Clearly this method is not working very well, what other options do we have?
Think about other groups of people that would find value in your product, that such added value would be worth paying for. Maybe your main focus is consumers, but the people who would find your product (or something made with your product) worth paying for are the B2B type customers. Maybe the opposite is true. Maybe you're leaving out a demographic that isn't the first thought, but they're the ones who will go bonkers and become the evangelists for your product.
Go back to the drawing board and think about new ways to use your product, new ways to market your product, new groups of people to market it to, etc. Don't turn the initial letdown of Adsense failing into a failure for the whole project.
An option might be affiliate schemes. Not necessarily just Amazon, but specific products related to your topic area. I've had quite a bit of success with this in the Ruby space (though there are hardly any products to promote - the biggest problem). Job ads can also be a big deal if you can provide the traffic and the right demographic. I've made both of these areas work well.
The best shot for a low traffic site to make money with advertising is selling direct "sponsorship" style ads. Get some relevant companies to pay you $500-$1000/mo each to have an ad on your site.
Note: I am not the OP