Monetization Strategies: How to Evaluate

Hey All,

I've been working on my first serious blog for 6 months now, and have finally reached the first page for my keyword. It has taken a lot of time, work, and patience. As I continue my backlinking strategy to climb to number 1, I feel its time to focus on my Monetization Strategy. As my traffic numbers increase I want a good plan in place to try and make some money from it.

I've had adsense on the site from day one and get a click here or a click there but nothing substantial. So My first questions is, does anyone have good resources on how to use adsense most effectively? I believe my ad placements are good, but maybe not. How much traffic do I need to really gauge my adsense effectiveness? So far this month I have 150 page views and 5 clicks. I realize a 3.25% CTR is low, but is the sample size large enough to worry yet?

I just recently added a Opt in Form with a Free report to try and capture e-mail addresses so that I can sell to people down the road. The list building strategy seems to be on the upswing right now, and I like that even it someone visits my site once, I can continue to market to them over and over. Similar to adsense though, how do I know if my placement of the opt in form is good, if the Free Report is something people want? How many Unique visitors have to pass up on it before I try to change it?

Basically I'm trying to decide how long to sit and let people come and go before adjusting my strategy.

Any ideas for monetization, and ideas for measuring the effectiveness of those strategies would be greatly appreciated!