Interesting personal story, Brandon.
Yes, you could say the IM market is overcrowded, and a small player really has very little chance of making it.
However, the beauty of it all is that even within the IM niche you can create a sub-niche for yourself. For example, let's take a look at the highly competitive niche of "make money online". Did you know that a lot of people have been making a killing by sub-niching that even further , for example consider the niche "how to make money as a student working just 7 hours a week". Now, I don't know if that is a profitable niche, but if it proves viable, you can make money with much less competition... So the trick is as a newbie, stay away from the brutal competition of the big niches. Try to sub-niche the big niche further, and you can hone your marketing skills and make money in the process.