Hey Smut Pup! Welcome to the board.
A good place to start with low cost content is:
http://www.bargainbasementcontent.com/?from=3xxxs
this store is run by Paul Markham who also offers a ton of more expensive premium content.
http://www.paulmarkham.com/?from=3xxxs
Buying you own content along with making original templates is the way to go if you want to get listed regularly and often. Avoiding free templates and free sponsor content will increase your likely efficiency in getting listed by as much as a 100% and certainly makes all the difference at the bigger lists which have seen 1000 copies of sponsor pics and free templates.
Also, IMHO get your feet wet and your wallet fat with building fressites and galleries and learning about traffic before you branch out into content or paysites. Remember its a biz and not a hobby and you want to succeed right? Don't bite off more than you can chew so you can play again the next day!