One of the tools that's given me the opportunity to work towards escaping the rat race is diversifying my online income. Getting all of your income from one source will be devastating when that source has problems. I recommend at least 4 different sources of your income.
1. Private, recurring, ad sales. This is explained further for members.
2. Sell your own product. I recommend Ejunkie to help you sell your own product.
3. Email marketing. I recommend aweber for your email marketing. I give some ideas on how to get people to want your affiliate links in emails here.
4. Build sites with affiliate links. KeywordsToWebsites is a product I have to help and here is a video about getting started with affiliate marketing.
Bonus - 5. Build an authority site. Build a site around something you enjoy. Get known well in the blogs around the topic. Get a larger readership. This will be a huge asset to leverage if you hit low points with your other projects.