Well, it's good you have this 3 year time limit in your head.
For me, I gave myself 12 months to make my rent ($1100 a month at the time). This was back in 2009. LOL Time flies!
But if you are looking to do all this and invest this much time (don't know how much $$$) I would HIGHLY suggest ownership and not being an affiliate. It's much more work BUT it's sustainable over the long term. Of course, I run paysites so that's my area but this applies to cams, dating, anything you choose to do.
Adult King had it right: it's very hard to scale even a successful site beyond a certain point so often it's a smarter move to expand your footprint (run many sites). The idea of not putting all your eggs in one basket comes to mind...
But basically look to model other webmasters who have started with zero and grew their biz into something sustainable instead of trying to figure everything out yourself. It's not about re-inventing the wheel, it's about MONEY.
Good luck!!