the percentage growth in my earnings.... I think it has averaged 29% growth per month for the past 4 months....
I expect to make about $420 from AdSense this month.... About $50 from Amazon.... and about $5 from Kontera (unsuccessful trial!)....
However, my estimates are continually being proved negative and conservative... I seem to have a new biggest day every 7-10 days.... yesterday was my biggest day.... I wouldn't be suprised if I hit $650 next month on AdSense....
Not sure why I am using so many dots in this reply, lol, but lets just say that I am currently very optimistic about the long term, and that the growth will be enough to impress anybody come 1st July....
I am also about 5 days away from my page view number 1,000,000 - which is astonishing for 9 month old hubber!
So all looking good, I still write quite a few hubs without the intention of earnings, I would say that at least 140 of my hubs written with no intentional monetization at all.... so I effectively have 150 hubs forming my portfolio, and a couple of flukes from the 140....
So in summary, not a heavyweight, but I expect to be by the end of 2010. Mainly because of the way I have tried to be extremely bold recently with titles and keywords, I have found a certain degree of success in just finding a high paying keyword, using it as my URL, and paying no attention to competition whatsoever...