I do have a little bit of an advantage over most other newbies in that i know a lot about SEO…my other site is #1 on yahoo…but it has nothing to do with affiliate programs
Some of us are full-time webmasters…pretty hard to live in under $1000 per month in America. Though I will say I make more $ in other markets than I do with gambling.
Depending on your SEO ability, $500-1000 is not an unreachable goal…if your other site has nothing to do with affiliate programs, you should definitely read up on converting gambling traffic…not as simple as putting a few banners on a page. Also not as simple as just making a reviews page with “here are my favorite casinos and here are the bonuses”…there’s about a billion of those pages already.
The good news is that everything you need to learn is right here. Pick a niche, a favorite game, or a sports team (and do a bookie sorta thing)…and perfect it. Gambling is super-competitive…but that’s at a high level…it’s possible for a newbie to make some extra $ at this, the terms aren’t so difficult a newcomer can’t rank.
I’d also recommend you research sponsors a bit before you pick them…plays a pretty big role, you don’t want a place that just has a shnazzy webmaster area and judge them on that (not saying you would, but it’s a common mistake).
Edit: I just checked out what I believe is your site, poker bling. You may want to start with an easier niche than poker. Another tip I’d give you is not to *HEAVILY* stress bonuses just to get people to sign up…you want long-term whales not freebie-hunting bonus leechers.
Good luck 