Affiliate Marketing (how hard can it be)

I've been researching and experimenting with Affiliate Marketing lately to try and create a second income that I could turn into a primary income.I thought how hard can it be anyway.So I thought I would try two strategies to see which one would create a better income.(strategy #1)I started my own website which is designed as an e-mall or virtual mall with a bunch of affiliate stores.You can check it out if you like at www.ushopemall.com This part wasnt to hard I found a good web domain and hosting site that had live support,great service and great prices 1an1.com I highly recomend them to anyone who is thinking about starting a web site of any kind(strategy #2) I thought I would try promoting other affiliate products and websites from clickbank on the same google adwords account I was using for my site to try and get traffic,you know like all the big internet gurus do that supposedly make umpteen thousands of dollors a month doing.Yeah well I'm still waiting for my thousands to start rolling in.So far I've had lots of clicks but havent made the first sale yet.Maybe I'm missing something or not doing it right or not picking the right products or not setting my bids right,I dont know but so far it deffenity is'nt as easy as everybody makes it sound.If anybody reading this has had success at this and would share some free advice with me, that would be awesome I would greatly apprecieate and very much need it.Please post comments here if you can help I really want this to work because my job sucks and I would like to be able to spend more time with my family.