Hi Bernie,
Welcome to the forum. You're right, the answer to your question is very broad. It depends so much on what niche you choose, how much commission you are going to receive for each sale, how much the Google Adsense ads are going for (assuming you will incorporate them into the site), etc.
My first niche is chocolate candy. It is has turned into more of a recipe site
but I am making about $250-$500 a month from that site.
My second site, about auto insurance, should do better in the long run if I can win the traffic war.
It's really too broad a niche, but I decided to give it a try. The clicks for Adsense are worth more, and then the leads generated for insurance companies would be icing on the cake. I
should be able to make about $1000 a month from that site in the long run, but only time will tell.
Usually, you will make more if you are selling your own product or service rather than affiliate marketing, but that is also more involved. It all depends on how much time you want to devote and how much hassle.
I started out with affiliate marketing because it was the easiest route for me - a complete beginner. I am branching out this year into Network Marketing but using the same premise of building a content rich niche website to generate sales and leads. I look forward to seeing how it goes.
So, to answer your question, I think that you should at least expect to make $500 a month from a website, but not right away. It takes time to build your content and generate targeted traffic from the search engines. If you have the patience and perseverance, I think $500 a month is the low end of the scale.
That's just my opinion after being in this for a little over a year.
All the best.
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