Making a lot money with adsense, possible ?

Yes—when traffic is highly targeted and ad placements are well optimized, AdSense can generate consistent, long-term revenue.

I think only a very small number of people can actually make money now

With ~3,000 monthly visits (around 100 visits a day), earning $0.30/day is actually a normal baseline RPM of $3.00, especially if the traffic is split across general informational recipe keywords.

Here is why revenue is capped at this stage and how to improve it:

1. Traffic Volume & Recipe Niche Dynamics: Cooking is a high-impression, low-intent niche. AdSense typically pays low CPCs on general food recipes compared to commercial niches. To make noticeable money purely on ads in food blogging, you generally need 50,000+ monthly sessions to qualify for premium networks like Mediavine or Raptive (where food blogs jump to $25–$40 RPMs).
2. Traffic Geography Breakdown: Check your Google Analytics geo-distribution. 100 daily visitors from Tier 3 countries might only yield $0.05–$0.10, whereas Tier 1 (US, UK, CA) traffic yields significantly higher CPMs.
3. Affiliate & Commercial Keyword Injection: Instead of relying only on display ads for recipe steps, write dedicated review/roundup articles targeting kitchen equipment, blenders, cookware, or specialty ingredients with Amazon Associates or direct affiliate programs. That converts far better on low traffic than display banners.