We also haven't really done much in terms of development. We have a few minisites built mostly just to test the SEO benefits of IDNs. Do however have some full scale sites in development which we hope to launch soon.
With minisites so far have had very mixed results. For the majority CTR is around 0.1-3%
PPC avg 0.00-0.20.
Basically reliant on high traffic. On the whole most developed sites will cover yearly reg fees. Which is more than i can say for the majority of the others parked at ND.
Definetely hard to monetize the Chinese sites at the moment.
Adsense/Baidu ads are hopeless - small ad inventory and small pay per clicks.
Affiliate programs are largely none existent. Alimama haven't tried yet, but i doubt they are that well paying.
Think the best way to monetize a Chinese site is through a service/membership web business. i.e. that charges companies for membership to the site or services. But going this way requires alot of resources and development..