Sorting Through AdSense and Feeds

Good morning and Happy Saturday to everyone. After almost a month of freelancing now, I thought I had a handle on all things "AdSense". Nope. I finally realized that I could pick out the exact ad and size of the ad. Sweet! I received 27 cents my first day but none since then. It's been only a few days. The wheels in my head are turning as I try to figure out how exactly these great freelancers do it! I read a lot of different articles on HubPages and Triond to get a feel for what the successful writers are doing and to be frank, it doesn't seem like much. But I am sure there s a lot of "behind the scenes" action I am not seeing. Links, feeds etc... The articles are on interesting topics but are usually quite short. I am concentrating on building my reputation so I have deleted some article I think would not lend themselves to increasing a solid reputation. Am I being too critical of myself? I don't know, but I will continue to write what I love to write about and keep them coming, placing ads and figure out how to link everything up. I am also concentrating on Keyword placement in my articles. No pain, no gain!