What does it take to be lucrative in the freesite game nowadays?

[ponygirl]

If you're strictly going to do only freesites, then yes, volume is definitely the key. If you are generally getting even 1:800 with a sponsor & you send 800 uniques/day to them, statistically you should be getting a sale a day. I know there are ups and downs, but if you evened it out over a long enough period, it probably would work out. The only thing would be to work out how many sites you need to build to get to the level of traffic that you need to make the $ you want. Basically, set a goal and work towards it.

What I have found, though, is that building freesites leads to other things...galleries, LinkLists or TGPs, hubs, more and more 'web presence'. All these things are a potential source of income.

The main thing is time. If you have a family to feed, mortgage to pay etc, then yes, get a day job & do this on the side. If you have alternate sources of income & can devote a ton of time to it, it will pay off.