Welcome aboard - excellent thread and I'm not to sure I can add much to what's already been posted.
I did have to laugh that it is very possible to start with "big" money - and very quickly find yourself in the awkward position that many of the rest of us find ourselves in on a daily basis = BROKE
I would add a caveat to what Bill said about sponsor's having all the money..... This defiantly applies to the big, well established sponsors but there are thousands of smaller sponsors that are working very long days to just pay the bills. Some of these sponsors will make it, and some will not.
I often laugh when I hear someone say that all it take is good content. There are plenty of sites out there with absolute shit for content that are doing very well and just as many with exceptional content that are struggling. The keys are marketing and niche. A good affiliate base is one of the critical cornerstones of effective internet porn marking but it won't override the need to offer something that the surfer is willing to shell out $24.00 for. .
having worked in the production end of the business (as a photographer for another sponsor) for a few years before deciding to give it a try myself I had a general idea of the content side of the business. I was a total virgin to the marketing side of the adult business. The single biggest mistake I made was not doing a few years of marketing prior to launching my first pay-site. We did survive the storm and things are looking up but there were a few months where I wondered if it was all worth it.
I had one advantage in that I have the basic skill sets to do pretty much everything involved in running and marketing a program:
a: Solid html and css experience
b: Decent communications skills
c: Very good photography skills
d: Competent PhotoShop skills
e: Marginal but passable video editing skills
f: Good general marketing skills
g: Decent management skills
h: And as a friend stated the other night after observing me recruit a new model "Snake charming skills"
I do farm out my video editing and have this great guy called Crazy Sy build me some awesome Freesites. In addition, I've outsourced all of the heavy php and database programing to a very good local programmer. Sure I could do it, but when?
Now if I could just remember if I was at the start or the end of my mandatory 20-hour workday.......