Adsense publishers have been asking themselves this question for a long, long, time now, and I just came across something that may finally give us a clue.
Apparently the owner of PlentyOfFish.com, Markus, came across a teleconference recording in which a prominent publisher, Bill Battelle, discussed details of his deal with Google.
After listening to an MP3 version of the telephone call, we hear Bill announce that Google is taking 15% for adserving and then paying out 51%, which boils down to a 43% payout on clicks.
Considering that Bill Battelle is a premium publisher, I would imagine the figures for the average Joe is quite a bit lower.
You can listen to the recording here, however I cannot guarantee how long it will stay up, as Markus has already pulled the post off his blog - so I would imagine some backlash is occurring as a result.
