I honestly believe that there are several factors to making money in this business and here they are, in no particular order:
1. Knowledge - the more you know and learn, the more you'll grow.
2. Exposure - the more sites you have, the more you make.
3. Effort - the more you put in, the more you get out of it.
4. Network - isn't this what the "internet" is all about, really?
5. Building - if its not everyday, it better damn well better be 2 out of 3 or 3 out of 4 (days that is)
6. Content - just spoke to MML - told me that you can be a fantastic site builder but you need top notch content.
7. Repetition - If practice make perfect, then repetition is the mother of success.
8. Wisdom - the men and women that have been doing this for sometime now, share their secrets to success. Listen to them and you can't go wrong.
There you have it. Obviously, you'll have good success with something if its worked before, no doubt. But those 8 points I just mentioned go a long way, believe you me.
