I am kinda in the same boat as you. Been playing around with Affiliate marketing from the start of the year. Have also made a couple of websites, actually 2. Both have around 16 original articles on various different 3 phrase keywords in the niche. I have made a couple of sales from the one and the other is still climbing in rankings in google. This takes time and I am a bit slack at the link building side of things.
My point? Yes. Stick to it! It is a lot of work yes if you are on a tight budget like I am as well but build those websites and aim to get onto the first page of Google if you select the correct keywords and market your website (build backlinks - web 2.0, articles, directories, bookmarks etc..) correctly then you will get the traffic and make the sales.
Thats what I am aiming for. Hope this helps a little.
I am here though to try and learn the correct way to do JV Product launches, besides my usual marketing attempts.