When I first started in this business, one of the first people I "met" online, turned me on to avs sites. Thats all I did for like the next 2 years. As mentioned, it was all about getting the link list traffic from the avs service and it worked very well. Sadly some big players left and the rest kinda caught on. The sales sure are not what they use to be, it pretty much dried up.
It still doesn't matter if you make free or avs sites, you still have to get traffic to them, just as you would a free site. I don't see avs sites as being some magical money making secret. Just my opinion...
It still comes down to getting traffic. Maybe others have had success with it.