That's how much you get if you're defended against. (Most folk seem to agree, for this and other reasons, that one nerd per building is the way to go.)
I found playing late at night worked well. Woke up to several messages over the next few hours saying I won like 250 or some elixir, for example. I even screenshot them because it was so awesome to see after all the 5s and 10s.
Also while castles get you a lot more, if you're clicking through towns look for folks who have buildings or their castle already destroyed, clearly they haven't been on to defend in a long time. You can also even click the buildings that were attacked by others and see how long is left in their attacks, good way to judge if all the attacks are recent or again, if the player hasn't logged on in awhile.
Replies
Also while castles get you a lot more, if you're clicking through towns look for folks who have buildings or their castle already destroyed, clearly they haven't been on to defend in a long time. You can also even click the buildings that were attacked by others and see how long is left in their attacks, good way to judge if all the attacks are recent or again, if the player hasn't logged on in awhile.